The Reappearance of Kim
North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-Il, has made his first public appearance in 50 days: SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, thought to have suffered a stroke in August, made his first appearance in about 50 days, the state's media said on Saturday. Last month, U.S. and South Korean officials said Kim, 66, may have suffered a stroke in August, raising ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 4, 2008 13:04
Comic Book Foreign Policy (or the Batman Theory of Foreign Policy)
Readers may be familiar with the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics (short version: the US can do whatever it wants if it just has even willpower). Now, it appears we can add another member of the Justice League to our understanding of foreign policy. On Friday, author Andrew Klavan had a piece in the WSJ comparing Batman ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 27, 2008 17:47
Jesse Helms’ Foreign Policy Legacy
Christopher Hitchens joins the legions dancing on Jesse Helms' grave. Rather than piling on about the racism of a Southern politician whose career began sixty-odd years ago, he instead focuses on Helms' foreign policy: His chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a period of national embarrassment and, sometimes, disgrace. The Helms-Burton Act of 1996, imposing additional economic sanctions on ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 7, 2008 12:57
John Bolton Slams Korea Nuke Deal
John Bolton, President Bush's former UN ambassador, is not at all pleased with last week's deal with North Korea on the nuclear stalemate. With much fanfare and choreography, but little substance, the administration has accepted a North Korean "declaration" about its nuclear program that is narrowly limited, incomplete and almost certainly dishonest in material respects. In exchange, President Bush personally declared ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 30, 2008 08:59
Larry David Fears Hillary Answering Phone
Hillary Clinton's 3 a.m. ad may have (or may not) have helped her win in Ohio. But it's also backfiring in some quarters. Comic Larry David titles a Huffington Post piece on the subject "Does Anyone Want This Nut Answering the Phone?" A few weeks ago, I started to feel sorry for her. Oh Christ, let her win ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 6, 2008 21:43
Details Reported on the Israeli Raid on Syria (Updated)
More details have been reported on the raid conducted by the Israeli Air Force on a base in Syria on September 6: Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem. The attack was launched with American ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 23, 2007 17:18
Monica Lewinsky Gets Masters from London School
Libby Copeland uses the occasion of Monica Lewinsky earning a master's degree to reflect on the smart-but-dumb phenomenon. There are moments that make you question your fundamental assumptions about the world. One of them took place a few days ago, when news emerged that Monica Lewinsky had just graduated from the London School of Economics. She did not!! Lewinsky, 33, is known more ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 24, 2006 08:11
Caption Contest Winners
The Everything's Bigger in Texas Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over. (AFP/Mehdi Fedouach) The Winners: First: The Man - Eat More Humans Second: LJD - Speak softly, and carry a big c-ck. Third(tie): Scott_T - Hello Butterball Help Line? So how many hours per pound do I cook a 1000-lb turkey? Third(tie): charles austin - Bob soon learned ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 23, 2006 20:06
Deterring Kim Jong Il
Graham Allison charges that the Bush administration's issuance of vague threats has been precisely the wrong approach to North Korea. Effective deterrence required three components: clarity, capability and credibility. Clarity meant bright lines and unacceptable consequences. Credibility was understood to be in the eye of the beholder. How credible was the threat to trade Boston for Berlin? Never 100 percent. But ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 28, 2006 09:57
Regime Change Would End North Korean Nuke Threat
In what appears to be an eerie similarity to the Iraq War runup, North Korean defectors are telling Western officials that getting rid of Kim Jon Il would end North Korea's nuclear threat. There's a twist, though: They think it can happen without Western military intervention. Defectors from North Korea are hoping that international sanctions will make life so much ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 19, 2006 10:10
