American embassy
What Else Can We Use Drones For?
Today, The New York Times reported on an emerging diplomatic tiff over the use of unarmed drones around America’s embassy and consulates in Iraq. Iraqi officials, who say they weren’t consulted about the use of the aircraft, argue that the use of drones violates their sovereign airspace. The Study tries to avoid wading into diplomatic disputes, but it notices that drones are popping up more and more in the news, and not just for launching missiles at suspected terrorists. READ MORE >>
Strategist and Scourge
George F. Kennan: An American Life By John Lewis Gaddis (Penguin, 784 pp., $39.95) I. READ MORE >>
The dispatch is from Reuters. And the dateline is Wonderland. Flush with success in turning Iran away from nukes and Syria away from Tehran, the administration seems to be setting its sights on turning Hezbollah away from Hezbollah. READ MORE >>
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Did Not Make The Short List, Says Janet Napolitano. It's A Pity He Didn't.
So the Muslim fanatic from Nigeria, whose father turned information about him in to the American embassy in Lagos, was on the long list, not the short one. Like Mohammed Atta. And Major Hasan. And presumably lots of others. What are the standards for making it to the short list? It's clear that they are absurdly--shall we say?--excessive. READ MORE >>
‘With Them or With Us’
Opposite Directions
Webb To Burma
Maybe the most remarkable part of the story about Jim Webb's trip to Burma--the first member of Congress to visit there in over a decade--is that the American Embassy has no idea yet if he's actually met with the Burmese Prime Minister since, as the AP story puts it, "communications between Yangon and Naypyitaw were unreliable." More on the extreme strangeness of Naypitaw--which seems to be a cross between Brasilia and Pyongyang--can be read READ MORE >>
The Right Man
Nestled high among the mountains of Cauca, a coca-producing region in southern Colombia, La Sierra is one of those forgotten villages Colombians call ghost towns. For at least two years, it was governed by the leftist rebels known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (farc). But, on March 5, 2003, a band of 36 soldados campesinos, or peasant soldiers--ordinary Colombians who train for three months in urban warfare under a new government program and then return home--marched into town and took over. According to surprised residents, the farc abruptly left. READ MORE >>
Front Man
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam By Neil Sheehan (Random House, 861 pp., $24.95) READ MORE >>
Who’s Killing Haiti?
A short two years ago, the White House had high hopes for Haiti. It was a textbook case of a “transition to democracy”: an alliance between impoverished peasants and a liberal professional class toppled a military dictatorship, helped in part by the Roman Catholic Church and some prodding from Washington. There was to be an intermediate period of benign military rule, followed by free election and continued economic aid. Philippines, the sequel. READ MORE >>
