NATO Considering Peacekeeping Force in Middle East
Speaking at a press conference in Lisbon during NATO’s summit, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that the alliance is prepared to consider sending a peacekeeping force to enforce...
View ArticleReason to Slow Down START
Sen. Jon Kyl is enjoying an “I told you so” moment. He’s been trying to slow the rush to a New START ratification vote, pleading that additional time is needed to explore serious concerns about the...
View ArticleGross Diplomatic Malfeasance on Turkey
Halting donations to the JNF undoubtedly ranks high on the list of unhelpful responses to Israel’s Carmel fire. But it pales beside that of Israel’s own prime minister: using the fact that Turkey was...
View ArticleSaudis and Lebanon
Among the many things confirmed by the latest WikiLeaks data dump is Saudi Arabia’s concern about the inroads of Iran in Lebanon. Moreover, a U.S. diplomatic cable from May 2008 confirms that Saudi...
View ArticleThe Bracing Realism of Richard Holbrooke
Richard Holbrooke was, as the obits have it, a “giant of diplomacy.” Indeed, he has a claim to being one of the most influential diplomats in American history who never became secretary of state — a...
View ArticleChanging of the Ambassadorial Guard
With Richard Holbrooke’s death, questions will inevitably be asked about the fate of the post he held: Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The job was created expressly for him on the...
View ArticleRE: The Bracing Realism of Richard Holbrooke
Max Boot’s appreciation of Richard Holbrooke called to mind a sense among the military officers working the Balkans problems in 1995 that Holbrooke was “old school.” Most of us had come of age...
View ArticleWe Are Winning in Afghanistan, Though Work Remains to Be Done
In the L.A. Times today, Pete Mansoor and I have an op-ed reporting on our recently completed trip to Afghanistan. (Mansoor is a retired army colonel who served two combat tours in Iraq and now teaches...
View ArticleWikiLeaks Debunks History for Stupid People
Gideon Rachman at the Financial Times says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange deserves a medal rather than prison. “He and WikiLeaks have done America a massive favour,” he writes, “by inadvertently...
View ArticleBiden’s Talk of Withdrawal in Afghanistan Makes Troops’ Task Harder
In this week’s Weekly Standard, I have an editorial praising President Obama for the toughness and resolution he has shown in Afghanistan by refusing to waver from the surge. The latest sign of his...
View ArticleGood Thing Bush the Unilateralist Is Gone
Now the Democrats can focus on rebuilding all those broken international alliances. Here’s Barney Frank doing his part, earlier today: “And the liberal community’s got to focus more on Afghanistan,...
View ArticleEU Prepares to Repeat Its Cyprus Mistake in the Middle East
If insanity means doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, then many leading European officials are certifiably insane. A new WikiLeaks cable reveals that in January 2010,...
View ArticleNot So Fast with the “1962” Allusions
The news that Iran is shipping Shahab and Scud missiles to Venezuela has the blogosphere going full throttle, and for good reason. The introduction of medium-range ballistic missiles in Latin America...
View ArticleMorning Commentary
Despite the beltway chatter about President Obama’s recent “moves to the center,” Charles Krauthammer points out that the “shift” was just for show. Far from embracing a more moderate course, the...
View ArticleCombatting the Plague of Religious Extremism in Pakistan
The murder of Salman Taseer by one of his own bodyguards shows how perilous the situation in Pakistan is. We all know about how Islamist extremists have taken root in Pakistan’s tribal territories. But...
View ArticleAl-Qaeda Training New Wave of Western Terrorists
Al-Qaeda is making progress on its plan to train and unleash Islamic terrorists that it’s recruited from Western countries, Asia Times Online reports today: With the Afghan war entering its 10th year,...
View ArticleSend in the Mercenaries
The New York Times reported last week in horrified tones about an apparent plan by Saracen International — a South African security firm — to offer its services to the government of Somalia. According...
View ArticleKarzai Does the Right Thing
Some of Afghanistan’s wiliest politicos outsmarted themselves in last fall’s parliamentary elections. As usually happens in that part of the world, they committed massive fraud to ensure that their...
View ArticleLebanon: An Inflection Point for the Status Quo
The stakes are as high as they could possibly be in Lebanon: Hezbollah, the terrorist group backed by Iran, has obtained coalition approval to nominate its own candidate for prime minister as a...
View ArticleState Dept: Turkey’s Report on Flotilla ‘Independent and Credible’
You’ve got to be kidding: QUESTION: I just — on Monday you had some fairly kind words for the Israeli investigation into [the flotilla incident]. I believe you described it as transparent, open, and...
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