“UN Security Council” on The Daily Caller

The US and Britain have raised the prospect of arming Libya’s rebels if air strikes fail to force Muammar Gaddafi from power. (more)

At the close of the 111th Congress, America is deeply in the bog of Thomas Jefferson’s prophetic warning: “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.” Unfortunately, the broken chains of the Constitution have failed to contain the federal government. (more)

Why do foreign policy insiders and political analysts incessantly refer to Kim Jong-il as irrational? He epitomizes the phrase “rogue dictator,” but that provides no insight into the man’s mental stability. If anything, he behaves perfectly rationally — he acts as a petulant child that has never been disciplined for behaving badly. The West has already cut off much of Pyongyang’s aid, so Kim has literally nothing to lose. He has a country on the brink of famine and economic collapse yet shows no sign of ingratiating North Korea to the international community. The question isn’t why Kim comports himself this way, it’s why shouldn’t he? (more)

Ted Sorenson passed away this week. He was the famed JFK aide who helped the then-senator from Massachusetts with the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage. He served John F. Kennedy loyally and well. (more)

The Vice Presidential Diary of Joseph R. Biden (more)

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has been on the job for 18 months now, but she doesn’t have much to show for it.  Her record of accomplishments and performance on behalf of the American people is embarrassing.  While Rice has been active in the social scene of Washington and The White House, a study released by the uber-serious non-profit group Security Council Report suggests that the past year has been the most inactive Security Council since 1991.  Rice missed crucial negotiations on Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium, she failed to speak out when Iran was elected to the Commission on the Status of Women and three other UN Committees, she failed to call-out Libya when they were elected to the UN’s Human Rights Council, she recently delivered an Iran sanctions resolution with the least support Iran resolutions have ever had and she called her one and only press conference with the UN Secretary General on the issue of texting while driving.  For an administration that promised to utilize the UN and improve our reputation around the world, its dinner party circuit strategy isn’t making America more secure. (more)

The United Nations refuses to condemn North Korea for deliberately sinking a South Korean ship and killing 46 South Koreans, but erupts, along with the rest of the European and American Left, over Israel killing nine people who attacked Israeli commandoes. (more)

Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it will not allow two of its inspectors to enter the country, state media report. (more)

The U.N. Security Council passed a new round of sanctions against Iran today with the approval of twelve of its fifteen member states. The move came after last month’s failed proposal by Iran, Brazil, and Turkey that would have shipped some Iranian uranium abroad but would not have halted Iranian enrichment entirely. Brazil and Turkey voted against today’s resolution. (more)

The UN Security Council has voted to authorise the withdrawal of up to 2,000 peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo by 30 June. (more)

As Iran moves inexorably toward the creation of a viable nuclear weapons program recent developments continue to prove that alliances can be bought and sold in the world of diplomacy. Unfortunately, the costs of such alliances are often greater than the outcomes they are intended to produce. While United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced the forward movement of multilateral UN backed sanctions against Iran, one must consider what tangible effect these sanctions will ultimately have in deterring Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and equally important the question of at what cost to long-term U.S. security interests such sanctions will be obtained. (more)

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White House officials on Monday said they have “serious concerns” about Iran’s nuclear program, despite a deal announced earlier in the day by the Islamic regime to ship low-enriched uranium to Turkey. (more)

Senior Obama administration officials recently have hinted they are running out of patience with efforts to engage Burma’s military regime. The futility of engagement with these thugs should have been obvious after the junta unveiled election laws requiring the country’s leading democratic political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to expel its leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other jailed party members in order to participate in upcoming elections. The NLD had no choice but to boycott and now the party faces dissolution. Last week, 22 of Burma’s ruling generals—many of whom have blood on their hands—resigned from the military to form a new political party. This travesty is merely the latest step in the junta’s cynical plan to put a veneer of elected civilian legitimacy over their entrenched rule. (more)

The cause of Friday’s [intlink id="696733" type="post"]sinking of the South Korean naval corvette [/intlink]Cheonan remains unclear. But the ship’s location 10 miles from the North Korean coast when it sank makes the Pyongyang regime a prime suspect. Whether or not responsibility for the deaths of 46 sailors lies with the North Korean government, the potential for it serves as a reminder of the extreme dangers of that regime and the need for firm policies to bring security to the region. Unfortunately, the Obama administration is likely to continue a cycle of bad policy by the U.S. and North Korea’s neighbors. (more)

Foreign ministers at the G8 meeting in Canada on Tuesday focused on Iran nuclear ambitions and the actions of two capitals very far away. (more)

Had the United States and its European allies acted earlier as promised to impose tougher sanctions against Iran, the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East may not have grown to the dangerous level it has reached today. And if we had acted earlier, President Obama might not find himself in the unenviable position of having to convince the UN Security Council to take seriously the threat of a nuclear Middle East. (more)

Iran’s defiance to cooperate with the world powers over its nuclear program clearly adds to an already dangerous situation. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs sent a clear warning on Tuesday that “time and patience is running out” for Iran to come clean on its nuclear program. But President Obama is right to declare that “the door is still open” for to Iran engage in serious negotiations. So far, both sides have blamed one another for the lack of a breakthrough in talks. Given its ever-increasing profile in the Middle East, Turkey is now trying to break this impasse. The question is, though, whether the current Turkish leadership has the capacity to play the game adequate to Turkey’s significance in the region. (more)

Thirty-one years after revolution brought about an Islamic Republic, Iran is on the threshold of acquiring a nuclear weapon capability—if it chooses to do so. Despite a kinder, gentler U.S. policy of engagement during the past year, there is no credible evidence that the current Iranian regime can be dissuaded from crossing that fateful point to possessing the bomb. (more)

The mounting protests in Iran leave little doubt that the Tehran regime has entered its final decade. The mass expression of public dissent expected today coincides with the day 31 years ago when the Iranian revolution was launched. The Islamist theocracy that resulted commenced a low-intensity war against the United States and our allies, which has continued to this day and could soon get worse. (more)