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WASHINGTON -- In an effort to reassert control over the domestic political debate surrounding sensitive negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, the White House penned a letter Saturday night warning senators to hold back on legislation that would detract from the president’s ability to affect and approve a final agreement with Iran. The letter, written by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), reiterates a veto threat of the bill, while insisting that Congress will have a say in reviewing and affecting the ultimate outcome. But in far more detailed and foreboding...

White House officials have been holding private meetings this week aimed at soothing lawmakers’ concerns over the U.S. posture in Syria, the future of the American military presence in Afghanistan and defense spending. The meetings come as a frustrated White House seeks to push back at criticism of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. But the White House outreach appeared to be having little effect on some lawmakers’ concerns. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Tuesday night’s White House meeting with chief of staff Denis McDonough and national security adviser Susan Rice as...

Top White House officials have reportedly been holding private meetings with lawmakers this week to boost support for the president’s foreign policy strategy, although the outreach effort appears to have left some lawmakers confused and upset. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described a meeting with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and National Security Adviser Susan Rice earlier this week as “one of the most bizarre I've attended on Foreign Relations on foreign policy in our country.” “I know several of us were involved in a very bizarre discussion last night. This continues a very bizarre discussion,” Corker added, according...

Standing on a podium amid banners boasting “America Cannot Do a Damn Thing,” Iran’s supreme leader said Wednesday that President Obama no longer has the guts for battle. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proclaimed in a Tehran taunting speech that “military attack is not a priority for Americans now.” “They realize that military attacks are as dangerous or even more dangerous for the assaulting country as they are for the country attacked,” the ayatollah said. The 74-year-old Shiite Muslim cleric was responding to Obama’s West Point commencement speech last week in which the president said every global threat does not justify a...

....The ulcers of the Obama years are now festering. The menaces, once so vague, are taking on a definite shape. America may potentially face severe security challenges in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Poland, Baltics), Southwest Asia (Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan), the Middle East (Syria, Yemen, Iraq), North Africa (Libya, Egypt, Sub-sahara) and East Asia (South China Sea, North Korea, Taiwan and Japan). All of these hotspots are simmering, though none as yet have blown up into an severe international crisis. But in each of these theaters the design margin is ebbing away. The potential for danger in each of them is growing...

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's national security advisor said on Friday the United States hopes Canadian troops will "stay as long as they possibly can" in Afghanistan and encouraged NATO nations to avoid "summary announcements of total withdrawal" from the war zone. But retired General James Jones did not say if Washington had asked Ottawa to extend the Canadian combat mission past July 2011, the date on which the U.S. expects to start withdrawing its forces. "Canada has made such a huge contribution to the mission in Afghanistan for so long that it is a charter member of the effort. So...

Just-obtained excerpts of tonight's Afghanistan strategy speech by President Barack Obama seem to indicate the strategy is no strategy at all. As evidenced in the sentence below, it's both a withdrawal and an announcement of a timetable for beating feet out of the stone-age nation: "Taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011.

Click on Link Above for Full Transcript Now, back to the president‘s speech at West Point. Joining us to get to the heart of the matter, Congressman Bob Barr, a Republican from Georgia. He serves on three important committees: judiciary, financial services, government reform. Also with us, Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy. He‘s also a former assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration. Gentlemen, welcome to MAKING SENSE. FRANK GAFFNEY, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY: Thank you. REP. BOB BARR (R), GEORGIA: Thank you, Alan. KEYES: Now, I have to tell you, I...

If wars were fought with doctrines rather than guns, the Bush administration would have wrapped up the war on terrorism by now.At West Point on Saturday, Bush again achieved doctrinal excellence with a speech that pushed his thinking forward a few important steps — making the case for preemptive U.S. action against rogues and taking some not-very-subtle shots at the Saudis.This is a sign that, as a logical and intellectual matter, the war is widening rather than shrinking (as some NRO-niks, including myself at times, have worried). Now, all that is left is actually acting on it.There are two...