This must be a joke, albeit one that requires the audience to provide the punchline. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to the American Legion, August 29, 2006: "Any kind of moral and intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can severely weaken the ability of free societies to persevere."Surely Rummy was counting on his audience to remember the backstory. His famous leaked memo from October 2003 was full of potential zingers. Here's a good one: Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. Are we capturing, killing or deterring and...

Exhibit A: Rep. Tom Lantos"The international community must use all our available means to stiffen Lebanon's spine and to convince the government of Lebanon to have the new UNIFIL troops on the Syrian border in adequate numbers," said Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives' International Relations Committee.Lantos said he was putting a legislative hold on Bush's proposal to provide $230 million in aid for Lebanon in the aftermath of the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas."My purpose is not to withhold aid from Lebanon, my purpose ... is...

I am officially declaring that all future invokations of the reputation frame (and its cousin, the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics, which focuses on the importance of 'will') by neoconservatives be renamed "henny-penny arguments", since they invoke the same feeling of hysterical irrationality that Rumsfeld originally tried to convey. In a recent speech, Secretary Rumsfeld stated......the world faces "a new type of fascism" and likened critics of the Bush administration's war strategy to those who tried to appease the Nazis in the 1930s.He quoted Winston Churchill as observing that trying...

Its the first day of school today, such an exciting time. And what are we greeted with? A prime example of the power of globalization to shape international markets--even the vaunted US economy and Federal Reserve Board.Today, the NYT reports on the Fed's retreat/conference out in Wyoming (casual, because Fed Chair Ben Bernanke doesn't wear a tie).Econ 101 in a nutshell: the Fed sets interest rates in an attempt to manage inflation and domestic economic growth. Low rates mean money (loans, capital, financing) is cheap and available, so the economy grows but then inflation appears. Higher...

Turkey has long been viewed as one of a number a "pivotal states" for US foreign policy. According to scholars, These are countries whose fate determines the survival and success of the surrounding region and ultimately the stability of the international system.Turkey is additionally Samuel Huntington's prototypical "torn country;" one of several states having "a fair degree of cultural homogeneity but...divided over whether their society belongs to one civilization or another." Whatever one thinks of these characterizations, it is clear that Turkey's political, cultural and geographic...

It would appear that, like Bill Murray before us, we are doomed to repeat the insufferable lead up to the Iraq War and endure major strategic blunder numero dos.Shorter Frederick Fleitz: 'US intelligence is faulty because they haven't managed to dig up enough evidence to support my beliefs about how advanced Iran's nuclear program is. Therefore, they need to work harder to find such evidence'.It's déjà vu all over again.Filed as: Iran, US Intelligence

I'm on an academic IR theory mailing list that frequently receives email about possible 9/11 conspiracies. Most of the time, I just delete these posts, but every now and then I click a link just to find out what the writers are claiming. One recent link led me to an August 2 Washington Post story that certainly raises interesting questions: Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a...

For those that haven’t been paying attention, the Bush administration has launched its 2006 midterm-framing campaign for dealing with the Iraq debacle. Not surprisingly it’s a familiar riff, one that has been analyzed at length here at the Duck as well as more prominent outlets: 'If you think things are bad now, just wait till the Democrats gain power—they will pull out of Iraq and show the world we lack resolve, which will embolden our enemies'.When all is dark resort to reputational rhetoric and hope it resonates with your audience.The argument fails for a number of reasons, not the least...