PROGRESSIVE REALISM: SO GOOD IT NEEDS A NEW NAME? I’ve been remiss in not linking to Robert Wright‘s curiously long op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times making the case that “It�s now possible to build a foreign policy paradigm that comes close to squaring the circle � reconciling the humanitarian aims of idealists with the […]
Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias is a senior editor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a former Prospect staff writer, and the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.
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ISRAEL AND THE…
ISRAEL AND THE U.N. The Times reports that “A top Israeli general said today that Israel�s offensive in Lebanon would last another few weeks, and he said that the use of large numbers of ground forces had not been ruled out.” That would be unfortunate. And based on the past track record of Israeli interventions […]
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LEO STRAUSS, UNREHABILITATED….
LEO STRAUSS, UNREHABILITATED. If you’re in the mood for a bit of a high-minded intellectual detour from the hurly-burly of the blogosphere, take a gander at Scott Horton‘s fascinating pushback on recent efforts to rehabilitate philosopher and second-degree mentor to various neoconservative intellectuals Leo Strauss as a hero of liberal democracy. You’ve got some intellectual […]
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Triumph of the Will
The current crisis in the Middle East, like all good crises and, really, all things Middle Eastern, is very complicated. One thing you really need to remember, however, amid all the confusion and complexity, is this: The United States shouldn’t go to war with Syria, and it shouldn’t go to war with Iran. I should […]
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IRAN VERSUS THE…
IRAN VERSUS THE ARAB STATES. An intriguing subplot I’ve overlooked so far in the Lebanon situation has been the attitude of the “axis of pro-American dictators” (to coin a phrase) which is extremely close to the main line of analysis we’ve heard from American and Israeli hawks. Take this reporting in The Jerusalem Post: The […]
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EQUALLY — YES!…
EQUALLY — YES! I was really hoping that my claim that Israel’s targeting of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure and Hezbollah’s use of indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli cities were “equally indefensible” would bring forth an outraged condemnation of my “moral equivalence.” It seems I’ll have to settle for Jon Chait saying he doesn’t “see how [I] […]
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WHAT MAKES A…
WHAT MAKES A CONSERVATIVE? Fred Barnes writes about Bush‘s favorite foreigners: The president’s favorites don’t have to be conservatives. Blair dislikes American economic policy. Merkel has urged that Guant�namo prison be closed. Rasmussen has worried aloud about abuse at Abu Ghraib prison and possible murders at Haditha in Iraq. But, an aide says, “the president […]
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CASH, INFLUENCE, AND…
CASH, INFLUENCE, AND CONTROL. I don’t have any special insight into the interrelationships between Syria and Iran on the one hand and Hamas and Hezbollah on the other, but I think it’s worth saying that this notion out here that Syria and Iran actually control the latter two groups seems to lack a serious evidentiary […]
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WEEK TWO. I’m…
WEEK TWO. I’m lacking in deep thoughts on the situation at the moment, but it occurs to me that folks defending recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon seem to me to be defending something that’s happening in an alternate reality rather than the actual events on the ground. Repeating the mantra that Israel is aiming to […]
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AND SOMEONE INVITE…
AND SOMEONE INVITE CHINA. Justin Logan notes a wee problem with the proposal below, namely that permanent Security Council member China isn’t a member of the G-8 so, technically speaking, “The five permanent Security Council members” can’t, as such, do anything at “this weekend�s Group of 8 meeting.” At any rate, China doesn’t normally take […]
