What you missed on ForeignPolicy.com

This first week of February was filled with hiccups, back-pedaling, and "shouldn’t-haves." If you missed any of it, not to worry — we’ve got you covered. Here are the must-reads from this week on ForeignPolicy.com. Iraq’s elections returns came in; Fidel Castro emerged to lecture the U.S. government on the principles of international capitalism; Pope ...

This first week of February was filled with hiccups, back-pedaling, and "shouldn't-haves."

This first week of February was filled with hiccups, back-pedaling, and "shouldn’t-haves."

If you missed any of it, not to worry — we’ve got you covered. Here are the must-reads from this week on ForeignPolicy.com.

Iraq’s elections returns came in; Fidel Castro emerged to lecture the U.S. government on the principles of international capitalism; Pope Benedict’s instincts failed him; and Bill Gates went a little mosquito-crazy

The Obama administration took its lumps this week, but also sent out some pointed messages of change — on pay caps, trade policy and the DoD budget— that not all of our bloggers found so winning. But taking a contrarian view of these snags was Stephen Walt, who says failed appointments aren’t a sign of failure and reminds us that Lincoln went through six generals before he found Grant.

Big-time scoops: The Cable‘s Laura Rozen got the follow-up interview and back story from Gen. Anthony Zinni about the offer to be Iraq envoy that was extended to him and then taken away.

Blog wars: Rothkopf and Drezner went a round over the Commerce Dept. (which, by the way, has an aquarium.) 

Investigative finale: Ricks wrapped up his investigative series "Wanat: Inside An Afghan Battle Gone Wrong" and takes The Best Defense on the road.

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