Showing posts for "Quick Takes"
Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric linked to al-Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, gives a religious lecture. (Ho New/courtesy Reuters)
Members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group greet their relatives upon their release from Abu Salim prison near Tripoli on August 31, 2010. (Ismail Zitouny/courtesy Reuters)
A protester listens as Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen testify at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on U.S. military operations in Libya on March 31, 2011. (Kevin Lamarque/courtesy Reuters)
President Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on May 20, 2011. (Jim Young/courtesy Reuters)
Standing with fellow Republican House members, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) speaks at a news conference held to unveil the House Republican budget blueprint on April 5, 2011. (Kevin Lamarque/courtesy Reuters)
President Barack Obama speaks about the conflict in Libya during an address at the National Defense University on March 28, 2011. (Jim Young/courtesy Reuters)
Protesters rallying against the United States' actions in Libya, in Tucson, Arizona on March 19, 2011. (Rick Scuteri/courtesy Reuters)
President Barack Obama walks back to the Oval Office under blooming Cherry Blossoms on March 23, 2011. (Jim Young/courtesy Reuters)
Ashraf Al-Khaled (L) and Carie Lemack of the film nominated for best short documentary, "Killing in the Name," arrive at the 83rd Academy Awards. (Lucy Nicholson/courtesy Reuters)
I forced myself to watch the Oscars last night. My reward for sitting through an hour-plus of forced banter and lame jokes—please bring back Billy Crystal–was disappointment. Killing in the Name did not win the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. Everyone at CFR remains nonetheless proud of what Carie Lemack accomplished. We hope she enjoyed the awards ceremony despite the outcome and despite the grueling schedule that the Academy puts its nominees through. Most important, I hope that the Oscar ceremony helps get the message of Killing in the Name out to a wider audience.
In other news, the White House announced that President Obama will hold a surprise summit meeting later this week with Mexican President Felipe Caldéron. U.S.-Mexican relations are going through a tough patch. As my colleague Shannon O’Neil writes, the murder of one U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and the wounding of another in an attack on the road from Monterrey to Mexico City has brought the tensions to a head. I hope that Presidents Obama and Caldéron succeed in getting U.S.-Mexican relations back on track. The high and growing level of drug-related violence in Mexico—more than 30,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence over the past five years—is worrying. I am not optimistic, however, that we will see any major breakthroughs. A big part of Mexico’s drug violence problem resides north of the border. Americans buy illicit drugs, and we ship guns back across the border. Washington doesn’t look to be getting serious about either issue. Indeed, legislation working its way through Congress would make it harder for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to disrupt the trafficking of guns to Mexico.
U.S. Air Force personnel adjust the red carpet before the arrival of China's President Hu Jintao at Andrews Air Force Base. (Jason Reed/courtesy Reuters)
On The Water's Edge, Lindsay examines the push and pull of U.S. foreign policy. It focuses on three themes: the political forces shaping American foreign policy, the sustainability of American power in an era of fiscal austerity, and the ability of the United States to navigate a rapidly changing world.
NATO’s twenty-eight member counties wrap up their annual summit today in Chicago. The parting sound bites no doubt will tout…
The World Next Week podcast is up. Bob McMahon and I discussed the presidential election in Egypt; the NATO summit…
The New York Times ran a fascinating article yesterday on soaring student college debt. To make a long story short—and…
Ask Americans to name World War II battles in the Pacific and you will likely to hear places such as…
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