The Houthis are denying the deal and Oman confirming it? But no one is saying they agreed to stop shooting missiles at Israel, just ships (maybe US ships, maybe all ships).

Beyond the flagrant illegality, the implied Congressional "power to consult" is what's most alarming here, as this seems to be the dovish "we at least need to talk to them" position within the administration.

Mike Pompeo, who won Trump's heart and rose to prominence by writing a wildly partisan Benghazi report designed to harm Hillary Clinton's chances of being elected president in 2016, is now her colleague at Columbia. What a world.

This complaint ignores how Shapiro explicitly replies to it early in the article.

Ridiculous and biased subhead from the Post—US troops are not a bulwark against ISIS which is largely gone and hunted by everyone else there—and certainly not against Iran which was there at the invitation of Assad despite US trips and now out.

Need more info on Tantra, the magic sex potion Trump's Middle East advisor hawked. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/w...

The Atlantic Council and the Guardian ed page are really going with Romania had to cancel their election because of Russian bots/ TikTok videos as a DEFENSE of democracy? They had to burn the village to save it? It's a nakedly thin pretext because the wrong guy won.

Year 23 of the war on terror; neocons cheer as al Qaeda(esque) dudes take Damascus and a bunch of chemical weapons.

Got a healthy quote in the Hill on why it doesn't make sense to give Ukraine security guarantees as part of a peace deal with Russia. thehill.com/policy/defen...

It's really wild that US politics are such that the president feels compelled to tell US Jews, his constituents, that their government alone can't protect us, and we have to count on a small country in the Middle East for safety.
www.reuters.com/world/us/bid...

Rand Paul's war powers vote on Syria only got 13 votes, but it did force wider admission that we have troops in Syria less because of the official find ISIS's remnants rationale than to screw with Iran in some nebolous way, as Mitch McConnell admits here.
www.defensenews.com/congress/202...

If you won't make aid conditional, telling Israel how to run its war is empty posturing.

This op-ed kind of makes the humane act of accepting Palestinian refugees into complicity in ethnic cleansing.

"Tsk tsk but here's your $14 billion, UN vetos of anything remotely critical, and pledge of full US support" seems designed not for any kind of diplomatic outcome but for domestic politics—without being particularly deft even in that realm. So vintage Blinken.

Israeli government repeats claim that Gaza free-lance photographers had advance knowledge of Oct 7 attack, then claim turns out to be bullshit. apnews.com/article/isra...

You can't avoid "the narrative taking hold that Biden supports all Israeli military actions" without a time machine. We're giving them $14 billion extra, saying the war's central to a global struggle for freedom, and vetoing UN resolutions calling for peace. Come on.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...

Doesn't seem likely there exists an "achievable plan of action" for "eradicating" Hamas militarily.
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/u...

What a pile of geopolitical hokum from the Times' morning newsletter.
-There's no basis to say states or groups are newly unbothered by "consequences" or polarity is the cause if they are.
-The world isn't yet multipolar.
-Overexcited analysts are always declaring new periods of global disarray.