Since I believe everything my president tells me (like any good citizen)- as far as I know, the Iraq war has been going pretty well. Sure, Judge Doom, aka Rummy, may have gotten the ol' vaudevillian hook a few weeks ago, but my fair and balanced sources at Fox News have for the most part assured me of coming success in Iraq - despite what CNN or Colin Powell has to say.

Which is why I was surprised to see a dramatic change in course in foreign policy when it comes to North Korea. This is supposed to be the era of the Bush Doctrine - pre-emptive war - bomb now, ask questions later.

more after the jump.

In today's Washington Post there's an article World Bank Lists Failing Nations That Can Breed Global Terrorism showing just successful this little Global War on Terror has been so far.

How successful you may ask? Thanks in part to our foreign policy (or lack there of) in only the past 3 years the World Bank's list of "fragile" countries increased all the way to 26 from 17.  According to the World Bank, fragile countries are where "deepening poverty puts them at risk from terrorism, armed conflict and epidemic disease."

Read more after the break.

The reluctance to question our support for Israel today is attributable to the features of "ethnic group capture," a phenomenon in foreign policy which peaks my own research interests. I have no personal stake in the Middle East conflict -- I am myself Jewish by birth, but I have no visceral connection to anyof the parties in question. My interests are not in who is "right" and who is "wrong" in the conflict, but why certain positions become policy. Below is an excerpt from a term paper I wrote on the topic:

As the conflict between Israel and her neighbors intensifies, an unresolved question in the progressive community is brought to the fore: where do we stand? Opinions will no doubt be as diverse as our coalition, but Monday's pro-Israel rally - featuring some local "progressives" - exemplifies an approach that would abandon our humanitarian values.

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Since the corporate media has hardly mentioned this story, I think I can safely assume that most of you haven't heard about fifteen-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza- an Iraqi girl who lived in Mahmoudiya. Yes, this incident is minor compared to the rest of the slaughter that the U.S. occupation of Iraq has caused, but it is poignant nonetheless...