Apology Silliness, Foreign Policy Edition

I apologize for these pastries. (White House photo by Pete Souza)

We're now negotiating the terms of our sort-of-departure from Afghanistan, and there's no doubt the Afghan government needs America more than America needs it. Imagine, if you would, that we just packed up and left. There would almost certainly be a full-on civil war, one the Afghan government would be hard-pressed to win. And back here, we'd pay about as much attention as we do now to the river of blood flowing through Iraq, which is to say, every once in a while we'd see a news story and say, "Gee, that's terrible," and then go back to wondering how long it'll be before Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan go on a cross-country crime spree.

So if you were the Afghan government, you probably wouldn't want to drive too hard a bargain in negotiating the terms of the future American presence there. And it's all getting hung up on whether the Americans are going to apologize for killing Afghan civilians, and whether they might offer an apology that isn't really an apology, and whether they can do it in a letter that's signed by Secretary of State John Kerry or if the letter has to be signed by President Obama himself. This is the silliness on which the future of an entire country, and who knows how many lives, depends.

Europe's Miserable Credit Score

Without access to credit, the European South is unlikely to bounce back anytime soon.

AP Photo/Michael Probst,File


Moderating Influences


“How do you define an Iranian moderate? An Iranian who is out of bullets and out of money.” This was what Illinois Republican Senator Mark Kirk had to say Wednesday after a briefing by his former Senate colleague, Secretary of State John Kerry, on the state of play in nuclear negotiations with Iran. Last weekend, the talks came tantalizingly close to closing a deal on a first phase agreement, a halt to Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for limited and reversible sanctions relief, which would in turn lead to a broader comprehensive deal addressing the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

Super Sad Spy Story

AP Images/Julian Stratenschulte

Let’s face it, unless Democrats win back the House in 2014, Obama will soon become a lame duck president. To some degree or another, it is a universal truth that second term presidents turn to foreign policy to burnish their historical legacy. Yet the continuous drip of revelations about the NSA’s vast array of surveillance programs is not only shaping up to be the biggest headache for the Obama administration but potentially, part of its defining legacy. And that is sad. Super sad.

The Other Default?

AP Images/Yves Herman


Bomb Me, Big Sheldon

AP Photo/Stanley Troutman, File


Israel's Brain Drain

AP Images/Eric Risberg


Are Hawks in Congress Trying to Scuttle Iran Talks?


AP Images


An Ignoble Prize




In Catalonia, a Warning on One-State Solutions

AP Images/Paco Serinelli


Can Bibi Take Yes for an Answer?


Except that Rohani hasn’t even gotten to first base.

Talking Second-Amendment Rights in China

AP Images/Vincent Yu



Angela Merkel, Black Widow, Seeks Partner

AP Images/Michael Sohn


Boom Times for the NRA

Flickr/Sea Grape

There's a lot happening at the moment—government shutdown, war in Syria, Iranian president sort of maybe not denying the Holocaust—so there was very little attention given to the fact that yesterday, the United States government signed the United Nation Arms Trade Treaty, commonly known as the small arms treaty. It's meant to prevent the arming of human rights abusers, potential perpetrators of genocide, and the like, by obligating states not to sell conventional weapons, from small arms up to tanks and helicopters, to foreign governments or entities that are going to use them to commit war crimes and massacre civilians. When it was voted on by the UN, the only countries that voted against it were Syria, Iran, and North Korea.


Angela Merkel's Boring Brilliance

AP Images/Markus Schreiber
