February 7 – A Robotic Rubio Has a Rough Debate; North Korea’s Tyranny of the Weak; Russia Creates Facts on Ground in Syria

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the final Republican debate before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary and speak with David Graham, a staff writer for The Atlantic where he has an article “A Rough Night for the Frontrunners”. We discuss the robotic response that Marco Rubio had to sharp criticism from Governors Bush and Christie that appear likely to slow Rubio’s rise in the polls as the seemingly over-caffeinated candidate kept resorting to his canned attack lines that suggest President Obama is some sort of Manchurian candidate who is serving alien interests and using his presidency to destroy the United States from within.   

Part 2

Then we examine the fallout from the North Korean launch of a long range missile that has the U.N. Security Council convening an emergency meeting to decide on a response. Charles Armstrong, a professor of History and the Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University and author of “Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World 1950 – 1990” joins us to discuss the latest attention-grabbing act by North Korea’s boy emperor who has all of the Republican presidential candidates calling for more sanctions and increased pressure on China to lean on its erratic neighbor.

Part 3

Then finally we assess the possibility of a Saudi and Turkish military intervention in Syria with Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah forces rapidly changing the military situation on the ground as their offensive to cut off and encircle Aleppo gains ground forcing more and more refugees to flood into Turkey. Henri Barkey, who served on the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department, joins us to discuss his article at Foreign Policy “Erdogan’s Foreign Policy is in Ruins” and the extent that Russia is creating facts on the ground while the U.S. complains indignantly from the sidelines.