Exceptional (39 page)

62.6 percent of the vote:
Thomas Erdbrink, “Ahmadinejad Re-elected in Iran as Demonstrators Protest Results,”
Washington Post,
June 14, 2009,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/13/AR2009061300627.html
.

in jeopardy:
Ryan Lizza, “The Consequentialist: How the Arab Spring Remade Obama's Foreign Policy,”
New Yorker,
May 2, 2011,
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/02/the-consequentalist
.

outside Qom:
Karen DeYoung and Michael D. Shear, “U.S., Allies Say Iran Has Secret Nuclear Facility,”
Washington Post,
September 26, 2009,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/25/AR2009092500289.html
.

“a nuclear expert”:
Ibid.

ending the round of negotiations:
Nasr,
Dispensable Nation,
p. 118.

remained on hold:
Zarate,
Treasury's War,
pp. 329–30.

set of sanctions on Iran:
Joel Winton, “Rewriting History: The Real Hillary Record on Iran Sanctions,”
Weekly Standard,
June 9, 2014,
http://www.weeklystandard.com/keyword/Joel-Winton
.

Steinberg sent a letter:
Ron Kampeas, “Obama and Kerry Slowing Iran Sanctions Legislation Push,”
Jewish Journal,
December 15, 2009,
http://www.jewishjournal.com/iran/article/obama_and_kerry_slowing_iran_sanctions_legislation_push_20091215
.

“crippling sanctions”:
David Lerman, “Senators Call for Crippling Sanctions on Iran Central Bank,” Bloomberg Business, August 9, 2011,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-08-09/senators-call-for-crippling-sanctions-on-iran-central-bank
.

between the United States and Iran:
Hillary Rodham Clinton
, Hard Choices
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), loc. 7142.

“threw them a lifeline”:
Authors' meeting with senior government official in the Middle East, April 2014.

secret meetings:
Associated Press, “How a Series of Secret Meetings Between U.S. and Iran Led to Historic Deal,” November 25, 2013, PBS
Newshour,
The Rundown blog,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-a-series-of-secret-meetings-between-us-and-iran-led-to-historic-agreement/
.

began in mid-2011:
Associated Press, “How a Series of Secret Meetings Between U.S. and Iran Led to Historic Deal,” November 25, 2013, PBS
Newshour,
The Rundown blog,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-a-series-of-secret-meetings-between-us-and-iran-led-to-historic-agreement/
.

Oman in July 2012:
Clinton,
Hard Choices,
loc. 7518.

continue to enrich:
Michael Doran, “Obama's Secret Iran Strategy,”
Mosaic,
February 2, 2015,
http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2015/02/obamas-secret-iran-strategy/
.

Assad or his forces:
Jay Solomon and Carol E. Lee, “Obama Wrote Secret Letter to Iran's Khamenei About Fighting Islamic State,”
Wall Street Journal,
November 6, 2014,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-wrote-secret-letter-to-irans-khamenei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291
.

months to delay:
Hillel Fradkin and Lewis Libby, “Iran Inspections in 24 Days? Not Even Close,”
Wall Street Journal,
July 21, 2015,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/Iran-inspections-in-24-days-not-even-close-1437521911
.

“the anticipated agreement”:
Dr. Robert Joseph, Testimony, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, June 10, 2015.

non-nuclear purposes:
Secretary Jack Lew, Remarks at Washington Institute for Near East Policy, April 29, 2015,
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/remarks-of-treasury-secretary-jacob-j.-lew
.

refrain from reimposing:
Robert Satloff, “What's Really Wrong with the Iran Deal,”
New York Daily News,
July 14, 2015,
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/robert-satloff-wrong-iran-nuclear-deal-article-1.2292264
.

“border of Jordan”:
Doran, “Obama's Secret Iran Strategy.”

fix the label:
Hillary Rodham Clinton
, Hard Choices
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), p. 206.

“other had to lose”:
President Barack Obama, Remarks at the New Economic School, Moscow, July 2009.

“theory of the world”:
David Remnick, “Watching the Eclipse,”
New Yorker,
August 11, 2014.

“even the EU today”:
Open Letter to the Obama Administration from Central and Eastern Europe, July 15, 2009,
http://wyborcza.pl/1,98817,6825987,An_Open_Letter_to_the_Obama_Administration_from_Central.html
.

installations in Poland:
Megan K. Stack, “Poles Indignant That U.S. Altered Missile-Shield Plans,”
Los Angeles Times,
September 29, 2009.

“false sense of security”:
Bret Stephens, “The Meltdown,”
Commentary,
September 1, 2014.

“more flexibility”:
J. David Goodman, “Microphone Captures a Candid Obama,”
New York Times,
March 26, 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/us/politics/obama-caught-on-microphone-telling-medvedev-of-flexibility.html?_r=0
.

so strenuously opposed:
David M. Herszenhorn and Michael Gordon, “U.S. Cancels Part of Missile Defense that Russia Opposed,”
New York Times,
March 16, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/world/europe/with-eye-on-north-korea-us-cancels-missile-defense-russia-opposed.html
.

Snowden to Moscow:
Isabel Gorst and Joby Warrick, “Snowden Leaves Moscow Airport to Live in Russia,”
Washington Post,
August 1, 2013,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/snowden-leaves-moscow-airport-to-live-in-russia/2013/08/01/2f2d1aba-faa9-11e2-a369-d1954abcb7e3_story.html
.

Whether Snowden was a Russian operative:
See, for example, Edward Lucas,
The Snowden Operation: Inside the West's Greatest Intelligence Disaster
(Kindle Single), Amazon Digital Services, Inc., January 23, 2014.

He “called in”:
Lukas I. Alpert, “Snowden Appears on Putin Call-in Show,”
Wall Street Journal,
April 17, 2014,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304311204579507422585333620
.

New START as a “serious step”:
Michael D. Shear, “Obama, Medvedev Sign Treaty To Reduce Nuclear Weapons,”
Washington Post,
April 8, 2010,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/08/AR2010040801677.html?sid=ST2010040801040
.

“bolster our national security”:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Remarks at United States Institute of Peace, October 21, 2009,
http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/clinton_usip_remarks.pdf
.

“more weapons deployed”:
Baker Spring, “Disarm Now, Ask Questions Later: Obama's Nuclear Weapons Policy,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, No. 2826, July 11, 2013.

than the United States:
Robert Joseph, Eric Edelman, and Rebeccah Heinrichs, “After You, Mr. Putin,”
National Review,
March 4, 2015.

cheating in November 2012:
Josh Rogin, “U.S. Knew Russia Violated Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty,”
Daily Beast,
November 26, 2013.

“needs to take place”:
Stephen F. Hayes, “Obama's Fantasy-Based Foreign Policy,”
Weekly Standard,
March 17, 2014,
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/obama-s-fantasy-based-foreign-policy_784266.html
.

“separatist fighters”:
Michael Weiss and James Miller, “New Putin Invasion Coming This Summer,”
Daily Beast,
May 17, 2015.

“precisely nothing”:
Eric Edelman, “Confronting Putin's Invasion: It Can—and Must—Be Done,”
Weekly Standard,
March 17, 2014.

“freedom and peace”:
Remarks by President Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security,” March 23, 1983,
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/32383d.htm
.

“ready to defend”:
Remarks prepared for delivery by President John F. Kennedy, Dallas Citizens Council, Trade Mart, Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963,
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-048-022.aspx
.

“world freedom”:
Ibid.

“United States of America”:
William J. Perry, John P. Abizaid, et al., “Ensuring a Strong Defense for the Future: The National Defense Panel Review of the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review,” July 31, 2014, p. vii.

to do so:
President Barack Obama, Press Room Remarks, August 28, 2014,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/28/statement-president
; President Barack Obama, Press Conference after G-7 Summit, Krun, Germany, June 8, 2015,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/06/08/remarks-president-obama-press-conference-after-g7-summit
.

“nation's deficit problems”:
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates press conference, August 9, 2010,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/11/AR2010081105285.html
.

“of higher value”:
Gates,
Duty,
p. 316.

“January 6, 2011”:
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Robert Mullen, press briefing, January 6, 2011,
http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4747
.

had already proposed:
Editorial Board, “Mr. Obama's Defense Cuts,”
Washington Post,
April 20, 2011,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-obamas-defense-cuts/2011/04/20/AFlMqNEE_story.html
.

“politically convenient”:
Gates,
Duty,
p. 464.

of government spending:
Representative Buck McKeon, Chairman, House Armed Services Committee, “Putting 50% of Sequester Cuts on Defense's 17% Is Bad,” Letter to the Editor,
Wall Street Journal,
December 4, 2013.

239-year history:
John T. Bennett, “Military Chiefs Warn Anew About Sequester Cuts,”
DefenseNews,
February 2, 2015,
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/congress/2015/01/28/sequestration-military-isis-budget/22462259/
.

“current and projected operations”:
General Mark A. Welsh, III, Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Testimony, United States Senate Armed Services Committee, January 28, 2014,
http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Welch_01-28-15.pdf
.

“in many years”:
Chris Jennewein, “CNO Says Budget Cuts Leave Navy at ‘Lowest Point' in Years,”
Times of San Diego,
March 5, 2015,
http://timesofsandiego.com/military/2015/03/05/cno-says-budget-cuts-leave-navy-at-lowest-point-in-years/
.

at risk unnecessarily:
Nick Simeone, “Sequester Degrades Navy, Marine Corps Readiness, Officials Say,” U.S. Department of Defense, DoD News, February 26, 2015,
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=128259
.

since before World War II:
Dan Lamothe, “Army Details How It Will Cut to Its Smallest Size Since Before World War II,”
Washington Post,
July 9, 2015,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/07/09/army-details-how-it-will-cut-to-its-smallest-size-since-before-world-war-ii/
.

no carrrier presence:
David Larter, “Navy to Pull Carrier from Central Command This Fall,”
Navy Times,
June 5, 2015,
http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/2015/06/05/navy-pulls-carrier-centcom-islamic-state-group-presence/28554047/
.

“cuts to $937 billion”:
National Defense Panel Review of the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, p. 29,
http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/Ensuring-a-Strong-U.S.-Defense-for-the-Future-NDP-Review-of-the-QDR_0.pdf
.

“to our posture”:
General Raymond T. Odierno, Chief of Staff, United States Army, Testimony, United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, January 28, 2015.

“Second World War”:
Former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger, Testimony, United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, January 29, 2015.

“increasingly dangerous world”:
Former undersecretary of defense for policy Michèle Flournoy, Testimony, United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, February 10, 2015.

“national security strategy”
: National Defense Panel Review of the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, p. 23.

“second region”:
President Barack Obama, Defense Strategic Guidance, January 2012, p. 4,
http://www.defense.gov/news/Defense_Strategic_Guidance.pdf
.