• Red Cross Reported US Methods Were Torture
• US General Predicts Iraqi Army and Police Ready by mid-2009
• Weighing Peace against Justice in Sudan
• Falsified Image of Iranian Missile Tests

As a Senate staffer from 2002 to 2006, I had the honor of attending funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.  It was emotionally difficult to see such sadness, but I felt privileged to have the opportunity to pay my own respects, to huddle near the grave with friends and families of an American hero, to hear heart-felt words of love, and to offer my own condolences and expressions of inadequate gratitude to families devastated by loss.

I came away from each experience at Arlington with one thought: every American should see this.  Every American should have the opportunity to pay their respects.  Every American should be able to watch a young widow’s shoulders heave with grief as “Taps” is played.  It drives home in a way words never can the real cost of war.

Dana Milbank’s column in today’s Washington Post details the case of a public affairs director at Arlington who lost her job because she tried to give Americans a closer glimpse at these same ceremonies.

Arlington National Cemetery is hallowed ground, and every American has a duty–not just a right–to know what goes on there.

I don’t know for sure what Iran’s long term strategic goals are.  Does the leadership really want to achieve regional hegemony?  Obliterate Israel?  Simply ensure regime survival?  I doubt the Iranians themselves are certain.

But in the short-run, it is clear that American threats and pressure are weighing heavily on the Iranian leadership.  Unfortunately — though predictably — instead of folding, they are looking to bolster their deterrent posture against a U.S. or Israeli attack.   That is why they photoshopped their recent missile test. They want to convey an image of strength and competence in the hopes of preventing an attack against them.

This is the same path Saddam pursued in the run-up the Iraq War.  He kept puffing himself up, and of course the result was that we overestimated the threat he posed.  Rather than deterring us, Saddam’s attempts to project strength provoked us.  Obviously, the Iranians have not learned anything from that case.  And unfortunately, neither have we.  We continually take every Iranian action as evidence of their growing capabilities, instead of see them as the pathetic measures of a desperate regime trying to look bigger and badder than it really is.

This will likely end quite badly for the Iranian leadership — as it did for Saddam –  and tragically, we are also likely to pay a tremendous and unnecessary price for calling the Iranian bluff.  Iran can never puff itself up big enough to really deter us, but though we may ultimately eat the pufferfish, the toxins in its skin will leave us with a nasty case of indigestion at best.

• Saudi Rehabilitation and Release of Extremists
• U.S. Consulate in Istanbul Attacked
• Iran Conducts Missile Tests
  
• Chinese Police Kill Alleged Muslim Militants

• Commentary: Troubled War Powers
• Maliki Suggests Timetable for Withdrawal of US Troops
• Iran Warns US and Israel Against Attack
• Study Finds Gays in the Military Don’t Hurt Ability to Fight
• G-8 Proposal to Cut Emissions by 50% by 2050

The release of a new report on War Powers has prompted a lot of media coverage.  In an op-ed in the New York Times (Put War Powers Back Where They Belong), James Baker and Warren Christopher lay out a new model focused on consultation between the President and Congress prior to using force.   Their model is based on the model for authorizing covert actions, which seems largely to have worked.  The problem the Baker-Christopher approach is that as a practical matter it is likely to fix nothing because there is nothing to fix.  In practice, Congress has been authorizing uses of force, and has been annually voting on funds.  Congress can already mandate a withdrawal of forces by passing a law, over the President’s veto if necessary.  And if the President refuses to enforce the law, Congress can impeach him.  There is nothing in this new approach that alters these basic dynamics, and there is nothing in this new approach that will make the politics of authorizing force different or easier to manage.

• Former Guerilla Now Offers Insight on Pakistan, Afghanistan
• Fingerprinting Foreigners Abroad Provides Links to US Criminal Records
• CIA Under the Spotlight

• Al Qaeda Suspect in UK Freed
• 9 Suspected Terrorists Held in Indonesian Raid
• Mullen Says Troops Needed for Afghanistan are in Iraq

• Commentary: Indecisive Policy Toward Iran
• US Interrogation Tactics Modeled on Former Chinese Methods
• Poll Shows Lessening Fear of Terrorism
• France’s Terrorism Strategy Criticized by Human Rights Activists

• Algerian Al Qaeda
• Former Operative Claims CIA Ignored Facts on Iran
• Charges Filed for Bombing of USS Cole