Remember when we used to chastise Bush for his blunt “bring ‘em on” bravura? Yeah, so…what do we make of the Obama administration’s naked threat to nuke anyone who wants to develop nukes? Mr. Obama’s new strategy makes just about every nonnuclear state immune from any threat of nuclear retaliation by the United States. But [...]

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There are typos. And then there are intelligence failures in more ways that one. A Defense Intelligence Agency publication available as recently as yesterday on its Web site noted “an Israeli F-16 raid to destroy an Iranian nuclear reactor” in 1981. Just one problem: publicly-known history includes no Israeli raid on an Iranian nuclear reactor [...]

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If you watched Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show last night, you probably caught this segment, Richard Engel’s sunny assessment of Iraqi election results. In Maddow’s words, the Allawi victory could be a “recipe for more stability” as it draws in a diverse coalition of Sunni, Shiite, Kurd and secular interests. Engel adds that “it is much [...]

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The fundamental flaw of American exceptionalism is it assumes the United States can and should control events in the world. As a wealthy and powerful force in global relations, we certainly have obligations and contributions to make — particularly in areas of humanitarian aid, fighting diseases, and assisting developing countries meet technological challenges — but [...]

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The NY Times reports that the ObamAdmin has offered a quid-pro-quo with Russia: more Russian support for pressuring Iran to give up nuclear weapons technology in exchange for scrapping the U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe. This is smart diplomacy, but I think the “leak” itself is strategic, too. Puts a little pressure on [...]

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