It’s fitting that President Donald J. Trump should address the nation regarding our recommitment to the war in Afghanistan on a day when most of the continental United States saw a total solar eclipse.

Historians would say that Afghanistan has eclipsed all our other wars. Not for nothing is Afghanistan known as “the graveyard of empires.” Certainly, it’s the graveyard of modern empires. The British in the 19th century and early 20th centuries and  the Soviets in the 1970s got bogged down in wars there but left without the victor’s laurel wreath. We Americans have been fighting there 17 years, our longest war. ...

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“What a week” as “Washington Week” anchor Robert Costa would say. Last Saturday, we saw the worst of America, with neo-Nazis leading to the death of three people at a keep-the-Confederate-statues rally, so-called, in Charlottesville.

But since then the country has rallied around the counter-protest. Democrats and Republicans alike have denounced President Donald J. Trump’s there-was-bad-on-many-sides response to the Charlottesville tragedy. Business CEOs have exited his advisory council and one – James Murdoch, CEO of 21st Century Fox and son of archconservative Rupert – has pledged $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League and has urged his fellow 1-Percenters to do likewise. ...

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It’s kickoff time for my new novel “The Penalty for Holding” at Barnes & Noble’s concept store in Eastchester. Join me Sept. 7 for a reading from the work — about a gay, biracial quarterback’s search for identity in the NFL — along with nibbles, bubbly and a no-holds-barred discussion of sports, culture and sex. We’ll be dancing in the end zone from 5:30 to 7 p.m. RSVP to info@thegamesmenplay.com by Aug. 28. See you there!