The New Republic

No, I am not deserting the president on this one either. Any country that is under siege by Al Qaeda is likely to have strategic and/or ideological interest to us. But it’s a big stretch to argue that we have a democratic interest in Yemen’s future. It will not be before hell freezes over that we may have such an interest in Yemen. That time is neither now nor tomorrow. And since history in the Arabian Peninsula moves in geological time, let’s stop deluding ourselves about another democratic ally. READ MORE >>

I. “Trying to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to readers of The New Republic is not easy.” On June 2, 1944, W.H. Auden penned that sentence in a letter to Ursula Niebuhr. On January 26, 2010, Andrew Sullivan posted it as the “quote for the day” on his blog. Displaced and unglossed quotations are always in some way mordant, and bristle smugly with implications. Let us see what this one implies. READ MORE >>

The Financial Times is the six-day-a-week newspaper of the Pearson Publishing Group. It is, then, the sister of The Economist. Both are widely read, although the weekly magazine--that is, the latter journal--no longer has much competition in the English-speaking world. (And certainly not from Time or Newsweek.) READ MORE >>

I've just read the transcript of the president's remarks about Haiti, the ones he made on January 15. He noted that, in addition to assistance from the United States, significant aid had also come from "Brazil, Mexico, Canada, France, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, among others." Am I missing another country that truly weighed in with truly consequential assistance? Ah, yes. There it is. READ MORE >>

What do you need to know about Yemen? The New Republic has been covering the country for years—from the civil war that made it what it is today to its current incarnation as a hotbed for Al Qaeda. Read below for some of our best pieces: READ MORE >>

On a February morning in 2006, as Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, was jolted awake by the calls to prayer from the city’s mosques, 23 Yemeni prisoners crawled their way to freedom. READ MORE >>

Well, a very funny thing happens.  Or at least a very funny thing happened when the Sudanese delegate to the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen conceded the reality of the Holocaust. And, no, he wasn't even talking about the "holocaust" visited by the Jews on the Palestinians. READ MORE >>

Long before he became president Barack Obama had carved out a reasonably aggressive policy towards Pakistan and its equivocating stance towards Al Qaeda. In fact, it was early on in his candidacy (August 1, 2007, in fact) that he gave a speech to the Woodrow Wilson International Center which promised that the Americans would do to the terrorists what the Pakis would not. Of course, almost all of Obama's opponents jumped on him, including Joseph Biden, now hi READ MORE >>

Sounds like someone might've "fallen down a well" in Saudi Arabia. Not everything we do to thwart an Iranian bomb can be found in presidential speeches. READ MORE >>

I know this is the president's ambition. But the thought that he has already forged it is pretension of the highest order. In fact, it can be his ambition only if he believes the task is, in some actual sense, easy and actually doable. He capsulizes this in his address at West Point thus: "a new beginning ... that recognizes our mutual interest in breaking a cycle of conflict, and that promises a future in which those who kill innocents are isolated by those who stand up for peace and prosperity and human dignity." Yes, indeed, yes, we can. READ MORE >>