Obama failed to make progress on the most important issue to the United States right now — economics and trade. We’re experiencing a $200-plus billion-a-year trade deficit with China, but no measure came out of the visit to ease that pain.
Let me be clear (as President Obama loves to say): After a year in office, there isn’t much for this White House to brag about foreign policy-wise, in spite of rhetorical flourishes and grandiose promises.
After nearly a year of well-intentioned efforts to develop the United States’ relationship with the People’s Republic of China, President Barack Obama isn’t so gung-ho anymore - and ties are taking a downturn.
While the Climaterati caucus over cappuccinos in Copenhagen about polar bear habitat and the fate of small island nations from rising sea levels, there are other possible climate change implications, too - those of the security kind.
Despite all the Obama administration’s chin- rubbing and hand- wringing about how to proceed in Afghanistan, the president hasn’t been to the war-torn country since entering the White House.
Vice President Joe Biden’s trip last week to Poland and the Czech Republic may have helped soothe rattled allies after Team Obama pitched overboard the W-era, anti-Iran missile shield that was to be deployed in both countries. But the new missile-defense plan he pitched has problems.
There’s certainly a lot of hand-wringing these days on both the left and right over the war in Afghanistan. Among Americans, support for the fight is slipping, almost eight years after U.S. forces entered the country.On the surface, it’s understandable: There’s little good news in spite of the blood, sweat and tears of our brave troops and others, including U.S. diplomats and civilians, who are often on the front lines, too.
While some are touting “progress” at the just-concluded talks with Iran in Geneva last week over its nuclear program, we’re nowhere near the end of this horror movie.
The Obama administration is getting ready to throw the proposed Eastern European-based US missile-defense system under the bus. The move is a sop to the Russians (and to lefties here at home) — but will render us increasingly vulnerable to the growing Iranian nuclear/missile threat.
The famous Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud is believed to have once said: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” meaning that at times you should take things at face value and not search for any deeper meaning.
American and Russian teams will start another round of talks in Vienna as early as today on a new nuclear-arms-reduction pact to replace the expiring Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Problem is Russia isn’t meeting its obligations on some old arms-control agreements.
The Pentagon says it’s not worried about a couple of Russian Akula-class attack submarines patrolling some 200 miles off the US Eastern coast — that it raises no “red” flags at the moment.
MOST Americans have noticed that President Obama’s economic policies aren’t getting the job done. Fewer, however, realize that the administration’s foreign policies are flagging after just six months in the White House, too.
There is a popular notion that the world has changed dramatically with the election of a new American President and that the United States will not be challenged by ambitious peer competitors and rogue states in the coming decades. While this is a hopeful concept, it is also inaccurate.
If you think reactions to President Obama’s arrival on the world stage from the likes of the Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Venezuelan and even European leaders have been lukewarm at best, check out the North Koreans.
Just two weeks after the Obama Pentagon crowed that the recent US-China military-to-military talks were practically the best ever, Beijing’s navy confronted a US ship operating in international waters in the South China Sea.
Largely invisible to most Americans, just to the south, the security situation is worsening as a result of an intense conflict between the Mexican government and domestic drug cartels — and even among the narco-gangs themselves.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will get her chance to mash the Obama administration’s “reset button” on US-Russian relations when she parachutes into Geneva to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tomorrow.
Sometimes you don’t miss something until it’s gone. While this old chestnut is most often rolled out when referring to a lost but seemingly troubled love, or a trying but departed friend, it might be said for American military might as well.
The thought of pirates usually evokes Hollywood blockbusters involving swashbuckling buccaneers, tropical isles and buried treasure marked on a tattered map with an “X.”
The good news is that nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida appears to be battered. The bad news is that like a prize fighter, it is bloodied, but not bowed — leaving it still capable of dealing a devastating blow. In June, CIA Director Michael Hayden trumpeted the good news, telling the Washington Post that al-Qaida movements in Iraq and Saudi Arabia were essentially defeated and struggling elsewhere, including in the terrorism hot-bed Pakistan. In truth, some doubt Hayden’s take on Pakistan, especially with Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahiri still on the loose in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
Russia’s alliance with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez just keeps getting tighter - and worse for America. Now, Moscow could be putting “El Loco” on the road to getting the bomb.
Despite iran’s runaway nuclear program, North Korea’s atomic assistance to Syria, and robust ballistic missile production and testing by Russia and China, a missile defense system for protecting the homeland and U.S. interests overseas remains a controversial idea in some corners. It should not be. The security challenge arising from the proliferation of ballistic missiles and the dangerous payloads they might carry, including weapons of mass destruction (wmd) like nuclear arms, is a threat that — in fact — may be growing.
News reports that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has had a stroke could certainly be true. At 66, he’s no spring chicken, especially considering his reportedly colorful lifestyle.
In one of the most daring rescues in recent history, in early July Colombian armed forces freed 15 hostages, including a former presidential candidate, from the grips of the narco-terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—all without firing a single shot.
The Russian bear is back. Today’s Kremlin is cocky, nationalistic, rich and bent on asserting Russia as a great power - not only in its neighborhood or “near abroad” - but across the globe.
It’s not unusual for a state to conduct military exercises, but Iran had a lot more in mind when it literally went ballistic yesterday - launching nine medium- and long-range missiles during its “Great Prophet” war games.
North Korea gave the world some good news this week - finally handing over a declaration about its nuclear program and promising to blow up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility. But don’t break out the best bubbly just yet.
The good news is that al Qaeda’s in bad shape; the bad news is that the terrorist threat is evolving. If we don’t adapt, the tide could turn back.CIA Director Michael Hayden last week told The Washington Post that al Qaeda movements in Iraq and Saudi Arabia were essentially defeated and pushed back on their heels elsewhere, including Pakistan.