I commented further on the Yemeni revolution over at the National Journal security blog, arguing that the ouster of president Ali Abdullah Saleh is no great loss for American counter-terrorism, but that a democratic Yemen is unlikely: The United States has no national interest in Saleh’s survival. We do have an interest in a stable [...]
My global media preeminence (see here and here) appears to have spread to a distant, wintry land known to its inhabitants as “Canada.” I discussed the escalating civil strife in Yemen today with host Theo Caldwell of The Caldwell Account on the Sun News Network, sometimes considered Canada’s equivalent of Fox News. The show was [...]
I made my own gloomy contribution to the debate on the National Journal expert blog about the prospects for democracy in Syria: [T]he ruling Alawite minority knows that losing power would not just be a personal disaster for them and their families but a general disaster for the entire Alawite community….[so t]here’s no sign the Syrian [...]
I did another interview with the Romanian news site HotNews.ro. Here’s the article in Romanian. For those of you who for some strange reason aren’t fully fluent in Romanian, here’s my English original, which they translated, in printable PDF format: Freedberg for Romanian news on US wars – 2011-04-27. Some highlights: Americans aren’t particularly peace-loving, actually. [...]
My daughter provided guest commentary on the National Journal blog today, with me doing the actual writing since she can’t write yet: The first person I discussed bin Laden’s death with was my daughter. She was born in 2004 and has known since she could speak full sentences that “our soldiers” are fighting “the terrorists” [...]
In my latest post on the National Journal expert blog, in the context of a discussion on the deeply disfunctional (dysfunctional?) US-Pakistan relationship, I give a hat tip to hegemony: …we bully and bribe the Pakistanis to do specific things that they don’t want to do. It’s ugly and messy, but in the ugly, messy [...]
Over at the National Journal blog, I give vent to my frustration with the Libyan rebels’ incapacity for basic tactics and offer them some advice: I’m beginning to feel like a Chicago Cubs fan here. Guys, stop running straight up and down the highway already and try outflanking someone for a change. As long as [...]
Over at the National Journal expert blog, where I’m once again both moderating and contributing, I’ve just posted my latest on the Libyan civil war and the repercussions — positive ones, I believe — of our intervention across the Arab world: We want these revolutions to succeed. And right now, the biggest threat to them comes [...]
Much to my surprise, I am apparently considered a pundit in Romania, where a website called http://www.hotnews.ro/ interviewed me about the U.S. role in Libya. The interview as published will not be that illuminating to those of you who don’t actually speak Romanian, although between remembering what I wrote in English and recognizing Latin roots I [...]
Commentary – why we should stay in Iraq (if they’ll have us)
In my ongoing quest to be perhaps the most unpopular person ever on the National Journal’s security blog, I’ve posted my argument for why we should keep at least 10,000 troops in Iraq after the current withdrawal deadline expires on December 31st — if the Iraqis are willing to have us: If the Iraqi government can get [...]