Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Richard Lugar, a long time realist and serious strategic thinker about America’s national security challenges, has just popped the bubble of those who have used Cuba for decades in their ineffective ideological crusades.
Win Monroe is a research intern at the New America Foundation/American Strategy Program. Yesterday, Krygystan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a bill ordering the closure of the US air base in Manas.
Off to Pittsburgh. Any TWN readers who might be at the great “Cole Porter” party this evening, let me know. . .
Acting Chief of Staff to Senator Roland Burris, Darrel Thompson, has resigned his position, according to senior staffers in the US Senate.
Senator Chris Dodd may have just pulled a Hillary Clinton. . .
It appears increasingly likely that the Kurdish cause will be the latest American casualty in Iraq. Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Iraq’s northeast, is governed by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG). Whether Kurdistan remains viable as an autonomous region depends on whether it can incorporate the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as its capital.
My blogger friend Gavin Sheridan has hit some good milestones — and wanted to give a good shout out. He has a great blog and launched another a while back that is up for best blogs in Ireland. Good show Gavin.
The New America Foundation is organizing a major forum in March, and yours truly is deeply involved.
3:30 pm EST today, I am hosting journalist and author Ron Suskind who will discuss his book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism. It will stream live in the box above.
Before reading this bit about a sobering set of messages offered at a very nice Financial Times reception, the must read assignment first is Martin Wolf’s “Japan’s Lessons for a World of Balance-Sheet Recession.” Now you can proceed. . .
