Outside the Beltway

It has become quite apparent that neither the White House nor our coalition partners have any idea what the path to an endgame in Libya even looks like. That’s not good.

Jorge Benitez has written a useful Libya Primer: Who is In Charge of Allied Forces? The short answer: No one.

There are many opportunities to go to war. Here’s a guide for choosing between them.

America is about to enter a third war in the Muslim world with no clear idea of the end game.

The Obama Administration is asking the U.N. Security Council to authorize direct military intervention in Libya. The question is, why now?

Status report on the damage in Japan.

Can the massive destruction caused by the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns stimulate the economy?

Scientists have discovered that the Internet could be a useful collaborate tool.

Is the Chinese economy headed for a correction?

Stephanie Guttman, author of something called The Kinder, Gentler Military, takes to NRO to tell us how easy it is to cut the Defense budget. She inadvertently does just the opposite.

Frank Jacobs explains how “in German, you can tell with some degree of certainty which general area someone hails from by the way they tell the time at quarter past ten.”

Two Senators are proposing a Constitutional Amendment to redefine what it means to be an American citizen.

Inevitably, the Nazis made an appearance during yesterday’s debate over health care reform in the House. It’s time for it to stop, or at least time for the rest of us to stop taking seriously anyone who resorts to such arguments.

The Stuxnet virus that has set back the Iranian nuclear weapons program by several years at least appears to have originated as a joint project between the United States and Israel.

Wealthy Manhattanites are clamoring for a new status symbol: their own washer and dryer!

The lawyer who argued The Pentagon Papers case points out how Julian Assange is not Daniel Ellsberg, and how prosecuting him could have disastrous results for press freedom in the United States.

With just over a week to go before the 112th Congress convenes, battle lines are already being drawn in battle over the defense budget.

A capsule look at the world situation as 2010 draws to a close.

Is calling Côte d’Ivoire “Ivory Coast” linguistic colonialism? Where do we draw the line when English names for countries go out of vogue?

Red States should gain 10 seats while Blue States should lose eight.

One of the most active American diplomats of the past twenty-five years has passed away.

The hunters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia alone would comprise the largest army in the world.

A crippling, and technologically advanced, computer virus and attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists lead to only one conclusion; someone is doing everything they can short of military action to make sure Iran doesn’t develop nuclear weapons.

The major outlets that received document drops from Wikileaks are covering the story in different and interesting ways.

Airline food sucks. Mostly, it’s the food. But it’s also the altitute.

President Obama’s response to the outrage that has accompanied new TSA screening procedures at America’s airports is incredibly non-responsive.

Terrorism risk assessment: Russia at “Extreme Risk”, Greece at “High Risk”, U. S. at “Medium Risk”, Canada and Germany at “Low Risk”.

The Federal Reserve is injecting $ 600,000,000,000 into the economy, primarily in the hope that it will boost stock prices and, in turn, the economy. It might work, but if it doesn’t the consequences could be severe.

Once again, Angela Merkel has held her ground and forced the other EU leaders to accommodate Germany’s policy concerns. This time, it’s a set of amendments to the Lisbon Treaty to deal with sovereign debt emergencies.

Paul, World Cup ‘psychic’ octopus, dies in Germany.

In what is being described as the largest leak of secret documents in U.S. history, Wikileaks has made public more than 400,000 documents related to the seven year long Iraq War.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel declare multiculturalism in Germany to be a “failure.” Proof that anti-immigration activists in the United States are correct, right?

Should the UN expand the number of permanent Security Council members?

Daniel Larison’s “The Case Against NATO” makes compelling reading. In my New Atlanticist post “The Case Against the Case Against NATO,” I explain why it’s wrong.

If it’s September, it must be time for Mahmoud Ahmadinjad to stand up before the United Nations General Assembly and say something completely insane.

Is there a quiet cyberwar going on and we are just starting to notice it?

If you think anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States is running high, a look across the Pond will put things in perspective.

The United States Army has granted case-by-case exceptions to three Sikh soldiers, allowing them to serve while wearing beards and turbans.

Yes, when you blame one group of people for the actions of other, especially irrationally so, that qualifies as scapegoating.

Tonight’s topics: the Blagojevich verdict, whether lying about military awards should be protected speech, the politics of the Cordoba House project, the coherence or lack thereof of the Obama administration, and whether the United States should be more like Germany.

What do the critics mean when they say that the United States should be more like Germany?