Foreign Affairs magazine has been running both a print and on-line forum on the future of US policy towards Iraq. If you haven't read it yet, get yourself over there and take a look.In my second experiment in videoblogging, I take issue with Chaim Kaufmann's contribution to the original forum. To be fair to Kaufmann, my response is oriented more towards his broader argument about ethnic partition as a solution to ethno-nationalist civil war than to his specific proposals for Iraq.Let me add some thoughts on videoblogging. I'm still not sure about this medium. Text provides a far more...

Israel's graduated "massive retaliation" against the Lebanese government continues.Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut's airport in its heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years. Four dozen civilians had died in the violence following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, officials said.After warplanes punched holes in the airport's runways just south of Beirut, Israel's army chief Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz warned that "nothing is safe" in Lebanon. He said Beirut itself — particularly offices and residences of Hezbollah officials —...

My commentary on the unfolding Israeli-Hezbollah crisis. This is a bit rough and a bit long.One of the problems with doing this without a script is that it can be easier to make factual errors. For example, I mention Israeli military capacity in the 1970s even though the invasion of southern Lebanon dates to 1982.UPDATE: my wife is already on my case about moving around too much and about speaking more slowly. I'll correct these problems in the next installment.Filed as: Lebanon, Israel, Hezbollah

I saw two movies recently: Superman Returns and An Inconvenient TruthSuperman was good, summer super-hero action fun, though probably just a bit too long. My favorite part-- the music. They were loyal to the original John Williams score, and really, nothing beats heroic John Williams music.Al Gore's movie was surprisingly good. To borrow from the line from John Stewart, the "film combines the mainstream appeal of climate science with the non-stop action of Al Gore" (and you should really watch Gore's appearance on the show, top notch). Seriously, though, who would have thought that a hour...

Breaking news (via Chirol), and it isn't good:"At least 20 people have been killed in at least seven blasts on trains in the Indian financial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), police say."If confirmed, these strikes are reminiscent of the Madrid and London bombings. But, as Chirol notes, the added danger of these attacks is that if any links are established between the bombs and Pakistan would likely spark an international crisis between the two nuclear powers. Always a good thing.Filed as: Terrorism

In the comments section to Peter’s latest post about the after-effects of North Korea’s missile test I noted that I was puzzled as to why China has not done more to compel Kim Jong-Il. Given the steps suggested in Japan recently to shift their defensive posture to one that would operationally and legally allow them to carry out preventive strikes against the North (not to mention grumblings about a Japanese nuclear program) it would seem that China’s own interests in not seeing such a shift in Japan would motivate it to act.Nayan Chanda offers a thought, one that slipped my mind when writing...

As the response to North Korea's missile launch last week heats up, its clear that Japan was really spooked by what happened.The AP reports, via ABC news: Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself,...

In today’s Washington Post Jon Wolfsthal writes that the key to stopping North Korea’s missile program is good old-fashioned deterrence. Wolfsthal writes:"Over the long run, how can Americans be sure that some future "test" missile won't be fitted with a nuclear weapon and targeted on a US city? The short answer is they can't. But through a straightforward policy of deterrence we can eliminate any thought in North Korean minds that they can attack the United States and survive. President Bush should declare that any offensive missile fired at the United States or its allies in the region...