Ten years ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations in a speech which routed what was left of American resistance to the Bush/Cheney push for invading Iraq. The next day, the Washington Post’s editorial pages spoke for the conventional wisdom, filled with glowing reviews of Powell’s convincing arguments. Today, of course, we …
Continue reading “Colin Powell: Conned or Con-Man?”
The good news is that, after many weeks of stalling and delays, negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program are scheduled to begin on Feb 26, in Astana, Kazakhstan. The bad news is that we have no good reason to be at all optimistic about the prospect of a breakthrough. The …
Continue reading “Iran’s Nuclear Politics”
For the second day in a row Taji was the scene of a suicide attack on an otherwise quiet day. Overall at least 10 people were killed and 19 more were wounded.
If last week’s hearing for Chuck Hagel raised questions about his capacity to be secretary of defense, the show trial conducted by his inquisitors on the tribunal raised questions about the GOP. Is the Republican Party, as currently constituted, even capable of conducting a foreign policy befitting a world power? Or has it learned nothing …
Continue reading “The Republican Obsession”
The second administration of President Barack Obama is being seen in some circles as a possible fork in the road. There will be a new national security and foreign policy team in place and it perhaps would not be remiss to describe potential shifts in policy as being dominated by "realists," which used to be …
Continue reading “A Return to Realism?”
A new bombing and other violence left 26 dead and 55 wounded across Iraq.
Hillary Clinton’s last hurrah at the State Department – her appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Benghazi – was outrageous in many respects, although the partisan fury of her Republican interrogators did more to obscure the facts than reveal them. However, perhaps their partisan zeal provoked her into the kind of response …
Continue reading “Is Rand Paul Right About Benghazi?”
"………..Their defeat Doth by their own insinuation grow. ‘Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensèd points Of mighty opposites." ~ Hamlet on the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. At the height of the 2012 election campaign in late October, a U.S. delegation tiptoed into Japan and then China with …
Continue reading “US Goading Japan into Confrontation With China”
Credit the Arab Spring and what’s followed in the Greater Middle East to many things, but don’t overlook American “unilateralism.” After all, if you want to see destabilization at work, there’s nothing like having a heavily armed crew dreaming about eternal global empires stomp through your neighborhood, and it’s clear enough now that whatever was …
Continue reading “Why It’s ‘Legal’ When the US Does It”
At least 35 people were killed and as many as 90 more were wounded in a complex attack on an army base in central Kirkuk. Meanwhile, another six people were killed and six more were wounded in other attacks.
