Morning Joe: Choosing Sides in Iran?

Stories we're following today:

 

 Whose Side Are We On? You Have to Ask? - Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal [link]

  • John McCain and others went quite crazy insisting President Obama declare whose side America was on, as if the world doesn't know whose side America is on. "In the cause of freedom, America cannot be neutral," said Rep. Mike Pence. Who says it's neutral?
  • This was Aggressive Political Solipsism at work: Always exploit events to show you love freedom more than the other guy, always make someone else's delicate drama your excuse for a thumping curtain speech.

 This Is for Real - David Ignatius in the Washington Post [link]

  • This is politics in the raw -- unarmed people defying soldiers with guns -- and it is the stuff of which revolutions are made. Whether it will succeed in Iran is impossible to predict, but already this movement has put an overconfident regime on the ropes.

Assessing North Korea's Uranium Enrichment Capabilities - Hui Zhang in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [link]

  • In short, there isn't recent evidence of North Korean procurements for a large-scale centrifuge program... Moreover, there isn't convincing or overwhelming evidence to support the existence of the construction of a large-scale centrifuge facility in the last several years.
  • It seems unlikely that North Korea will succeed in establishing a substantial enrichment capability using this technology in the near term. 

U.S. boosts missile defense amid reports of planned N. Korea test - L.A. Times [link]

  • Reacting to reports that North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a missile toward Hawaii, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that he had ordered additional assets deployed to shore up defense of the islands. 

Twitter Wars in Iran - nod to The Washington Note [link]

 

 

 

Ghosts of Neocons Past

'No Comment' Is Not an Option - Paul Wolfowitz in the Washington Post [link]

  • It would be a cruel irony if, in an effort to avoid imposing democracy, the United States were to tip the scale toward dictators who impose their will on people struggling for freedom. And if we appear so desperate for negotiations that we will abandon those who support our principles, we weaken our own negotiating hand.