Arthur Herman believes the U.S. should quit NATO. I have long believed that our European friends were getting a free ride at our expense. The alliance made perfect sense during the Cold War, but with the fall of the Soviet Union it lost its purpose. Time to make a new arrangement.

Vast deposits of valuable minerals are found in Afghanistan. It could help develop the local economy, or be the enticement that causes one of the neighbors (China, perhaps?) to covet the country so much as to seek to take it (when we leave, of course).

Belgium on the verge of disintegration? Language, history and culture still matter as the Dutch speakers and French speakers face a moment of truth.

A crisis of confidence in the economy. Belief in a double-dip recession could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.