Kissinger on Afghanistan: More Troops
While the debate over Gen. McChrystal's recent comments to which James referred yesterday continues to rage, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has entered the lists in the policy battle over the strategy in Afghanistan: The request for additional forces by the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, poses cruel dilemmas for President Obama. If he refuses the recommendation and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 6, 2009 12:34
Obama Lowering Afghanistan Ambitions?
Obama administration officials are now admitting what has been apparent for weeks: that they are giving serious consideration to radically downsizing the Afghanistan mission. Peter Baker and Elisabeth Bumiller break the story in this morning's NYT, noting that a combination of factors have President Obama strongly reconsidering the Biden Plan, which he rejected as recently as March, which calls for ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 23, 2009 14:11
Vietnam Not Winnable
Gary Farber continues his look at the latest document release from President Nixon's archives and finds corroboration for his long held belief that Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed the war in Vietnam was unwinnable and "simply wanted to punt the issue until after the 1972 elections, after which they expected South Vietnam to collapse." And, of course, we learned not ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 6, 2009 15:58
Kissinger: COIN Won’t Work/McCain: CT Won’t Work
Within the last couple of days both Sen. John McCain and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger have offered contrasting strategies for Afghanistan. John McCain's plan was explained in a speech before the American Enterprise Institute and Henry Kissinger's plan in an op-ed in the Washington Post. There are some points on which the two men agree. Both agree ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 27, 2009 06:59
Rethinking Afghanistan
[caption id="attachment_30726" align="alignright" width="300" caption="U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill January 27, 2009 in Washington, DC. Gates served as defense secretary under former President George W. Bush and was asked to continue at that position under President Barack Obama. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)"][/caption] My New Atlanticist post "Obama's New Afghanistan ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 28, 2009 09:21
Henry Kissinger Blogging
I missed President Bush's farewell address last evening, as I was otherwise detained at the British ambassador's residence listening to Dr. Henry Kissinger deliver the Atlantic Council's annual Makins lecture. It was, I suspect, a good trade. I've been blogging up a storm about the speech this morning at New Atlanticist. In "Kissinger: Iran Diplomacy More Than Just Talk," I bring the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 16, 2009 08:14
Did Hillary Clinton Do Favors For Bill’s Clients?
A series of media reports questions whether former New York Senator and Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton gave special treatment to donors to Bill Clinton's charity. AP's Sharon Theimer has what appears to be the lead story. Secretary of State appointee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 13, 2009 12:38
Leon Panetta as CIA Director
[caption id="attachment_29532" align="alignright" width="190" caption="Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff. (Kevin Wolf/Associated Press)"][/caption] When I saw the news yesterday afternoon that Leon Panetta was Barack Obama's pick to head the CIA, I decided to hold off on posting and go play with my baby instead. My initial reaction was much the same as to the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 6, 2009 07:38
Obama TIME Person of the Year 2008
In its quadrennial no-brainer, TIME has named Barack Obama its Person of the Year. Oddly, it takes several paragraphs of throat clearing to get to anything like making a case for the choice: As Obama has moved with unprecedented speed to build an Administration that would bolster the confidence of a shaken world, his flash and dazzle have faded ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 17, 2008 11:10
Debate Fact Checking: Kissinger
Readers can easily peruse Memeorandum for a good sampling of blogger reactions. The short version: People who supported Obama going in thought he won while those who supported McCain going in thought he won. Not surprisingly, there aren't a lot of prominent undecideds blogging. I got 27 emails from Patrick Hynes, McCain's blogger outreach guy, between 8:51 ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 27, 2008 08:40
