Displaying posts written by

Tom Skypek

who has written 157 posts for Hope is Not a Foreign Policy.

Feb
20
2010

Karzai’s Ingratitude

From the AP:
President Hamid Karzai urged NATO to do more to protect civilians during combat operations to secure Marjah, a southern Taliban stronghold and scene of the biggest allied ground assault of the eight-year war.
NATO forces have repeatedly said they want to prevent civilian casualties but acknowledged that it is not always possible. On Saturday, the alliance said its troops [...]

Feb
19
2010

Thoughts on the Fiscal Commission

You can’t spend like there’s literally no tomorrow, rack up massive deficits, add to the national debt and then pretend to care about spending.  Are you kidding me?  We don’t need another commission to tell us that we’re bankrupting this country.  This is simply political top cover for the Obama administration–they can point to this [...]

Feb
17
2010

Political Correctness in the QDR

A recent analysis of the 2010 QDR by the Center for American Progress claims, “…the 2010 QDR abandons the Bush administration’s “Long War” construct that oversimplified the nature of the struggle against violent extremists.”  This claim implies that the QDR clarified the nature of this conflict.  The QDR doesn’t even accurately identify the threat.  It [...]

Feb
14
2010

Dick Cheney Discusses Iraq, Terrorism and the Obama administration

Here’s a great interview with Dick Cheney on some key foreign policy issues.

Feb
13
2010

Nuclear Policy in the Bush Administration: Setting the Record Straight

Vice President Joe Biden recently wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal outlining the Obama administration’s nuclear policy.  In typical Obama administration fashion, he blamed the preceding administration for “the slow but steady decline in support for our nuclear stockpile and infrastructure, and for our highly trained nuclear work force.”  His claim of neglect [...]

Feb
8
2010

WMD Commission Report Card

Last month, the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism released its assessment detailing how well the U.S. Government has implemented the recommendations presented in its December 2008 report.  The Commission explains in the overview, “The assessment is not a good one, particularly in the area of biological threats.” [...]

Feb
2
2010

How the Obama administration’s lack of credibility is weakening U.S. national security

Since January 20, 2009, American credibility has taken a back seat to the Obama administration’s quest for international popularity.  During his trips to the Middle East and Asia last year, President Obama seemed more interested in bolstering his approval ratings abroad than advancing American interests.  Last week it was reported that the Obama administration downgraded [...]

Jan
23
2010

Thoughts on the Special Election in Massachusetts & the War Against Wall Street

Wow, it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve had time to write a post–and what a difference a couple of weeks can make.  Since my last post, Scott Brown won the U.S. Senate seat once occupied by Ted Kennedy in the bluest of blue states, Massachusetts, and the White House officially declared war on Wall Street.   There’s [...]

Jan
6
2010

Obama’s Bogus Health Care “Transparency”

It looks as though President Obama is on the record–on eight different occasions–proclaiming that all health care negotiations would be televised on C-SPAN.  This was part of his promise to make government more “transparent” and we all know how that’s turned out.

Jan
4
2010

Ilan Berman on U.S. Nuclear Superiority

Ilan Berman, a noted expert on Iran and Vice President for Policy at the American Foreign Policy Council, has a great piece in today’s Defense News on the Obama administration’s (mis)handling of U.S. nuclear policy.  Berman reminds us that both Russia and China are modernizing their strategic forces while the U.S. weapons complex is eroding:
Indeed, practically every [...]