ThinkProgress busts the former House Speaker in–barring some explanation I can’t imagine–a rather shameless act of flip-floppery, shifting within days from “[e]xercise a no-fly zone this evening” to “I would not have intervened.”
To me this is Gingrich’s great strength also proving to be a great liability. Gingrich has had political …
An interesting tidbit from a new Pew poll sketching the outlines of the next presidential field:
Among those who say they agree with Tea Party movement, 24% say Romney would be their first choice, 19% say Huckabee, 15% say Gingrich, 13% say Paul and 12% say Palin.
Part of Romney’s popularity among Tea Partyers is simply a product of …
On Monday, Mitt Romney charged that Barack Obama’s approach to Libya illustrates a deeper lack of vision in his foreign policy:
[T]hus far, the President has been unable to construct a foreign policy, any foreign policy. I think it’s fair to ask, you know, what is it that explains the absence of any discernable foreign policy from
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Since late last week, members of Congress have leveled a steady stream of criticism at President Obama’s handling of the Libyan conflict. With the U.S. mired in a sluggish economic recovery at home and two grinding wars abroad, the prospect of another protracted conflict on Arab soil has forged an alliance between skeptics on both sides …
In recent days we’ve heard a variety of rationales for military intervention in Libya. One is the simple humanitarian impulse to save lives in imminent danger, which Obama officials insist is paramount. Beneath that are other unstated, or less-emphasized, motivations. One, as Massimo has explained, is the assertion of humanitarian …
In Libya, allied forces are fighting Gaddafi loyalists from air and sea. Gaddafi loyalists are fighting rebels on the ground. And CNN and Fox News have begun a vicious battle of their own.
It all began Monday, when Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin announced that a British bombing mission of a Gaddafi compound “had to be cut short …
The U.S. is engaged in a dangerous conflict over Libya and no doubt the president decided to intervene and is prosecuting the war first and foremost in pursuit of the aims he outlined in his “casus belli” paragraph last Friday: preventing atrocities and a humanitarian crisis, averting regional destabilization, and blunting a threat …
Michael Crowley pointed yesterday to national security adviser Tom Donilon’s struggles to distinguish between “rebels,” who U.S. forces are not supposed to protect in Libya, and a “civilians,” who U.S. forces are charged with protecting. In his comments Tuesday, Donilon seemed at pains to avoid drawing any …
Max Boot offers a classic example of neoconservative shoot-first, think-later reasoning on the op-ed page of the New York Times today. Boot, who is honest enough to admit some belated second thoughts about Libya, has reflexively favored military intervention “for weeks,” he says. But now he worries that the air campaign may not be …
It’s been a few months, but we’re back to debating whether or not Elizabeth Warren needs to be the first head of the Consumer Financial Protction Bureau she’s currently setting up through her non-confirmed position at Treasury. Warren is unquestionably eloquent and whip smart; the consumer protection agency was her idea and she’s a …
U.N. Security Council resolution 1973 defines the mission in Libya as one to “protect civilians.” But at a White House press briefing yesterday with national security advisor Tom Donilon, one questioner (apparently Chip Reid of CBS), got at the tricky question of just what that means:
Q: …[I]s there a difference between a civilian and
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There is all sorts of premature and overripe commentary about Libya bouncing around the internet (and in print, and on tv). There is talk, but no evidence, of a long war. There is talk, but no evidence, of an ill-defined mission. For all we know, the bombardment of Libya could be over by Wednesday, with the allies settling into a n0-fly …
President Barack Obama says he’s intervening to prevent atrocities in Libya. But details of behind-the-scenes debates at the White House show he’s going to war in part to rehabilitate an idea.
Three weeks ago, I posted an article headlined, “Will Obama Order U.S. Intervention in Libya?” It began: “It seems preposterous …
