Iran's Missile Tests and its Nuclear Intentions.
Today, in a third round of missile drills, Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it successfully test-fired the longest-range missiles it has. They're capable of carrying a nuclear warhead some 1,200 miles - that would put it within striking range of Israel and U.S. military bases in the Middle East and parts of Europe.
This, coming just days before Iran and the United States are set to have their first direct negotiations in 30 years - and just after the revelation of a nuclear processing plant beneath a mountain near the city of Qom.
Iran says its newly revealed plant and all its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. Will they be able to prove that at the talks that open in Geneva this Thursday?
Don't hold your breath, says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She told CBS News "Face the Nation" yesterday...
"We don't believe that they can present convincing evidence that it's only for peaceful purposes..." said Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State.
And if they don't?
"If we don't get the answers that we are expecting and the changes in behavior that we're looking for, then we will work with our partners to move towards sanctions," said Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State.
Nobody's ruling out a military strike, if it comes to that. All but, though. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates...
"The reality is, there is no military option that does anything more than buy time," said Robert Gates, Defense Secretary - on CNN's "State of The Union".
And Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, told "Fox News Sunday"...
"You'd have to have a ground operation as well as a military operation, and that's very difficult to do..." said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California.
"I've got one rule of thumb: if the President of a country denies the Holocaust, you should believe the worst - not the best - about what they're doing," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on CBS News "Face the Nation."
"They're trying to develop a nuclear weapon. And if they are successful, the Sunni Arab states in the region will want a nuclear weapon, Israel becomes much at risk - and we're walking down the road to Armageddon..." said Sen. Linsdey Graham.
Rethinking U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan.
President Obama now knows what his commander in Afghanistan thinks it will take to accomplish the mission there - it involves a lot more troops, and a lot of patience.
Mr. Obama also knows what many of his fellow Democrats in Washington think of that. Whatever he decides, he doesn't want to be rushed into it.
But Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says it won't be long.
"I think it's a matter of a few weeks. And people should remember that the debate within the Bush Administration on the surge (in Iraq) lasted three months," said Robert Gates, Defense Secretary - on CNN's State of the Union.
And what does General Stanley McChrystal expect?
On "60 Minutes" last night, CBS News Correspondent David Martin did a profile of General Stanley McChrystal, the new top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
"Are you confident that you will get what you asked for?" asked David Martin .
"I'm confident that I will have an absolute chance to provide my assessment and to make my recommendations," said Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
"But you're already under pressure not to ask for more. I mean, how does that affect what you do?" asked David Martin .
"Doesn't affect me, at all," said Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
Although he is asking for a lot more troops, he knows it will take a different approach, as well.
"The hallmark of American military power was its overwhelming firepower. Now, you're describing a situation in which firepower is almost beside the point," said David Martin.
"Right. You know the favorite saying of 'To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail'? We can't operate that way," said Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
How should we operate?
"What I'm really telling people is: the greatest risk we can accept is to lose the support of the people here. If the people are against us, we cannot be successful. If the people view us as occupiers and the enemy, we can't be successful - and our casualties will go up dramatically," said Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
We are doing some good things now, says McChrystal - however...
"We could do good things in Afghanistan for the next 100 years, and fail - because we're doing a lot of good things, and it just doesn't add up to success..." said Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
William Safire, the One-of-a-Kind Wordsmith.
William Safire, who died over the weekend, of pancreatic cancer at the age of 79, loved words and ideas - and people. And, as a consequence, he truly loved his work. Although to some, as a conservative at The New York Times, he seemed a fish out of water.
As he said in a 2003 conversation posted on the Times website...
"I get a lot of mail - now, a lot of e-mail - from people saying, 'How come you're at The New York Times? You stick out like a sore thumb!' Well, I was hired to be the sore thumb. (laughs) And I'm delighted to be going against the grain. It's like when you're a salmon swimming upstream - if the stream is going fast enough, even if you're only standing still, you get the feeling you're really going fast," said William Safire.
I don't remember ever hearing William Safire yell, as people nowadays tend to do when they're arguing politics.
"Never was it a mean-spirited argument. It was just fun - you know, like you would imagine debate should be fun when people have different points of view," said Doris Kearns Goodwin, historian.
"He was an incredibly generous person. He loved the language. He was a conservative, but he was never mean-spirited about it. You could argue with him, and he would come back with some word that you didn't even know..." said Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Safire was always in search of the perfect word. Long-time Republican consultant Ed Rollins.
"He had a clarity of writing and thought. You know, he really inspired a lot of his conservatives with his thought process and his clarity," said Ed Rollins, Republican consultant.
Clarity is in short supply in today's world - and there's not enough good will or good humor, either. That William Safire would work so happily and so well writing for The New York Times may have been unlikely, but it turned out to be just about perfect.
"And, so I sit down and write a column - I enjoy it, I get a kick out of it. And if that comes through, that's what I want to see," sai dWilliam Safire.
What Makes Good Neighbors in this Day and Age.
Have any of your neighbors gone out of their way today to give you a big smile and a hearty hello? Well, I have an explanation: that's what they're supposed to do - and it's what you're supposed to be doing, too - because this happens to be National Good Neighbor Day.
It's not as easy as it used to be.
The concept of what a neighbor is - or a neighborhood - has changed, says Ryan Poliakoff, co-author of a book entitled "New Neighborhoods."
"It's not really the same as where it used to be - you could watch your neighbor's house and bring them a cup of sugar occasionally and borrow a lawn mower - or be the good neighbor by being the one who returns the lawnmower. The sort of niceties of life that everyone was comfortable with - today, there really is a broader sense of what to do to be a responsible neighbor to your neighbors and to be a good member of your smaller S.O.C. society," said Ryan Poliakoff.
Ah, spoken like a true sociologist - "SOC" stands for "Shared Ownership Communities."
On this National Good Neighbor Day, forget the e-mail or Twitter, just get out there and get in his face - with a big smile and a heart hello, of course.
"We've gotten out of what is sort of the basic element of being neighborly - which is face-to-face chat with your neighbor. That's why we have neighbors is to interact with them and to be friendly with them. And you know, people don't want conflict," said Ryan Poliakoff.
So, just sort of working your little complaint into the conversation, somehow...
"And just saying in a friendly way, 'Hey, I just wanted you to know that I can hear when you're playing your TV at 12 o'clock at night - it's quite loud. Is there any way that we can turn it down a little bit?' - rather than sending them an e-mail saying, 'Your TVs too loud. Turn it down or I'm going to the board.' - or rather than sending them a text saying, 'Turn down the darn TV," said Ryan Poliakoff.
In "shared ownership communities," apparently - people still say "Darn."
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