204 articles
The nation's largest veterans organization, The American Legion, released the following statement a short time ago: American Legion to Sen. Kerry: Apologize Now INDIANAPOLIS, October 31, 2006 - The National Commander of The American Legion called on Sen. John Kerry to apologize for suggesting that…
Sen. McCain released the following statement today in response to Sen. John Kerry's patronizing remarks on Monday: Senator Kerry owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in…
DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THOSE HEADLINES? "Stem Cells Used to Create Artificial Liver," the New York Times screamed on its front page. "Breakthrough! Stem Cells to One Day Create Organ for Liver Transplant," was how the Washington Post put it. "Stem Cell Breakthrough Demonstrates Viability of New…
Given the Security Council's routine dithering, it's good to see the Bush administration steadily building a parallel and flexible structure to deal with threats rather than just debate them at Turtle Bay. On Monday, the New York Times reports, more than two dozen countries, including three gulf…
NEXT WEEK AT THIS TIME voters will troop to the polls to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 33 of the 100 senators, 36 of the 50 state governors, and hundreds of state, city, and local officials. Opinion polls suggest that the Republicans are in for a drubbing, due to a…
It's no secret that a Giuliani presidential run would complicate McCain's primary strategy just as a Gingrich candidacy would complicate Romney's. Giuliani has obvious strength with independent voters, and he can be very tough on the Democrats. Because he's not a fan of the liberal media…
(Did some checking. It won't happen.) The Washington Post's Kathleen Parker told NBC's Chris Matthews on Sunday that RNC Chair Ken Mehlman "is going to be leaving the National Republican Committee, possibly heading over to the Giuliani camp." That would be big news.
Sen. John Kerry recently claimed on ABC's This Week: "Our own generals tell us the solution in Iraq is not military. If it's not military, don't talk as John McCain does, about putting more troops in…. Talk about how you resolve the political and diplomatic dilemma and sectarian dilemma between…
I like to think that I am the only heterosexual non-transvestite man in America who put on makeup not once but twice this past Thursday. The reason I did was that I appeared on two different television shows in Chicago for the purpose of flogging a new book. I love that word, "flog," even though it…
WHEN FIGHTERS from the radical Islamic Courts Union (ICU) seized Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, in early June, the Western world briefly noticed. Analysts and talking heads were concerned that the country could become a terrorist haven. Then the media largely lost interest, though the situation…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
In a counterinsurgency, the media battlespace is critical. When it comes to mustering public opinion, rallying support, and forcing opponents to shift tactics and timetables to better suit the home team, our terrorist enemies are destroying us. Al Qaeda's media arm is called al Sahab: the cloud. It…
POLICYMAKERS ARE ABUZZ with the explosive recommendations for U.S. policy toward Iraq soon to be released by the Baker-Hamilton Commission: Abandon democracy, seek political compromise with the Sunni insurgents, and engage Tehran and Damascus as partners to secure stability in their neighbor. While…
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS investigation of Harry Reid's Las Vegas real estate razzle-dazzle has made a splash equivalent to a drop of water compared with the tidal wave of media attention surrounding Mark Foley. But that doesn't mean the Senate's top Democrat should escape further scrutiny from…
Lion's Honey
Books, Books, and More Books
IN THE MOVIE A League of Their Own, Tom Hanks was given two of the best lines in the history of baseball flicks. The first, as we all know, was, "There's no crying in baseball!" The second came when one of his players quit the game, telling Hanks it was "too hard." Hanks's brilliant response: "It's…
The Somme
Billings, Montana
Nashville
THAT DAME PLAME
The movie star Warren Beatty, like so many people these days, is getting old, and with the hot breath of mortality on the back of his wattled neck he has undertaken the large project of reclaiming his reputation as a maker of movies. And not a moment too soon, either. Beatty's last several pictures…
THE LIFE STORY of Leo Hayashi, 75, is the stuff of Hollywood epics. Arriving penniless on these shores at age 17, a refugee from war-ravaged Japan via a Siberian concentration camp, he painstakingly scaled the heights of the American dream. He put himself through college, started a one-man…
Borat: Cultural Learnings
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Conversation
David Kuo, once an official of President Bush's faith-based initiative, published a book this month that attacks the White House for privately ridiculing evangelical Christians while cynically manipulating how they vote. The book arrived, cynically enough, just in time for the midterm election--an…
YOU'VE PROBABLY ALL HEARD the phrase "Jumping the shark" by now. It's a show business thing from decades ago that I think has been culture-wide for quite some time. (I only heard it myself about a year ago, which, considering I'm in show business, is probably pathetic.) In case you haven't . . .
The Kremlin hasn't been too interested in slapping stiff sanctions on Iran over its rogue nuclear program. On the Security Council, Russia, with an assist from China, has acted more like defense counsel for Tehran than a responsible member of the international community seeking to stem nuclear…
Politicalmoneyline.com reports that Democratic Senate candidate Ned Lamont has tapped his trust fund again and donated another "$2 million … to his campaign committee, raising his General Election contributions to $8,750,000. This is in addition to the $4,001,500 he contributed to his primary…
Don't be surprised to see former Majority Leader Dick Armey on the debate stage, perhaps in South Carolina this May. Armey knows full well he won't win the nomination. But, as one knowledgeable source told me, he is seriously considering jumping in for the national exposure and for the chance to…
A few weeks back, Senator Clinton and Senator McCain got in a tussle over the Clinton administration's 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea. Sen. Clinton said the Framework was a policy success and a lesson for how to deal with Pyongyang. McCain called it a "failure" and something we shouldn't…
IF A DEMOCRATIC TSUNAMI emerges on Election Day, then it's reasonable to expect California to surf the wave. After all, it's the big blue nation-state that George W. Bush has twice lost by more than 1.2 million votes. Since 1998, with the exception of the 2003 special election, Democrats have won…
JERRY BROWN has been an unabashed and stalwart devotee of left-wing politics throughout his career, but in recent years he has led many to believe that he has joined the political mainstream. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and as mayor of Oakland, Brown has once again reaffirmed his…
The Henry Jackson Society has released an open letter "on the crisis in Darfur, signed by fifty-five politicians, opinion formers, academics and journalists, to both raise awareness of this pressing moral and strategic issue, and call on the international community to end ethnic cleansing in…
From the AP: A Danish court rejected a lawsuit Thursday against the newspaper that first printed the controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoons. Arab politicians and intellectuals warned the verdict would widen the gap between Westerners and Muslims, but said mass protests were unlikely…. The court…
Today's New York Times reports: "The United States and three European allies have given Russia and China a draft text for a Security Council resolution against Iran's nuclear program. The proposal includes the extraordinary step of preventing Iranian students from studying nuclear physics at…
THERE IS NOTHING LIKE AN ATOMIC EXPLOSION to bring clarity to international relations, and the North Korean nuclear test was no exception. Since Pyongyang demonstrated its nuclear capability, the United States and Japan have finally begun to consider the steps that will be necessary to contain…
THE FOLLOWING is a story about revolutions and their young.
From the Los Angeles Times (sub. req'd): U.S. officials, apparently caught off guard by the Saudi government's recent release of more than two dozen former Guantanamo Bay prisoners, are voicing fears that the men will join the camp of violent extremist groups. The Saudis released the 29 men from…
MICHAEL J. FOX is making a splash on television sets across Missouri, appearing in a stem cell commercial attacking Senator Jim Talent during Game 1 of the World Series. According to Fox, "Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science…
The former Democratic senator from Nebraska, Bob Kerrey, understands why the John Kerry-endorsed Ned Lamont must be defeated. He is campaigning with Joe Lieberman today in Connecticut. Kerrey is a member of "Dems for Joe," a band of Democrats who haven't bailed on Joe. The group includes former…
The American Enterprise Institute's Frederick Kagan on... our responsibility in Iraq: Both honor and our vital national interest require establishing conditions in Iraq that will allow the government to consolidate and maintain civil peace and good governance. It doesn't matter how many "trained…
Australian Prime Minister John Howard hasn't shied away from speaking out on the global intimation campaign against free speech. He's also not about to run away from Iraq, and he understands the consequences of defeat. Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday the Iraq mission was not easy, "but we…
ON NOVEMBER 8, 2002, Howard Dean spoke before a lunchtime audience of a few dozen Manhattan elites at the Yale Club of New York City. His speech was stirring, passionate, and candid.
Phillip Carter, who served with the 101st Airborne in Iraq, has an interesting piece, "The Thin Green Line," in Slate. He argues precisely against the kind of "over-the-horizon" troop redeployment advocated by many senior Democrats. Some highlights: Despite having 140,000 troops in Iraq, our…
From AFP: Fear of the spread of Islam in non-Muslim countries motivates attacks on Muslims in the West, the imam of Islam's holiest shrine has told worshippers celebrating Eid al-Fitr feast. "Did you wonder why this issue is raised every now and then?" Sheikh Saleh bin Humaid, who also heads the…
For all her talk about changing the tone in Washington, Rep. Pelosi evidently wants to inject more partisanship into the House Intelligence Committee. Today's New York Times reports that a Speaker Pelosi would not appoint Rep. Jane Harman to chair the committee. Why? It isn't because Harmon isn't…
SO WE LIVE in a globalized world, which impacts on jobs, wages, consumers, and producers. All of which already have received too much attention to require further comment by me.
Senator Clinton is a very shrewd politician. She's trying to pull off the nearly impossible: be tough on national security while not alienating too many Democratic primary voters. Her latest two-step is on the terror detainee bill. She opposed the bill and drew wild applause from the Left with this…
Rather than engage in this nonsense, the RNC should take the advice of former Clintonite Dick Morris in today's New York Post: Here's one possible ad: We see and hear a wiretapped conversation, with a terrorist revealing his worst plans to his associate - and, inadvertently, to government…
("Iran is expanding its uranium enrichment program," reports the AP, "even as the U.N. Security Council focuses on possible sanctions for its defiance of a demand to give up the activity and ease fears it seeks nuclear weapons….") USA Today has a good editorial on Russian complicity in Iran's…
Neoconservatism
WHILE THE REST of the nation lurches ahead to Election Day, California remains stuck in a time warp.
THE FUTURE ain't what it used to be. You can't count on the inevitable any more. When the highest court in Massachusetts announced on November 18, 2003, that a right to same-sex marriage was contained in the Bay State's 226-year-old constitution, it seemed as if that court's self-concept--boldly…
On a trip to Ireland last month, I began every morning with a dose of whiskey before enjoying some great crack during the day. Don't be alarmed, though: The whiskey was mixed in my porridge, along with some cream--a legitimate Irish delicacy--and "crack" (actually spelled craic) is Irish for good…
NOW THAT NORTH KOREA has called America's diplomatic bluff by testing a nuclear device, and the wrangling has begun over how best to sanction Pyongyang, the question arises of what's in store for Iran. Will we bomb? Some insiders say yes, that President Bush has already decided that if Iran fails…
REPUBLICANS and conservatives, brace yourselves! Strategists and consultants of both parties now believe the House is lost and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi will become speaker. At best, Republicans will cling to control of the Senate by a single seat, two at most. For many election cycles,…
On October 11, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spoke--and it became clear just how bad things are. Interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle's Debra Saunders, Rice praised the U.N. Security Council for "a good year":
The Colosseum
We are wayfaring, wandering gypsies alone
Around the time Theodore H. White ended his Making of the President series, Jules Witcover emerged as his de facto successor. Witcover wrote big, sprawling books about the modern presidential campaign. By himself, he wrote three dealing with the 1968 presidential race--The Resurrection of Richard…
ANOTHER SIDE OF DYLAN
London
IN RUSSIA, gangsters have the macabre custom of making a birthday present of a murder. On Vladimir Putin's 54th birthday, one of his fiercest domestic critics, the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was shot to death in her apartment building in central Moscow. She worked for the weekly Novaya Gazeta,…
Is jihadism growing exponentially because of Iraq? The liberal parts of the press, Democratic politicians, and numerous counterterrorist experts say as much. They cite the classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) "Trends in Global Terrorism," completed in April 2006 but recently leaked in…
Little Children
Walking into the Owen Gallery on New York's 75th Street in April 1999, John Clubbe saw a gorgeous portrait of Lord Byron hanging on the gallery wall. It left him utterly astonished. Clubbe stood transfixed, staring at Byron's face. A Byron scholar for 40 years, he knew all the major portraits of…
ON SUNDAY, October 8, the "public editor" of the New York Times, Byron Calame, criticized Times reporter Linda Greenhouse for a speech she delivered last June at Harvard. Greenhouse, described by Calame as the paper's "much-honored Supreme Court reporter for 28 years," preached to the liberal choir…
The First Cold Warrior
Our Library Overfloweth
LIKE OTHER DEEP-THINKING people, I'm full of principled, idealistic, high-minded indignation at the GOP. What a stampede of sleaze. Jack Abramoff is the world's best lobbyist--for the Federal Penitentiary System. Bob Ney was deep in the ethical rough at St. Andrew's. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's…
East Rutherford, N.J.
The Associated Press reports: 43 French bag handlers denied clearance Authorities rescinded the security clearance of 43 baggage handlers at France's main international airport due to suspicions they were connected with radical organizations, a top government minister said Saturday…. "I cannot…
(From today's LA Times: "The option of regionalizing the effort -- with the help of Iran and Syria -- appears to have the support of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, the Iraq Study Group co-chairman. The senior U.S. official said that such an approach would require Washington to set…
Here's the latest RNC campaign ad and the DNC's response.
From the Associated Press: A controversial U.S. military propaganda program used in the Iraq war was legal, a Pentagon investigation has found. The Defense Department inspector general's report said laws on psychological operations were followed when the military planted and paid for favorable…
Here's a taste of what Chris Matthews had to say the other night to a college audience at Iowa State: MATTHEWS: How many in this room believe in the war in Iraq from beginning to now, support the war in its full reality? The senator is one of those. Who else agrees with him? Stand up. Stand up,…
Via Hotline blog: Entertainment Weekly: So is there any conceivable possibility in the modern world for the assertion of conventional heroism? EASTWOOD: I don't see it right now. I certainly don't see any politician that's a hero in any party anywhere. I think John McCain did something that I don't…
Today's New York Times has an interesting piece on North Korea's history of proliferating weapons and related material by registering its ships under foreign flags. It also shows how critical it is that Beijing aggressively inspect North Korean shipments coming across the Chinese border. Beijing's…
In July, I noted the following: If the world flinches and the Iranian regime is allowed to move forward with its nuclear weapons plans, does anyone honestly believe the Israelis won't act at some point to stop or degrade Tehran's ability to produce a bomb - even if it takes weeks to do it? I doubt…
Putin's efforts to destabilize the Republic of Georgia, a pro-Western democracy, continue. The Associated Press reports that Russian sanctions have effectively severed the Caucasus nation from its biggest market and supplier. Transport and postal links are suspended. Russian canned foods, cooking…
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, the California ballot is a special place. Not only does it let citizens exercise their right to vote, but for the left it's a chance to exorcise some serious demons.
Secretary of State Rice told a news conference held today in Seoul: I hope it (China) has been successful in saying to North Korea that there is really only one path, which is denuclearization and dismantlement of its programs. But there's another path Pyongyang may be eyeing: pop off a few more…
The media have been waiting for an Iraqi "Tet" for a while. In October 2004, dozens of news stories talked about the enemy's Tet strategy in Iraq. Attacks did spike before the presidential election, but not enough to derail Bush's victory. Now, the Tet talk is back with the president's latest…
From AFP: Islamic extremists "viewed 7/7 (the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks on London's transport network) as just the beginning," an unnamed senior source said…. Britain is seen as an easier threat for Al-Qaeda than many other countries because of its historic links with Pakistan, with tens of…
LAST WEEK, John Pike, founder and director of globalsecurity.org, offered his opinion that the nuclear test conducted by North Korea may have been neither a "first test," nor a test of a conventional fission bomb. Rather, Pike said that the North Koreans may have been testing a "trigger device" for…
Here are two pieces on Khartoum's support for the Arab militias that are brutalizing the people of Darfur. A defector tells the BBC that the Janjaweed take orders directly from the Sudanese government. "The Janjaweed don't make decisions. The orders always come from the government," he said. "They…
Remember the Afghan man who faced execution because he converted to Christianity? Well, radical Islamists what him back presumably so they can kill him. And if the Italian government doesn't hand him over, the group says they'll murder the Italian journalist they've kidnapped. Disgusting. From AFP:…
Max Boot, author of War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History: 1500 to Today, writes in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times (reg. req'd): OF THE MANY failures that have bedeviled the American military effort in Iraq, few are as inexplicable and costly as the failure to commit more…
PACIFISM AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS DON'T MIX. Just look at Japan. In October 1999, when Liberal vice defense minister Shingo Nishimura casually remarked that Tokyo should consider going nuclear, his colleagues nearly choked. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi rebuked him, as did Liberal party boss Ichiro Ozawa,…
Following today's signing ceremony for the Military Commissions Act of 2006, a close friend and top-notch lawyer emails: Any challenge to this law will be forum shopped--most likely in San Francisco or perhaps in Michigan somewhere. It will likely be overturned at the District Court level and then…
Today's Los Angeles Times reports: The former secretary of State, who was a longtime aide to former President George H.W. Bush, also said he favored reaching out to Iran and Syria. "I personally believe in talking to your enemies," [Secretary James Baker] said. "Neither the Syrians nor the Iranians…
In a debate yesterday, Sen. Lieberman urged Senate confirmation of John Bolton to be the permanent UN ambassador. "I see no reason not to be for Bolton," said Lieberman. This is another reason to admire the senator from Connecticut who will soon cruise to reelection on November 7.
NORTH KOREA'S ABILITY and willingness to set off a nuclear device of some sort is being blamed on a failure of American diplomacy. Never mind that Kim Jong Il's survival depends on the continued support of China, or that Russia has consistently refused to help pressure North Korea to end its bid to…
ENGLISH LIBEL LAW, long a torment for journalists, has changed dramatically, with particularly significant consequences for the investigation of the powerful Saudi subjects who allegedly financed al Qaeda.
Going back to the early 1990s, Africa has been a target for al Qaeda. Two letters, dated September 30, 1993 and May 24, 1994, captured during US military operations in Afghanistan related directly to al Qaeda "African Corps" operations in Somalia before and after the U.S. withdrawal in early 1994.…
(The AP reports some good news: "Guatemala, whose candidacy had been backed by the United States, received 109 votes, 15 short of the necessary 124 and triggering a second round. Venezuela trailed with 76 votes." Russia and China reportedly backed Chavez.) Posted on August 9, 2006: This fall the UN…
The Army's top brass have been privately telling folks around D.C. that they could use another 60-80,000 troops. Last week, Senator McCain argued that our ground forces are "overstretched at a time of widespread and very serious challenges" and that we need to "increase substantially the troop…
FIRST, LET'S DISPENSE with formalities and come to quick agreement on the gathering scandal of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., whose lascivious emails and instant messages to House pages have Washington in thrall. The Foley epistles are "abhorrent" (House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi), "repulsive"…
"It shocks the conscience. Congressional leaders have admitted covering up the predatory behavior of a congressman who used the Internet to molest children. For over a year, they knowingly ignored the welfare of children to protect their own power. For 17 years, Patty Wetterling has fought for…
Henri Rousseau:
The last of the grand old Washington department stores, Hecht's, disappeared a couple of weeks ago, all of its properties being rebranded as Macy's stores. It was, the Washington Post intoned, the "end of an era." I, for one, was not overcome with nostalgia at the passing of Hecht's. Indeed, I…
HERE WE ARE AGAIN. Kim Jong Il is doing what we have come to expect of him: threatening the world and engaging in nuclear brinkmanship. And this time the Dear Leader is declaring his regime's intention to test an actual nuclear weapon.
Port St. Lucie, Florida
The Greenhouse Effect
Fields of Honor
BIBLES 'PLACED BY FDR'
IN 1983, REPRESENTATIVE GERRY Studds, Democrat of Massachusetts, admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old male page. He was censured by the House of Representatives. During the vote, which he was compelled by House rules to be present for, Studds turned his back on the House to show his contempt…
The Dark Genius
The End of Commitment
The Queen
Now in the sixth year of his crisis-wracked presidency, George W. Bush is perceived as being in desperate trouble, having spent the two years since his reelection falling all over his feet. His democracy project looks stalled, his drive to reform Social Security seems to have been a huge waste of…
ON SEPTEMBER 20, the State Department denied a visa to Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan on the grounds that he had contributed around 600 euros to a French charity classified as a terrorist organization since 2003 because of its relationship with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. This latest…
THE ROBERTS COURT has begun its 2006-07 session, and already on the docket are hot-ticket cases involving the use of race in school admissions, the use of child-victim statements in criminal-abuse cases, and the federal government's obligation to regulate greenhouse gases. But the case that may…
Hubris
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is often smiling, as if he knows something we don't, or at least not yet. It is tempting to view him as a madman. That way, when he speaks of wiping Israel off the face of the earth, we might convince ourselves that he is no more than a fanatical front man for…
NOW NUMBERING OVER 500 million, and probably the fastest growing religious movement in the world, Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians are transforming the global religious demographic, especially in Latin America and Africa. They comprise nearly half of Brazil's population, and 25 percent of the…
This Kerry interview from today's Washington Post suggests that post 9/11 he wouldn't have overthrown the Taliban regime as part of his strategy to go after bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda leaders: KERRY: …For instance, in response to 9/11, there's clarity. We've got to go kill al-Qaeda....…
From The Australian: An elite Australian Special Air Service team of about 20 soldiers has been involved in a joint military operation in the southern Philippines to hunt down Asia's most wanted terrorists, including two of the 2002 Bali bombers. The SAS has been participating in a US-Philippines…
Of all the presidential camps to use Vietnam against McCain, the Clinton folks should be the last one. This is from Maureen Dowd's column in today's New York Times: Privately, Hillary's camp was not overly upset by the McCain swipe because it suspected he was doing the bidding of the White House…
InsideDefense.com's Elaine Grossman tackles that question here.
The International Crisis Group has released its latest report on Darfur. They write: Unless concerted action is taken against the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), Khartoum will continue its military campaign, with deadly consequences for civilians, while paying only lip service to its many…
Did anyone else notice that in Jimmy Carter's history of North Korea's nuclear program he failed to mention even once that after 1995 Pyongyang had been running a secret uranium enrichment program, a program that violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (which the North was still a party to at…
LIBERAL CELEBRITY (or celebrity liberal) Al Franken is not the sort of guy who leaves you with a lot of questions about who he is or what he's all about. Except for the simple one: What moved the Saturday Night Live quipster to transform himself into an ardent liberal crusader?
SINCE JOURNEYING to Zimbabwe in August, the situation there seems to have gone from bad to worse. On September 13, police detained and allegedly tortured top union leaders planning to hold peaceful demonstrations in the country's major cities. The following week, the government denied entry to a…
WHILE NORTH KOREA claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon this week, according to the Washington Times, U.S. officials remain skeptical. But whatever it was that the North Koreans exploded underneath a mountain, the blast registered somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.0 on the Richter…
I'm sorry to hear that former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner has bowed out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. If you're a JFK-Scoop Jackson Democrat, where do you turn? Hillary? Gore? Kerry? Edwards? All four have now positioned themselves to the left on major national security…
ON THE FAR SHORES of the Black Sea, just south of the Caucasus mountains, mounting tensions between the Kremlin and tiny Georgia seem to have gotten out of hand.
Here's more evidence from the AP: The U.N. said Thursday it has temporarily pulled international staff out of parts of Somalia controlled by Islamic radicals after receiving written threats. The U.N. said the threats came shortly after the Sept. 17 shooting deaths of an Italian nun and her…
BEFORE ENTERING THE COUNTERTERRORISM FIELD, I worked for a radical Islamic charity called the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation. In this capacity, I gained some familiarity with the kind of Islamic extremist literature that often finds its way into the U.S. prison system and thus influences inmates'…
Many Americans probably view Sen. McCain's statement that the Clinton administration's 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea was a "failure" as an obvious point. McCain's comment came after Sen. Hillary Clinton and other senior Democrats were all over the media touting the '94 agreement as a model…
From today's Wall Street Journal editorial: Are Messrs. Reid, Dean, Menendez et al. concerned about nuclear weapons getting into terrorist hands and U.S. ports? They tell us they are. Then perhaps they might publicly call on China and Russia to join the Proliferation Security Initiative, the most…
PRESIDENT BUSH VISITED the Housing and Urban Development headquarters--the first president to do so since LBJ--in June 2002 to announce a housing policy goal: 5.5 million more minority homeowners by the end of the decade. His motivation was the wide disparity between white and minority…
SEPTEMBER 2006 brought an unprecedented development in the Middle East: The government of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh held open, contested presidential elections. Candidates were able to rally and campaign freely, each of the five candidates was given equal airtime on state-run television,…
Since Sen. Clinton is fond of her administration's 1994 deal with North Korea, I wonder if she feels the same about the deal the Clinton administration cut with the Russians a year later -- a deal that "emboldened Moscow to ignore other agreements, particularly on sales of missile and nuclear…
The senator's office just released the following statement: McCAIN CALLS FOR TOUGH SANCTIONS BY U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL, REBUTS SEN. CLINTON'S CRITICSM, CITING FAILURE OF CLINTON ADMINISTRATION POLICIES ON NORTH KOREA Washington D.C. -- U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) today expressed support for…
In today's New York Post, Ralph Peters calls for a larger Army and Marine Corps and also notes: "Had the same voices demanded another 100,000-plus troops in 2003 or even 2004, it would have made a profound, positive difference. Now it's too late." But there were voices back then worried that we…
IF YOU ARE THE SORT who thinks that the free movement of goods, capital, and people enriches all the world's nations, you are probably worried because the Doha round of trade talks is on life support and the plug is about to be pulled. And if you are the sort who worries when another nation's laws…
Since 2003, there haven't been nearly enough U.S. troops in Iraq (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). And today this from AP: For months, soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade fought in riverside towns of western Iraq, trying to clamp off the flow of foreign fighters and…
This isn't just about North Korea. You can bet that Tehran is watching the world's reaction to Pyongyang's defiance very closely. If confirmed, will North Korea pay a price for exploding a nuclear weapon or will the world community huff and puff and sweep all this unpleasantness under the rug? Will…
Three months ago Pyongyang fired off a missile, but the Security Council didn't do much about it. Today they reportedly conducted a nuclear test, and some commentators are already saying we can't do much about it except engage in "direct talks" with the North. Not so, says the AEI's Dan Blumenthal,…
THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM is that the ascension of Japan's Shinzo Abe to the prime minister's post is bad news for Japan and, by extension, the United States. Abe is an ardent nationalist who, the thinking goes, will unleash the country's lurking militarism, thus isolating Japan and, indirectly,…
The Notebooks of
Mecca
The Departed
Here's how Washington works. On September 28, 2003, the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department was investigating the leak to columnist Robert Novak of the name of a CIA officer married to Joseph Wilson, the former diplomat who had accused President Bush of lying about Iraq. The same…
The Show Must Go On?
NOTICE: The material in this "Casual" (COLUMN) has been prepared by an individual or individuals (referred to hereafter as PREPARER) in the employ of THE WEEKLY STANDARD magazine LLC (MAGAZINE) and not by MAGAZINE itself. COLUMN therefore does not constitute work product transferable for any…
When Illness Goes Public
Port-au-Prince
Minneapolis
After This
The Barbary Wars
Cosmopolitanism
WHEN THE Washington Monthly recently asked seven conservatives to explain why they were rooting for GOP defeat this November, some of them complained about the Iraq war, some about the Bush administration's expansive view of executive power, some about the GOP's opposition to stem-cell research.…
"TRANSNISTRIA'S integration into Russia will proceed in several phases, and it may take 5 to 7 years," said the breakaway Moldovan region's foreign minister, Valery Litskai, to Russia's Interfax news agency earlier this month. "Russian society is now ready to expand beyond the . . . borders it has…
PHAM XUAN AN, the gifted Time magazine war correspondent who secretly served as a spy for Vietnamese Communists in Hanoi during the war, died last week. The obituaries were remarkably kind. An was remembered as an excellent journalist who by day filed dispatches for Time and at night sent microfilm…
"Americans face the choice between two parties with two different attitudes on this war on terror." --George W. Bush, September 28, 2006 President Bush is right. It would be nice if he weren't. The country would be better off if there were bipartisan agreement on what is at stake in the struggle…
(Are seeing-eye dogs next? A faithful reader from Australia emails this from the Herald Sun.) (The Australian weighs in with this editorial: "It is a situation which both demonstrates the global nature of the debate on values and which presents a textbook case of how not to deal with Islamic…
Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered last night in Moscow, reports Reuters: Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow, police said. "According to initial information she was killed…
(The Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial (sub req'd) this morning on standing with Georgia. They write: "The world needs to watch Russia's current pressure on Georgia. Its decision this week to ban trade, travel and postal links to neighboring Georgia isn't the first time Moscow has…
From the AP: McCain spoke to a crowd of more than 120 Army, Marine, Navy and Air Force veterans and their families [in South Carolina] at a monument to dead service members. One wing of the monument had a handful of names of people killed in the first Gulf War and during the past two years in Iraq…
Reuters reports: PRAGUE, Oct 6 - Islamic extremists planned to kidnap dozens of Jews in Prague and hold them hostage before murdering them, the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes reported on Friday. The Czech Republic's leading newspaper quoted unidentified sources close to intelligence agencies as saying the…
Though I'm a rabid Red Sox fan, I have to say that the New York Yankees are a class act when it comes to helping our injured men and women in the armed forces. I am on the board of the Wounded Warrior Project, and the Yankees have helped our Wounded Warriors in many ways. Without their generosity…
The Foley mess has thrown Republicans back on their heels, and the Democrats would like to keep them off balance. But through it all, one poll number has remained relatively constant: the GOP still has a sizable edge on the security issue in many surveys. Today's Wall Street Journal notes (see here…
General James L. Jones, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, does not soft-pedal the growing troubles in Afghanistan. Drug trafficking, corruption, dodgy police forces, terrorist mayhem--to rattle off the list can be dispiriting. Afghanistan has held two successful national elections since 2004,…
WHO EVER THOUGHT that torture could be so funny? One man was branded with a cattle iron. Two others were covered with stinging insects. Another had a fishing hook tear through the cartilage of his cheek. Yet another had his reproductive organ bitten by a snake.
IT'S NO SECRET that the American electorate is generally uninformed when it comes to politics--only 61 percent can identify the vice president. And it's also not a big surprise that students are no exception--a 2000 study discovered that 99 and 98 percent of college seniors could identify Beavis…
The NYT's Michael Gordon reports on the military's new counterinsurgency doctrine. Some highlights: [The doctrine] draws on the hard-learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military strategy…. The current military leadership in Iraq has…
(Today's Washington Post has a lengthy piece on the GSPC. A couple of points: The Post suggests that since 2003 the GSPC "has planted deep roots in Europe [and] in the past year, authorities have broken up cells in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland…" But there's evidence (see below)…
WHEN CRITICS BEMOAN the politicization of science, they usually point a bitter finger at the Bush administration. Their condemnation should actually be aimed in the opposite direction. Increasingly, it is the scientists themselves--or better stated the leaders of the science sector--who are…
THE FIVE-YEAR LEGAL DEBATE over the global war on terror has focused predominantly on first principles: What does our Constitution allow? What does it forbid? But in those five years, three of the Supreme Court's four decisions have rested on statutory, not constitutional, grounds. The recent…
Hundreds of thousands of non-Arabs have been killed in Darfur, with more killed and displaced every day, and this is the cheap politics being played by Arab governments. From the Associated Press: Maamoun Fandy of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London said the Arab League is…
(The Australian weighs in with this editorial: "It is a situation which both demonstrates the global nature of the debate on values and which presents a textbook case of how not to deal with Islamic fundamentalists in the West. Rather than threatening such cabbies with fines or loss of licence for…
Germany's Spiegel has a provocative interview with Bassam Tibi, the Syrian-born Islam expert who became a German citizen in 1967. SPIEGEL: The administrator of one of Berlin's opera houses, the Deutsche Oper, has cancelled the Mozart Opera "Idomeneo" out of fear of an Islamist reaction. Is this the…
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN about the Treasury Department's role in making economic policy under the Bush administration. Many have argued that Treasury's influence has been shrinking. As a senior Treasury official from 2001 until 2005, I did not share that view, but whatever your opinion on the matter,…
Editor's note: The Los Angeles Times recently asked a group of notables for their alternate nominations for this year's Nobel Prizes. The full results were published in the October 1, 2006 edition. Below is William Kristol's nominee. The Nobel Prize for literature should go to the American…
(Will Sen. Clinton et al. file an amicus brief in this case? According to Reuters, "attorneys for 25 men being held in Afghanistan launched a pre-emptive strike Monday against President Bush's plan to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects. Court documents filed Monday demand that the men be…
Radio Free Europe reports: There was a time when teachers in Iran's schools used to give students golden paper stars to encourage them. Nowadays it seems that stars are being given for punishment: the term "students with stars" is used to describe students who have been expelled or suspended from a…
George Will, a supporter of the Iraq invasion, writes approvingly about this nugget from Bob Woodward's State of Denial: The book actually includes one heartening story that should enhance Rumsfeld's reputation. On Veterans Day, 2005, the president traveled to a Pennsylvania Army depot to deliver a…
SURPRISES: they come to economists not singly, but in battalions. Just when many analysts were cranking out reports of a peak in oil production, and a permanent new era of $80 or $100 oil, crude oil prices fell by about 25 percent. The multiple surprises that produced this drop include:
YOU COULD HEAR the tension over the radios.
A couple of things from this interview with former Reagan Navy Secretary John Lehman: "We're building only five ships a year; we're on the way to a 150-ship Navy" he says. In his view, that is courting disaster. "That is not enough to cover our security requirements," he says. "Seventy-percent of…
(The Russian screw tightens, reports The Independent in Britain.) (Moscow has never fully accepted Georgia's independence and continues its intimidation campaign against this struggling democracy. Last January, the Kremlin cut off gas supplies to the Ukraine to punish Kiev. Is Tbilisi next? Will…
The war is a big issue in an extremely competitive eastern Iowa Congressional race. Democratic Bruce Braley wants to runaway from Iraq (see here for more on Dem withdrawal plans), while his opponent, Mike Whalen, doesn't. Braley has been warmly embraced by the very liberal Sen. Tom Harkin and is so…
Back Before the Theocrats Took Over
Not long ago, George Felix Allen was among the three or four Republicans most likely to win his party's 2008 presidential nomination. He was a known quantity: Virginia governor, then U.S. senator, a conservative with a pleasant demeanor, and a loyal supporter of President Bush. He had attracted top…
London
NINE YEARS AGO IN THESE pages, in an article on new EPA air pollution standards ("The EPA's Hot Air," July 7, 1997), I predicted that lawn mowers would one day fall victim to these onerous and unnecessary regulations. This was not really going out on a limb. In 1994, the Clinton EPA administrator…
You can hardly read a story about Iraq these days without seeing an Army or Marine officer say he doesn't have enough troops to accomplish his mission. Senior officers respond that this is what junior commanders always say. That's not quite true. Commanders in charge of secondary missions often ask…
WATCHING HUMAN RIGHTS
INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS woke up on September 5 to unsettling news. The government of Pakistan, they learned, had entered into a peace agreement with the Taliban insurgency that essentially cedes authority in North Waziristan, the mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, to the Taliban and al…
To the memory of Oriana Fallaci
Rules of Engagement
I'm very much looking forward to seeing the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie. It's a spinoff from his popular British television series, Da Ali G Show, and features Borat, a fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan, played by Cohen. The movie's ostensible title is Cultural Learnings of America for Make…
My Dear Mr. Stalin
A LITTLE MORE THAN three years ago, Morocco experienced Islamic terrorism firsthand. On May 16, 2003, Casablanca was hit with four simultaneous attacks that left 45 people dead and hundreds injured. The attacks were perpetrated by Moroccan citizens who were members of the al Qaeda-affiliated…
Jacques & Raissa Maritain
The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability by Laura Kipnis (Pantheon, 192 pp., $23.95). Thanks to Laura Kipnis, I overcame my addiction to chocolate, cancelled my weekly psychiatric appointment, and no longer get anxious when my boyfriend doesn't call.
Agood deal of hoopla greeted the grizzled rock-musician Neil Young's musical assault on George W. Bush earlier this year. His album Living With War included a hundred-voice choir singing a song entitled "Let's Impeach the President." For those survivors of anti-Vietnam war protests, and their…
ON SEPTEMBER 8, the American Constitution Society announced the formation of its first official law journal, the Harvard Law & Policy Review. According to the letter, the new journal "will be a forum through which many esteemed legal scholars, advocates and policymakers will rigorously engage and…
I suspect this issue will surface at other airports in the U.S. From the AP: Muslim Cabdrivers May Have to Signify Alcohol-Free Cars MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 30 (AP) - Hundreds of Muslim cabdrivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport may soon be required to put different colored lights atop…
Yesterday's Washington Post reports: Senate and House conferees also agreed yesterday on $463 billion in overall defense spending for fiscal 2007, a 3.6 percent increase over 2006. To ease the strain on U.S. ground forces, the conference report called for an increase of 30,000 soldiers and 5,000…