163 articles
Egypt imports over two billion dollars in US aid annually but apparently has exported the bulk of the foreign jihadists in Iraq. Syria's the number two exporter and, despite repeated US warnings going back to 2003, remains the "main passageway for suicide bombers in Iraq." From the Gulf Times: The…
FOR THE LAST three years, the Bush administration has pursued a policy of wishful thinking in Iraq, operating under the hope that some deus ex machina--either elections or the capture of insurgent leaders--would salvage a deteriorating situation. Well, Iraq has now had three successful nationwide…
FORGIVE JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER Junichiro Koizumi if he seems at all impatient during his White House dinner tonight. The toasts and backslapping with George Bush may provide an ego boost, but tomorrow the real fun begins, when the president accompanies Koizumi on a tour of Graceland. That might be…
SHORTLY AFTER SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, the Treasury Department began to monitor international financial transactions of persons suspected of having terrorist connections. According to Treasury, the program successfully identified terrorists. Like other disclosed counterterrorism programs, the program's…
If Rudy Giuliani does run for president, here's a target he should pound away on -- the media's role (led by the New York Times) in undermining the War on Terror -- and a line he should repeat over and over again on the stump - America isn't perfect but we do a hell of a lot of good in the world.…
From the International Herald Tribune: BRUSSELS Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium has asked the Justice Ministry to investigate whether a banking consortium here broke the law when it aided the U.S. government's anti-terrorism activities by providing it with confidential information about…
SEVERAL READERS have complained of late that my reviews of the American economy, its current state, and its outlook, have been too inconclusive for their tastes. Too much thesis and antithesis, and not enough synthesis, one reader said.
America: The Last Best Hope
The Ode Less Travelled
Las Vegas
The Grammar of Our Civility
"WHEN A DIRECTOR DIES," the pioneering cinematographer John Grierson once said, "he becomes a cinematographer."
AS ENGLISH PARENTS of five young girls who've lived almost their entire lives in these United States, my wife and I have spent much of the last decade checking off the rites of passage on their journey towards full immersion in American life.
FINDING IT HARD TO UNDERSTAND the "net neutrality" debate? On one side are the hip, cool, billionaire web service companies like Google, eBay, Yahoo, and even Microsoft. Net neutrality is their rallying cry. Despite the fact that they are basically schlocky ad salesmen on a grand scale, they're…
THE LEFTIES AND THE MEDIA are right about Karl Rove. That's why they're in a dither now that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has cleared Rove of any criminal wrongdoing in the overblown leak case involving CIA functionary Valerie Plame. The left and the mainstream press know three things about…
Bomber Blessings
Las Vegas
Beirut
THE DEATH OF ZARQAWI and the completion of the new Iraqi government have created a moment of opportunity for President Bush in Iraq. If the United States acts quickly to take control of lawless areas, improves security throughout the country, and wins a series of tangible victories, it might break…
Berlin
Cue Violins
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW what it feels like to wander into a Salvador Dali painting, try attending a conference of transhumanists. Case in point: the symposium "Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights" hosted May 26-28 by the Stanford Law School.
BOOKS IN BRIEF
Legends of Modernity
JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI will soon arrive in Washington for what is probably his last official visit to the United States as Japan's prime minister. While in Washington, Koizumi will seek to cement the progress made in the bilateral relationship during his 6-year tenure. Yet, although Washington and Tokyo…
Tyler Drumheller, former head of the CIA's European ops, is on a roll. He will soon have a book out on what he witnessed in the run-up to the Iraq War. And judging from the fawning pre-release press it's a very good bet that his book will soon be quoted ad nauseam by Frank Rich, the editors of the…
Today's Wall Street Journal has an insightful editorial on the House Republicans' assault on what is really the president's immigration plan - a plan that Mayor Giuliani believes strengthens our national security. "The Kennedy bill" is how some House members refer to the Senate bill. But I don't…
If you can get your hands on a copy of today's Wall Street Journal, I highly recommend reading former FBI Director Louis Freeh's piece on the Clinton administration's handling of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing. The Clinton folks, particularly Secretary Albright and VP Gore, don't mention Khobar or…
Beijing's been no help on North Korea, coddles Iran and showers the dictatorship in Khartoum with arms that end up in the hands of the killers in Darfur. No doubt China has been a good place to do business but, so far, there's little evidence that it has changed the character of the regime for the…
PICTURE THE STANDARD CONGESTED AMERICAN CITY. Traffic backs up on city blocks each day during rush hour as cars creep along, catching every red light. A half-mile trip takes half-an-hour. The forced on-and-off of the gas and brake pedals spends more gas--and creates more pollution--than if cars…
IN ITS RECENT WORLD CUP CONTEST WITH ITALY, the U.S. team played what was widely regarded by the sport's connoisseurs as one of the best games ever played by an American soccer squad on foreign soil.
David Satterfield, senior advisor to Secretary Rice on Iraq, made news in an interview with the Al-Hayat daily. According to Satterfield, Syria remains a "main passageway for suicide bombers in Iraq" and Iran and its proxy Hizbullah have been behind some roadside bombing attacks in Iraq. Iran is…
Unilateralism, preemption, a hostile world reaction -- the good folks at the American Prospect must be gasping for air after reading this piece from President Clinton's two top defense officials. Merits aside, it sure caught me by surprise and makes me wonder if Secretary Perry has had second…
From the Hartford Courant: A somber Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman stood alone on the Democratic side of the Senate Wednesday and broke with his colleagues on the Iraq war, announcing he would oppose today two Democratic-authored blueprints for pulling American troops out of Iraq. Lieberman, the first…
THERE'S GOOD NEWS and bad news on the World Cup front. The bad news is that, despite the instructions your media overlords have given you, no one in America is watching the great quadrennial soccer carnival. Sure, if you read only the headlines ("World Cup Ratings Soar"; "World Cup Scoring with…
Sen. McCain argued on the Senate floor today that Democratic troop withdrawal plans would only strengthen the insurgency and allow Zawahiri to achieve his top priority to "expel the Americans" from Iraq. Democratic plans would also repeat the mistakes we made in pre-9/11 Afghanistan, where we…
The U.S government murdered thousands of its own citizens on September 11, 2001. That theory has been circulating among an assortment of America haters, Jew haters, paranoids … and a few professors at U.S. universities. An upcoming cover story in The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at a group…
The Kerry magic lives on. From today's New York Times: In drawing up a schedule for the Wednesday session, the Democratic leadership has arranged for its plan to be debated first, pushing Mr. Kerry and his proposal into the evening, too late for the nightly television news, to starve it of some…
Australia has been a very good friend of the United States. They remain steadfast in Iraq and Afghanistan, work closely with our military in the Pacific region, and have led the coalition trying to bring security and stability to East Timor. The government of Prime Minister John Howard has also…
EDUARDO had just graduated from the police academy and had been sent to a station on the outskirts of Mexico City. On his first day as a patrolman he was assigned to a senior beat cop, José, who seemed delighted to act as the tutor.
BEFORE THE DUST SETTLED on the rubble that had been Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's safe house, critics of the Bush administration were already arguing that our latest battlefield success in Iraq had to be measured against the administration's failure to kill Zarqawi back in 2002. But a full understanding…
Howard Dean had a lot to say last night on Hardball. He wants to abandon Iraq's elected government under the guise of "redeployment" and believes the president "created a situation where terrorists now are in Iraq, where they were not before." He does have a point -- sort of. According to Richard…
In some areas of Iraq, too heavy a footprint hasn't been the problem. The lack of one has, but that may be changing in the wake of the president's recent Camp David meeting. From AP: Hundreds of American and Iraqi troops backed by a U.S. gunship pushed into an insurgent-infested section of eastern…
"GLOOM", "turbulence", "volatility." A small sample of the adjectives festooning the business pages as America, and indeed the world, reaches what is being called "the end of the era of easy money." Result: a worldwide "flight to safety," as investors end their wild speculation in commodities and…
FROM NEWSWEEK to the New York Daily News, nearly every major media outlet has fallen for at least one of the three major myths concerning Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: that he was an "American creation"; that he was not a unique warlord but was easily replaceable; or that American soldiers allegedly…
(Robert Kagan weighs in on the Pew poll in today's Washington Post and notes: "No one should lightly dismiss the current hostility toward the United States. International legitimacy matters. It is important in itself, and it affects others' willingness to work with us. But neither should we be…
Secretary Rice to the Southern Baptist Convention last week: And when necessary, we are bringing justice to the terrorists. (Applause.) This is the fate that our troops delivered last week to the terrorist Zarqawi and now he will never harm, he will never murder, he will never terrorize innocent…
Yesterday's revelation of a terrorist plot to release poison gas in a NYC subway brings to mind the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack in Tokyo -- an attack that might have killed tens of thousands if the gas had been more effectively disbursed. In fact, Clinton officials would cite the attack in…
From the Hotline's Blog: June 19, 2006 Gore Won't Back Lieberman...Won't Oppose Him, Either, But... Hat tip: The Note: HUNT: "Sir, We only have about 30 seconds left, let me switch subjects for one final question. You opposed the Iraq war in 2002, your running mate in 2000, Joe Lieberman, had a…
The Art of War
ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2001, President George W. Bush put the world on notice. "We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." Unanimously, senators and congressmen…
Norwood, Ohio
EARLY LAST MONTH, the accounting firm of Ernst and Young released a report concluding that the "nonperforming" loans of China's banks totaled $911 billion (40 percent of China's GDP)--a figure that far exceeds the Chinese government's own estimate of $164 billion. Beijing's response to the report…
MARRIAGE, I had foolishly believed, would save me from ever again experiencing the worst part of being single, the most wrenching, pimple-causing, sleep-destroying vexation incident to bachelor life. I am talking about getting dumped. C'mon, what other reason was there to "forsake all others"--the…
The Dream Life of Sukhanov
ON WEDNESDAY, June 7, U.S. military forces, in President Bush's words, "delivered justice to the most wanted terrorist in Iraq," Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
AS THE DETAILS of the foiled Canadian terrorist plot continue to emerge, much is still unknown. Fifteen suspects were arrested in the Toronto area on June 2 and 3 in a police sting operation as they attempted to take possession of what they believed to be three tons of ammonium nitrate, roughly…
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI is among the least interesting Islamic terrorists since modern Islamic terrorism took shape in Iran and Egypt in the 1950s and '60s. Compared with Osama bin Laden, with his elegant prose, his appreciation for redolent historical Muslim narrative, his seemingly conscious…
Man and Wives
THE OMEN, the 30-year-old horror movie that has just been remade more faithfully than almost any other film in history, was both a landmark genre picture and a low point in American popular culture. Somber and brutally effective, The Omen gave Gregory Peck the role of his lifetime (yes, I am saying…
THE POLITICS OF IMMIGRATION REFORM changed on March 27. That's the day the Senate Judiciary Committee approved (in a vote of 12-6) an immigration reform bill that included increased border security and law enforcement, a guest-worker program, and a path to legalization for the roughly 12 million…
The Seduction of Culture in German History
Ramadi, Iraq
THE LAST QUESTION to General Bill Caldwell at his briefing last Thursday on the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi came from New York Times reporter Richard Oppel, who wanted to know about Abu al-Masri, an Egyptian whom many expect to replace Zarqawi as the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Rio de Janeiro
Incompleteness
Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain
Conservative columnist George Will isn't a fan of the House-passed immigration bill. He believes it's bad policy and bad politics. A few months back, he criticized "faux conservatives" for trying to pin the "amnesty" moniker on the Senate-passed bill. [C]onservatives should favor reducing…
On Wednesday, the New York Times ran a front-page headline, "Global Image Of the U.S. Is Worsening," based on the latest Pew poll of international attitudes toward the U.S. Of the 14 nations polled, only Russia and Pakistan view the U.S. more favorably today than they did in 1999/2000. Among the…
Many of the Democrats who voted against their leadership represent districts that Nancy Pelosi could never win. A few more votes along the lines of today's, combined with a message that a Democratic House means Speaker Pelosi, could pay dividends in some of these districts in November. For the…
The vice president had this to say yesterday on Fox News on Sen. Kerry's latest position on the Iraq War: I guess I'm not surprised at John Kerry switching his position yet again. ... He did in fact support our efforts in Iraq initially. He says he voted for the $87 billion before he voted against…
WHEN TWO FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE OFFICERS were slain by a deranged teenager in mid-May, their funerals were both held at the 10,000-member McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia, about 15 miles outside Washington, D.C.
Last December, some Democrats and some in the media were up in arms about a Pentagon operation that "paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq." The Washington Post added: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to the…
(Update: From AP: "Although the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the document was found in al-Zarqawi's hideout following a June 7 airstrike that killed him, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the document had in fact been found in a previous raid as part of an…
Stars and Strips has published a special edition entitled "Heroes: A Nation Honors Valor in the War on Terror." The newspaper's Patrick Dickson writes: "This publication captures but a glimpse of the deeds U.S. servicemembers have performed in distant lands. We honor all those who persevere in the…
IF ANYONE OTHER THAN POLITICAL JUNKIES cared about the race for Duke Cunningham's old congressional seat in California's 50th District, Democratic candidate Francine Busby's "you don't need papers for voting" blunder would rank with Gerald Ford insisting Poland wasn't communist, Michael Dukakis…
NOW THAT ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI IS DEAD, perhaps the American press can also lay to rest the biggest myth about the mass murderer: that he had nothing to do with Saddam's regime prior to the war. It is not clear where this claim originated, but it is widely accepted. In the cover story for this…
"Mr. President, as commander-in-chief. how did you feel when you heard the news that American forces had put an end to Zarqawi, the brutal terrorist responsible for the deaths of so many Americans?" Oh, you didn't hear that question from a reporter at today's press conference in the White House…
Gov. Tom Vilsack wants to bring to Iowa the same crowd that regularly pummels the group he heads, the "centrist" Democratic Leadership Council. From the New York Times: "As successful as YearlyKos was this year, in 2007 it should be even bigger and more influential. Tom Vilsack, the former governor…
Democrats are set to roll out their policy agenda because "if we don't define what we stand for," said a Pelosi spokesman, "they'll define it for us." But increasingly Democrats are defining themselves on Iraq. Senator John Kerry yesterday to a gathering of liberals at the "Take Back America"…
The not-so-conservative editors of the Boston Globe must love this piece today by their own Jeff Jacoby: WHEN IRAQ'S Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced last week that a US air strike had killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi reporters burst into cheers and applause. It was a…
PRESIDENTS RARELY RECOVER from second term slumps, but President Bush may be on the verge of at least a modest upturn and perhaps a strong recovery. For sure, his plunge in job approval over the past year has been halted. He's bottomed out. But how significant will his recovery and how durable?…
NEW YORK OFFICIALS, along with the New York Times and other media, recently blasted Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff for announcing cuts in anti-terror funding to New York City. Instead of the $208 million given last year, the city will receive $124 million.
"We were absolutely right to remove him from power and we have no excuses to make for it," said Karl Rove yesterday to New Hampshire Republicans. He also suggested that Republicans should quit being punching bags for the Democrats. It's the "cutting and running" crowd, Rove charged, who should…
The Defense Department has released the bios of the three who committed suicide in Gitmo: Ali Abdullah Ahmed, the Yemeni, was a mid- to high-level al Qaeda operative with links to principal al Qaeda facilitators and senior membership, according to information released by DoD. Throughout his time at…
"DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING, STAND THERE," Ronald Reagan is reported to have told over-zealous legislators and regulators. Many on Wall Street are wishing that Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke would follow that advice and leave interest right where they are, at 5 percent, after 16…
Iran's Ahmadinejad has some fans in Germany: This is the latest chapter in Berlin's difficult relations with Iran which has gained sympathy among Germany's far right. The Government banned a Holocaust denial conference last year featuring the leader of the far-right National Party (NPD) and the…
Yesterday's New York Times reports, in paragraph 18, that the French believed Zarqawi was active in Europe before the U.S. invasion in March 2003, a point often missed in the media's coverage of his death: …French counterterrorism officials said they found Mr. Zarqawi's handiwork in a…
This is how a senior White House official characterized the stakes involved in the Iraq discussions the president is having at Camp David today and tomorrow. Last week, Ambassador Khalilzad acknowledged that the security situation in Baghdad has deteriorated the last few months. And retired General…
WHEN HAFEZ AL-ASSAD was president-for-life of Syria, Washington overlooked the misdeeds of his Baathist dictatorship because it always seemed the brass ring of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal was just around the corner. Now that Assad is dead and his son Bashar nears the six-year mark of…
UNSOPHISTICATED EUROPE
Tallahassee
U.S. MARINES are under investigation for alleged misconduct in the deaths of Iraqi civilians. The inquiry into the events at Haditha last November 19 is ongoing--but the Nation's editors already know what happened: A U.S. "war crime"! A military "massacre"! A "cover-up"! (And also a "willful,…
GARRISON KEILLOR'S DECADES-OLD radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion," is an extremely odd cultural artifact. It is a loving parody of something already long defunct when Keillor started his show 32 years ago in Minneapolis--a local rural variety program broadcast on the AM band. It's a compendium…
WILL AMERICA'S PARTNERSHIP WITH INDIA fall victim to politics? The Bush administration's proposed agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with New Delhi--once predicted to win approval from Congress as early as June--is under a growing cloud. With the November midterm elections fast approaching, the…
THE CANADIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE has just issued this warning: There is an increasing threat from what Canada's CIA calls "home-grown terrorists" living in communities across Canada. And presumably awaiting orders.
IF THERE WERE A LIST of lawyers least suited to assess Brett Kavanaugh's fitness to serve as a judge on the D.C. Circuit, Marna Tucker would be very high on it. Tucker's narrow specialty, divorce law, is far removed, in both substance and sophistication, from the work of the federal appellate…
IN MOST MERGERS IT IS easy to distinguish the acquirer from the acquired. Not in last week's highly publicized merger of Goldman Sachs and the White House. For the last two months, day-to-day operational control of the White House has been in the hands of a Goldman Sachs alumnus, Joshua Bolten,…
The Polite Revolution
Ah, Mad Ahmadinejad
The Myth of Hitler's Pope
The Oxford Book of American Poetry
I HAD MY FIRST BICYCLE when I was eleven, and it was a disappointment. Schwinn seemed the only bike worth having in those days. My father, for some reason, surprised me by bringing home an off-brand bike called a SunRacer. Red and white, it had nothing wrong with it, but it wasn't a Schwinn. I soon…
Federico Fellini
THE ONLY ICE to be found in the new center of the hockey world is in the mint julep cups being raised in celebration south of the Mason-Dixon, places where the average annual temperature hovers around 89.5 degrees and folks don't know a Howe from hominy.
WITH THE DEATH of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a great deal of attention has focused on Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born terrorist that Major General William Caldwell singled out as the "most logical" choice by al Qaeda in Iraq to replace Zarqawi. What all of this attention has missed, however, is what…
Who will be the first Democrat to call for an investigation of this claim?
In the wake of his death, we should remember that the insurgency deepened and Zarqawi thrived primarily because we had deployed too few troops, argues Reuel Marc Gerecht in the current Weekly Standard. He also warns, "we nor the Iraqis are going to find salvation through good intelligence and smart…
The Bush administration may not have a more opportune time to decisively swing the war against the insurgents. Zarqawi is dead, and Iraq's new defense and interior ministers are in place. The Wall Street Journal weighs in that "now's the time to secure Baghdad," and the editors of the National…
From today's New York Times: On Thursday night, Israeli planes attacked a training camp of the Popular Resistance Committees in an old Israeli settlement west of Rafah, killing four people and wounding seven.
HISTORY NEVER REPEATS ITSELF precisely, but it often rhymes. Coalition forces killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a safe house just outside Baghdad. More than 800 years earlier, the life of Zarqawi's role model, Nur ad-Din Zanki (1118-1174), came to an end in Damascus, another power center of the…
This is the top priority of al Qaeda in Iraq. "The first stage," Zawahiri wrote last July in his strategy letter to Zarqawi, is to "expel the Americans from Iraq." He also counseled Zarqawi to be prepared because "things may develop faster than we imagine. The aftermath of the collapse of American…
According to the New York Times, the fact that Zarqawi dropped out of high school and that the U.S. raised the bounty on his head to $25 million are "key events" in his life. But his arrival in Iraq and his stay in Baghdad prior to the March 2003 invasion, with the approval and perhaps assistance…
MAYBE THE HYPE WAS INEVITABLE. When HBO aired the final episode of Sex and the City two years ago, the network lost its chief serial attraction to the coveted 18-34 demographic. Sex and the City was a Beautiful People show, glamorizing a Cosmo-drenched lifestyle of chic clubs and eateries and…
THE NEW REMAKE of The Omen serves no discernible purpose. It is not a "re-imagining," a la Tim Burton's awful (but, at least, original) remake of Planet of the Apes. It is not an homage, as Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of Psycho purported to be. It's not even the studio's intent to bring a…
On the heels of the good news of Zarqawi's death, the AP reports that the USS Cole has left its port in Norfolk, Virginia and is bound for the Persian Gulf region - the first such deployment since al Qaeda terrorists hit it on October 12, 2000. With former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and…
In a Fox News interview today, Sen. McCain said that the elimination of Zarqawi is a "rebuke to those who want to cut and run" from Iraq. The "those" Sen. McCain may be referring to could be Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry (whose withdrawal plan McCain characterized as "a major step on the…
Zarqawi and other al Qaeda terrorists had connections to Iraq before coalition forces invaded in March 2003. As the co-chairman of the September 11 Commission, Governor Thomas Kean, stated, "there was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda." Or consider…
The DLC's Marshall Wittmann nails it: Evil has suffered a setback. This is a moment of clarity for civilization. Zarqawi was a moral monster who sought to destroy everything that humane people cherish. And his death is a reminder about the nature of this war. This is a just war. Our troops are not…
AS INFORMATION CONCERNING HIS DEMISE continues to surface, the death of Abu Musab Zarqawi marks the end of one of the most accomplished mass murderers in the modern history of terrorism. According to the claims of responsibility released by his own group in Iraq, Zarqawi and his followers have…
THOSE WHO IGNORE HISTORY are doomed to repeat it. One of life's more satisfying ironies, however, is that the same fate often befalls those who fixate on history. Consider the coming train wreck of Sony's PlayStation 3.
Kofi Annan's deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, takes a swing at the "U.S. heartland," and UN Ambassador Bolton fires back. It's too bad. Brown had made an effort to reach out to UN skeptics in the U.S., holding luncheons, etc. and acknowledging that the UN needed major structural reform. His remarks may…
No Democrat has been more effective in leading the charge against the Iraq War than Michigan's Carl Levin. From his perch on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Armed Services Committee, Levin has exploited every opportunity to turn Americans against the war. And his task has been made…
Democrats swung for the fences in the Calf. 50 race but came up empty. The media would have pumped a Donkey victory for days. That said, I'm not sure how to interpret Bilbray's narrow win. He overcame the Duke Cunningham corruption albatross by emphasizing the need for tough border enforcement. But…
Editor's Note: In 1969, Harvard University kicked the ROTC program off campus, forcing Harvard students who wanted to participate in it to do so through MIT's Army, Air Force, and Navy/Marine Corps ROTC units.
PHILLIP LONGMAN is the most important man you've never heard of in Washington.
Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq apparently adds Hizbullah to his long list of enemies -- Shiites, Jews, various Sunnis, Americans, the West, etc. -- in his latest radio tirade. Securitywatchtower.com has more here.
On June 6, 1944, Carey Lee Javis of Virginia hit Omaha Beach in the fist wave of the Normandy Invasion. Today, he tells the story of that day in his local newspaper. Mr. Javis is an American hero.
Indiana Senator Evan Bayh has been running around Iowa lately in his quixotic quest for the Democratic presidential nomination. It won't happen, but his consultants will get richer for his efforts. During his travels, Bayh's been getting an earful from anti-war Democrats. He voted for the war and,…
LAST WEEK, the Bush administration adopted a new approach to the crisis with Iran over Tehran's pursuit of uranium enrichment and nuclear weapons. Secretary of State Condolezza Rice offered to join the negotiations with Iran (heretofore conducted by the E.U. Three--France, Germany and Britain) on…
IT'S BEEN ABOUT THREE WEEKS since the sign-up phase of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit ended on May 15, and the program's supporters have earned some bragging rights. Even with its early success and growing popularity, some key elements of Medicare reform have received little attention,…
Did the Osirak bombing in 1981 impede or accelerate Saddam's nuclear weapons program? Gerald Steinberg, director of the Program on Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University, weighs in on this question and the relevance of the Begin Doctrine -- which asserts "the fundamental need to prevent any of…
First, voters in Colombia re-elected their pro-American President, Alvaro Uribe, to a second term. Yesterday, Peruvian voters elected a president who explicitly ran as the anti-Hugo Chavez candidate. Chavez had injected himself into Peruvian politics by calling on voters to reject now…
Today's Edmonton Journal reports "several of the young men allegedly went from being typical Muslim adherents to radicalized extremists in little more than a year." The men frequented two Toronto area mosques and at least one opposed Canada's role in Afghanistan. It's also been reported that…
FOR A PRESIDENT who is (allegedly) the lamest of lame ducks, George W. Bush had a pretty good month of May. Not quite a merry month of May. Certainly not a Lerner-and-Loewe-like lusty month of May. But a pretty good month, and perhaps a sign of better things to come.
"I'M HOPEFUL THAT THE House will save us from this bill," Sen. John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, told reporters last week, moments before his colleagues passed, 62 to 36, the most significant revision of U.S. immigration law in more than two decades. (Ensign voted no.)
Always Look on the Dark Side . . .
WHEN I WAS A COLLEGE NEWBIE, sitting at the scuffed Hush Puppies of my journalism professors, they tried to saddle me with their elbow-patched baggage of what a journalist should be: Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ernie Pyle--lightweights, all. The poor naïfs couldn't have known about the tectonic…
The White Man's Burden
YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO rich or too thin, the saying goes, and it certainly holds true for California's June 6 primary. State Controller Steve Westly, a former eBay executive and Democratic candidate for governor, has spent $34.5 million of his own fortune in hopes of earning the right to face Gov.…
"NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TOWER IMPLODED," blared a headline on CNN.com last week, sounding overtones of another Three Mile Island. In fact, the cooling tower on the Trojan reactor north of Portland, Ore., abandoned 13 years ago, was being brought down by a demolition crew. Oh well, false alarm. As the…
Not Always So Blunt
Plato's Republic
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO save two-and-a-half hours of your life, read the next four paragraphs and you will be able to avoid the endlessly turgid film version of The Da Vinci Code while still being able to converse knowledgeably about it at outdoor barbecues and formal functions.
Artificial Happiness
IT TOOK A TELEVISION SERIES about a Viagra-popping patriarch with three friendly/jealous wives and tightly scheduled evenings to set off a serious public debate about polygamy. And that was precisely the intention of the creators of this now infamous television show--no, not Big Love, the American…
The Moral Imagination
IT IS OFTEN SAID THAT the United States isn't easy on its scholars and public intellectuals--that they are not accorded the prestige and respect that they are given in the Old World. This complaint, usually made by left-wingers struggling against the tide in the United States, isn't totally without…
THIS PAST WEEK, Osama bin Laden released yet another audiotape--his third in the past year. As before, bin Laden focuses on events in the United States, namely, the sentencing of al Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui, the only terrorist to be convicted in a U.S. court for involvement in the…
BESIDES BOASTING ONE OF THE great names in American history, Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani holds a unique distinction. She is the only foreign monarch to have been deposed with the apparent help of U.S. armed forces and then asked to resume her throne by a compunctious U.S. president (Grover…
BOOKS IN BRIEF
JUNE 6, 2006, is an important date, not only because it's the 62nd anniversary of D-Day. It's also the day the Senate will vote on the so-called marriage amendment, which would amend the Constitution to restrict marriage in America to a man and a woman.
FOR NEARLY AS LONG as Hawaii has been a state, its most famous pop culture icon has been the organ-playing singer Don Ho. Born in Honolulu in 1930, Ho claims Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and German ancestry. Few figures better epitomize the Aloha State's proud history of ethnic…
Hoover fellow Arnold Beichman wrote the following Weekly Standard piece before Canadian officials revealed the recent terrorist plot. Most worrisome, Beichman notes, is how well terrorists may have blended into Canadian culture. Is Canada Next? Time to look at the northern border. THE CANADIAN…
From Reuters: Some members of a group of Canadians arrested on terror-related offenses may have been in contact with two U.S. suspects now in custody who were based in Georgia, the FBI said on Saturday. "There is preliminary indication that some of the Canadian subjects may have had limited contact…
The National Jewish Democratic Council responds to the former president's "deeply disappointing attack on Israel."
Hugo Chavez embraces the Venezuela-born terrorist killer who has a soft spot for Osama bin Laden.
Marshall Wittmann of the Democratic Leadership Council is spot on with his comments on Haditha. The media must also provide a sense of proportion. While the press will readily and properly condemn the improper or criminal actions of a few American soldiers, they too infrequently tell the stories of…
LAST WEEK the Washington Post featured a story on Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, the Spanish-Syrian al Qaeda strategist who wrote the 1,600 page Call for a Global Islamic Resistance. The Post story provided a revealing look at Nasar who, despite his capture, remains the leading ideological architect of…
ON MAY 18, the newly appointed New Jersey public advocate, Ronald Chen, released his report on the use of eminent domain. Commissioned by Gov. Corzine, Chen's study is a model of judiciousness and tenacity. It sends a clear message to those bent on abusing the power of eminent domain--in other…
THE MOVEMENT TO REDEFINE MARRIAGE to include same-sex unions has packaged its demands in the rhetoric and images of the civil rights movement. This strategy, though cynical, has enormous strategic utility. For what reasonable, fair-minded American could object to a movement that conjures up images…
SO THE UNITED STATES has brokered a cease-fire among the warring factions in Darfur, and the U.N. Security Council has authorized the deployment of a peacekeeping force. To anyone blissfully unfamiliar with history, this sounds like a decisive step that will finally end the violence that has left…
VIRTUALLY EVERY ASPECT of the war on terror has been met with a lawsuit. Recently the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the ACLU sued the federal government over the NSA's surveillance of international phone calls involving persons inside the United States. They seek court orders ceasing…