Robert Gates and Pakistani Paranoia
The country that arguably poses Barack Obama's biggest foreign policy challenge just got a little harder to deal with. I missed it at the time, but during his visit to Pakistan last week the normally circumspect Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke carelessly in a way that has even further inflamed that country's intense, paranoid anti-Americanism. READ MORE >>
Dealing With the Taliban
British PM Gordon Brown said today that this week's international conference on Afghanistan is likely to endorse an effort at some kind of reconciliation with the Taliban. READ MORE >>
The DeMint Lexicon
If you're the kind of person who reads this blog, you're probably already familiar with the churlish Republican practice of refusing to call the Democratic Party by its true name. Disiplined GOPers will instead refer to "the Democrat Party," or "the Democrat agenda." But yesterday on ABC 's "This Week," Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, whom Michelle Cottle recently profiled in TNR's pages, took this practice to a comically nonsensical extreme: READ MORE >>
Joe Biden vs. Ahmed Chalabi
Pakistan: A True Ally, or Not?
Role Reversal
At the risk of seeing his blogging upstaged, Jon has graciously agreed to accept occasional guest posts from former contributors to the now-defunct Plank. The blogging instinct doesn't die overnight, after all (and nearly any blogger welcomes some added content). My contribution today is a quick observation about a reader email Ben Smith posted today defending Barack Obama's first term. READ MORE >>
The Butt Bomb
Obama and Nuclear Deterrence
The Los Angeles Times ran an important story yesterday about the Obama administration's Nuclear Posture Review, which evaluates U.S. policy towards the use of nuclear weapons. Apparently there's a debate inside the administration--one that is splitting the civilians from the generals--not just about the size of our nuclear stockpile but also how we conceive of possible first-strike and retaliatory policies. READ MORE >>
John Brennan: No to Waterboarding, but Maybe Yes to Some Rough Stuff
Peter Baker's splashy new NYT magazine piece focuses in part on Obama's newly-visible counterterrorism chief: READ MORE >>
Whack A Mole, al Qaeda Edition
Good WSJ story on how al Qaeda operatives migrate away from U.S. military pressure, always finding the next safe haven: READ MORE >>
