Category: Henry Jackson Society

“Now, it’s not productive, given the history of the U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling – the U.S. President meddling in Iranian elections.” President Obama, June 16, 2009 Responding to Iran’s fraudulent Presidential election and subsequent protests “America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal. We will bear witness to …

Continue reading “Letter From Washington / Obama and Human Rights: Hitting the “Reset Button””

Though he did not coin the phrase, the influential economist John Kenneth Galbraith popularized the notion of “conventional wisdom,” describing it more than a half-century ago as “the ideas which are esteemed at any time” for both their “acceptability” and “predictability.”i Such ideas, he might have added, become “conventional wisdom” when they gravitate from the …

Continue reading “Letter From Washington / Adventures in Engagement”

It took less than a decade, a mere blink of an eye in historical terms, for America‟s fiscal fortunes to plunge from surging budget surpluses to soaring debt, from fiscal responsibility to fiscal recklessness. In 1998, President Clinton and Congress balanced the federal budget for the first time in nearly 30 years. Their achievement reflected …

Continue reading “Letter From Washington / Bankrupting America: How We Got Here, Why We’ll Stay Here, What It Means”