On Sunday, Jeffrey Goldberg took Israeli Prime Minister Bib Netanyahu to task for “three mistakes and one achievement”: In re: Prime Minister Netanyahu’s handling of the Iran crisis: 1) Netanyahu shouldn’t have waved around that cartoonish drawing on the podium of the United Nations. It made him look unserious, and a man in his position…
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Republicans piss on Republicans, make an old man smile (briefly)
Hysterical Muslim protests of a stupid video threaten to girdle the globe, while the Obama Administration repeats how much it hates, hates, hates people who say mean things about Mohammed, while never mentioning that 1) it is not illegal, or even necessarily wrong, or even inaccurate, to say things about Mohammed that some people might…
David Frum, Master of the Muslim Mind
David Frum has surely not said the stupidest thing about the current crisis in the Middle East, and Egypt in particular. Still. The Obama administration has staked its foreign policy on the assumption that the best way to deal with radical Islam is by engaging with radical Islam, thus splitting the men of violence from…
Memo to Joe: They don’t “love” us
Time magazine’s Joe Klein appeared on NBC’s “Morning Joe” yesterday and lowered the boom on Bibi Netanyahu (video here, courtesy of Bob Wright at the Atlantic): I don’t think I’ve ever, in the 40 years I’ve been doing this, have heard of another of an American ally trying to push us into war as blatantly…
David Koch, speaking freely for two whole minutes
David Koch, libertarian billionaire and all-around man about town, talked the talk in an interview with Politico’s Kenneth P. Vogel. According to Ken, it went like this: Koch told POLITICO “I believe in gay marriage” when asked about the GOP’s stance on gay rights. Romney opposes gay marriage, as do most Republicans, and when that…
Ryan Crocker: the silence of a wise man
Ryan Crocker, retiring U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and former ambassador to Iraq, where he presided over President Bush’s “surge,” might have a few interesting things to say about U.S. foreign policy in the post 9/11 decade. And, in a recent interview in the New York Times, he does, if “vague and cautious” means the same…
David Rieff, assigning blame where blame is due, some of the time
Over at Foreign Affairs, David Rieff has a rather portentous, even penumbral, take on world events, notably the concurrent U.S. disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, taking a few pokes at the liberal optimism that brought these about. Dave’s nut graph, or perhaps “money shot,” is quite prolonged, but, well, in for a penny, in for…
Joe Walsh, probably not a true hero
Freshman Republican Congressman Joe Walsh (IL) has a problem. His Democratic opponent is Tammy Duckworth, former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, who retired after losing both legs when her helicopter was hit by an RPG in Iraq, while Joe never served. What to do? Attack the colonel for having a big mouth! “Understand something…
The Revolting Realists
Last week the New York Times ran an article with the headline “Some G.O.P. Foreign Policy Experts Are Tepid on Romney,” pointing out that aging stalwarts Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, and Colin Powell have not been falling all over themselves to endorse the Mitt-Man. And Kissinger himself, always the voice of calculation if not reason,…
Cognitive disconnect: Who’s stupider, the Obama Administration or the New York Times?
The homepage of the May 31, 2012 New York Times is currently (12:06 PM EDT) running the following: Seeing gains, U.S. Widens Latin Drug WarAs Washington’s attention swings from Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States is expanding its antidrug efforts in places like Honduras, where the violence has skyrocketed. What’s the “good” news? The Times…