Welcome to a snowy slushy Wednesday, February 14th. I'm Anastasia Glova.

This Valentine's Day episode of Cato Daily Podcast concerns the fuzzy and romantic topic of International Security.

The latest Cato policy analysis from Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies

Ted Galen Carpenter was released today, entitled escaping the Trap, why the United States must leave Iraq.

Add to that the escalating tensions with Iran in recent weeks and North Korea's tentative

promise to close down its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy aid.

We'll cover all three issues in a foreign policy overview podcast with Ted Carpenter.

Your new policy analysis argues for rapid and comprehensive withdrawal from Iraq. Why?

Because the U.S. mission in Iraq has clearly failed. We've tried this for almost four years. The security situation is

not only bad, it is bad in getting steadily worse. At this point, over 120 Iraqis a day are dying of political violence.

That's in a country of barely 26 million people.

A comparable rate in the United States would be 1,400 to 1,500 people a day or something close to half a million people a year.

This is a civil war increasingly between Sunnis and Shiites, and it makes no sense

for the United States to try to have its troops play referee in an incredibly complex multi-sided civil war in Iraq.

Isn't it premature to say that our mission has failed before we witness the results of the surge?

The surge is a minor tactical adjustment.

It is not a significant new strategy, and it certainly is not going to produce victory

in Iraq. This is roughly akin to spraying

antiseptic on a malignancy. It is not going to have any lasting or meaningful

effect. Now what about the escalating tensions with Iraq's eastern neighbor?

Are we headed towards possible conflict with Iran?

I'm certainly worried about the administration's increasingly confrontational mode with regard to Iran.

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