I am constantly flabbergasted by how “common knowledge”, even and especially among experts in a particular field, can so often be so wrong. And I don’t even mean “wrong if you really know what you’re talking about”; I mean “illogical at face value”. I’ll start with a couple examples from football (it is [...]

I read McCain’s Foreign Affairs essay the other day, which is really quite good. There are certainly things in it I disagree with, but when compared with the nonsensical mess that Giuliani wrote, it does make you appreciate that McCain has some grasp of the issues at hand. On the issue of nuclear [...]

I encourage you to take a look at this series of articles being published in Foreign Affairs. In a nut shell, the journal asked each of the “top” presidential candidates to write an essay outlining their foreign policy goals and strategies if they are elected president. So far, four candidates have responded: Obama, [...]

In the last week, Barack Obama has made three controversial foreign policy statements: that he would not consider using nuclear weapons to strike at terrorists; that if he had “actionable intelligence” about Osama bin Laden’s location and Pakistan refused to act, he would consider striking into Pakistani territory without their permission; and that he would [...]

This idea is so crazy, I’ve been struggling about whether even to post it. But I find it intriguing, even if it’s based on some funky assumptions and logic. So I figured, why not? That’s what leftfielder is for, right? Ideas that come out of left field:
Let Iran have nuclear weapons [...]

The glorious logic of international diplomacy:
1) North Korea imports materials to make a nuclear warhead, violating international law.
2) North Korea builds nuclear warheads.
3) North Korea detonates nuclear warhead.
4) US/UN push nations to inspect cargo entering North Korea for illicit materials.
If searching cargo was going to work (which I doubt it will), shouldn’t we have done [...]

Apparently, North Korea tested a nuclear weapon over the weekend. (I’d recommend that you check out the Washington Post’s history of our dispute with North Korea over their nuclear program, if you need a refresher. Good stuff.) And, of course, the United States and the United Nations are scrambling to do something [...]

The most fascinating thing about the recent North Korean missile tests is how easily we are all frightened. Look at what really happened: North Korea shot a bunch of short-medium range missiles (which seemed to have been successful) and one medium-long range missile (which seemed to fail) into the ocean. No one was [...]

In September, 1962 John F. Kennedy spoke at Rice University and pledged that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of that decade. JFK’s speech was a moment of great vision and great leadership. He set a goal–a goal that many thought was too soon or too [...]

Headline on the Yahoo News webpage:
“Ahmadinejad Proposes ‘Solutions’ to Bush”
While the actual article describes a letter the President of Iran sent to Bush about how to resolve conflict between our countries, “solutions to Bush” seems like what the Democrats have been looking for since 2000…