Obama’s Speech on ISIS: The Big Picture

by Robert E. Hunter “Those who in quarrels interpose, are apt to get a bloody nose.” —Lord Palmerston on keeping Britain from supporting the South in the American Civil War. This Wednesday night President Obama will lay out his strategy… Continue Reading

Obama’s Burden and Rhetorical Asymmetry

by Paul Pillar President Obama has been having a rough summer, reflected in poll numbers that are as low as they have been during his presidency. Clearly a concatenation of developments overseas that appear to most Americans to be to some… Continue Reading

Learning the Wrong Lessons from the Wrong Wars

by James A. Russell The apparent beheading of American journalist James Foley adds a particularly gruesome and tragic twist to the sports event-like reporting of our attempts to thwart the advances of the Islamic State in Iraq over the last… Continue Reading

Obama Receives Qualified Backing for Iraq Strikes

by Jim Lobe President Obama’s authorization of limited military action in northern Iraq, announced in a national television address late Thursday night, has so far received support — even highly qualified in some cases — from across the mainstream political spectrum.… Continue Reading

The Fall of Mosul

Marches of Folly by James Russell Painful as it is to watch black clad Sunni extremists marauding their way through Mosul — a city that Americans died defending — we should all be required to take a dose of the… Continue Reading