All Commentaries
Coalition Forces Won’t Take Training Wheels Off Afghan Forces
Afghan National Security Forces have yet to play the lead role in the Afghanistan war.
Fiddling on Climate
The image of Nero fiddling as Rome burned—albeit apocryphal– has stuck as the metaphor for willfully irresponsible government. Government representatives, gathered at climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, have been fiddling for the past week. Of the hundreds of closed-door sessions, official meetings and informational seminars, all that’s come out so far is cacophony. By the looks of it, they plan to fiddle right through to the end, wasting one of the last opportunities to respond in time to a threat that affects not only their societies, but the entire planet.
New Nuclear Weapons Facility: “Gateway to a Bleak and Hopeless World”
The media has finally discovered the new nuclear pit facility being built — at outrageous cost — at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Australia Remilitarizes
Recent transformations in the international system, notably the rise of China and an economic slump in the West, are rapidly ushering in a new age in Australian foreign policy. Slowly the sleeping continent has awoken to the din of machinery in uranium mines, shipbuilders in dry docks, and the arrival of a new contingent of U.S. Marines – the latter only the most recent indication of a re-posturing of the country’s foreign policy against perceived Chinese expansionism.
Bad Pizza . . . and Even Worse Intelligence
At least a dozen CIA sources were reportedly compromised through shocking operational deficiencies that made them easy pickings for Hezbollah’s counterespionage agents.
Appeasement Complex
Back in 2008 when the Burmese military junta announced a new constitution as a step toward civilian rule, the international community responded with considerable skepticism. The military didn’t look as though it intended to give up any real power. When Thein Sein won election as president earlier this year, The New York Times described it as “a move that cements the military’s control of a new political system.” The new president was widely considered a puppet of the top military general Than Shwe.
Sometimes, though, puppets manage to take on a life of their own.
Israel May Be as Threatened by a Rational Iran as an Irrational Iran
Apparently the rationale that Israeli war hawks and the Americans who enable them have long harbored for attacking Iran is mutating.
The Amilcar Notes (Part 1): Zine Ben Ali’s Sorry Legacy
The victory that the Ennahdha party won in Tunisia’s recent elections was, for many Tunisians, a result of a sympathy vote for the target of President Ben Ali’s most vicious repression.
Review: The Unraveling
In mid-September, bomb blasts and gunfire hit the U.S. Embassy and the NATO headquarters in Kabul, killing seven people. According to subsequent intelligence reports, the perpetrators were from the Haqqani network, which has been funded and supported by the government’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The Pakistani government denied the U.S. accusations, but the tough reactions of both sides reveal the mutual mistrust and widening cleavage between the two counter-terrorism allies.
Lieberman Wears Down Netanyahu on Anti-NGO Legislation
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has long been determined to pass the legislation, from which Netanyahu distanced himself last month.