out the backroom window

While the spinners parse President Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly according to the foreign policy clichés of the moment, it’s at least interesting to wonder if any US president can effect any change in foreign affairs that is more than symbolic, or alter the ideologies of the nation’s military and intelligence agencies or [...]

“President Obama will attempt today to answer critics of his dismantling of Bush-era policies on detention and interrogation,” says Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post in a piece that sets today’s expected speech in the context of a meeting at The White House in which the president discussed the potentially explosive issue of closing the [...]