Pentagon Expected To Ask For Supplementary War Funding. As Usual.
Remember a couple of weeks ago, when Congress passed a $680 billion appropriation? Well, don't worry--the military will be getting still more money:The nation’s top military officer said Wednesday that he expected the Pentagon to ask Congress in the next few months for emergency financing to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though President Obama has pledged ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 5, 2009 11:07
Obama’s Europe Neglect Could Bring Bush Nostalgia
My first piece for ForeignPolicy.com, "Europe's Obama Fatigue," is online. Despite George W. Bush's defiant "you're with us or you're against us" public stance, he actively solicited advice and input from his NATO partners. Obama, by contrast, is saying all the right things in public about transatlantic relations and NATO but adopting a high-handed policy and paying little attention to Europe. [...] It would ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 30, 2009 06:10
Maintaining Commitments to Iraq and Afghanistan
Month to date there have been four U. S. casualties in Iraq. Each death remains a tragedy but that's a far cry from a year ago or two years ago. Fatalities in the Iraqi security forces have declined, too, each month of this year seeing fewer casualties than in the corresponding month of last year. Things are ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 25, 2009 19:07
Military Recruiting Sets Records
Armed forces recruiting is at its highest levels in the all-volunteer era, Ann Scott Tyson reports for WaPo. For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war. The Pentagon, which made the announcement ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 14, 2009 08:18
Dick Cheney’s Tell-All Book
Dick Cheney is breaking the mold on how recently-departed vice presidents act. First, he immediately went into attack mode against President Obama. Now, he's going after President Bush, too. Bart Gelman for WaPo: Cheney's disappointment with the former president surfaced recently in one of the informal conversations he is holding to discuss the book with authors, diplomats, policy ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 13, 2009 07:42
Today’s MUST Foreign Policy Reading
If you only read one thing today, read the for-the-record answers from the Director of National Intelligence to questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee in April 2009. At the very least read the tickler summary from the blog of the Federation of American Scientists, which has done a genuine service in obtaining this document under the Freedom of Information ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 8, 2009 10:39
Iraq: Are We There Yet?
Barbara Walter, professor of political science at UC San Diego, warns of removing our troops from Iraq prematurely in an op-ed in the LA Times: Right now, U.S. forces serve two important purposes. First, they signal to Maliki and the dominant Shiite population that a decisive victory over the Sunnis and Kurds will not be possible. They also signal to the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 4, 2009 15:41
Medal of Honor a Posthumous Award Only?
The Conservative Wahoo makes an interesting point: "Are There No Live People Worthy of the Medal of Honor?" News yesterday of the upcoming posthumous award of the Medal of Honor to SFC Jared Monti, USA for conspicuous gallantry in Afghanistan. I am humbled and awed any time I read of the bravery and selflessness of those who earn this most ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 24, 2009 08:21
Counter-Insurgency in Afghanistan
I'd like to draw your attention to a new article by Donald Snow, Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama and authority on foreign policy, international relations, and national security at New Atlanticist on the feasibility of counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. I won't attempt to dissect Dr. Snow's article but will only say that his observations jibe quite well with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 20, 2009 17:20
SOFA, So Good
In accordance with the status of forces agreement negotiated between the U. S. government and the Iraqi national government last year under Presidents Bush and Maliki, respectively, U. S. forces are no longer to be seen on the streets of Baghdad: BAGHDAD — Iraq declared a public holiday Tuesday to celebrate the official withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi cities and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 30, 2009 08:32
US Hands Baghdad to Iraqis
Given how much of the early years of OTB was devoted to writing about the war in Iraq, it wouldn't do to fail to mention the fact that we have formally handed over control of Baghdad to the Iraqis, withdrawing our combat troops. It was not at all long ago that the headline currently topping YahooNews, "Iraq takes control of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 29, 2009 17:14
Iraq the Model
I was always skeptical of the idea that democracy in Iraq would be so attractive in the Middle East that it would spread virally throughout the region. However, Iraq does serve as a useful model to its neighbor, Iran, in one particular and the editorial board of the Christian Science Monitor is performing good service in reminding us of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 23, 2009 11:12
Great Compromise Not So Great?
Matt Yglesias has discovered the facts that 1) each state gets two Senators and 2) some states are bigger than others, a condition that has obtained since the inception of our current system in 1789. There was, as some may recall having read, this thing called the Great Compromise whereby delegates representing sovereign states under the extant Articles of Confederation ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 16, 2009 11:50
Preventative Detention
Hilzoy pronounces herself "happy as a clam" with President Obama's speech yesterday on national security issues, with one glaring exception: But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases because evidence may be tainted, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 22, 2009 08:20
Iraq Suicide Terrorists Kill 75
It appears that suicide bombings are back in a big way in Iraq: At least 75 people were killed and 120 injured in two explosions in Iraq on Thursday that shook a quiet residential Baghdad neighborhood and a restive city north of the capital where Iranian tourists were targeted. In the first attack, a woman wearing a suicide belt exploded herself in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 23, 2009 11:00
