Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Bits and Pieces - January 19, 2010

Lots of snow here, and more predicted!

Some positive assessments of Obama's first year from Fred Hiatt, Aaron David Miller, and the Avuncular American. I guess Hiatt is trying to convince the Democrats who are complaining that Obama has not yet delivered their ponies that they have taken the right position.

Dialing the panic and militarism down. It's significant that this comes after the underpants bomber. A small move, but maybe a harbinger of more backing away from security theater.

Pakistan takes a leaf from the Republican playbook. Unfortunately, this is an inherent weakness of the Fissile Material Control Treaty, which is the next big item on the Conference on Disarmament's agenda: the big nuclear powers already have more than enough fissile material, so such a treaty is mainly directed at nuclear wannabes like Pakistan. Not a bad idea, but they can figure this out.

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