This amazing photo was sent in by Nina. Click image above for larger version.

Inevitably, it had to happen.

Whether it was by design or because of Senator Richard Lugar’s broadside that the White House could not just roll into any conflict it wanted to without support of Congress, President Obama has kept American exposure in the growing conflict in Libya fairly minimal. This is a good thing.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy This morning, I shared some of my reactions on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown to the then breaking news of Gaddafi announcing he was going to abide by a cease fire and halt military operations. In my view, he is buying time.

It’s not hard to overlook the fact that the United States is still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. But we are. Although we have been spending tens of billions of dollars a year in Afghanistan, we have only gotten the “inputs right” in the last six months, according to General David Petraeus.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy This is a clip of my conversation tonight with Rachel Maddow about the costs and benefits of the UN resolution authorizing any measure than occupation to protect the Libyan people from Moammer Gaddafi.

The United States is about to vote on a UN Security Council Resolution calling for measures — including armed intervention — to protect the Libyan people from Moammer Gaddafi’s tanks, planes and guns. In other words, the US and allies are on the edge of yet another war in the Middle East.

This is a guest note by Salman Al-Rashid, a Master’s student at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and an intern with the New America Foundation’s Middle East Task Force. Saudi Arabia, like many other states in the Arab world, is confronted with serious socioeconomic and political challenges.

I just hosted a media conference call for the Afghanistan Study Group with Republican California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA-46) on his views about America’s course in Afghanistan. I will be posting soon the audio clip from the short and fascinating call.

In a heart-moving gesture a few years after the great Kanto earthquake of 1923 in Japan, American children made 12,000 blue-eyed dolls and sent them to Japanese children. After that, 58 highly ornate, beautifully crafted Japanese “Friendship Dolls” were sent by Japanese children to American children.