Lee on Sep 11 2008 | Filed under: Around the Web
Seth Weinberger picks up Foreign Policy’s “10 Worst Policy Ideas” for Obama and McCain and adds some commentary. What’s immediately striking to me is how few objections FP offers to McCain’s foreign policy proposals. A peculiar thing, if you’re familiar with the doctrinal tilt of the pub. There’s really only one they single out against [...]
Lee on Sep 09 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
(photo: Rahim Alizadeh)
In Verdi’s opera Nabucco –the namesake of the western gas pipeline to Europe that holds the promise of partial independence from Russian energy reliance– the Jewish patriots take the daughter of the Babylonian king hostage, in order to compel his charity for Jerusalem. Today, after the Georgian invasion, Azerbaijan is a [...]
Lee on Sep 04 2008 | Filed under: Around the Web
Obama’s concession on the surge will probably dominate discussion of the O’Reilly interview, but his increasingly hardline stane against the Iranian theocracy’s regional activities and nuclear program is what should be in line for praise.
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ChrisB on Aug 18 2008 | Filed under: Chris' Page, Foreign affairs
It’s certainly not unheard of, so was the recent Iranian rocket test really a success? The ever sourced “senior U.S. official” says the rocket wasn’t successful.
“The Iranians did not successfully launch the rocket,” a senior U.S. defense official told CNN Monday.
The two-stage rocket could have been capable of launching a satellite into space, but the [...]
Lee on Aug 15 2008 | Filed under: Around the Web
Iraq is buying 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks, along with wide range of other conventional hardware, as it prepares to shift its focus from internal security to defending the borders in a very hostile neighborhood. Iran, in case you’re wondering, can field approximately 1600 tanks, but mostly of the Soviet iron heap variety that the M1 [...]
Lee on Aug 15 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs
(photo: Pavel Trebukov | blog)
From the gang who brought you the “because Georgia has invaded its own country we had to attack” rationale for the South Ossetian War, Poland has now apparently “made itself a target” for Russian nuclear strike, by agreeing to base an entirely defensive missile system which could not possibly repel even [...]
Lee on Aug 09 2008 | Filed under: Around the Web
Wu Wei believes Russia is now targeting the Nabucco gas pipeline in Georgia…while the Russian NATO envoy argues that strategic objectives are restricted to a South Ossetia protection and warns NATO to stay out. And now Iran gets into the ceasefire call game.
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Joshua Foust on Jul 10 2008 | Filed under: Books, Foreign affairs
This book was written entirely in the passive voice. The passive voice was used to avoid assigning causation or personhood to various events. As a result, we learn that places were invaded, people were slaughtered, armies were founded, but no one can say by whom.
Good grief, that is exhausting. How is it a book almost [...]
Joshua Foust on Jun 04 2008 | Filed under: Around the Web, Foreign affairs
Isn’t it great when our Chief Diplomat doesn’t really see the need for diplomacy?
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Lance on Jun 03 2008 | Filed under: Lance's Page, Military Matters, Notes on the war
I was catching up a bit on my reading, and thanks to McQ found this interview with Admiral Fallon. As McQ points out, the conversation did not go the way Kyra Phillips was trying to steer it.
Given our own commentary on Fallon here, here, and here, I think several key points that fly in the [...]
MichaelW on May 20 2008 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Foreign affairs, Media, MichaelW's Page
The leftosphere is up in arms over John McCain “lying” about Barack Obama’s stated intentions vis-a-vis Iran. The latest source of righteous outrage comes courtesy of a Joel Klein interview with McCain:
At a press conference here, I just asked John McCain about why he keeps talking about Obama’s alleged willingness to talk to Mahmoud [...]
MichaelW on Apr 21 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, MichaelW's Page, Military Matters, Notes on the war
I was pleasantly surprised, and mildly irritated, to see that Condi Rice basically called Muqtada al-Sadr a coward while she was in Baghdad recently (via: Instapundit):
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end [...]
MichaelW on Mar 11 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Media, MichaelW's Page, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Apparently rumors have been swirling around for awhile that Fallon was on his way out. Well, today he resigned and the speculation is that it was over a recent interview he did in Esquire, written by Thomas P.M. Barnett (regarding which Josh noted Fallon’s strange reaction last week). However, you can rest assured [...]
Lee on Feb 05 2008 | Filed under: Around the Web
Video report on the Iranian theocracy’s deranged crackdown on pet dog ownership. Since walking a dog in public is apparently illegal, pet owners are resorting to walking their dogs late at night to avoid detection from the police. According to Iranian theocrats, pet dogs are a “corrupting influence of decadent Western culture.”
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ChrisB on Jan 29 2008 | Filed under: Chris' Page, Notes on the war
I’m not sure that’s “news” to those who have been paying attention the last few years, but now we have another source reported by CNN on Sunday. What makes this source newsworthy and interesting is that it’s FBI agent George Piro, who interviewed Saddam almost daily after his capture. He was on 60 minutes last [...]
Lee on Jan 23 2008 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008
This was a post better suited for yesterday and Fred’s withdrawal, but I suppose I let myself get distracted without posting it. It should go without saying that while I was unsurprised by the event, it was nevertheless disappointing. But not so much because we are now bereft of any reasonable alternative in the Republican [...]
Keith_Indy on Jan 22 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Keith's Page
FoxNews, fair and balanced. Well, one can add snarky to that tag line for the headline above. Not that I disagree with it, or think we shouldn’t treat some people to a certain amount of disrespect.
Just another straw on the camels back. With the camel in this case being the public.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324576,00.html
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [...]
Lee on Jan 18 2008 | Filed under: Around the Web
Here’s a fascinating little article on Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome and the new leading light of the Italian Left. Vetroni has worked to create a more moderate and flexible social democratic political culture in Italy. Modeling his new party in name and substance expressly on the US Democratic Party, he’s sought to create [...]
Lance on Jan 14 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Glenn Greenwald's Carnival of Fisking, Humor, Lance's Page, Military Matters, Race
First, let us all go and see Eric Scheie delve into the sock drawer and how the moth eaten brain now, amongst all the other charges, believes Glenn Reynolds is a racist! The puppy blending, mass murder and nuclear holocaust desiring, homophobic racist known as Instapundit has an able defender in Eric, but let us [...]
Lance on Jan 12 2008 | Filed under: Around the Web
At Harry’s place we see further reason to despise Brussel’s bureaucrats.
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