The Pentagon have confirmed that they knew about the Brussels attacks in advance saying that they had foreknowledge that ISIS had planned to launch an attack on the city. Despite the intelligence the U.S. were still unable to prevent Tuesday’s tragedy. Three officials told Reuters that whilst the United States government knew the attacks were going to take place, they did not know exactly when or where they would occur.
The US Republican presidential race got even nastier on Wednesday when two main contenders exchanged cryptic tweets and Donald Trump threatened to ‘spill the beans’ on Senator Ted Cruz’s wife. A naked photo of Melania Trump set off the latest Republican presidential dispute on Twitter. Senator Cruz sent a Tweet to the Donald warning him to lay off his Mrs and to google his facts before launching cowardly attacks. The Independent reports: Lyin’ Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife! — Donald J.
Peter Suderman comments on Paul Ryan’s underwhelming speech on American politics:
The framing of the announcement raised expectations that Ryan, who has made several speeches indirectly criticizing Trumpish behavior but has also indicated that he would back the candidate if he became the party’s presidential nominee, might finally address Trump directly. Which, of course, would be a big deal given that Ryan is, in addition to being the Speaker of the House, arguably the institutional voice of the party right now, its chief spokesperson and visionary.
Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders had as good a Tuesday as could have been expected.
Nicholas Burns trots out the very tired “credibility” argument in a recent op-ed:
However much Mr Obama may believe the old rules do not apply, it is an ancient truth that a great power has to back up its threats if it wishes to be respected by its friends and feared by its adversaries.
If Mr Obama did not intend to honour his red-line threat, he should never have made it. The result was inevitable — American credibility is undeniably diminished in the Middle East while that of Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been enhanced.