International Affairs

Listening to the Petraeus/Crocker congressional hearings yesterday, it struck me that while Gen. Petraeus was doing all that he could to stabilize the situation in Iraq, what was missing was a bigger discussion of our long-term strategic goals in the region. The discussion seemed to be all tactics, all the time.

What we need in Iraq is a healthy dose of realpolitik. We need to hire Count Metternich as a consultant to give us some ideas on how to bring all the powers together in a latter-day Congress of Vienna so we can work all of this out in a way that will give a little something to everybody. Read more...

Let’s make it official. The purported president of the United States, who like John McCain has trouble getting his Sunnis and Shiites exactly right, the former before we began this war, the latter while he would continue it indefinitely, have gotten America into a war without end.

Our matinee idol general of the day, whatever his virtues and vices, is now the commander in chief of the war without end, which the new Congress, elected to end it, continues.

We now have a president who dresses up like a soldier, in costume, and a general who now assumes the role of president, and a Congress that now looks like the character in the movie “Zelig,” popping up as a bit player during great events. Read more...

Dear Colombian Government,

I am sad to hear that you fired Mark Penn and his firm because Penn got caught in a political crossfire between the interests of your nation and the interests of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. OK, I lied. I am not sad. You did exactly the right thing to fire him. If you want to hire somebody who actually believes in democracy and the power of free commerce and free trade, I am available to help.

The fact of the matter is that as the oldest democracy in South America, Colombia is very important to the United States. Our history together is complicated. Our trade relationship hasn’t always been productive. Sadly, we import most of the illegal narcotics that are produced by your powerful and deadly drug gangs. The drug trade has been bad for everybody except the drug dealers. It has been bad for your democracy and it has been bad for the millions of American drug addicts who turn to crime to pay for their deadly habit. Read more...

According to the Drudge Report, Barack Obama is in the Virgin Islands, on vacation.

Hillary Clinton is explaining why she misremembered her trip to Bosnia a decade ago. Apparently, there were no bullets whizzing overhead after all.

John McCain laid out a perfectly sensible plan to deal with the mortgage crisis. His first principle seems to be “Don’t do anything really stupid,” which I think is a pretty good principle.

The stock market is in a tug-of-war between bargain-hunters who want to scoop up undervalued stocks and short-sellers who are bad-mouthing every company out there that might be vulnerable. Some Bear Stearns employees are hunting for those short-sellers so they can wring their necks. Read more...

The Republican Party in Illinois is in terrible shape, what with its last elected governor in the slammer and its inability to hold onto the historically heavily Republican congressional seat vacated this year by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

This isn’t to say there aren’t good Republicans in Illinois, but as a political force the party is at best a shadow of what it once was, and many are wondering if things aren’t going to get worse before they get better.

When parties decline in influence and power, things often get worse because they are forced to recruit political neophytes to run in hopeless and even less than hopeless races. In Illinois, the main quality Republicans seem to be looking for in their candidates these days is a hefty personal bank account and a willingness to finance a campaign. Read more...

A Russian bomber buzzed one of our aircraft carriers in the western Pacific yesterday. The Russians said it was standard training procedure. U.S. officials said it reminded them of the Cold War.

A Defense Department analyst and a former engineer for Boeing were charged Monday in separate spy cases for allegedly handing over military secrets to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said.

Israel's prime minister says he remains convinced that the Iranians are "moving forward" with plans for an atomic weapon. Read more...

Armstrong Williams turns his attention to the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian border and projects what will happen if Ahmadinejad is reelected.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently declared that it’s time for the establishment of a Palestinian state. She went on to say, “The United States sees the establishment of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution as absolutely essential for the future, not just for Palestinians and Israelis but also for the Middle East and indeed to American interests.”

Not long ago, at the Knesset during a meeting with former Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom, he made it clear as to why there is not, and probably will not be, a Palestinian state in the near future. Shalom recalled a meeting with a Palestinian authority some time ago where he was openly encouraging a Palestinian state and asking what was the hold-up. The response was essentially: Because Israel wants it and that’s not good enough for us. Shalom’s response? "You must be kidding." Read more...

With the presidential election looming in the United States, and the resulting media circus that follows — and, to a certain degree, prompts the campaigns — much attention is diverted from pivotal elections in other parts of the world.

Take, for instance, the forthcoming presidential elections in South Africa. In recent weeks, the ANC, which is currently the country’s majority party, held its national party elections. For the first time in its 58-year history, the party leadership was contested from within, and President Thabo Mbeki, with less than 40 percent of the vote, was effectively given a vote of no confidence by party delegates. Jacob Zuma, with 60 percent of the vote, won the party leadership and is well situated to become the next president of South Africa.

This exercise of majority decision-making is significant in that it marks a continued evolution in the democratic processes of one of Africa’s most vital nations.  As the country moved from a system of apartheid into a new era of equal representation and rights to participation, it is becoming a model to be watched, as a new paradigm for African nations and the world at large. No party or government is truly tested until the time comes to evaluate its own effectiveness or change its leadership.