The Future of Progressive Security Policy

I wasn’t at Netroots Nation this year, so I had to attend this panel by internet. As I keep saying, the noninterventionist argument is self-limited, and dissonant with the empirical evidence of the post-Cold War period; I think this panel reflected that. A progressive dialogue on defense must necessarily delve into matters of force, firepower, […]

Already Nuts, Congressional Republicans Go Nuclear

President Obama, who endures relentless calls of “warmonger!” from the peace party, has been steadfast on nuclear disarmament issues. Now, House Republicans are calling his planned cuts to the strategic nuclear force “reckless lunacy” — a phrase best used on their own debt limit negotiation style, but never mind: “I just want to go on […]

Republican Tea Codependency

The verification regime in Obama’s new START is better than Reagan’s. The treaty has the unconditional support of everyone in the defense establishment. It’s vital to a nonproliferation strategy to deal with rogue states. So why is John Kyl on a one-Republican quest to keep START from passing before the new Congress? Simple: the president […]

Joe Lieberman Is A Cretin

The Connecticut Senator has adopted the neocon line on nuclear disarmament: Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” the Connecticut Independent suggested that he himself would oppose ratification of the START II Treaty that Obama signed in Prague this past week, in part because, he reasoned, the language left America vulnerable to a nuclear Iran. “I don’t […]

Nuking Mars

The president is apparently going to skip the moon and take on Mars. New technologies make this far more feasible by cutting the transit time between planets to 39 days. While I’m not necessarily in favor of manned missions (you can do more science cheaper and with less risk), the idea of enabling commercial flight […]