Outside the Beltway

The American military is on a mission in Afghanistan that the public is increasingly starting to question.

Not surprisingly, there is a great deal of disparity in terms of development on the two sides of the US-Mexican border.

While President Obama is pushing the Afghanistan surge, large numbers of elected Democrats are demanding we get out.

Will the Wikileaks document dump give even further impetus to the growing sentiment that the United States needs to leave Afghanistan ?

Today’s outrage of the day comes in the form of a new report claiming that the United States supported the release of the only man accused. But the report itself proves that isn’t what happened.

According to Maureen Dowd, Barack Obama’s biggest problem is that there are too many white people in this picture.

The world would undoubtedly be a better place if Islamic fundamentalism reached even 19^th century Western notions of individualism and gender equality. But cultures evolve over decades, and bans on their practices are not useful means of promoting positive change within them.

84 of 91 European banks passed their stress tests. How will investors react?

Feldpost für unsere Soldaten is a campaign recognizing the sacrifices of German soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.

Jim Webb argues that we should stop measuring diversity by race alone.

Some principles transcend political borders.

My latest for The National Interest, arguing that the talk of crisis in Europe is overblown, is up. Naturally, they’ve titled it “Crisis in the EU.”

As if the Gulf Oil Spill weren’t enough, there are now allegations that BP played a role in the release of the only man convicted in the murder of 190 Americans.

Since 9/11 there has been a steady trickle of stories about jihadists hooking up with Latin American drug cartels and the like. Here is a guide of story points that can help you identify when such a story is almost certainly bogus.

There is an al Qaeda link to yesterday’s terrorist attack in Uganda.

Switzerland will not extradite scumbag Roman Polanski.

What exactly is it about air conditioning that has some people so upset ?

We need to ask ourselves some tough questions on Afghanistan.

It turns out that Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi isn’t dying after all, at least not any faster than any other human being.

NATO should resist preemptively declaring cyber attacks “an attack on all” members under Article 5.

America’s energy habit is getting people killed! What should we do about it?

Israel and Turkey held secret, informal talks recently. This is interesting, given the recent flotilla incident. What is more interesting is that the Israeli Foreign Minister learned of the event via the press.

Africans are rallying around the Ghanaian World Cup team, putting aside stark differences. Should we be surprised?

Ten Russian agents posing as Americans and living in the suburbs of DC, New York, and Boston for a decade to glean valuable intelligence have been arrested by the FBI.

President Obama’s powers of persuasion were severely lacking at the G-20 Summit this weekend.

“It’s illogical to hunt a species to extinction.” – Spock

Contrary to popular belief, Adolf Hitler didn’t come to power by democratic means or because of his ability to whip the public into a frenzy.

Will we ever eliminate or sharply reduce drug supply and demand?

The UNODC has released the latest World Drug Report. Shockingly, there are a lot of drugs out there and a lot of money to made trafficking in them.

A comedian’s farcical run for mayor of Reykjavik ended in victory. It’s as if Stephen Colbert’s 2008 presidential bid had worked. Or Al Franken got elected to the Senate!

The European drive — led by Germany, naturally — to tighten spending to get their fiscal house in order and the Obama administration’s insistence on Keynesian stimulus will make for tense negotiations at the G20 Summit.

The odds that David Petraeus will be able to pull off a miracle in Afghanistan like he did in Iraq are very slim.