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<title><![CDATA[washingtonpost.com - Robert Kagan Archive]]></title>
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<title><![CDATA[Robert Kagan on President Obama's approach to Iran's nuclear effort]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/28/AR2009102803804.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/28/AR2009102803804.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Watching the Obama administration launch its "new era of engagement" over the past 10 months, most seasoned observers have pondered two questions: First, if engagement fails, will the Obama team ever acknowledge that it has failed? And what then? ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Robert]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kagan]]></category><category><![CDATA[on]]></category><category><![CDATA[President]]></category><category><![CDATA[Obama's]]></category><category><![CDATA[approach]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran's]]></category><category><![CDATA[nuclear]]></category><category><![CDATA[effort]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[The U.S. Should Target Iran's Instability, Not Its Nukes]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/29/AR2009092902931.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The past two weeks have been a big success for the rulers in Tehran, despite what many in the United States and Europe may think. The Obama administration, the Europeans and the media have been obsessively focused on Iranian missile launches and secret enrichment facilities, on Russia's body language, and on the likely success or failure of Thursday's talks in Geneva. What the world has not focused on is the one thing Iran's rulers care about: their own survival. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Should]]></category><category><![CDATA[Target]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Instability,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Not]]></category><category><![CDATA[Its]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nukes]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Is Obama Really Waging a 'War of Necessity' in Afghanistan?]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082102922.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ President Obama recently defended American combat in Afghanistan as a "war of necessity," not a "war of choice." He borrowed this deceptively neat distinction from Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of a recent book on the subject. And proving how unhelpful it can be, Haass quickly corrected the president. No, Afghanistan is a "war of choice," he declaimed in the New York Times, "Mr. Obama's choice." ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Is]]></category><category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Really]]></category><category><![CDATA[Waging]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA['War]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Necessity']]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan?]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Obama's Conundrum: Shunning Iran's Opposition]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061601753.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The turmoil in Iran since last week's election has confused the foreign policy debate here in the United States in interesting ways. Supporters of President Obama, who until very recently had railed against the Bush administration's "freedom agenda" and who insisted on a new "realism," have suddenly found themselves rooting for freedom and democracy in Iran. And in their desire to attribute all good things to the work of President Obama, they have even suggested that the ferment in Iran is due to Obama's public appeals to Iranians and Muslims.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885458229" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885458229" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Obama's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Conundrum:]]></category><category><![CDATA[Shunning]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Opposition]]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/06/16/PH2009061602941.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[Barack Obama as Woodrow Wilson's Foreign Policy Heir]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/05/AR2009060502615.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ President Obama likes to see himself as a pragmatist, but in foreign policy he is proving to be a supreme idealist of the Woodrow Wilson variety. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Barack]]></category><category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[as]]></category><category><![CDATA[Woodrow]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wilson's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Foreign]]></category><category><![CDATA[Policy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Heir]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[How Obama Should Approach North Korea]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/25/AR2009052501391.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The North Korean launch of its Taeopodong-2 missile and its second nuclear test have laid bare the paucity of President Obama's policy options. They have exposed the futility of the six-party talks and, in particular, the much-hyped myth of China's value as a partner on strategic matters. The Obama administration claims that it wants to break with the policies of its predecessor. This is one area where it ought to. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dan Blumenthal and Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[How]]></category><category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Should]]></category><category><![CDATA[Approach]]></category><category><![CDATA[North]]></category><category><![CDATA[Korea]]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/05/25/PH2009052502117.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[Obama in Europe - an Agent of Change in a Land That Loves the Status Quo  ]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/01/AR2009040103060.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ French President Nicolas Sarkozy posed the essential question a few weeks ago when he asked, "Does Europe want peace, or does it want to be left in peace?" Well, as Groucho Marx said, when asked if he was a man or mouse: "Put a piece of cheese on the floor, and you'll find out." ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[-]]></category><category><![CDATA[an]]></category><category><![CDATA[Agent]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Change]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[Land]]></category><category><![CDATA[That]]></category><category><![CDATA[Loves]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Status]]></category><category><![CDATA[Quo]]></category><category><![CDATA[]]></category><category><![CDATA[]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Obama's Bushian Foreign Policy]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/08/AR2009030801493.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/08/AR2009030801493.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ President Obama's foreign policy team has been working hard to present its policies to the world as constituting a radical break from the Bush years. In the broadest sense, this has been absurdly easy: Obama had the world at hello.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885502053" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885502053" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Obama's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bushian]]></category><category><![CDATA[Foreign]]></category><category><![CDATA[Policy]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[No Time to Be Cutting the Defense Budget]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/02/AR2009020202618.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/02/AR2009020202618.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Pentagon officials have leaked word that the Office of Management and Budget has ordered a 10 percent cut in defense spending for the coming fiscal year, giving Defense Secretary Robert Gates a substantially smaller budget than he requested. Here are five reasons President Obama should side with Gates over the green-eyeshade boys. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[No]]></category><category><![CDATA[Time]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Be]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cutting]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Defense]]></category><category><![CDATA[Budget]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[When Security Trumps Sovereignty]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/01/AR2008120102438.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/01/AR2008120102438.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ "We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held hostage by non-state actors," Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said yesterday. Fair enough. But what is the world to do when those non-state actors operate from the territory of a state and are the creation of that state's intelligence services? ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[When]]></category><category><![CDATA[Security]]></category><category><![CDATA[Trumps]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sovereignty]]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/12/01/PH2008120102563.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[Still No. 1]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/29/AR2008102903202.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/29/AR2008102903202.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Is Barack Obama the candidate of American decline? To hear some of his supporters among the foreign policy punditry, you'd think he was. Francis Fukuyama says he supports Obama because he believes Obama would be better at "managing" American decline than John McCain. Fareed Zakaria writes weekly encomiums to Obama's "realism," by which he means Obama's acquiescence to the "post-American world." Obama, it should be said, has done little to deserve the praise of these declinists. His view of America's future, at least as expressed in this campaign, has been appropriately optimistic, which is why he is doing well in the polls. If he sounded anything like Zakaria and Fukuyama say he does, he'd be out of business by now. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Still]]></category><category><![CDATA[No.]]></category><category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Putin Makes His Move]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081001871.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081001871.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The details of who did what to precipitate Russia's war against Georgia are not very important. Do you recall the precise details of the Sudeten Crisis that led to Nazi Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia? Of course not, because that morally ambiguous dispute is rightly remembered as a minor part of a much bigger drama.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885507350" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885507350" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Putin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Makes]]></category><category><![CDATA[His]]></category><category><![CDATA[Move]]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/08/10/PH2008081001876.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[In Europe, a Slide Toward Irrelevance]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061302639.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061302639.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ BRUSSELS -- A mere two years ago, the British author and thinker Mark Leonard published a book titled "Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century." Today, one wonders to what degree Europe will even participate in the 21st century. It's not just the deadly blow struck by Ireland's rejection Thursday of the Lisbon Treaty reorganizing the European Union. I've spent six of the past eight years in the capital of the European Union, and I've noticed over this period a steady loss of self-confidence in Europe, a turning inward and a growing pessimism about the future. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[In]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe,]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[Slide]]></category><category><![CDATA[Toward]]></category><category><![CDATA[Irrelevance]]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/06/13/PH2008061303312.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[Ideology's Rude Return]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/01/AR2008050102899.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/01/AR2008050102899.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Ideology matters again. The big development of recent years is the rise not only of great powers but also of the great-power autocracies of Russia and China. True realism about the international scene begins with understanding how this unanticipated shift will shape our world. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Ideology's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rude]]></category><category><![CDATA[Return]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Behind the 'Modern' China]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102552.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102552.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ China can go for great stretches these days looking like the model of a postmodern, 21st-century power. Visitors to Shanghai see soaring skyscrapers and a booming economy. Conference-goers at Davos and other international confabs see sophisticated Chinese diplomats talking about "win-win" instead of "zero-sum." Western leaders meet their Chinese counterparts and see earnest technocrats trying to avoid the many pitfalls on the path to economic modernization. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Behind]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA['Modern']]></category><category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/03/21/PH2008032102847.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[A Card to Play for Cuba's Freedom]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021902334.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021902334.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The long-awaited "resignation" of Fidel Castro may give both Cubans and Americans a chance to escape the trap they've been in for more than four decades. Fidel's brother RaÃºl will now officially become Cuba's maximum leader, a role he has held unofficially throughout Castro's long debility. That the Cuban leadership has finally reached the point where it must announce a changing of the dictatorial guard indicates this is a good time for the United States to suggest a different and more hopeful course. Instead of passing the torch to a new generation of dictators, Cuba's leaders could commit themselves to hold free and fair elections by the end of this year. And they could begin by unconditionally releasing all the political prisoners held in their jails.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885511079" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885511079" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Card]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Play]]></category><category><![CDATA[for]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cuba's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Freedom]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[New Europe, Old Russia]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/05/AR2008020502879.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/05/AR2008020502879.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Russia and the European Union are neighbors geographically. But geopolitically they live in different centuries. A 21st-century European Union, with its noble ambition to transcend power politics and build an order based on laws and institutions, confronts a Russia that behaves like a traditional 19th-century power. Both are shaped by their histories. The supranational, legalistic E.U. spirit is a response to the conflicts of the 20th century, when nationalism and power politics twice destroyed the continent. But Vladimir Putin's Russia, as Ivan Krastev has noted, is driven in part by the perceived failure of "post-national politics" after the Soviet collapse. Europe's nightmares are the 1930s; Russia's nightmares are the 1990s. Europe sees the answer to its problems in transcending the nation-state and power. For Russians, the solution is in restoring them. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[New]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Old]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Time to Talk to Iran]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120401146.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120401146.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Regardless of what one thinks about the National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003 -- and there is much to question in the report -- its practical effects are indisputable. The Bush administration cannot take military action against Iran during its remaining time in office, or credibly threaten to do so, unless it is in response to an extremely provocative Iranian action. A military strike against suspected Iranian nuclear facilities was always fraught with risk. For the Bush administration, that option is gone. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Time]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Talk]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Musharraf and the Con Game]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/21/AR2007112101858.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/21/AR2007112101858.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ There always seems to be a good reason to support a dictator. In the late 1970s, Jeane Kirkpatrick argued that it was better to support a "right-wing" dictator lest he be replaced by communists. Right-wing dictatorship -- today some call it "liberal autocracy" -- was in any case a necessary way station on the road to democracy. Communist totalitarians would never give up power and stifled any hope for freedom, but our friendly dictators would eventually give way to liberal politics. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Musharraf]]></category><category><![CDATA[and]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Con]]></category><category><![CDATA[Game]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Free Elections Come First]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102601862.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102601862.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ During the slavery controversy of the 1850s, Northerners who opposed confronting the South argued for letting nature take its course. Slavery was doomed, they argued, because it could not spread where the climate was inhospitable to cotton and because the atavistic slave system would inevitably be overtaken by industrialization.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885513638" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885513638" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Free]]></category><category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category><category><![CDATA[Come]]></category><category><![CDATA[First]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[The Next Intervention]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080501056.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080501056.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Is the United States out of the intervention business for a while? With two difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a divided public, the conventional answer is that it will be a long time before any American president, Democrat or Republican, again dispatches troops into conflict overseas. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ivo Daalder and Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Next]]></category><category><![CDATA[Intervention]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[The 'Blame The Iraqis' Gambit]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102179.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102179.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 03 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ When people want to justify the unjustifiable and accept the unacceptable, they try all kinds of ways to make themselves feel better about their decision. For those who want to pull out of Iraq, there is a whole panoply of excuses: ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA['Blame]]></category><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraqis']]></category><category><![CDATA[Gambit]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Obama the Interventionist]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702027.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702027.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 29 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ America must "lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good." With those words, Barack Obama put an end to the idea that the alleged overexuberant idealism and America-centric hubris of the past six years is about to give way to a new realism, a more limited and modest view of American interests, capabilities and responsibilities. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interventionist]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[The 'Surge' Is Succeeding]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901839.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901839.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ A front-page story in The Post last week suggested that the Bush administration has no backup plan in case the surge in Iraq doesn't work. I wonder if The Post and other newspapers have a backup plan in case it does.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885518633" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885518633" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA['Surge']]></category><category><![CDATA[Is]]></category><category><![CDATA[Succeeding]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Grand Delusion]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601541.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601541.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 28 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ It's quite a juxtaposition. In Iraq, American soldiers are finally beginning the hard job of establishing a measure of peace, security and order in critical sections of Baghdad -- the essential prerequisite for the lasting political solution everyone claims to want. They've launched attacks on Sunni insurgent strongholds and begun reining in Moqtada al-Sadr's militia. And they've embarked on these operations with the expectation that reinforcements will soon be on the way: the more than 20,000 troops President Bush has ordered to Iraq and the new commander he has appointed to fight the insurgency as it has not been fought since the war began. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Grand]]></category><category><![CDATA[Delusion]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Our 'Messianic Impulse']]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/08/AR2006120801516.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/08/AR2006120801516.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ As Americans struggle to find an answer to the serious problems in Iraq, larger and broader questions beckon. How did we wind up in Iraq in the first place? Some argue that we were too aggressive and self-righteous in promoting our principles, too meddlesome, too arrogant in seeking to transform the world, too quick to intervene militarily in crises far from our shores and remote from our interests. If the United States would only change its approach to the world, if it understood the virtues of limits, modesty and humility, we could avoid foreign policy debacles and the world would be a safer place. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Our]]></category><category><![CDATA['Messianic]]></category><category><![CDATA[Impulse']]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Staying the Course, Win or Lose]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110102972.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110102972.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 02 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ BRUSSELS -- Here in Europe, people ask hopefully if a Democratic victory in the congressional elections will finally shift the direction of American foreign policy in a more benign direction. But congressional elections rarely affect the broad direction of American foreign policy. A notable exception was when Congress cut funding for American military operations in support of South Vietnam in 1973. Yet it's unlikely that a Democratic House would cut off funds for the war in Iraq in the next two years. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Staying]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Course,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Win]]></category><category><![CDATA[or]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lose]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[More Leaks, Please]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092500912.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092500912.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ It's too bad we won't get to see the full National Intelligence Estimate on "Trends in Global Terrorism" selectively leaked to The Post and the New York Times last week. The Times headline read "Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat." But there were no quotations from the NIE itself, so all we have are journalists' characterizations of anonymous comments by government officials, whose motives and reliability we can't judge, about intelligence assessments whose logic and argument, as well as factual basis, we have no way of knowing or gauging. Based on the press coverage alone, the NIE's judgment seems both impressionistic and imprecise. On such an important topic, it would be nice to have answers to a few questions.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885525676" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885525676" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[More]]></category><category><![CDATA[Leaks,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Please]]></category>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Last Honest Man]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080401384.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080401384.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Twenty-nine Democratic senators voted in the fall of 2002 to authorize the invasion of Iraq. There isn't enough room on this page to list the Democratic foreign policy experts and former officials, including those from the top ranks of the Clinton administration, who supported the war publicly and privately -- some of whom even signed letters calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein. Nor is there any need to list the many liberal, and conservative, columnists on this and other editorial pages around the country who supported the war, or the many prominent journalists who provided the reporting that helped convince so many that the war was necessary. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Last]]></category><category><![CDATA[Honest]]></category><category><![CDATA[Man]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[On Iran, Giving Futility Its Chance]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201874.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201874.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Let's imagine, and this is purely hypothetical, that President Bush has already decided that he will not leave office in January 2009 without a satisfactory resolution of the Iranian nuclear problem. Let's imagine that he has already determined that if he cannot obtain Iran's agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons program voluntarily and verifiably, then he will order some form of military action to destroy as much of that program as possible before he leaves. Let's imagine that he has resolved not to end his two terms in office the way Bill Clinton ended his, by leaving every major international crisis -- from Iraq to Iran to North Korea to al-Qaeda -- for his successor. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[On]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Giving]]></category><category><![CDATA[Futility]]></category><category><![CDATA[Its]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chance]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Anti-Americanism's Deep Roots]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800900.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800900.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ I recently took part in a panel discussion in London about civil conflict and "failed states" around the world, centered on the interesting work of the British economist Paul Collier. The panelists included the son of a famous African liberation-leader-turned-dictator, the former leader of a South American guerrilla group, a Pakistani journalist, a U.N. official and the head of a nongovernmental humanitarian organization. Naturally, our reasoned and learned discussion quickly transmogrified into an extended round-robin denunciation of American foreign policy. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Anti-Americanism's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Deep]]></category><category><![CDATA[Roots]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[If Power Shifts In 2008]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/26/AR2006052601595.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/26/AR2006052601595.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 28 May 2006 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Could the United States be better off with a Democrat in the White House in 2009? Here are a couple of reasons the answer might be yes, even if you're not a Democrat.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885533031" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=442885533031" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[If]]></category><category><![CDATA[Power]]></category><category><![CDATA[Shifts]]></category><category><![CDATA[In]]></category><category><![CDATA[2008]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[League of Dictators?]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801987.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801987.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 30 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Ever since liberalism emerged in the 18th century, its inevitable conflict with autocracy has helped shape international politics. What James Madison called "the great struggle of the epoch between liberty and despotism" dominated much of the 19th century and most of the 20th, when liberal powers lined up against various forms of autocracy in wars both hot and cold. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[League]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dictators?]]></category>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[India Is Not a Precedent]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031001865.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031001865.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 12 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Imagine a huge nation, a huge democracy, increasingly prosperous, increasingly powerful and increasingly sympathetic to the ideological and strategic objectives of the United States and its democratic allies around the world. Imagine that this powerful, prosperous, democratic nation sits on the same continent with Russia and China, two huge geopolitical problems waiting to happen. Imagine that this nation possesses a navy capable of helping patrol strategically vital waterways and a military force capable of acting as a deterrent against powerful neighbors. Finally, imagine that this nation, despite its power, has no record of using it for aggressive purposes but has been a remarkably peaceful and often constructive member of the global community. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[India]]></category><category><![CDATA[Is]]></category><category><![CDATA[Not]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[Precedent]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[It's the Regime, Stupid]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/27/AR2006012701231.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/27/AR2006012701231.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 29 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ If an air and missile strike could destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program, it might seem the best of many bad options. But the likely costs outweigh the benefits. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[It's]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Regime,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Stupid]]></category>
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