Robert Kagan writes today: This administration pays lip-service to “multilateralism,” but it is a multilateralism of accommodating autocratic rivals, not of solidifying relations with longtime democratic allies. Sarah Palin said it first, though it took her fewer words to do it, while primarily stressing the “reset button on our relations with Israel,” using “world’s worst [...] [...more]
“Now we need to elect a wom(a)n to the US presidency!” – Margot Grimmer (via Facebook) Well, it’s not the presidency, but it’s history none the less. The Academy tired of giving it to the guy with all the muscle, choosing a female who built her machine one brick at a time against all odds over him. Seeing [...] [...more]
The conventional wisdom that current “stenographic” efforts of the Washington Post are directed by Rahm Emanuel inspires my inner contrarian automatically, even as I remain a Rahm agnostic. So in yet another week we get another Rahm tale in the Washington Post. But getting beyond the knee jerk hatred of everything Rahm, there is no [...] [...more]
–updated below– Newsweek was here first. Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman getting the story at the end of January. DOJ official David Margolis has overruled the Office of Professional Responsibility, saying John Yoo and Jay Bybee were not guilty of misconduct on the Bush-Cheney era torture memos, they simply “exercised poor judgment”. Ya think? From the Washington [...] [...more]
Rajiv Chandrasekaran has the report. CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN — Thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers traveling in helicopters and mine-resistant vehicles began punching into a key Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan early Saturday, as the largest military operation since 2001 to assert government control over this country got underway. The first wave of Marines [...] [...more]
This would authorize the president to deny visas and freeze economic assets for people in Iran who are responsible for the kind of brutality that we’re seeing on these videos,” Lieberman said during an appearance on MSNBC. – The Hill Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy On the 31st anniversary of [...] [...more]
Some news that’s surfacing slowly is Iran’s new bluster on refining higher grade uranium. Russia and Israel seem to be talking the same language, while China still isn’t willing to sign on to harsh sanctions, something SecDef Gates is promising will come sooner rather than later. Even as it will take some time to reconfigure [...] [...more]
updated And his body has reportedly disappeared, with assassination looking more and more likely. According to the report, it is possible that the government is behind the disappearance, as an attempt to stop the family from holding a mass funeral. – Tehran: Body of opposition leader’s nephew disappears from hospital. Ayatollah Ali Khameni is up against it, with [...] [...more]
–video update in comments– There are reports that Mousavi’s nephew, Seyyed Ali Mousavi was shot and killed today. There are even unconfirmed reports pouring in of people heading toward Sina Hospital, where it is assumed Ali Mousavi’s body is. – Iran News Now At the climax of Ashura, violence in Iran explodes. From the BBC: Opposition sources in Iran [...] [...more]
That was our president today and I couldn’t have been prouder. Unflinching, reversing the muddled message of last week, once again regaining the moral authority of why we fight. That there are “just wars,” of which I’ve always believed Afghanistan is one. Today’s speech unraveling last week’s tangled rhetorical mess that had Pres. Obama [...] [...more]
The pictures and scene out of Iran today continue to inspire, as Iranians fight for justice by commemorating an historic day, when the Shah of Iran killed three students amidst the beginning Islamist revolution that changed Iran and our relationship with that country since. This plays out in a backdrop that David Ignatius wrote about yesterday, [...] [...more]
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy “Actively countering a clear and present danger,” says Rice, that’s what we’re doing in Afghanistan, regardless of the reality that there are less than 100 al Qaeda in that country, with the Taliban embedded in the consciousness of that country. With Rice claiming there [...] [...more]
Seriously, I don’t think anyone knows. A glimmer of reality surfaces, via Thomas Friedman: To now make Afghanistan part of the “war on terrorism” — i.e., another nation-building project — is not crazy. It is just too expensive, when balanced against our needs for nation-building in America, so that we will have the strength to play [...] [...more]
updated below Ambassador Eikienberry doesn’t trust the Karzai government. The AP is reporting that it’s had its desired affect. Pres. Obama is now rejecting all the current plans on the table for the next step in Afghanistan. So, the rewrite has begun. I’ve been against more troops, because of the mountains of evidence obtained from months [...] [...more]
From the time I started writing this piece this morning to the time it was posted, Time magazine had changed the tone and title from “Hillary’s Moment” to “The State of Hillary: A Mixed Record on the Job.” Things shift quickly for team Obama, especially when you’re chief diplomat is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Somewhere between Obama’s [...] [...more]
