NATO’s Not Winning in Afghanistan
Unless we immediately begin a coordinated effort to refocus NATO's military and civil strategy in Afghanistan, there will be grave consequences for both the region and the Alliance. That's the consensus among three reports released yesterday afternoon on Capital Hill receiving wide media coverage today, including this piece fronting WaPo. NATO forces in Afghanistan are in a "strategic stalemate," ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on January 31, 2008 13:16
Giuliani Blew Off Iraq Panel for Speaking Fees
By popular demand, I herewith comment on the story Newsday that broke yesterday that Rudy Giuliani missed two meetings of the Iraq Study Group because of fundraising trips and then quit the panel when told the alternative was to show up. Giuliani failed to show up for a pair of two-day sessions that occurred during his tenure, the sources said - ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 20, 2007 15:12
Iran Joining Regional Talks
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has announced that Iranian representatives will take part in a regional conference to discuss Iraqi security issues at Sharm el-Sheikh this week. Condi Rice would not rule out talking to the Iranians on yesterday's This Week and said that, if she talked to her counterpart, she would ask him to "stop the flow of arms ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 30, 2007 12:49
Honest Debate, Politics, and Victory
Thomas Barnett expresses his frustration that everything he writes gets interpreted through political lenses and, especially, "as some grubby plea for attention from Dem candidates" when in fact he's a moderate Republican who's simply disgusted by the Bush Administration's handling of foreign policy. People are misinterpreting my praise for the Dems tying Bush's hands. I expect the Dems to be what ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 2, 2007 10:19
De-de-Ba’athification?
Buried in a much longer story that lead with action in Anbar Province in which Iraqi security forces killed and captured a number of Al-Qaeda was a story that I found even more interesting: In Stockholm, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said there would be an announcement in a few days to reintroduce 1,000 mid-ranking officers from the former Iraqi ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 2, 2007 09:48
Petraeus’ Princeton PhD Posse
WaPo fronts a Thomas Ricks piece about a "brain trust" of PhD-holding officers being assembled by LTG David Petraeus to figure out how to win the Iraq counterinsurgency. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, is assembling a small band of warrior-intellectuals -- including a quirky Australian anthropologist, a Princeton economist who is the son of a former ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on February 5, 2007 11:54
Iraqi Police Training Botched?
Lee Hamilton and Ed Meese have told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the training of Iraq's police and judges has been mishandled. The U.S. erred by first assigning the task of shaping the judicial system in a largely lawless country to the State Department and private contractors who "did not have the expertise or the manpower to get the job done," ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on January 31, 2007 10:15
Democratic Leaders’ Letter to Bush on Iraq
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have sent a letter to President Bush--and everyone else--arguing against a "surge" of forces in Iraq. Some excerpts and commentary: The American people demonstrated in the November elections that they don’t believe your current Iraq policy will lead to success and that we need a change in direction for the sake of our troops and the Iraqi ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on January 5, 2007 16:12
Announcing a blogging colloquium on Iraq
Beginning Friday, December 15, and continuing through Wednesday, December 20, I will be hosting a blogging colloquium on Iraq entitled “Directions on Iraq: a Blogging Colloquium” at The Glittering Eye. I'm thrilled with those who will be participating. Participants include: John Burgess is a former U. S. foreign service officer who has had two tours of duty in the Kingdom ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 12, 2006 20:22
It’s Not Apartheid
Michael Kinsley dismisses as "moronic" Jimmy Carter's new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. [N]o one has yet thought to accuse Israel of creating a phony country in finally acquiescing to the creation of a Palestinian state. Palestine is no Bantustan. Or if it is, it is the creation of Arabs, not Jews. Furthermore, Israel has always had Arab citizens. They are ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 12, 2006 12:03
