Roguely Stated

Sanctions, U.S. Policy and Dealing with Iran

Seán Kreyling — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:45:40 +0000

On August 30th, U.S. Senator Barack Obama wrote on op-ed for the New York Daily News about the need to confront the challenge posed by Iran. He goes on to make some valid observations: the Iranian government does present a strategic challenge to the US, the war in Iraq severely limits American policy options [...]

A New Low?

Alex Gallo — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:28:57 +0000

Is it possible? Is it possible that our national dialogue has hit an all time low? I think it has… Yesterday, in anticipation of GEN Petraeus’ testimony in Congress, the liberal, anti-war group, MoveOn.org, bought a full page ad in the New York Times defaming GEN Petraeus as “GEN Betray Us”. It is absolutely unconscionable to me that [...]

Russian Cooperation Needed to Achieve Nuclear Security

Seán Kreyling — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:19:52 +0000

In Tuesday’s Washington Post, David E Hoffman writes about U.S. Senator Richard Lugar’s and former Senator Sam Nunn’s efforts to secure the world’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons with the help of Russia. Nunn, the current co-chairman of the non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative, expressed concern about the recent dispute with Russia over U.S. plans to [...]

Haleh Esfandiari released on bail

JP Schnapper-Casteras — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:37:32 +0000

Update as of 8/24: Legal Questions Remain for Freed Scholar in Iran (NYT). New York Times Oped by Camelia Entekhabifard, Fooled by Winds of Reform. Haleh Esfandiari, one of three Americans imprisoned in Iran, has been released on bail, although charges are still pending and and there are new concerns about her health and if [...]

Hurricane Season, Two Years After Katrina

Emilian Papadopoulos — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:59:39 +0000

It’s been nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans and other southeastern areas. Hurricane Dean is approaching the coast of Mexico and is predicted to sweep into Texas. If Dean doesn’t turn into “the next big one,” some other hurricane will. When that happens, how much will response agencies have learned from Katrina? In [...]

Evaluating “The Surge”

Seán Kreyling — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:28:33 +0000

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, will brief Congress on September 11th regarding the situation on the ground in Iraq according to Think Progress. FP’s Passport notes the highly unusual timing of the briefing: Nothing says “we need to continue the surge” like reminding Americans that Saddam planned 9/11. Somewhere, Karl Rove must [...]

Nuclear Nonproliferation Update

Seán Kreyling — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:29:06 +0000

Joseph Cirincione, the director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress and Uri Leventer, a graduate student at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, have written an op-ed for the International Herald Tribune on the growing “nuclear renaissance” in the Middle East. They conclude that the unprecedented demand for nuclear programs [...]

Reviving U.S. Global Influence

Seán Kreyling — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:38:39 +0000

In Sunday’s edition of Knoxnews.com, Thomas P.M. Barnett writes about Senator Obama’s recent comments regarding his willingness to talk with America’s enemies, as well as, what Barnett believes to be Obama’s larger point: that America needs to “reach out to the rest of the world again”. On issue after issue, the international community comes together to [...]

Vetting Support for Veterans

Emilian Papadopoulos — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:05:23 +0000

The Bush administration is hampering a Congressional effort to pay veterans’ full educational costs, reports the Blotter via ThinkProgress. This comes on the heels of a presidential commission report on veteran medical services. Check out the Washington Post coverage of the Dole-Shalala commission. In response to Dole-Shalala, President Bush said, We owe our wounded soldiers the very [...]

China’s Economic “Nuclear Option”

Seán Kreyling — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:35:50 +0000

Mike Boyer writes today on FP’s Passport that the U.S. economy just might be facing the economic equivalent of a nuclear holocaust. The story was first reported in the British newspaper the Telegraph: The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding [...]

Levitt: If you were a terrorist for a day…

David Bibo — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:52:20 +0000

Self-described “rogue economist” Steven D. Levitt’s latest blog entry is likely to become a story itself, having earned a headline on the Drudge Report today. Levitt, co-author of the bestseller Freakonomics, wonders “what I would do to maximize terror if I were a terrorist with limited resources.” After sharing his own thoughts on the subject, Levitt invites [...]

NSA Wiretapping Program Expands

Seán Kreyling — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:01:55 +0000

On Sunday, President Bush signed the Protect America Act into law. This legislation gives the National Security Agency expanded authority to intercept phone calls and e-mails of foreigners and, under some circumstances, American citizens. According to the Boston Globe, the new law “carves out a broad exemption from a 1978 law that requires the government [...]

Obama’s Counter-terrorism Strategy

JP Schnapper-Casteras — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:01:26 +0000

Barack Obama gave a speech today at the Wilson Center on counterterrorism, which was covered by AP and blogged by WaPo’s The Trail , NYT Caucus. Update as of 2:52 PST: see analysis by US News, ABC, Chicago Trib, and other outside experts on WaPo. Related oped posted 8/21/07: Barnett: To rejoin world, U.S. must rejoin conversation.

Containing Iraq

Emilian Papadopoulos — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:30:04 +0000

Missing the forest for the trees We need more discussion about Iraq at a grand strategic level, rather than at a purely operational or tactical level. As many uniformed officers have said, we have tactical successes on a daily basis. If General Petraeus’ surge yields results, as it well may, we will have achieved a major [...]

Preventing Genocide: not a reason to use military force?

Seán Kreyling — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:26:02 +0000

Recently, the Boston Herald published an Associated Press report where Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama reportedly stated “…the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there”. “Well, look, if that’s the criteria by which we [...]

Roundup of Nuclear News

JP Schnapper-Casteras — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:01:39 +0000

CAP’s Joseph Cirincione and KSG’s Uri Leventer have a new piece out on the five major nuclear threats. WaPo is covering the India-US nuclear deal and the Economist analyzes the underlying nuclear-power politics. In related news, ASEAN is forming its own nuclear safety watchdog and earlier this month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported (PDF) on [...]

Squaring off, and Squaring the Circle: national security in the Democrats’ youTube debate

Emilian Papadopoulos — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 17:59:44 +0000

Scattered amidst the questions about planes, trains, and Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe in the Democratic YouTube debate were a handful of thought-provoking national security questions. Don’t get me started on the total absence of a question committed to Afghanistan… Let’s take a look at what we heard from the key contenders. Blast from the past: isolationism vs. [...]

Perspective

Alex Gallo — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 02:08:03 +0000

In my first blog on Roguely Stated, I did not want to immediately jump into the rhetorical combat that makes this blog both interesting as well as insightful. On the contrary, I want to take a moment to pause and remember those who carry out our national security policy — our armed forces. Also, I wanted to [...]

Running down the clock on Iraq

Emilian Papadopoulos — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 22:20:58 +0000

There’s a time in dead-heat sports matches when a coach has to decide whether to push for the win, focusing all his attention and his players’ energy on the next few minutes, or to run down the clock and start investing in an overtime victory. That decision is hard enough, but perhaps the greatest challenge [...]

The white space of the NIE

Sarada Peri — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:22:16 +0000

The National Intelligence Estimate is out and, as expected, it ain’t good. After five pages of context, methodology, and a pretty cover, it offers two pages of assessment. And as Secretary Chertoff’s gut reported earlier, al-Qaida is alive and capable of attacking the United States again. The report also says that al-Qaida leadership has [...]