By Steve Clemons

Tom Toles (c) 2010 The Washington Post. Used by permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved. Pursuing al Qaeda, a.k.a. Moby Dick.

I write this as a political independent who finds strengths and weaknesses in both of America’s major leading parties, but just as I observed during the battle against John Bolton’s Senate confirmation vote to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations, Democrats often declare defeat when they are ahead, and Republicans declare victory even…

You really think you can dance WIN THIS WAR?? — Anthony H. Cordesman, the CSIS Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy (not really; just hypothetically) Anthony Cordesman is not the warm and fuzzy type. Jack Webb’s Joe Friday in Dragnet was a barrel of laughs compared to CSIS’s most severe, anti-glad handing war strategist.

At the Aspen Ideas Festival 2010, at which I had a terrific time and had some of my own perspectives on policy matters stretched in new directions, I met this fun, woods and water loving dog — named Sugar Bear something-or-other.

The report of my death was an exaggeration.

(photo illustration by Kevin Van Aelst; reprinted with permission from the New York Times; used with Parag Khanna’s article, “Waving Goodbye to Hegemony“) The Washington Post recently posted an interesting search tool to scan President Barack Obama’s key speeches, policy statements and media interviews. What fun this can be, I (and we) thought.

It’s invite only, a small group, no subs — but on the record. At the Nixon Center, it will be Chas Freeman vs.

This was an interesting session that got a lot of reaction at the Aspen Ideas Festival. US News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman and I had a polite dust-up over US-Israel policy and about President Obama. Katty Kay, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, James Fallows and Elisabeth Bumiller were on the panel with Andrea Mitchell moderating.

(click picture above to enlarge) This is a nest currently occupied by three osprey in Chestertown, Maryland — just in front of a house I frequently try to escape to. Recently, I saw a couple of osprey fighting in mid-air with a bald eagle.

Approximately 300,000 returning Iraq and Afghanistan war vets — a number equivalent to nearly 25% of America’s active duty military — suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. While Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki has just announced streamlined procedures to help these veterans secure support services, this long term social “cost” is staggering.