Friday Talking Points [327] -- The Calm Between The Storms
[ Posted Friday, November 14th, 2014 – 17:56 UTC ]
What walks like a duck and quacks like a duck but seems to have serious mobility problems?
Archive of Articles in the "Iran" Category
A Reluctant Warrior
[ Posted Wednesday, September 10th, 2014 – 19:54 UTC ]
President Barack Obama has always been a reluctant warrior. It is, in fact, one of the big reasons he was elected, since America had turned away from the cowboy swagger of Bush and Cheney by 2008. Tonight, President Obama laid out the case for escalating a war we've already begun, in Iraq and Syria. He presented his plan to the public, and gave his reasons for why America should become more involved in the fight against the Islamic State (or, variously, ISIS or ISIL), and explained what America would and would not be doing in the coming months.
The Obama Tactic
[ Posted Monday, August 11th, 2014 – 17:28 UTC ]
American aircraft are once again waging war over the skies of Iraq. President Obama, as many have pointed out, is now the fourth United States president in a row to order some form of military offensive in Iraq. As always, plenty of critics immediately popped up to loudly explain what the president was doing wrong. The usual characters on the right demanded a much more intensive military action, the ones on the left warned darkly about slippery slopes and possible blowback, and the American people seemed to heave a sigh of resignation, in a "here we go again" moment.
Iraq's Air Force
[ Posted Monday, June 23rd, 2014 – 16:07 UTC ]
In all the pontificating on what now should be done (and what should have been done previously) in Iraq, one subject oddly never seems to be on the table. I find this a bit strange, because it really should be a subject worthy of debate -- if only to add to the finger-pointing about what could have been done to avoid the current situation. From hawks to isolationists, though, nobody seems to ever bring up the possibility of Iraqis performing their own airstrikes. To put this another way: where is the Iraqi Air Force?
Friday Talking Points [309] -- Meet Brian Schweitzer
[ Posted Friday, June 20th, 2014 – 17:07 UTC ]
Today, we're going to have a special edition of the talking points, where we get to know a Montana politician who seems to be seriously considering taking on Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. But before we do so, it was a busy week otherwise, so let's just dive right into it. First, a look at what's going with Republicans.
Biden Was Right
[ Posted Wednesday, June 18th, 2014 – 17:56 UTC ]
Vice President Joe Biden was right. Let's begin with that.
Friday Talking Points [307] -- An Alternate Reality To Consider
[ Posted Friday, June 6th, 2014 – 16:43 UTC ]
This week was notable in many respects in the political world, but one subject overwhelmed almost everything else. We're going to address the prisoner swap and Bowe Bergdahl in an unusual way this week, in lieu of our regular talking points at the end of the column. But first, we're going to take a very quick look at what else happened this week, and then hand out the weekly awards.
My 2013 "McLaughlin Awards" [Part 2]
[ Posted Friday, December 27th, 2013 – 17:50 UTC ]
Welcome back to our annual year-end awards column!
Delay Iran Sanctions
[ Posted Wednesday, December 4th, 2013 – 17:56 UTC ]
Last Sunday, Senator Bob Menendez suggested a fairly good idea for further economic sanctions on Iran. Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has come up with an answer which could possibly satisfy both sides -- those who support the diplomatic track and those who are pushing for harsher sanctions for Iran. The idea is to let the Senate go ahead and pass further sanctions, but to trigger them to the timeline of the ongoing negotiations, so that new sanctions wouldn't kick in until after the six month period of talks. If a permanent deal is struck before that time, then new sanctions (obviously) wouldn't take effect, but if no deal is reached by the deadline, then the sanctions begin automatically.
We Need A Geneva Convention On Cyber Warfare
[ Posted Monday, October 28th, 2013 – 15:58 UTC ]
Even though it took a long time to get to this point, it was an effort worth making. Which is why the nations of the world should now start a new conversation in some internationally-neutral city, with the expressed purpose of defining what is and what is not allowable for the future of warfare (and spying). Three major topics of such an agreement should be: passive cyberwar (spying on communications), active cyberwar (virus and other attacks), and robot warfare (drones and other automated weaponry).