Seven Questions: The Urge to Surge

Everyone’s anticipating President Bush’s big address on Iraq, which takes place tonight at 9 PM EST. To help understand what to expect and how to interpret the speech, FP turned to security strategist Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Cordesman has been one of the most insightful commentators on Iraq and counterinsurgency strategy, so be sure to check out his comments in this week’s Seven Questions. And don’t miss our live-blogging later tonight, starting a little bit before 9 o’clock.

Also recently posted: Anti-American autocrat Hugo Chávez was sworn in for a third term as president of Venezuela today, after promising to nationalize “strategic” sectors of the economy and bring “21st Century Socialism” to the masses. But his appeal among Venezuela’s poor is based on a lie. A new analysis of the Venezuelan government’s own statistics by economist Francisco Rodríguez finds that his policies don’t actually help them.