The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for Sept. 10, 2011

My Unfinished 9/11 Business Bill Keller, The New York Times Magazine

The executive editor of The New York Times examines his support—and regret—for the Iraq War.

It’s Time to Rethink Counterterrorism Spending Romesh Ratnesar, Bloomberg Businesweek

After Sept. 11, no expenditure seemed too great. With a constricted economy and a declining threat, priorities need reexamining.

School ‘Reform’: A Failing Grade Diane Ravitch, The New York Review of Books

The school-reform movement, backed by Wall Street financiers, has become the mainstream push for change. But its money-and-numbers-driven outlook and elitist perspective only offer the illusion of hope for American schools.

Mission Unfinished Jill Abramson, The New York Times

In the twilight of America’s decade-long, multibillion-dollar intervention, Afghanistan remains highly unstable, the Pakistanis trust us less than ever, and it is not at all clear how “the big things are going to turn out.”

Why is Television Losing Women Writers? Maureen Ryan, AOL TV

In the 2006-2007 television season, 35 percent of the writers of broadcast network, prime-time programs were women. In the 2010-2011 season, that number had dropped by more than half, to 15 percent. What happened?

Did Osama Win? Andrew Sullivan, Newsweek

Bin Laden hoped to provoke a war between Islam and the West. And we took the bait.