By Steve Clemons

For a few days I am in Tokyo, the home of the world’s coolest ads. But this one for McDonald’s, which is airing in France, ranks really well.

This from Dan Froomkin at Huffington Post: George W. Bush’s casual acknowledgment Wednesday that he had Khalid Sheikh Mohammed waterboarded — and would do it again — has horrified some former military and intelligence officials who argue that the former president doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of what he is admitting.

Japan Prime Minister and Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama, whose amazing electoral victory last year unseating the long dominant Liberal Democratic Party, has announced that he is stepping down from his position for failing to deliver on a key campaign promise to the Japanese people about moving the US Marine Futenma Air Station…

A couple of friends and I recently participated in a study group session discussing Afghanistan and Pakistan with former Afghanistan-deployed US foreign service officer and former Marine Matthew Hoh. In passing he posed the question “What’s the most dangerous job in the Middle East?” Hoh’s answer: “Being the Number 3 leader in al-Qaeda.

Above is a video taken by Israeli Defense Force personnel of the beatings and violence unleashed as IDF seals boarded the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara. The IDF should not have boarded the vessels — and the activists should not have engaged in such violence.

President Obama’s team just issued the “read out” of the President’s conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan regarding the Israel Defense Force clash with what many describe as a humanitarian flotilla on its way to Gaza (see below).

I had a bit of a schedule change in the last couple of days and had to catch a flight to Doha on short notice. I am here now, but when I boarded the plane, all was still as it was in the Middle East — not peaceful, but not on the brink either.

I really like former Clinton administration National Security Council official and Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Charles Kupchan‘s new book, How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace.

Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel published last week in the Washington Post a no nonsense assessment of America’s situation in Afghanistan. Read the entire oped, but the zingers are that General Stanley McChrystal has acknowledged that there is a stalemate in Afghanistan now.

It will be released officially later today by the White House. But here is the official pdf of the National Security Strategy report. More on this important report later.