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 throughout the region, and diplomacy needs to be significantly better utilized as an aspect of national power. As President, the senator says that he will use all elements of American power to pressure the Iranian regime, including the power of tough, smart and principled diplomacy.
For diplomacy to work, we need to dial up our political and economic pressure - not just our tough talk. Iran’s troubling behavior depends in large part on access to billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue. That is why I introduced the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act last May, to build on a movement across the country to divest from companies that do significant business with Iran. This would send a clear message about where America stands, increasing Iran’s isolation and hitting the Iranian regime where it hurts.
Continue Reading »
Tags: Ahmadinejad,
Barack Obama,
Foreign Policy,
Hezbollah,
Iran,
Iraq,
Lebanon,
nuclear weapons,
oil,
Russia,
sanctions,
UN,
World Bank
¶
Posted 15 September 2025
† Seán Kreyling §
Uncategorized
‡
°
Tagged: Seán J Kreyling
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 any group, even those that are reflexively anti-war, would stoop so slow as to use anti-intellectual, defamation tactics in order to make a political point - all within the context of the most critical dialogue that a nation will ever engage in - whether or not to commit young Americans to fight a war for our nation. In fact, MoveOn.org chose to engage in these low-brow, purely political tactics even when it and its affiliates are the first to criticize the Bush Administration of engaging in the very same anti-intellectual, defaming tactics. I’m pretty sure that MoveOn.org would vigorously argue that the anti-intellectual nature of President Bush embodies much of the reason why are are engaged in an unnecessary, illegal, and immoral war.
While I strongly disagree with MoveOn.org’s sentiment, it is not unreasonable in a democracy for citizens and activist groups to take strong positions — particularly on issues of life and death. But is it unreasonable to ask those, who strongly hold these views, to do it in such a way that they argue their points on the merits of the issues and not on the quality of their smear?
Continue Reading »
Tags: America,
Army,
Bush,
Congress,
democrat,
Iraq,
Military,
Military Officers,
New York Times,
Petraeus,
security,
war
¶
Posted 11 September 2025
† Alex Gallo §
Uncategorized
‡
°
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 station a missile defense system in Europe. This dispute, coupled with the diffusion of technology, nuclear know-how and terrorism led the senator to conclude that:
“any plan for global peace and security that does not feature the Russians and Americans working together is not likely to be successful for either of us or the world.”
Continue Reading »
Tags: Frontline,
GWOT,
Iran,
KSG,
Lugar,
Missile Defense,
nonproliferation,
North Korea,
nuclear weapons,
Russia,
Terrorism,
weapons of mass destruction
¶
Posted 28 August 2025
† Seán Kreyling §
Uncategorized
‡
°
Tagged: Seán J Kreyling
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 she will be allowed to leave the country.
Continue Reading »
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? Continue Reading »
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 be laughing.
Continue Reading »
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 by Arab states is not about energy, but a nuclear hedge against Iran. Continue Reading »
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 forge new rule sets for this tumultuous era of globalization while the United States, in its infinite capacity for internal disagreement, is sidelined by our difficult occupation of Iraq, rising protectionist sentiment and know-nothing paranoia about a world we alone imagine to be infinitely more dangerous than the Cold War.
Continue Reading »
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 best care, and the very best benefits, and the very easiest to understand system … [Congress and the Executive should implement all recommendations so that] we can say with certainty that any soldier who has been hurt will get the best possible care and treatment that this government can offer.
Curious to see where the education legislation goes…
Two interesting pieces:
Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management launches “entrepreneurship bootcamp” for disabled veterans — Central New York Business Journal.
Coverage of recent local visit by chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) — Del Rio News Herald.
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 of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Continue Reading »
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 his readers to share theirs. Less than 12 hours after his post, about 90% of the commenters (400+) have offered up suggestions. The remainder have suggested this exercise may do more harm than good, a sentiment I find myself agreeing with.
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 to obtain a judge’s permission to monitor calls and e-mails on US soil”. Continue Reading »
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.
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 victory at an operational level, too. Hopefully, it will give us the breathing room we need to have a full, higher-level discussion about how we should deal with Iraq over years, not days. Already, there’s a dialogue brewing about a policy of containment in Iraq: Continue Reading »
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 are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now - where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife - which we haven’t done,” Obama said. Continue Reading »
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 their investigation into domestic nuclear security.
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. Continue Reading »
Tags: afghanistan,
biden,
clinton,
debate,
democrat,
dod,
edwards,
foreign policy,
gravel,
iraq,
kucinich,
military,
obama,
president,
richardson,
security,
surge,
war,
youtube
¶
Posted 28 July 2025
† Emilian Papadopoulos §
Uncategorized
‡
°
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 remember the innocent people in the world who our nation endeavors to protect. We often debate the policies in a vacuum, but for anyone who has served up close and personal with the people who are directly affected by our policies — it is well worth the reflection. As we discuss and debate various security policies in our national discourse, we must always maintain a special appreciation for and consciousness of the consequences of our nation’s policy decisions.
But first, our military. Continue Reading »
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 comes once the run-down-the-clock strategy is in place: letting the players execute while you look past the buzzer to what comes next. We’re getting to that point on Iraq. Continue Reading »
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. Continue Reading »