Helene Cooper observes that President Obama's reliance on GOP support for the war in Afghanistan could put him in a precarious spot should they withdraw that support. But what would that look like?  I'm not sure that the danger is, as Lindsey Graham says, that some on the right...

With the Afghan elections having taken place today amidst extraordinarily difficult circumstances, I thought I would offer up a few things to keep in mind when reading the coverage:

You go to Afghanistan with the elections you have, not the elections you wish you had. Given the escalating violence,...

Amidst widespread speculation about whether the Obama administration is treating the situation in Iran correctly, it's important to point out that conservative commentary has not only been scattered and incoherent, but totally wrong on the substance.  From what I can tell, there are 5 strains of conservative arguments on Iran...

Even as the bulk of foreign policy attention stays fixed on events in Gaza, a real debate is beginning to open up over the Obama administration's plans to tackle the Afghanistan problem.  Bob Herbert and Russ Feingold have registered their skepticism about U.S. plans for the...

Walter Pincus reported this morning that the Pentagon is getting out the contractor playbook once again, this time to "provide armed security guards to protect Forward Operating Bases in seven provinces in southern Afghanistan (Helmand, Kandahar, Nimruz, Zabol and Uruzgan)."  According to Pincus:

The hired guards would be required to...

This past summer, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science published a piece by Bruce Riedel, which explained why resolution of India and Pakistan's dispute over Kashmir is essential if the region hopes to reduce terrorism, and attain a modicum of stability.  In the wake...

Yesterday ABC reported that the White House decided to nix David Petraeus' request for a Syrian chit-chat.  Spencer Ackerman thinks this is dumb of the White House, and I'm inclined to agree:

According to ABC, Petraeus believes the Syrians can be cleaved away from the Iranian sphere of influence,...

In case you didn't realize, today is the 60th U.N. Day, a day celebrating the "anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations   Charter." Recently the U.N. has been getting a pretty bad wrap, especially in conservative circles, where John McCain has been leading a charge...

This week, John McCain's positions on critical foreign policy issues such as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have all been undermined by the assessments of our intelligence community, members of the military leadership and his own respected foreign policy advisers.

In a rejection of McCain's statements that "victory" in...

General Petraeus' remarks yesterday should close the book on John McCain's overly-simplistic strategy for restoring stability to Afghanistan.  After today, it's difficult to imagine anyone saying that McCain has even the slightest idea of what he is talking about when it comes to that country.

For the entire campaign,...

John McCain sees crises just about everywhere.  He's a bit like the boy who cried wolf, in the sense that he is constantly shooting his mouth off without regard for the severity or the sensitivity of a given issue.

As Matts Yglesias and Welch have both...

When she wasn't getting coached by Charles Gibson, or refusing to answer his questions, Sarah Palin directly contradicted her own candidate by saying she would do whatever it takes to stop terrorists in Pakistan:

We must do whatever it takes, and we must not blink, Charlie. in making the tough...

By Pat Barry and Hanna Lundqvist

It's easy to look at science as an apolitical issue, something apart from partisan discord. But today's news of the first successful test of the Hadron Particle collider underscores a troubling reality that is directly related to the choice facing Americans this fall.

To...

In so many ways, yesterday's speech by President Bush offered absolutely nothing to distinguish itself from his past addresses - it felt hostile, deceitful, and recklessly simplistic. But Bush did slyly introduce one new theme today, a message that that conservatives will probably wind up shilling for...

Last night at the RNC, President Bush argued that John McCain is ready to lead America in the 21st century, in part because he "understands the lessons of 9-11." If what Bush means is that McCain understands his Administration's lessons of 9-11, then yes, the senator from Arizona has...

Today's story in the Los Angeles Times drives home that Afghanistan very much teeters on the brink. The news is sobering. Attacks in Afghanistan's once stable regions to the east have risen by over 40%, and U.S. fatalities have nearly doubled from where they were this time last year....

You know we've hit the fever pitch of Bush administration legacy salvaging when Condoleezza Rice has a piece in Foreign Affairs. Rice takes the Marty McFly approach, looking back to her original assessment during the 2000 presidential Campaign, Rice surveys 8 years of Bush administration policy -...