Guest Post by Jon Weinberg: Sons of Afghanistan

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Jon Weinberg is a research intern at the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force. Last week, Zalmay Khalilzad, former US Ambassador to the UN, and Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) spoke at RAND’s “Afghanistan: Basic Questions–Strategy Choices” conference. Both emphasized that key strategic choices must be considered before a decision on troops is made.

A Skunk We Should Want? Live-Blogging a Joe Biden Discussion on Challenges Facing US Middle Class

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WASHINGTON, DC — 10:00 am — Vice President Joe Biden was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania and has lived for decades in Wilmington, Delaware — both working middle class communities that have been under siege from both domestic and international economic forces.

No End In Sight. . .In Afghanistan

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(photo credit: Spencer Ackerman) US military crusade chronicler Spencer Ackerman has written a long, thoughtful treatment of the issues and players wrestling over the tough calls President Obama must soon make on America’s course in Afghanistan. It’s titled “The Decision” and appears in The National.

LIVE STREAM: Can Washington’s National Security Bureaucracy Work?

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How can Washington avoid merely moving from one crisis to the next and instead engage in forward looking, strategic policy-making? To address this question, the New America Foundation/American Strategy Program is hosting an event TODAY from 12:15pm – 1:45pm with James Locher, President & CEO of the Project on National Security Reform.

U.S. Continues to Show Limits in the Middle East

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Steve Clemons has discussed on this blog the importance of perceptions of power in international relations – and the immense harm that the Bush administration inflicted upon American interests by exposing America’s military, economic, and moral limits.

Matthew Hoh: US Has Lost Track of Why It is In Afghanistan

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Matthew Hoh, the first US government official to formally resign his post because of objections to America’s course in Afghanistan, makes a compelling case that America has lost its strategic sensibilities in this war which President Obama has adopted as “the good war”.

Understanding Turkey’s Foreign Policy

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The Economist is the latest to weigh in on Turkey’s growing diplomatic role in the Middle East and to question whether Turkey is moving away from the West and toward what has been called a “neo-Ottoman” foreign policy that increasingly emphasizes strengthening ties with Turkey’s southern and eastern neighbors.