The Future of Piracy (Updated)
We're beginning to see the future of piracy unfold in the seas south of the Horn of Africa. Somali pirates have captured an oil tanker belonging to Saudi ARAMCO: JIDDA, Saudi Arabia: Pirates captured a Saudi-owned supertanker loaded with more than $100 million worth of crude oil off the coast of Kenya, seizing the largest ship ever hijacked, United States ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 17, 2008 22:19
Tooth Fairy Diplomacy
Pat Lang isn't happy with the signals coming from the nascent Obama Administration about the new administration's prospective policies with respect to the Middle East: Words can not express my disappointment if this is the foreign policy that the Obama Administration will follow in the Middle East. The "Abdullah Plan" is not a plan. It was a public relations stunt in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 16, 2008 18:55
Iranian Nukes Breakthrough? (Updated)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his gang of mullahs are said to be "seriously considering" the latest EU 5+1 proposals on resolving the international standoff on the Iranian nuclear program and are telling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to pipe down. Warren Strobel: Iran's senior diplomat said Tuesday that Tehran was seriously considering a new offer from six world powers to resolve the dispute over ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 2, 2008 07:12
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
Ann Dunwoody First Woman Four-Star General
Ann Dunwoody has been nominated for a fourth star, making her the first woman to achieve that rank in American history. "This is an historic occasion for the Department of Defense and I am proud to nominate Lt. Gen. Ann Dunwoody for a fourth star," said Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "Her 33 years of service, highlighted by extraordinary leadership and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 23, 2008 21:56
High Gas Prices Our Own Fault
George Will joins the Blame America crowd on the issue of high oil prices. Responding to Chuck Schumer's suggestion that we block arms sales to Saudi Arabia until it "increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately," Will notes that notes that, "One ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 5, 2008 12:15
Reasons the Saudis Refused
Blogospheric commentary on President Bush's failure to persuade the Saudis to pump more oil in an attempt to lower prices has largely centered on glee at the president's discomfiture or outrage at the temerity of the Saudis (depending on which side of the political fence you sit on) and, as John Burgess notes, Saudi-bashing. There hasn't been nearly enough ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 20, 2008 09:59
U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post-Bush Era
Fareed Zakaria argues that John McCain's foreign policy would be bellicose whereas Barack Obama's would be conciliatiatory but, as Dave Schuler notes, both are "confrontational" and "interventionist," just with slightly different priorities. Zakaria points to a recent McCain speech: Not only does it declare war on Russia and China, it places the United States in active opposition to all nondemocracies. It proposes ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 28, 2008 07:52
Saudi Woman Killed for Chatting on Facebook
"A young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook." The Guardian's Damien McElroy: The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot after she was discovered in the middle of an online conversation with a man, the al-Arabiya website reported. The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 1, 2008 12:31
Energy Independence Is Stupid (Updated)
One of the things that annoys me is the periodic nonsense about becoming energy independent. This idea that we can "wean ourselves off of oil" is just utter nonsense. The reason for this is that if there were economically viable alternatives to oil as a source of energy that source would be in use today and it would ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on February 22, 2008 10:21
