Two for a late Sunday night...

I bid farewell to Lady Muqawama this evening, who returns to the West Coast to go be smart and stuff. (Those of you who know L.M. know how ridiculously out-of-my-league I am.) Tonight I am catching up on my reading and writing. These two articles from the weekend caught my eye. The first is the article on Chinese hacking that I am sure you have already read. Rafal Rohozinski is a friend of mine, and I participated in a workshop with Ron Deibert, who is pretty much the world's leading expert in "getting around firewalls."

The second article is by another friend, Yochi Dreazen (C '99), who describes this piece as near and dear to his heart. All the same, this was a tough article to read.

Maj. Gen. Mark Graham is on the frontlines of the Army's struggle to stop its soldiers from killing themselves. Through a series of novel experiments, the 32-year military veteran has turned his sprawling base here into a suicide-prevention laboratory.

One reason: Fort Carson has seen nine suicides in the past 15 months. Another: Six years ago, a 21-year-old ROTC cadet at the University of Kentucky killed himself in the apartment he shared with his brother and sister. He was Kevin Graham, Gen. Graham's youngest son.

After Kevin's suicide in 2003, Gen. Graham says he showed few outward signs of mourning and refused all invitations to speak about the death. It was a familiar response within a military still uncomfortable discussing suicide and its repercussions. It wasn't until another tragedy struck the family that Gen. Graham decided to tackle the issue head on.

"I will blame myself for the rest of my life for not doing more to help my son," Gen. Graham says quietly, sitting in his living room at Fort Carson, an array of family photographs on a table in front of him. "It never goes away."