Did the Obama Administration miss a golden opportunity in the summer of 2009 to support the demonstrations of the Iranian Green Movement and maybe even once and for all get rid of the toxic government of Iran? A lot of people around this town think so, and certainly so do a lot of Iranians who risked their lives with almost no support from the government of the United States. The Obama Administration, which has scrambled to keep up with unfolding events in the Arab Spring uprisings, is not usually one …
Philip H Gordon, US Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, has just delivered a speech in Berlin outlining “the state of transatlantic relations”. His remarks, given at the Korber Foundation on January 11, are a scene-setter for the Obama administration’s European policy in “its final year in office before elections this November.” Like most pronouncements on Europe coming from the Obama presidency, it is fixated on Washington’s dealings with the European Union, as well as with Hillary Clinton’s “reset” of relations with Moscow. This is hardly surprising coming from a …
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer is one of America’s foremost political commentators. He is among the sharpest critics of the Obama administration and liberalism. The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas spoke to Krauthammer about the state of affairs in America, the social contract and the left’s domination of cultural institutions. In the video above, Krauthammer outlines why modern liberalism is lacking new ideas to solve the country’s myriad of problems. Two years ago this month Krauthammer spoke at Heritage about President Obama’s approach to foreign policy.
Before he became president of MF Global, the bankrupt brokerage firm that lost $1.2 billion in client money, Bradley Abelow spent time as New Jersey’s treasurer and former Gov. Jon Corzine’s chief of staff. In those roles, Abelow served alongside Lisa Jackson, who led the state environmental protection department and eventually succeeded Abelow as Corzine’s chief of staff. Jackson now directs the Environmental Protection Agency in the Obama administration, and Abelow, despite a full-time job at MF Global, is still serving alongside her. The former Goldman Sachs executive holds the title …
U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is home following an informal and indefinite recall. The Obama Administration cited concern for Ford’s personal safety as the basis for this decision. A more likely explanation, however, is the failure of the Administration’s policy of “engagement” with Bashar al-Assad’s repressive autocratic regime. Assad’s unremitting violence caused the Arab League to suspend Syria’s membership earlier this week, as the country continues its slide toward civil war. The fact of the matter is, no U.S. ambassador should have been in Damascus in the first place—for …
Last Thursday marked the closing of the 38th Baghdad International Trade Fair, an annual event intended to showcase international corporations to Iraqis and Iraqi corporations to the world. This year’s installment, lasting 10 days and drawing more than 1 million visitors, was made all the more special by the fact that the U.S. participated for the first time in 20 years. Coming on the heels of President Obama’s announcement of a total U.S. troop pullout by the end of the year, U.S. participation at the Trade Fair is sending mixed …
The Obama Administration’s commitment to maintain the U.S. strategic triad appears to be fading, writes Mark Schneider, former special assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the New Strategic Arms Control Treaty (New START) negotiations. Indeed, experts at The Heritage Foundation have been pointing out problems with the Administration’s commitment since it announced its plans to sustain the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. Unfortunately, it seems that the White House’s commitment will not survive the first year after the treaty entered into force. During the New START debate, …
Various news outlets are reporting that Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), intends to leave the organization next July. For those who are not familiar with ICANN, the organization is a nonprofit corporation charged with regulating and managing the Domain Name System under which Internet Protocol addresses and registration of top-level domains (such as .org and .com) are assigned. “Governance” of the medium has been historically minimal—led by nongovernmental entities and overseen by the U.S. government, which has exercised a light regulatory …
The Obama Administration’s “reset” policy with the Russian Federation is failing in yet another important aspect of this relationship: its predictability regarding the development of each country’s respective nuclear forces. This is despite the Obama Administration touting the New Strategic Arms Control Treaty (New START) as one of the greatest accomplishments of the reset policy. The list of U.S. “reset” concessions is extensive: unilateral cuts of U.S. strategic nuclear forces, abandonment of missile defense deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic, neglect of Russian aggressiveness in the areas of the …
Customs Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was just doing his job when he was killed in an Arizona shootout in December 2010 by assault weapons sold illegally to Mexican drug cartels – guns sold under the supervision of the U.S. government. The undercover weapons trafficking, widely known now as “Operation Fast and Furious” was overseen by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The shady details surrounding the operation – along with the inadequate response by the Obama Administration – are a disservice to Terry’s memory. As …
