Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials -- September 27, 2010

Military Thwarted President Seeking Choice In Afghanistan -- Bob Woodward

For two exhausting months, he had been asking military advisers to give him a range of options for the war in Afghanistan. Instead, he felt that they were steering him toward one outcome and thwarting his search for an exit plan. He would later tell his White House aides that military leaders were "really cooking this thing in the direction they wanted."

He was looking for choices that would limit U.S. involvement and provide a way out. His top three military advisers were unrelenting advocates for 40,000 more troops and an expanded mission that seemed to have no clear end. When his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2009, for its eighth strategy review session, the president erupted.

Read more ....

Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials

Cyber Attack Against Iran: A Silent Attack, but Not a Subtle One -- John Markoff, New York Times

China: Rising power -- Washington Post editorial

China lost the fishing boat standoff -- Robert Haddick, Small Wars Journal

Keeping the Pacific Pacific: The Looming U.S.-Chinese Naval Rivalry -- Seth Cropsey, Foreign Affairs

The makings of a trade war with China -- Robert Samuelson, Washington Post

China–Japan Confrontation at Sea: Senkaku Islands Issue Won’t Go Away -- Dean Cheng, Heritage Foundation

Rising powers need to rise up -- Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post

Is Hugo Chavez a real threat to the U.S.? -- Jackson Diehl, Washington Post

A Reminder for the F.B.I. -- New York Times editorial

How Obama Was Brainwashed by the Microsoft Theory of Foreign Aid -- David Rieff, New Republic

Tiger in a Tailspin: Ireland's Problems Have Euro Zone Worried -- Christoph Pauly, Spiegel Online