So just how close to the tipping point – that’s the phase heard most over the past several days – is the U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan? Not close, according to the Obama Administration. Remember, this was the “good war” – justifiable in 9/11′s wake, unlike the invasion of Iraq two years later. So Administration …
Foreign Policy
‘Leon the Lip’: Defense Secretary Panetta’s Candid Approach to Politics
Leon Panetta first ran afoul of a president when he was a lowly federal staffer more than 40 years ago. The president was Richard Nixon, who didn’t like the way Panetta, then a civil-rights advocate at the old Department of Health, Education and Welfare, pressed the Administration to speed up school integration. Panetta resigned, moved …
The Terrorists Who Couldn’t Bomb Straight
There has been some discussion in recent days of moral equivalence, or not, when it comes to the dueling sticky-bombers–the probable Israeli attempts to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists, which were successful; and the probable Iranian attempts to respond, which have failed. These arguments are irrelevant. Obviously, if Israel is …
The Proposed 2013 Defense Budget: ‘Shaving the Balloon’
The Obama Administration came to a fork in the road this year on military spending: given the financial pressures facing the nation, it could have fundamentally set U.S. defense policy on a new path. Or it could have kept pretty much everything and just sucked it in as it tightened its belt. It has elected to do the latter, and that’s …
Reading the Tea Leaves in Newly Announced U.S. Talks with North Korea
Despite the change in regime, the lines of communication between the U.S. and North Korea have remained open, leading to the announcement on Monday that they they would hold talks on Feb. 23 in Beijing. It will be the third in a series of “conversations” between the two countries which began last July in the hopes of restarting the …
Four Ways the U.S. Could End Up at War with Iran Before the Election*
Most political analysts in Washington believe that war with Iran is unlikely, especially before the November U.S. elections. Politically it would be hard for President Obama to engage in another Middle Eastern war given the
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Palestinian Detente Disaster
I’ve been traveling to the Middle East as a journalist for the past 30 years. During that time, Israel has grown into an ethnically diverse, economically successful country with a strong (internal) tradition of democracy, free speech and the rule of law–a tradition not always extended toward its Palestinian neighbors, especially when …
Reduced U.S. Role in Afghanistan: Politics, By Other Means
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s statement Wednesday that the U.S. plans to hand off all combat missions in Afghanistan sometime in 2013 has triggered howls from hawks who maintain it’s a step down a slippery slope headed to defeat. They may have a point. Nonetheless, the Obama Administration has plainly decided that its goals are
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Clinton and Russia Spar Over U.N. Resolution on Syria
You know things are bad when Russia won’t return Hillary Clinton’s calls. For more than two days now, Clinton has been waiting for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to call her back to discuss a pending United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria. Lavrov is traveling in Australia, prompting some members of the U.S. …
Fickle Florida: What Romney’s Victory Says About the Bellwether State’s Mood — and the Nation’s
Miami
We’re used to invasive species in Florida, from Burmese pythons terrorizing the Everglades to unlicensed plastic surgeons injecting our butts with cement glue. In fact, many Floridians are themselves invasive species, …
Major League Primary: Why Florida Is the Big Show of the GOP Race
TIME/CNN Florida Poll: Romney and Gingrich in Virtual Tie
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are locked in a virtual dead heat just days before Florida’s pivotal Jan. 31 primary, according to a new TIME/CNN/ORC poll.
Obama’s State of the Union in Pictures
Photographers capture the action inside the House chamber as President Obama delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.