Everything about the war — its origins, its course, its failures and achievements — is contested. But it has already been placed in a frame that portrays it, like U.S. wars in Korea and Vietnam, as a mistake born of good intentions, ennobled by brave soldiers and mangled by confused and self-interested politicians. A small […]

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Almost 700 foreign service officers. The largest embassy ever built, and four satellite locations. A State Department Air Force consisting of a fixed-wing fleet of four turboprops and enough helicopters to reinvade Grenada (should Rick Perry be elected president): 14 UH-1N Twin Huey helicopters to be augmented by 20 Sikorsky S-61 helicopters, and 24 Sikorsky […]

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Cables from Caracas—Lost in the Department of Justice’s misguided attempt to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act, and the rhetoric of extremists such as Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin describing Assange as a terrorist, is the humor in the some of the cables released by Wikileaks. Hugo Chavez’s narcissistic, military socialism […]

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Wild About Harry—Free to air attack ads without identifying who paid for them, independent groups are on track to spend a record $500 million in the 2010 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In Nevada, groups have spent $4.2 million to defeat Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, including $1 million from […]

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Building a State “The state of Palestine has to be built. And if we Palestinians do not do it, who is going to do it for us?” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad — September 23, 2010 After Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad concluded his talk at the New America Foundation‘s Washington offices, a […]

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