I think it’s terrific that Barack Obama went abroad to connect with leaders and some people in Europe and the Middle East. I think he should have gone to Brussels — but I can certainly embrace that he emphasized ‘engagement’ with this trip.
I just accomplished a goal that I set over a year ago — getting a copy of John Bolton’s book without paying for it.
A new poll released last week from J Street, the self-proclaimed “pro-Israel, pro-peace” political action committee, contained very promising data regarding American Jews and their views of the Middle East peace process.
Perhaps Senator Joe Lieberman wasn’t totally clued in to the crowd he was hanging with, but on July 20th, he agreed to carry to President Bush a “pardon request” for a convicted terrorist that the FBI prosecuted and sent to prison for terror activities aimed against Cuba.
Ben Katcher published an interesting post just below that links my meeting tomorrow with Karen Hughes successor as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy James Glassman and our “Terrorism Salon” taking place on the blog now.
One of the central challenges for the next president will be to address the precipitous decline in the United States’ popularity throughout the world that has characterized the Bush years. This is in part a result of stepped-up US counterterrorism efforts, which have clashed with once sacrosanct internationalist tenets like sovereignty.
John McCain and I have something in common: we have both tried recently, and failed, to get op-eds picked up by major newspapers. But I daresay McCain’s snub from the New York Times two days ago is a bit more important to the average Washington Note reader.
Over the course of a week I will be hosting and moderating an online salon discussion on terrorism in conjunction with Mark Goldberg of UN Dispatch. The questions and prompts will cover everything from defining the scope of the threat to root causes to the most effective counterterrorism tactics within a broader strategy.
Damn! I missed a meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies yesterday with three of my favorite national security thinkers — David Ignatius, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Brent Scowcroft.
Julia Watson has a terrific food and restaurant blog eat Washington that I have been checking up on frequently. I’m not intimidated by much, but I do find that I get nervous thinking about cooking — and even more rattled actually doing it, particularly when other humans are involved.