Meek Oil

I wrote a few weeks ago that President-elect Obama might face something resembling a foreign policy crisis early on involving India and Pakistan, which would implicate Afghanistan and the entire U.S. approach to the "war on terror." Recent, potentially...

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A Legacy of Evil

In what might be called their legacy interviews (their exit interviews), President Bush has tried to soften his image and project a sense of competence, while Vice President Cheney has, if anything, gone out of his way to confirm that he was the administration's Darth...

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From the Top,
as We Suspected

Of course it would hardly do to consider a report [.pdf] from a congressional committee the last possible word on a past event or series of events. What makes a report this week from the Senate Armed Services Committee last Thursday of special interest is that it was...

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Mumbai and Obama

In international politics, events can precipitate crises few had expected, although the elements of crisis may have been lying apparently dormant. Just a few weeks ago, Newsweek's John Barry could write a piece suggesting that whatever domestic economic problems he...

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Out of Africa

A fair amount of ink has been devoted to the likelihood that, even if it withdraws substantially from Iraq, an Obama administration will send a considerable number of troops (though probably not enough to make much of a difference anytime soon) to Afghanistan. Even...

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Gitmo Disappointment Coming

Of course, the default position for any citizen with a modicum of experience and common sense should be to prepare to be disappointed by a politician, especially one in whom one was rash enough to invest much hope. We are already seeing a certain amount of backing and...

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A Short Honeymoon

New American presidents traditionally get what journalists and pundits call a honeymoon. There's a period sometimes lasting up to 18 months when whatever goodwill remains from the pomp and circumstance of installing a president evokes deep patriotic feelings, creating...

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Will the Next President Be Any Better?

U.S. voters will elect a new president on Tuesday who will at least not be George W. Bush. Whether he will be wise enough to adjust to emerging realities in the world at large is another question. Despite its importance – do you think the financial crisis would...

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An Upside to the Financial Crisis?

As the election the candidates and media have been presaging for about two years now finally arrives, it might be difficult to find much reason to be thankful except that it is finally over and it may be a week or two before the pundits start speculating on 2012 (oh,...

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Coffee With Robert Fisk

Militarily, the most helpful – or least harmful – thing the West can do is to withdraw all troops from the entire Middle East, and from South Asia to boot. That's the bottom line I got from a conversation with celebrated British foreign correspondent Robert...

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Randolph Bourne Institute