One day after the Wall Street Journal ran former Secretary of State George Shultz's ode to the New Start arms control treaty, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton graces their op-ed page with an opposite take. Bolton thinks the deal is tantamount to "unilateral disarmament," severely constraining America's future capability to deliver conventional warheads. He's talking about returning "to outmoded Cold War limits on weapons launchers." Washington needs more flexibility than Moscow when it comes to "conventional prompt global strike," Bolton writes, "given our global interests and alliances." He says the whole thing is "politically-driven decision making" and the administration has essentially forced the Pentagon to go along with it. And not only all of that, who can forget that China "is systematically expanding its nuclear-warhead and delivery capabilities" as it pleases?

In the New York Times, Tom Friedman says he knows how to give the Mideast peace talks the "emotional lift" they need. He urges Saudi King Abdullah to resurrect his Arab League initiative swapping withdrawal from occupied territories for the full normalization of relations, and invite Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to Riyadh to present it to him personally. Friedman thinks the personal invite would "have a real impact" and "unleash a huge peace debate in Israel," thus making it harder for Netanyahu to continue settlement building.