How can we snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in
When the world last left Wesley Clark in early 2004, he was a streaking meteor of a presidential candidate. Still fresh from leading NATO in the Kosovo war, he arrived as a savior for the left, who saw a bulletproof patriot that the rest of America could believe in; hero of the netroots, beloved by Michael Moore and Madonna; hope of the Clintonites, delighted by such a clean ideological slate.
The secretary of defense, Robert Gates, revealed two hush-hush secrets on television this morning.
1. that Iran intended to develop nuclear weapons. No shit!
2. that the matter of closing Guantanamo was "more complicated than we thought." Surprise, surprise.
The first of these revelations is especially significant. What does it say about the president's adventures in sympatico diplomacy? This is hard to say: but I believe it's an utter failure.
As one would expect, coverage of Robert McNamara's death has focused on his management of the Vietnam war and his later reappraisal of its necessity, but the former secretary of defense left an equally important--and far more positive--legacy regarding U.S. nuclear policy.
Former Vice President Cheney says that President Obama's reversal of Bush-era terrorism policies endangers American security. The Obama administration, he charges, has "moved to take down a lot of those policies we put in place that kept the nation safe for nearly eight years from a follow-on terrorist attack like 9/11." Many people think Cheney is scare-mongering and owes President Obama his support or at least his silence.
In the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama first distinguished himself in the area of foreign policy; criticizing an atrophied approach to international affairs in both parties, he promised a new approach to diplomacy and national security. As the country waits impatiently for inauguration day, his appointments in those areas indicate that change is indeed on the agenda: In a major adjustment for the realms of foreign policy and national security, his new approach will be led by women.
Here's a look at some tensions that could arise if Robert Gates stays on as Secretary of Defense, beyond disappointment from the get-out-of-Iraq chorus.
It's possible to skip the interminable first section of Bob Woodward's book and peek at a two-page summary of his conclusions about the war on pp. 320-21.
Here's how President Bush chose Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, according to Woodward. The atmospherics are exceedingly murky:
Bush says he first considered Gates because "a friend he had gone to college with, whom he declined to identify, had first made the suggestion."
Bush is adamant on the fact that he didn't consult George H.W. Bush about Gates. "I don't think I needed to because I've heard my dad talk about Gates a lot in the past."
Where were you when you learned about the fall of the Wall? Me, I was in a grubby, dimly lit roadside police station in Costa Rica. Having just emerged from two days of shooting rapids on a rubber raft through jungle mountains, followed by a morning at a remote, coconut-covered beach on the Atlantic coast where the sand and the inhabitants alike are mostly black and mostly untroubled, I was out of touch with everything except the elements. In the ramshackle port town of Limón I’d stood with two gringo traveling companions on a litter
