Charles Krauthammer: Attacking Iran May Be Pointless

Iran's Ahmadinejad seeks new partners in Africa
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Iran's president is in Africa this week to build alliances to evade stronger U.N. sanctions for his country's Nuclear program, ease its international isolation and strengthen its economy. Both Zimbabwe and Uganda, the two countries President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is visiting, have something to offer. Iran has been under harsh criticism from Western nations for pressing ahead with Uranium Enrichment programs it says are to produce Nuclear Energy. The West fears the...

Senior Pentagon Official Says We're Not Attacking Iran
Haaretz reports on comments the undersecretary of Defense for policy, Michele Flournoy, made in Singapore about Iran: The U.S. has ruled out a Military strike against Iran’s Nuclear program any time soon, hoping instead negotiations and United Nations sanctions will prevent the Middle East nation from developing Nuclear Weapons, a top U.S. Defense Department official said Wednesday. “Military force is an option of last resort,” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele...

Charles Krauthammer On Obama Is Disarming Against Iran
Krauthammer: It's "Incomprehensible to Me" as to Why Obama Is Disarming Against the Increasing Iranian Threat . Report: Iran Missile Could Hit U.S. by 2015 CBN Iran could soon be capable of hitting the U.S. with a long range missle. A report by the Defense Department estimates Iran could have such a weapon by 2015. "With sufficient foreign assistance, Iran could probably develop and test an intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States by 2015," said...

Charles Krauthammer: Hack psychiatrist
It infuriates me when pundits pretend to diagnose Mental Illness in their political opponents, but at least it's obvious in most cases that the speaker has no psychiatric expertise. That's not true, however, with the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer, an actual Psychiatrist who repeatedly jokes about his opponents being mentally ill on TV and in print. Via P. O'Neill , the latest example comes from a Krauthammer column earlier this month bashing President Obama's treatment of US...

Happy Charles Krauthammer Day
It's like a second Christmas.

Biography: Charles Krauthammer
Krauthammer began writing a Weekly column for The Post in 1985. Formerly a resident and then chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined The New Republic as a writer and editor in 1981. His writing regularly appears in such publications as Time, The Weekly Standard and The New Republic. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Magazine Award for essays and criticism in 1984, the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1987 and the...

Here Comes the VAT " Reason 99,999 to Never Doubt Charles Krauthammer
Hey, who’s up for a new national Sales Tax? The VAT (Value Added Tax) is coming soon to a town near you. President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new Value-added Tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days. Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the Deficit and The Economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, “I want to get a better picture of what our...

Against Anti-Civilian Sanctions
by Ron Paul Before the US House of Representatives, April 22, 2010, Statement on Motion to Instruct Conferees on HR 2194, Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act Mr. Speaker I rise in opposition to this motion to instruct House conferees on HR 2194, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, and I rise in strong opposition again to the underlying Bill and to its Senate version as well. I object to this entire push for war on Iran,...

The Gates memo isn't a "wake-up call"
On Sunday, the New York Times published an article on a classified memo by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Iran policy. An anonymous official called it a "wake-up call," but I struggled to find anything controversial in it. Nor does the article suggest, as Senator John McCain and others have , that the U.S. is mishandling Iran. Here is the crux of the memo: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the...

Iran tries diplomatic offensive to stop weak sanctions
Washington Post: Facing increasing momentum behind a U.S.-backed bid for new sanctions against it, Iran is launching a broad diplomatic offensive aimed at persuading as many U.N. Security Council members as possible to oppose tougher punishment for its Nuclear program. Iran wants to focus on reviving stalled talks about a Nuclear Fuel swap to build trust on all sides, according to politicians and Diplomats in Tehran. But leaders of Western nations say that unless Iran alters its ...

US military option against Iran still on table: Pentagon
Washington - US Military action against Iran has not been ruled out, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday, after a top official said such an option was off the table in the "near term." The Defense Department faced questions about US policy on Iran after Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of Defense for policy, reportedly said during a visit to Singapore that a strike against Iran would be a "last resort." "It is not on the table in the near term," Flournoy was quoted as saying. Pentagon Press...

Iran once again raises possiblility of a nuclear fuel swap
Istanbul, Turkey — Iran is seeking to rekindle interest in a modified Nuclear Fuel deal to create "mutual trust" over its atomic program, nearly seven months after the UN-backed plan was first put to Tehran. Iran initially said it accepted the idea. But it then rejected it, when Tehran realized its purpose was to ensure that Iran no longer had enough Enriched Uranium at home, if Enriched to higher levels, to build a bomb. Months later, Iran came up with a counterproposal that...

Gates's memo focused on options between sanctions and war
Defense Secretary Bob Gates's much-discussed January memo called for a restricted principals' meeting to discuss where the U.S. was and flesh out what options short of war might be available if sanctions don't work to stop Iran's Nuclear program, David Ignatius reports : The White House didn't like the New York Times' characterization of a memo Gates wrote in January as a "wake-up call," given all the work the Administration has already done on Iran. But the Times' story captured...

Musings on Tea Bags and "Proto-fascism"
More a "bowel" movement than a patriotic one What kind of group Protests when their taxes are cut, their freedoms returned and their government starts taking care of its veterans, the environment and begins punishing the thieves that bankrupted America? What kind of group sat blind for 8 years of Wiretapping, high taxes, repressive laws, rigged Elections and the most massive economic scandal in American history? Who would have been silent through America's own "Third Reich?" Why are some...

Ahmadinejad, Mugabe meet in Zimbabwe
AP President Robert Mugabe has welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Zimbabwe, a meeting of two leaders United in fierce opposition to the West. Mugabe met Ahmadinejad at the Harare airport on Thursday afternoon. The Zimbabwe Iran Joint Commission had said ahead of Ahmadinejad's State visit that the two nations were committed to "the promotion of peace and stability in their respective regions" and welcomed Iran's proposals to host an international Nuclear Disarmament...

Netanyahu Calls for 'Crippling Sanctions' Against Iran
Jerusalem, Israel - On the same day that Iran announced plans to build its third Uranium Enrichment plant, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his call for "crippling sanctions" against the Islamic Republic, in part by cutting off refined petroleum exports. In November, Iran approved construction of 10 additional Enrichment facilities to supplement the Natanz and Qom plants. Netanyahu told ABC that stopping Iran from importing refined petroleum would impair its...

Iran Sees Nuclear-Fuel Swap As Chance to Boost Trust
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at the U.N. Human Rights Council on March 1, 2010, in Geneva. (AP Photo) Tehran , Iran (AP) - As the United States builds its case for stiffer sanctions against Iran, Tehran's foreign minister appeared to voice new enthusiasm Tuesday for a U.N.-backed Nuclear Fuel deal, calling it a chance to boost trust with the West.   The U.S. and its allies are locked in a standoff with Iran over its disputed Nuclear program. Washington and other western...

Iran's President Ahmadinejad in Africa to build ties with new partners, evade UN sanctions
KAMPALA, Uganda — Iran's president is in Africa this week to build alliances to evade stronger U.N. sanctions for his country's Nuclear program, ease its international isolation and strengthen its economy. Both Zimbabwe and Uganda, the two countries President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is visiting, have something to offer. Iran has been under harsh criticism from Western nations for pressing ahead with Uranium Enrichment programs it says are to produce Nuclear Energy. The West fears the...

Iran agrees belatedly to better monitoring: diplomats
(Reuters) - Iran has said that it will allow U.N. nuclear officials better monitoring and access to a site where it started enriching Uranium to higher levels over two months ago, Diplomats said. World The move should have happened earlier, Diplomats said, as Iran started higher enrichment in February, before inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could improve Surveillance. Suspecting that Iran aims to develop Atomic weapon, Western powers HAVE said the switch to higher...

Iran agrees belatedly to better monitoring-diplomats
Vienna (Reuters) - Iran has said that it will allow U.N. Nuclear officials better monitoring and access to a site where it started enriching Uranium to higher levels over two months ago, Diplomats said. World The move should have happened earlier, Diplomats said, as Iran started higher enrichment in February, before inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could improve Surveillance. Suspecting that Iran aims to develop Atomic weapon, Western powers have said the switch...

Why Buying Time on Iran Matters
There may be good reasons to forgo Military action against Iran's Nuclear program, but the one that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen reiterated for the umpteenth time this week isn't one of them. Speaking at Columbia University on Sunday, Mullen said that while a Military strike could delay Iran's Nuclear program, "that doesn't mean the problem is going to go away." Given his further statement that an attack would be "incredibly destabilizing," the...

Biden: Israel Agrees to Wait on Attacking Iran
ABC’s “ The View ” is hardly the place one would expect to find breaking Foreign Policy news, but it was today as Vice President Joe Biden sought to assure the show’s viewers that Israel wasn’t about to attack Iran. “T hey’re not going to do that,” insisted Biden, adding that Israel had already agreed to hold off on such an attack until they see what affect the next round of sanctions in the UN Security Council will have. Biden, as with every...

Join Us at the Center of the American Experiment's Annual Dinner
Posted by John at 6:57 AM When Scott and I started writing together around 1990, the first notable conservative to support our efforts was Mitch Pearlstein, the President and founder of Minnesota's Center of the American Experiment . The Center published some of our early research papers and featured us in several programs. Later, Scott and I both served on the Center's board. The Center's Annual Dinner is one of the highlights of the Twin Cities' political, and sometimes social, calendar,...

'Soft' and Good
I see that Charles Krauthammer has at last written his baseball column — and it is a real beauty. Lyrical, smile-making, and sharp. Last fall, I interviewed him and wrote a piece for NR. Toward the end, it said, Every columnist writes a “soft” column now and then — a column about sports, or Fashion, or maybe a beloved former teacher. All summer long, Krauthammer was wanting to write a column about the Washington Nationals, the baseball team. But he never had the...

One More Item on Dr. K. (No, Not Dwight Gooden)
That kind of “Dr. K” is spelled without the period, anyway. I’m talking about Charles Krauthammer. I thought of him the other day. In 1995, President Clinton gave the commencement address at Michigan State University. In it, he more or less accused Rush Limbaugh and other outspoken conservatives of sparking the Oklahoma City bombing. I thought it was one of the most despicable things a president had ever done. And, of course, Clinton was back on this theme last week: saying...