The New Republic

Steve Coll is pessimistic: The history of the Afghan Army since 1970 is one in which the Army has never actually been defeated in the field, but has literally dissolved for lack of political glue on several occasions. Coll watched the Soviets learn this the hard way. He writes that a strong and legitimate government, perhaps in which Karzai and Abdullah work together, may be the only way to avoid another repeat. READ MORE >>

Former CIA man Bruce Riedel, who chaired Obama's (first) Afghanistan strategy review earlier this year, writing with co-author Michael O'Hanlon, warns against what you might call the Biden strategy: READ MORE >>

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman is sounding ever-more skeptical about a big escalation in Afghanistan. I do wonder a little why, as SFRC chair, he didn't start asking the questions and testing the assumptions for the past eight months. (Maybe he would say the tainted election changed everything.) Regardless, keep an eye on Kerry. I'd be surprised to see him take a position at odds with whatever Obama does, but it's possible. READ MORE >>

Aquacalypse Now: Are We Dangerously Close to the End of Fish? by Daniel Pauly Party Like It's 1994: Why Democrats Shouldn't Fear the 2010 Midterm Elections, by Ed Kilgore READ MORE >>

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It is easy to dismiss the G20 communique and all the associated spin as empty waffle. Ask people in a month what was accomplished in Pittsburgh and you’ll get the same blank stare that follows when you now ask: What was achieved at the G8 summit in Italy this year? READ MORE >>

How Ahmadinejad's UN Antics Went From Being His Greatest Asset to a Major Liability, by Abbas Milani What on Earth Does Olympia Snowe Want? by Jonathan Cohn READ MORE >>

So, just one day after Presidents Obama and Sarkozy, together with Gordon Brown, warned Iran that they've determined that"the size and configuration of this [their newly disclosed nuclear facility at Qom] is inconsistent with a peaceful program",the Venezuelan governme READ MORE >>

As analysts in both parties debate the possibility of a 1994-style pro-GOP landslide in 2010, an interesting thing is happening in the two gubernatorial races that will conclude this very November.   As you may know, it's supposed to be an iron law of history that the party controlling the White House always loses gubernatorial elections in these two states, and early general election polls this year showed Re READ MORE >>

The New Yorker's Jeff Toobin offers a good response to my open question about how we should be handling Najibullah Zazi, an accused al Qaeda terrorist who may be in league with men still on the loose: Time to break the waterboard out of storage? READ MORE >>