Open Thread: How Long Will US Be Involved in Libya

July 11th, 2011 10:56 AM
After nearly four months of a costly military intervention in Libya to oust leader Muammar Gaddafi, little progress has been made in assuring the quick exit President Barack Obama promised in March. With no end to the conflict in sight, either, Obama's NATO coalition looks like it could fall apart before Gaddafi's regime does. Let us know what you think of the US involvement in Libya in the…

Fareed Zakaria Praises Obama's Mideast Foreign Policy 'Restraint

July 6th, 2011 6:02 PM
CNN foreign affairs analyst Fareed Zakaria – who has recently had off-the-record conversations with President Obama on foreign issues – noted the president's "restraint" in his dealing with the "Arab Spring" and the conflict in Libya Wednesday. Zakaria previously gave a thumbs-up for Obama's Mideast speech in May and later defended the president's plan for removing American troops from…

Obama’s State Dept. Nominee: North Korea's Kim Jong-il ‘Smart, Cap

July 6th, 2011 4:49 PM
President Obama’s nominee to a top State Department post is one of the few American diplomats to have met North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, whom she later described as “smart, capable and supremely confident.” Wendy Sherman traveled to Pyongyang in 2000 in her capacity as counselor to then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Visiting South Korea four years later – when she was no longer in…

Clinton: Obama Will Keep Twice As Many Troops in Afghanistan as Were T

June 27th, 2011 11:42 AM
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that even after President Barack Obama withdraws 33,000 soldiers from Afghanistan by September 2012, there will still be “twice as many” U.S. troops in the country as there were when he took office.

NBC Touts 'Sober' Obama 'Fulfilling His Promise' of Troop Withdrawal i

June 23rd, 2011 1:30 PM
On Thursday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd recited Obama administration spin as he gave a fully positive assessment of the President's Wednesday announcement of an Afghanistan troop withdrawal: "The President went with the most aggressive compromised withdrawal plan he could get commanders at the Pentagon to sign off on." Moments later, Todd declared: "It was a sober…

Richard 'War of Fear' Engel Tells Jay Leno: 'End the Global War on Ter

June 23rd, 2011 11:59 AM
Just days after demagoguing the war on terror as a "war of fear," NBC's Richard Engel told Jay Leno "it's probably time to end the global war on terrorism." The NBC News chief foreign correspondent, discussing Mideast policy on the June 22 "Tonight Show," also pushed for withdrawal from Afghanistan and an end to "this chapter in our history." Video follows break

Open Thread: Obama Announces Plans for Troop Withdrawal

June 23rd, 2011 9:43 AM
President Obama announced last night that he will withdraw his entire 30,000 troop surge from 2009, bringing home 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this year, and an additional 20,000 troops by the end of next summer. The plan is a much more aggressive withdrawal than recommended by the Gen. David Petraeus and other Pentagon officials, who recommended one more fighting season against the Taliban…

GOP Criticism of Libya Misadventure Is Not Isolationist

June 22nd, 2011 6:15 PM
Sen. John McCain, whose life is a continuing exemplar of the American heroic ideal, regrettably has got it quite wrong when he says that growing GOP opposition to the Libyan and Afghan wars is evidence of isolationism. In his words on weekend television: "Well, I was more concerned about what the candidates in New Hampshire the other night said. This is isolationism. There's always been an…

Big Gov's Taylor and King: Van Jones and His Group Organized 9/12/01 A

June 22nd, 2011 12:17 PM
At Big Government yesterday, Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King compiled overwhelming evidence refuting one key element of a cease-and-desist letter sent to Fox News by lawyers for former Obama administration "green jobs" czar Van Jones. In doing so, they referenced and credited a video I posted in September 2009 of an anti-American rally in Oakland, California on September 12, 2001 where…

Hillary Reluctantly Expresses ‘Support’ for Saudi Women Drivers

June 22nd, 2011 9:35 AM
Although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has championed women’s rights from Azerbaijan to Zambia, it took her weeks to respond to an appeal to publicly support a campaign by Saudi women to be permitted to drive. Even then, her comments on Tuesday came not of her own initiative, but in response to a question at a press availability – and after Saudi women activists and journalists had…

War on Terrorism = 'War of Fear' According to NBC's Richard Engel

June 20th, 2011 12:49 PM
Appearing on Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel worried about the cost of combating terrorism and took the opportunity to bash the effort: "You talk about money the U.S. spent fighting this global war on terrorism. I think, which is a terrible misnomer, it's like a war on fear or something like that. And I think in many ways it has been a war of fear." […

Juan Williams Spars With Chris Wallace Over Public Support For Afghani

June 12th, 2011 10:49 PM
Fox News haters love to advance the myth that the network pushes exclusively conservative views and the anchors surround themselves with right-leaning yes men who never question them. On the latest installment of "Fox News Sunday," liberal political analyst Juan Williams challenged host Chris Wallace's view of the public's support for the war in Afghanistan leading to a humorous exchange (…

WaPo Columnist Milloy Proves Useful Idiot for Castro Propaganda

June 8th, 2011 11:10 AM
¿Como se dice "useful idiot" en español? Try Courtland Milloy. The liberal Washington Post columnist today published an item reflecting on his time in Havana with "community activists" who "engage[d] in frank talk about Cuba's social inequities."

Stephanopoulos Demands of Santorum: 'Where's the Evidence' That Americ

June 6th, 2011 1:03 PM
Offended by Rick Santorum's assertion that President Obama is not feared by America's enemies, ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos stuck up for the President Monday and pressed Santorum to give evidence to his claim. The former Pennsylvania senator was announcing his bid for the presidency on ABC's Good Morning America, and Stephanopoulos hit him early and often during the interview. "You've…