I think Obama is right when he talks about the rule of law as a cornerstone of what the United States should stand for.

As even a democracy like the United States has shown, waging war can benefit a leader in several ways: it can rally citizens around the flag, it can distract them from bleak economic times, and it can enrich a country's elites.

I got into journalism not to be a journalist but to try to change American foreign policy. I'm a corny person. I was a dreamer predating my journalistic life, so I got into journalism as a means to try to change the world.

You've got to deploy serious political assets around a plan [in Darfur]. And the George W.] Bush administration has never had a plan. Ever. The Europeans don't want to do anything, saying, "The Americans are in charge of that." And in fact the Americans are in charge of naming it and bringing these resolutions every few weeks to the Security Council.

I think we do have an interest in combating states that try to cross borders and steal parts of other people's country.

Brokenness is the operative issue of our time - broken souls, broken hearts, broken places.

Countries that intervene militarily rarely do so out of pure altruism.