Prompt, conclusive victory in Libya will be attributable to the force of our arms, not our political strategy and accompanying diplomacy, which stumbled from one mistake to another.

Hill conferees filed the National Defense Authorization bill last night, which means the conference agreed upon final language. The bill has enjoyed its share of controversy over a detainee provision, but another viciously fought battle included a provision to sanction the Central Bank of Iran. You remember the Central Bank?

And that's the point, really. If captured alive, terrorists pose political problems for Obama. Where do we put them? How do we interrogate them? And, most pressingly, how do we try them? I don't think those are tough questions. But Obama does. So he prefers to kill these people outright, avoiding the questions altogether.

Iran is “on the threshold of nuclear capability,” and “has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon,” getting there with help from Russians, Pakistanis, and North Koreans, the IAEA will report this week. This, despite the fact that U.S. officials have repeatedly insisted that Iran’s program has been harmed and delayed by sanctions.

It didn't take much conviction to decide Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had to go after the Egyptian military turned on him.  Ditto for Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi, once large portions of the country had freed themselves from his rule and our European allies were clamoring for military intervention.  But when the outcome is in doubt, as in Syria, Barack Obama is sitting on the fence.

The deeper problem is that no version of a fiscal union can save Europe or the euro. The principal authority for this proposition is Alexander Hamilton.

As Congress, Republican presidential candidates, and much of the U.S., South American, and European media are sounding the alarm on suspicious activities by Iran and Hezbollah in Latin America, the State Department is hitting the snooze button.

In Ecuador, Rafael Correa continues to trample democratic institutions, although regrettably nowhere to be found is any expression of concern by the Obama administration.