The media and the Washington foreign policy elite breathed a sigh of relief when Barack Obama thumped John McCain in the election. Had John McCain won, there was always the chance that the neoconservatives would have beaten out the Republican realists for his...
After a week lecturing at Kansas State University and then in Kansas City, Missouri, I could not shake the feeling that what Kansas and Missouri need most is the equivalent of Radio Free Europe, which was so effective in spreading truth around inside Eastern Europe...
Quoth Barack Obama, then a candidate for the Presidency, way back in August of 2007: "I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance involving civilians." Now that Obama is President-Elect, we all hope and pray that he...
Updated at 9:51 p.m EST, Nov. 8, 2008At least 17 Iraqis were killed and another 28 were wounded in lighter violence today. One American soldier was killed and two more were wounded during a bombing in the capital. Surprisingly, Iraqi President Talabani and two VPs...
The tag "extremist" is best to be avoided; being essentially relative, its main function is defamatory. "Extremists" are those who are on the farthest margin; but margins are relative and volatile. Many Israelis would say a person supporting full Israeli withdrawal to...
Eight years ago George W. Bush was elected president after promising to implement a more "humble" foreign policy. He reacted against the Clinton administration's preference to intervene militarily when there were no conceivable American interests at stake...
Despite the expenditure of nearly five billion dollars in US military, security, and economic assistance, the cultivation of coca leaf and production of cocaine in Colombia actually increased between 2000 and 2007, according to a major review by the US Congress's...
Updated at 5:27 p.m. EST, Nov. 7, 2008At least 10 Iraqis were killed and another 15 were wounded during light violence on the prayer day. Although there was a break in bombings today, officials are still concerned about the uptick in the use of "sticky bombs" during...
When I hear talk of a "honeymoon" for the President-elect – to last as long as six months, by some accounts – I think: "Fine. You lay off, and I'll do the same." But oh no, it doesn't work that way. Obama has already started in on us, and he hasn't even...
An organization that has made headlines heckling George W. Bush and other prominent politicians for their support of the Iraq war has declared "victory" after Barack Obama's election as president of the United States. "After almost eight years standing...
