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Romney’s Living in a Fantasy Land by Christopher Dickey, thedailybeast.com | October 10, 2012
When Mitt Romney gave his defining speech on foreign policy Monday, he showed he had a magnificent sense of history’s drama and almost no clue about its realities. But maybe that’s what passes for vision these days: using a simulacrum of the past to cobble together a fantasy about the present and the future. The most striking and heartfelt theme, threaded all the way through the address in various guises, was a passionate longing for what are remembered as the glory days of the Cold War. Ah, for the days when the world was divided into good guys and bad guys, and we were not only good, we were great! And the bad guys lost and … well, never mind what happened after that. read more »Overwrought Empire: The Discrediting of U.S. Military Power by Tom Engelhardt, tomdispatch.com | October 10, 2012
Americans lived in a “victory culture” for much of the twentieth century. You could say that we experienced an almost 75-year stretch of triumphalism -- think of it as the real “American Century” -- from World War I to the end of the Cold War, with time off for a destructive stalemate in Korea and a defeat in Vietnam too shocking to absorb or shake off. When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, it all seemed so obvious. Fate had clearly dealt Washington a royal flush. It was victory with a capital V. The United States was, after all, the last standing superpower, after centuries of unceasing great power rivalries on the planet. Within a decade, pundits in Washington were hailing us as “the dominant power in the world, more dominant than any since Rome.” And here’s the odd thing: in a sense, little has changed since then and yet everything seems different. read more »Romney’s Incoherent Foreign Policy by William Boardman, consortiumnews.com | October 10, 2012
The big takeaway from Mitt Romney’s big foreign policy speech on Oct. 8 is that there’s no big takeaway. The Republican presidential candidate’s foreign policy speech does not lay out any coherent foreign policy. Amidst the platitudes and vague generalities, the implied bellicosity and patriotic sentimentalities, there’s no sense of proportion, no sense of scale, little indication of priorities, and no bright, quotable line that crystallizes the candidate’s Romney Doctrine beyond a “vision for a freer, more prosperous, and more peaceful world.” read more »Mitt Romney’s Most Dishonest Speech by Fred Kaplan, slate.com | October 9, 2012
Mitt Romney has delivered a lot of dishonest speeches in recent months, but Monday’s address on foreign policy may be the most mendacious yet. It was expected that he would distort President Obama into a caricature of Jimmy Carter. But it was astonishing to watch Romney spin a daydream of himself as some latter-day George Marshall, bringing peace, prosperity, and hope to a chaotic world—this from a man who couldn’t drop in on the London Olympics without alienating our closest ally and turning himself into a transcontinental laughingstock. To the extent that Romney recited valid criticisms of Obama’s policies, he offered no alternatives. To the extent he spelled out specific steps he would take to deal with one problem or another, he merely recited actions that Obama has already taken. read more »The Truth About Attacks on Our Diplomats by Adam Serwer, Mother Jones | October 3, 2012
To hear Republicans explain it, the protests at US embassies around the world and the attack on a US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead are a result of the Obama administration "projecting weakness." As the details behind the Benghazi attack come to light, it's becoming increasingly clear that the White House's initial assessment of the attack as spontaneous rather than preplanned was inaccurate. But behind the comparisons to Jimmy Carter and the references to "peace through strength" is a dubious policy critique: not just that Obama is Carter and Romney is Reagan, but that somehow sufficient man-musk from an American president can dissuade any potential terrorist from laying his finger on an American diplomat. read more »The Foreign Policy Divide by Roger Cohen, The New York Times | October 2, 2012
An election that was supposed to be about domestic policy but has produced little clarity in that regard (perhaps the debates will help) has demonstrated a stark divide on foreign policy. In the vision of President Barack Obama, America is now in the status-management business: being realistic about its power the better to exercise and preserve it. As for Mitt Romney, he belongs to Putin’s school of foreign policy. The status quo he believes in is that of three decades ago. In this regard he is a closet Russian even as he denounces Moscow. And so, for Romney, Russia is “without question our number one geopolitical foe,” just like during the Cold War. He is “guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion: this century must be an American century,” like the century that saw the Cold War. Romney’s vision is pure nostalgia. It imagines a world that is gone. read more »Former US Army Colonel Ann Wright leads US Anti-Drone delegation by Common Dreams staff , commondreams.org | October 2, 2012
Anti-drone protesters from across Pakistan and around the world are gathering in Islamabad this week in preparation for a weekend march into the tribal areas of South Waziristan. Ignoring a travel warning issued by the U.S. State Department for Pakistan, a delegation of 30 US activists and parents of U.S. Army soldiers has arrived in Islamabad, where they plan to join the October 6 and 7th march and rally. read more »Foreign Policy Is Hard by Paul Waldman, prospect.org | October 2, 2012
In today's Wall Street Journal, Mitt Romney takes to the op-ed page to offer his vision for a new American policy in the Middle East. Apparently, the tragic recent events in Benghazi have convinced Romney and his advisors that something is going on over there, and though they aren't sure exactly what, it's definitely something, and therefore Romney ought to come and say something about it, to show everyone how wrong Barack Obama is. If you thought Romney was being vague about his domestic policy, that's nothing compared to what he has to say about foreign policy. read more »The Burden of Pentagon Spending by Melvin A. Goodman, consortiumnews.com | October 1, 2012
Over the past decade, the United States has engaged in the most significant increase in defense spending since the Korean War. Trillions of dollars have been allocated for the Pentagon, with little congressional monitoring or internal oversight. The defense budget for 2012 exceeds $600 billion, nearly equaling the combined defense spending of the rest of world. Every U.S. taxpayer spends twice as much for the cost of national defense as each British citizen; five times as much as each German; and six times as much as each Japanese. Recent U.S. military expenditures include more than $2.5 trillion to wage unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have failed to enhance American security. The current economic crisis and tepid economic recovery during President Barack Obama’s first term have created the imperative to reduce defense spending and the size of the U.S. military. read more »GOP’s October Surprise? by Craig Unger, salon.com | October 1, 2012
According to a highly reliable source, as Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama prepare for the first presidential debate Wednesday night, top Republican operatives are primed to unleash a new two-pronged offensive that will attack Obama as weak on national security, and will be based, in part, on new intelligence information regarding the attacks in Libya that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens on September 11. The source, who has first-hand knowledge of private, high-level conversations in the Romney camp that took place in Washington, DC last week, said that at various times the GOP strategists referred to their new operation as the Jimmy Carter Strategy or the October Surprise. He added that they planned to release what they hoped would be “a bombshell” that would make Libya and Obama’s foreign policy a major issue in the campaign. read more »
The Latest
U.S. Outlines Aghanistan Plans, The Guardian | February 9, 2009
The Obama administration outlined a new campaign strategy for the war in Afghanistan, scaling back the ambitions of George Bush in a shift which senior officials and diplomats described as a "new realism". Richard Holbrooke, Barack Obama's new envoy for Afghanistan, and other officials all stressed that the U.S. more »
Army Data Shows Rise in Suicides, The New York Times | February 6, 2009
The number of soldiers who committed suicide in January could reach 24, a count that would be the highest monthly total since the Army began tabulating suicides in 1980. The latest Army figures show seven confirmed suicides last month, with another 17 deaths still being investigated. The Army has said the vast majority of suspicious deaths typically turn out to be suicide. more »
Defense Industry Braces For Cuts, Financial Times | February 3, 2009
America’s defense industry is bracing itself for cuts to the government’s weapons budget after early signals from President Barack Obama’s administration of “hard choices” ahead. “One thing we have known for many months is that the spigot of defense spending opened by 9/11 is closing,” Robert Gates, U.S. defense secretary, warned Congress recently. more »
U.S. Army Suicides Hit Record High, BBC News | January 30, 2009
The rate of suicides among soldiers in the U.S. army has risen to a record level for the second year in a row. Military officials said they did not know why the number has kept increasing but that the stress of conflicts overseas had had a significant impact. more »
Guantanamo Detainee Families Sue Pentagon, USA Today | January 30, 2009
Families of two Saudi detainees who committed suicide in June 2006 while being held at Guantanamo Bay have sued the Pentagon, alleging that torture and brutal conditions at the offshore prison led the men to their deaths. more »
Gates Backs Guantanamo Closure Deadline, CNN | January 28, 2009
Closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility is necessary and President Barack Obama's decision to set a one-year deadline on doing so was probably the only way to get it done, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said . "I believe that if we did not have a deadline, we could kick that can down the road endlessly," Gates said before the House Armed Services Committee. more »
Afghan Prison Poses Problem, The New York Times | January 27, 2009
For months, a national debate has raged over the fate of the 245 detainees at the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But what may be an equally difficult problem now confronts the Obama administration in the 600 prisoners packed into a cavernous, makeshift prison on the American air base at Bagram in Afghanistan. more »
Iraqi P.M. Expects Faster Pullout, USA Today | January 26, 2009
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he believes the United States will withdraw its troops more quickly than the three-year timeline set down in a U.S.-Iraq security agreement. The United States, meanwhile, suffered its biggest single loss of life in months when two helicopters crashed, killing four service members. more »
Security Experts Skeptical on Guantanamo Detainee Report, CNN | January 26, 2009
Security experts are questioning information released by the Pentagon last week, saying 61 former detainees from its detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have returned to terrorist activities. The report says 18 former detainees are confirmed to have participated in attacks, and 43 are suspected to have been involved in attacks. more »
Guantanamo Case Files in Disarray, The Washington Post | January 26, 2009
President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials — barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees — discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on m more »
