Monday, January 9, 2012

Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials -- January 9, 2012



The U.S.: MIA in the Mideast -- John Hannah, L.A. Times

The Obama administration's lack of strategic vision, its instinct for retreat and its complicity in the unraveling of the Mideast's security are key concerns.

During a Dec. 8 news conference, President Obama rebuked his Republican foreign policy critics: "Ask Osama bin Laden … whether I engage in appeasement," Obama fired back.

The president has a point, of course. The special forces raid to get Bin Laden deep in Pakistan was an extremely gutsy call. So too the extrajudicial death sentence that Obama imposed on U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki in Yemen. More generally, the president has been a veritable killing machine when it comes to anti-American jihadists, escalating drone attacks tenfold against our most fanatical enemies. And for all the complaints about "leading from behind," the bottom line in Libya was indisputable: Obama said Moammar Kadafi must go, and then put U.S. military power to the task of making it so — swiftly, without quagmire and at minimal cost to the U.S.

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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials

Obama’s foreign initiatives have been failures -- Jackson Diehl, Washington Post

Obama closes the book on the 9/11 era
-- David Ignatius

The risk of civil war in Iraq -- Globe and Mail editorial

What it Will Take to Intervene in Syria -- Michael Weiss, Foreign Affairs

Know Thine Enemy: China And Obama's Defense Cuts -- Paul Roderick Gregory, Forbes

Is a Chinese economic slump on the horizon? -- Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post

Obama to Share Secrets with Russia -- Michael Rubin, Commentary

Collision of political, economic logic condemns India to rudderless rule and chronic corruption -- Ramesh Thakur, Japan Times

Haiti Can Be Rich Again -- Laurent Dubois and Deborah Jenson, New York Times

The Skyscraper Slums of Caracas: How Hugo Chávez built a squatter city in his backyard. -- Peter Wilson, Foreign Policy

How Austerity Is Killing Europe
-- Jeff Madrick, New York Review Of Books

Nuclear Disarmament, No Matter the Cost -- Mark Davis, Weekly Standard

Power Play: It's time for the U.S. to stand up to China. And cutting the Pentagon's budget isn't going to help. -- Patrick Cronin, Foreign Policy

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