I have to give Peter Beinart some credit here, because his dissection of Sunday's New York Times foreign policy op-ed by John McCain and Lindsey Graham is pretty much right on the money:I have my concerns about President Obama’s foreign policy. But nothing eases them like listening to his Republican critics. There’s an onion-like quality … Continue reading Statler and Waldorf convinced Obama doing the wrong thing again, somehow

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) responds to Kirsten Gillibrand's tales of sexism in the World's Worst Deliberative Body by noting that, hey, no old male senator ever squeezed his waist and told him not to lose too much weight because "I like my girls chubby":"It’s actually a pretty collegial place," Johnson said in an interview on … Continue reading The GOP outreach to women for September 3, 2014

There was great news earlier today when Petro Poroshenko's office declared that he and Vladimir Putin had cut a deal to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Finally, an end to the fighting and a chance for everybody, from Moscow to Washington, to cool off a bit. Really great news.Except, well, Putin was never in … Continue reading The Ukrainian ceasefire that wasn’t, but might be soon, I guess

Chris Christie, who has rebounded somewhat from his various scandals to hold a slight lead in Real Clear Politics' GOP 2016 Average, is trying to learn about foreign policy, but per usual where he's concerned, only a flimsy tough guy veneer is apparently sticking (via): A few days after Russian forces invaded Crimea, Gov. Chris … Continue reading Counting down to the return of “Whose Balls Are Bigger?” foreign policy

Before the tragic news about Steven Sotloff broke, the big terror-related story of the day was about a US airstrike in Somalia that targeted, and may very well have killed, Moktar Ali Zubeyr, also known as Ahmad Abdi Godane or just "Godane," the leader of the Al-Shabaab terror network. Given the nature of the operation … Continue reading Why destabilizing strikes on terror networks can backfire

This story is still technically unconfirmed, but it seems very likely that the Islamic State has murdered American journalist Steven Sotloff. They had threatened Sotloff's life in the same video in which they murdered James Foley on August 19 and, it should be noted, may very well have murdered Sotloff at the same time as … Continue reading Another American journalist murdered by the Islamic State

Today is Labor Day, which doesn't have any particular significance in terms of Middle East history but is obviously an important day to reflect on the history of labor and the labor movement in shaping our society. Erik Loomis has done a considerable amount of writing on labor history at Lawyers, Guns & Money, so … Continue reading Today in History: the Nazi invasion of Poland (1939)

Reihan Salam is hoping that a hypothetical 2016 campaign would finally let "Mitt" be, um, "Mitt" (?): Imagine if Romney, having been caricatured as a cat’s-paw of the Wall Street overclass, decided to rail against the outsize power of the megabanks and in favor of a more competitive and inclusive capitalism. If we let Romney … Continue reading Imagine if this roll of aluminum foil were actually a delicious steak dinner!

The West African Ebola outbreak (the recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo appears to be unrelated) continues to expand, now into Senegal: The first case of Ebola has been confirmed in Senegal, a major hub for West Africa’s business and aid community, Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told a news conference on … Continue reading Just in time for the long weekend

On August 28, 1189, a Crusader army under the command of "King of Jerusalem" (in reality Saladin had captured Jerusalem almost 2 years earlier) Guy of Lusignon laid siege to the city of Acre, which Saladin had also conquered on his way to Jerusalem. The siege would last almost two years until the Crusaders, by … Continue reading Today in History: The Third Crusade’s Siege of Acre begins (1189)