The Unbearable Lightness of Barack Obama

To say that the contenders for the US. Republican ticket espouse "a dangerously simplistic foreign policy philosophy" is almost dangerously simplistic in its understatement. In any case:

Faoud Ajami: "It is a sad truth that the president has become the embodiment, and the instrument, of our retreat from distant shores-and concerns. He trades away strategic American assets in the hope that the American people will not care or notice. On the face of it, he exudes a sublime confidence that the world could be held at bay-at least until November, past that last election."

Compare and contrast with Sari Shafia, an unveiled Afghan woman with an AK47: "The bravery of our sister gives other women the courage to work with or in the government, and work shoulder to shoulder with their brothers, and not to fear anything."