It’s Charles Kupchan here, filling in for Steve Clemons, to whom I am grateful for my first opportunity to be a blogger. I am a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
It’s good news that British authorities apparently have nabbed the four men who launched the most recent (unsuccessful) bombings in London. But the threat of terrorism will go on. And security professionals, in contrast to politicians, acknowledge how the Iraq conflict is encouraging additional violent attacks. Evidence of the connection keeps accumulating.
As most everyone knows, the Army and Marine Corps and Army National Guard and Reserves have been running into recruiting problems. The cause isn’t difficult to understand.
The other day Josh Marshall asked an important question about the growing controversy over giving the Senate Judiciary Committee access to the memos John Roberts wrote when he worked in the Reagan and Bush 41 Administrations. In short, Josh wondered why the Senate should be any less informed about Roberts’ past than the President.
A couple of characteristics seem to set apart the neocons and their allies who so readily, indeed, enthusiastically, make war. One, of course, is to avoid actually serving in combat. Vice President Dick Cheney famously allowed that he had “other priorities” — evidenced by his five deferments.
As I noted late last night, Senator Chafee of Rhode Island told the Associated Press that the newest revelations about John Bolton were enough to make him withdraw his support for the nomination and oppose a recess appointment.
From One State to Three “Virtual States” If only grandmother had four wheels: If you believe the front-page report from Iraq in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal that “U.S. opens door for big pullback in Iraq next year,” then I’ll sell you a bridge over the Euphrates.
I was surprised when Steve asked me to join in as a guest blogger. I remain a books and print kind-of-guy in the internet age, so it’s a new thing for me. I also warned Steve that he risked having the Washington Note turned into a “Blog for Bolton” site.
I took Peter Scoblic’s suggestion and read his new piece in The New Republic, and I must say it’s magnificent.