195 articles
BOTH FRANCE AND the United States will hold presidential elections in the next 24 months: France in April-May 2007 and the United States in November 2008. Earlier this month, the members of France's Socialist party overwhelmingly voted to nominate the telegenic female MP Ségolène Royal as their…
THIS PAST JULY, at an event at the Ronald Reagan Building on Pennsylvania Avenue that amounts to a kind of prom for trade policy wonks, the Washington International Trade Association (WITA) presented its annual Lifetime Achievement Award to outgoing Republican congressman Jim Kolbe of Arizona. That…
It's worth remembering as we consider the consequences of exiting Iraq along the lines advocated by some Washington politicians. "The first stage," Zawahiri wrote in his July 2005 letter to Zarqawi, is to "expel the Americans from Iraq." He also counseled Zarqawi to be prepared: [T]hings may…
(The assassin speaks. From the AP: "Syrian President Bashar Assad said Wednesday his country will continue to challenge U.S. efforts to exert control over the Middle East, sounding a defiant tone ahead of President Bush's arrival in the region for talks on Iraq. 'Colonialism has not ended. In the…
THE LARGEST PRISON in Delhi, Tihar Jail, has a "mother-in-law" cell block, currently home to roughly 120 women, some of whom are serving 20-year sentences for murdering their daughters-in-law. The majority of these crimes stem from disputes over dowry: A bride whose dowry payments are viewed as…
CNN reports today: Pelosi 'sad' over Bush's Iraq representation WASHINGTON -- House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said Tuesday she feels "sad" President Bush blamed insurgent violence on al Qaeda while he dismissed notions Iraq is in a civil war. "My thoughts on the president's…
Will the Baker-Hamilton Commission endorse the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq on a hard timetable? That's highly unlikely. The president has flatly rejected withdrawal timetables, so it's hard to believe Sec. Baker would go along with such a recommendation for this reason alone. What about…
Newt weighs in on the Iraq commission here.
I'm confident the Iranian regime will act even more responsibly if it manages to acquire nuclear weapons. From today's New York Times: A senior American intelligence official said Monday that the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah had been training members of the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi Shiite militia…
A HOSTILE COUNTRY with the world's fastest growing army lies 90 miles away. Slightly to the North, an eccentric dictator just acquired a nuclear bomb. Your friendliest neighbor is constitutionally prohibited from having any military at all. The one country willing to defend you sits on the far side…
ROSY SCENARIO may be the belle of the Christmas ball, but she is due to be replaced by her only slightly less ebullient cousin, Goldilocks, in the New Year. In business-press jargon, all signs are that retailers here will have a merry Christmas, to be followed by a slowing but still healthy economy…
Have Rep. Tom Tancredo face off against Mark Udall for the Allard seat. From the Denver Post: The buzz in U.S. Senate circles is that Wayne Allard might honor his pledge to serve just two terms and retire to that new home he and his wife, Joan, are building in Jackson County…. Allard is in the…
A few weeks ago, I noted that Tehran would likely demand that in exchange for its "cooperation" in Iraq the U.S. must stop pushing for punitive action against them on the Security Council. Guess what? On Sunday, the AP reports, Ahmadinejad said that "he would help the United States bring calm to…
The Turkey
Paris
APART FROM THE DEATH of a journalist, the saddest story for anyone in the news business--and the one most likely to waste expensive newsprint--is the martyrdom of an editor at the hands of his proprietor. There have been quite a few lately, and with the crisis of the newspaper business, there will…
The Armenians
A Glorious Disaster
COULD A REGIONAL conference, drawing in all of Iraq's neighbors, help save us and the Iraqis from a massive civil war in Mesopotamia? It is difficult to think what the United States might offer at the negotiating table that would cause Iraq's neighbors to stop seeing it in their interest to foment…
Roughly three months ago, I resolved to stop swearing. Not that I used profanity relentlessly, but I had begun to notice that I was availing myself of it more and more--and doing so in situations where I used to be more restrained: among what used to be called mixed company.
Remembering Corporal Dunham
AMERICA IS FINISHED as a great power. Not because it no longer possesses the resources, but because it has lost the will. That was brought home to me on both ends of a recent trip through London's Heathrow airport en route to Phoenix.
This year's Oscars reinforced for many Americans the view of Hollywood as the land of obdurate limousine liberalism. Four of the five best picture nominees were self-consciously "progressive" films: Good Night, and Good Luck (on fighting McCarthyism); eventual winner Crash (on how everyone is…
Volver
AL QAEDA'S VIETNAM?
WHEN THEY MET last week to elect their new leadership, House Democrats saved the most contentious decision for last. The caucus quickly named Nancy Pelosi of California speaker-designate before electing Jim Clyburn of South Carolina majority whip and Rahm Emanuel of Illinois caucus chairman. All…
BY APPOINTING Florida senator Mel Martinez to chair the Republican National Committee, President Bush sent a blunt message to conservatives: "Drop dead." That's the opinion of Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, who has lobbied hard against Bush's…
Ramadi
Copenhagen
RARELY HAS THE PRESS gotten a story so wrong. Robert Gates, President Bush's choice to replace Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, is not the point man for a boarding party of former national security officials from the elder President Bush's administration taking over defense and foreign policy in his…
General John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. Central Command and the man with overall statutory responsibility for conducting the war in Iraq, testified last week in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Before coming to Washington, Abizaid had spent several days in Iraq, consulting with the…
ON A SLOW post-Thanksgiving Sunday, Rep. Charles Rangel wins the award for stupidest comment of the day while appearing on Fox News Sunday. Expounding on his drive to reinstate the draft, Rangel said that "no young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of…
This piece originally appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of the International Economy.
This (free sub. req'd) quote -- "Rumsfeld is being vilified for our fate in Iraq. He does not get enough credit for dragging the DOD, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century" -- from the former undersecretary of defense in yesterday's Miami Herald reminds me of what Marion Barry, then mayor of…
I have to wonder what exactly the president got out of his stopover in Moscow on his way to the APEC summit a little over a week ago. He traveled well out of his way to chat with Putin. Since then, and despite our objections, the Kremlin has gone ahead with the delivery of an air-defense system to…
Evidently, the world soccer federation is a tougher outfit than the UN Security Council. From the AP: ZURICH, Switzerland - Iran was suspended from international soccer by FIFA on Thursday because of government interference with the country's soccer federation. The decision was made Wednesday at an…
SCIENTISTS SHOULD BE UP IN ARMS against "science advocates" who undermine the reputation of science by engaging in deception, obfuscation, spin, and hype to win the political debate over embryonic stem-cell and human cloning research. The latest such low blow comes from the Houston-based Alliance…
On this day, I wanted to highlight two organizations that assist active duty service members and disabled veterans. Profiled in the Weekly Standard, Unmet Needs is a charity that helps military families facing financial difficulties. Needs.jpg In addition, I am on the board of the Wounded Warrior…
The biannual Top500 supercomputers list is out. IBM retains the top spot with its BlueGene system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. BlueGene's performance comes in at 280.6 trillion calculations per second. Of the ten most powerful supercomputers in the world, seven are in the U.S. with…
If I were an Islamist, a terrorist, a sworn foe of democracy, here is what I think I would have learned from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is what I would write down in my hard-earned manual of instruction.
The Connecticut senator made some blunt comments last night on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes: HANNITY: [I]f Barack Obama and Senator Levin want to cut and run [from Iraq]? Are you going to stand in strong opposition to them? LIEBERMAN: You bet I am. I mean, they're now proposing that we begin a…
PRESUMABLY, outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has already sent condolences to his old friend, the former president of Lebanon, Amin Gemayel. On Tuesday, his son, Pierre, the 34-year-old minister of Industry was killed in Beirut when an assassin stepped up to his car window and shot him.
THE DEPTH OF Republican losses on November 7 has prompted some thoughtful reflections, but it has also caused some needless, and potentially damaging, finger-pointing and handwringing. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who has broad support among both social and economic conservatives, has…
(Darn. The conspiracy has been exposed.) It's no surprise that Senator Lieberman has tapped Marshall Wittmann of the Democratic Leadership Council to be his communications director and informal political advisor. During the campaign, Wittmann, a registered Independent, frequently battled the…
(From Reuters: "Anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Wednesday he expected more assassinations of ministers and members of parliament aimed at undermining the ruling majority. 'We have to expect, and this is my impression unfortunately, more assassinations of ministers and…
Gov. Romney's interview with the Washington Examiner is interesting not for his direct attack on Sen. McCain, one of the few politicians who has actually exhibited leadership on the Iraq War, but this statement: "I'm a conservative Republican, there's no question about that…. I'm at a different…
THE ALCHEMISTS who run America's airlines are at it again, attempting to turn base metals into gold. US Airways' almost $9 billion hostile bid for bankrupt Delta, if successful, would create the industry's largest carrier and might be followed by the long-rumored merger of United with Continental,…
From the Sunday Telegraph: Ayatollah who backs suicide bombs aims to be Iran's next spiritual leader An ultra-conservative Iranian cleric who opposes all dialogue with the West is a frontrunner to become the country's next supreme spiritual leader. In a move that would push Iran even further into…
(The Washington Post reports: "British police are investigating the poisoning of a former Russian spy and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and have placed him under protective guard at a London hospital…. Alexander Litvinenko, 43, began vomiting shortly after he had lunch on Nov. 1…
Emma Lazarus
IN NOVEMBER 2005, I was asked to make a presentation to the House Republican Conference. In the hallway where I was waiting, a large flat-screen TV played encouraging messages to members from their leadership. In this motivational loop of video, there was one particular piece that stuck in my mind.…
TURN ON A TELEVISION anywhere in America last month, and you were sure to come across a campaign ad talking tough about immigration. Democrats and Republicans, in border states and deep in the heartland: Everybody was doing it, and the spots were among the harshest of the campaign season. The…
President Bush has a little over two years left in office. The central question facing him is this: What kind of Iraq will he bequeath to his successor? Will it be an Iraq in a state of collapse, a horrible and metastasizing mess dumped on the doorstep of the next president? Or an Iraq on a path…
THE GREAT WALL
AT LEAST you have to give John Fortier credit for trying. Last week, while every other political scientist and scandal-sniffing, goo-goo reformer was lamenting run-of-the-mill Election-Day difficulties--long lines, hiccuppy voting machines, bullying and incompetent poll workers--Fortier was trying…
ON NOVEMBER 9, less than 48 hours after Democrats captured the House and a few hours before Sen. George Allen conceded defeat to James Webb, giving Democrats control of the Senate, President Bush had lunch at the White House with Democratic representatives Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer. In the brief…
Don't throw good money after bad. When you're in a hole, stop digging. If you've been running in the wrong direction, the first thing to do is, turn around.
Berlin
Putting Meat on the
On October 12, the Swedish Academy announced its award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk. He is the author of several books that have attained worldwide bestseller status, the most recent in English being last year's Istanbul: Memories and the City. The gifted Pamuk…
IN 2003, WHEN THE Supreme Court upheld the use of race and ethnicity in the admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor stated in her opinion for the Court that a core purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment was "to do away with all governmentally imposed…
Bobby
PATHETIC REPUBLICANS, who can save you now? With all due respect to Ming the Merciless and all due deference to Sen. John McCain's pending arrival on a Hawk-man rocket cycle in 2008, the answer is that Republicans can, and are going to have to, save themselves. To do that, what's required is frank…
Up in Smoke
Who Controls the Internet?
FOR A FORMER talk-radio host, Mike Pence sure speaks softly and politely. A three-term Indiana congressman, Pence, 47, describes himself as "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican--in that order." As head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, he's also become the sentinel of GOP…
WHEN REPUBLICANS won the House and Senate in 1994, President Clinton was badly shaken. At a White House press conference, a reporter suggested Clinton might no longer be "relevant" as a leader. It took weeks for Clinton to recover his composure. It turned out, of course, that he was as relevant as…
Exactly four years ago in this space, I documented the failed campaign of my former brother-in-law, Mike Benton, whom the enemies of freedom decided not to make clerk of the circuit court of Calvert County, Maryland. I owed him ink for an old favor. When we were both setting standards of academic…
America Alone
AFTER AN ELECTION SEASON in which the GOP shot itself in the foot at every opportunity, it's easy to explain last week's sweeping midterm defeat as having more to do with Republican weakness than Democratic strength. But give the Democrats their due. They succeeded in spite of the "firewall" that…
Philadelphia
STAR BILLING it's not: it's page 102 of the December edition of Men's Journal magazine, to be exact, where Arnold Schwarzenegger expounds on life and politics. California's governor admits that he's gained a girlymanish eight pounds since moving to Sacramento three years ago. Otherwise, the…
Here's a big thing many Americans wouldn't expect early on from Democrats: passing legislation to substantially enlarge the ground force. The Democratic leadership would enjoy strong bipartisan support for something that should have been done years ago. Just how bipartisan? Well, consider today's…
This Week scored the big interviews of the week--the first Sunday interview with John McCain since he announced his bid for the presidency, and the first Sunday interview with Steny Hoyer since his selection as the new House majority leader. McCain led off the show, and faced a series of questions…
Gingrich on Fox News Sunday: WALLACE: You say Mitt Romney. McCain started an exploratory committee this week. Thirty seconds: Are you going to do the same? GINGRICH: No. We have a program called American Solutions we're working on. And in September of next year, I'll be glad to come back and talk…
In a speech yesterday, Gen. John Abizaid was quite blunt in assessing the threat posed by Islamic radicalism. He also questioned whether the West has the will necessary to confront it now before a broader war erupts. From Reuters: The top U.S. general in the Middle East said on Friday that if the…
Weighing in at 364 pages, the Rand Corporation has just released a two-part study, "Beyond Al Qaeda." Al Qaeda espouses a "global revolutionary creed" with an "ideology that is radical and Islamist at its core, but also borrows from 20th century Western totalitarian traditions." Its goals, Rand…
This is a strange story first reported on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) radio: US authorities have uncovered a plot to set up a flight training school in the Pacific nation of Kiribati and suspect the man behind it may have had links to September 11 mastermind Mohammed Atta. Since the…
THOSE OF US WHO ENJOY a thick, juicy steak know full well how it got to our plate. We know that at some point in time, a cow was fed, then slaughtered, and finally shipped to our local grocer or restaurant. But how often do we think about the process by which that cow is turned into a steak or…
THE MAIN LINE that the media took away from Bush's post-election press conference was, "It was a thumpin'." It was plastered on the front pages, played repeatedly in sound bytes that led the evening news, and mulled over by the pundits until their faces turned blue. However, if you read the whole…
The AP reports that "House Democrats have chosen Rep. Steny Hoyer as House majority leader, the No. 2 leadership post." Democrats showed some sense on this. Murtha would have been a disaster for the Democrats, though good for the media. With Lieberman's big victory and now Murtha's trouncing, the…
Despite the comments of Rep. Pelosi ("The war on terror is the war in Afghanistan") and DNC chair Howard Dean (Afghanistan "is where the fight on terror is."), the Global War on Terror is, in fact, global. Today's New York Times reports: More than 700 Islamic militants from Somalia traveled to…
Its significance was on display at yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. From today's New York Times: But no sooner had Mr. Levin outlined his case for a phased pullout of troops beginning in four to six months than the new Independent Democratic hero of the hawkish wing, Senator…
"Recent conflicts remind us that our enemies are human beings whose most dangerous weapons are their abilities to creatively reason and rapidly adapt. Though our enemies can employ multiple forms of warfare in varied combinations, our conventional military preeminence virtually guarantees future…
IN THIS POLITICAL season, the debate about Iraq has become almost completely backward looking. It has degenerated into finger pointing and partisan sniping--stuck between a false choice of "cut and run" versus "more of the same."
His comments on immigration, the party leadership races, and 2008 may be found here.
If John Bolton decides to bow out of the UN post because of continued Democratic opposition to his confirmation, the president should seriously consider former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson for the job. Like Bolton, he's tough, well versed in national security, extremely articulate and would be a…
During the past year, senior Democrats have often cited the remarks of Gen. Zinni and Gen. Batiste, in particular, in their attacks on the administration's conduct of the war. But I doubt they'll be citing them anymore -- or these officers for that matter. Zinni wants more forces in Iraq, and…
THE DEMOCRATIC TAKEOVER of Congress has predictably led to a rise in calls for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. The authors of these calls, like Carl Levin and Joe Biden, frequently maintain that their proposals are not for "withdrawal" but for "redeployment." U.S. forces…
A ROCK STAR WOULD BE the last person one might expect to address a major defense policy conference. Yet the National Homeland Defense Foundation Symposium, held on October 3 in Colorado Springs, welcomed such a guest: thirty-four-year-old Ahmad Dhani.
From the Islamic Republic News Agency: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here Tuesday referred to Iran's peaceful nuclear activities as the most complicated challenge in the country's diplomacy, saying time is running in Iran's favor in this respect. "The greatest and most complicated challenge in the…
From AFP: Lebanon's Western-backed cabinet is facing a deep crisis as pro-Syrian opponents called for a change of government after it adopted a UN plan to try suspects in former premier Rafiq Hariri's murder. Despite the resignations of six pro-Syrian ministers, the cabinet on Monday approved the…
Last January, the Kremlin cut off gas supplies to the Ukraine to punish Kiev. Earlier this month, the AP reported that Gazprom "would more than double the price of gas for Georgia," a struggling pro-Western democracy. Now, the Financial Times reports: A confidential study by Nato economics experts,…
ELECTIONS ARE A DISTRACTION. Necessary to a democracy, but a distraction nevertheless. At least, that has been the case in America in recent months. Instead of debating important questions, such as how to extricate the nation from Iraq without leaving chaos in our wake, or how to finance the…
IN THE WAKE OF the New York Times's November surprise, the government's release of documents captured in Iraq has come to a grinding halt. For more than one week now, the site that had published files from Saddam's archives has been offline. Unfortunately, there is a good chance that the document…
The DNC head released this statement the other day on the resignation of Secretary Rumsfeld: I am glad that President Bush has finally listened to the growing chorus of retired Generals, civilian leaders and Democrats who long ago called for Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation. This is a good first…
Rudy hasn't wavered in his support for stronger border security plus broader immigration reform. From the Times Leader (PA): He recommended that political leaders "do immigration reform" before the 2008 Presidential election cycle begins because it should be easy for both sides to agree on such…
First Jane Harman feels the wrath of the new speaker and now Steny Hoyer. Pelosi is backing Jack Murtha for majority leader because of the boost he gave the Democratic faithful by calling for the rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq and his "strong voice for national security." Murtha first called…
AFTER GERMANY'S election debacle in September 2005, when none of the major parties had enough support to govern alone or with a junior partner, the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats agreed to work together for only the second time in postwar history. That such a Grand Coalition occurs rarely…
After Fidel
For the second time this year, the New York Times has taken an interest in the vast collection of documents captured in postwar Iraq. The Times first noticed these materials six months ago, when the U.S. government began posting images of them on the Internet. In a dismissive report, the Times…
The Looming Tower
Christianity for the Rest of Us
REPORTING ON FAITH
The United States has two options in Iraq: stay and try to win, or cut, run, and lose. Attempts to chart a middle course--partial withdrawal or redeployment, accelerated hand-over to the Iraqis, political deals with Syria or Iran--ignore the realities of the military situation. The real choice we…
President Amy's Halloween Party
"He reminds us that words are alive, and not only alive but still half-wild and imperfectly domesticated."
An interesting book arrived here the other day which, as is often the case, impressed me in ways the publisher hadn't anticipated. Entitled The Show I'll Never Forget: 50 Writers Relive Their Most Memorable Concert-Going Experience, it proved to be something of a shock. With three or four…
HEZBOLLAH ROCKETS stopped raining on Israel nearly two months ago, but the Shiite organization's onslaught continues. Today, instead of directly attacking Israel, the Party of God is targeting Lebanese intellectuals and politicians who have the temerity to question Hezbollah's hegemony over local…
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION is busily at work on a plan that would expand the use of ethanol and other so-called renewable fuels well beyond the 7.5 billion gallons by 2012 already mandated in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. President Bush himself is laying the ground work, touring ethanol plants,…
"My only agenda is to be a good judge."--Antonin Scalia, in his 1986 Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing During this time of conservative angst, of worry about what conservatism stands for and means, why not consider the contribution to the country of someone who is not a politician but…
ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2004, the children of School Number One in Beslan, a town of 30,000 in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, gathered to go in for the first day of school. Suddenly, the air was filled with machine gun fire. A military truck pulled up and two dozen men with Kalashnikov assault…
Babel
The Best of I.F. Stone
ON NOVEMBER 13, 1995, two explosions ripped through an American-run training center in central Riyadh, killing five American military advisors and wounding nearly sixty others. It was al Qaeda's first coordinated attack in Saudi Arabia--just nine months before Osama bin Laden declared war on…
THE ELECTIONS ARE OVER, but the analysis has just begun. In case you didn't get your fill last week, the Sunday morning talk shows were full of folks filling us in on why the elections turned out the way they did, and what the next two years have in store.
Some highlights from the senator's appearance on Meet the Press today: On the election: MCCAIN: That we Republicans have lost our way, that we came to Washington to change government and government changed us. The spending, the ethics, the massive programs such as Medicare prescription drug…
Feingold bows out for 2008. Will the anti-war left give in to Hillary or now push for a Gore candidacy to challenge the aura of inevitability surrounding the New York senator?
On this Veterans Day, I wanted to highlight two organizations that assist active duty service members and disabled veterans. Profiled in the Weekly Standard, Unmet Needs is a charity that helps military families facing financial difficulties. Needs.jpg In addition, I am on the board of the Wounded…
Constable's Great Landscape
From the AP: North Korean television Friday carried a report on the U.S. midterm election, saying the Republican Party suffered a ''crushing defeat'' and claiming that President Bush fired his defense secretary in its wake. The unusually quick response, carried on the North's Korean Central…
1. It has to rain sometime.
In between victory laps around D.C., the incoming Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid may want to release a joint statement that American will is not "teetering" in Iraq and that al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq will be defeated. Our enemies haven't gone away. From Reuters: An alliance of Sunni…
This brief post-election blurb, which I comment on here, has been updated with a longer commentary on why the GOP lost on Tuesday. It's McCain's fault, you see. Of course, the fact that you have to read several paragraphs in before Iraq is even mentioned, and then only in the context of the…
IN THE IMAGINATION of Hamza Yusuf Hanson--the American Islamist radical who reinvented himself after September 11, 2001 as a peace-loving spiritual Sufi and alleged advisor to President George W. Bush--no falsehood is too absurd to paraded about as truth.
GÜNTER GRASS self-destructed at the beginning of Europe's literary season. However, what, to foreign observers, may look like a near-fatal fall from the moral high horse Grass had saddled in the 1960s may not be the inevitable punishment for unbridled hubris. Rather, it may be a simple case of my…
SIX STATES VOTED Tuesday on ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage. All six endorsed those initiatives, mostly by solid or overwhelming majorities. (The states were Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio.) This news may come as little surprise--boosting the minimum wage always…
(The Wall Street Journal reports: "GINGRICH EMERGES as top conservative prospect for Republican 2008 field. Ebbing fortunes of Santorum, Allen and Frist leave opening for architect of Republicans' 1994 sweep. Gingrich faults Bush for "very disturbing" post-election news conference, saying earlier…
Over at TCS Daily, J. Peter Pham of James Madison University and George Mason's Michael I. Krauss weigh in on the pending Democratic control of the House Intelligence Committee.
WHILE THE EUROPEAN UNION "sighed with relief" and welcomed the "Canadians of American politics" back into control of Congress after a 12-year hiatus, Russian analysts and policymakers found themselves torn between Bush-bashing gleeful postmortems (a "great victory for democracy") and mild…
The editors of the Wall Street Journal cut to the chase today on Democrats and Iraq. They write: The biggest question mark, and responsibility, for Democrats is on Iraq and the war on terror. They could do themselves and the country much good by working with Mr. Bush on a strategy toward achieving…
IT'S INTERESTING that the New York Times--the apparent arbiter of what is truly secret and what ought to be published--is suddenly so concerned about the possible release of classified material captured in Iraq--material they claim has helped Iran with its own nuclear weapons development program.…
IN A DECISION that surprised even the most hopeful China watchers, on October 30 an appeals court in the eastern province of Shandong overturned a guilty verdict against human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, and remanded the case to the county court for a retrial.
From AP: After battling, Panama wins seat on U.N. Security Council Panama got 164 votes in the 192-member U.N. General Assembly, more than the 120 needed to win the two-year term starting January 1. Venezuela got 11 votes, Guatemala 4 votes, and Barbados 1 vote.
ON ELECTION NIGHT, many of Washington, D.C.'s disaffected peace activists and self-styled illuminatis gathered to watch the Democratic takeover of the House in their place of refuge, "Busboys and Poets," a restaurant and bookstore for lefties and greens. According to a window sign, it offers "food,…
Here's a novel take on the election results that I couldn't disagree with more. And here's an alternative view: Burns lost because of Jack Abramoff. Chaffee lost because heavily Democratic R.I. loathes the GOP national leadership. Corruption has hollowed out the Ohio GOP, which, in turn, impacted…
Bowie, Maryland
TODAY, Europeans are sighing in relief. Americans, they believe, have finally come to their senses and are beginning to put the Democrats back in charge. Back in 2000--and even more so in 2004--Europeans were shocked and disappointed that America had elected George W. Bush. Two years ago, in the…
(The claim that the president and the Senate supported an immigration "amnesty" bill was always bogus, but that didn't stop some Republicans from making that canard the centerpiece of their campaigns. The three most vocal House candidates to do so - in Colorado-7, Arizona-5 and Arizona-8 - lost,…
THIS ONE IS PRETTY EASY TO EXPLAIN. Republicans lost the House and probably the Senate because of Iraq, corruption, and a record of taking up big issues and then doing nothing on them. Of these, the war was by far the biggest factor. Unpopular wars trump good economies and everything else.…
Tysons Corner, Virginia
THE LESSON of 2006 is that the South is not enough space to build a national governing majority. You have to branch out to other parts of the country, such as the Interior West, Pacific Coast, Northeast Corridor, Midwest, and elsewhere. Instead Democrats are surging in those places, and Republicans…
A CHRISTIAN PRIEST in Iraq was dismembered and beheaded by radical Islamists a few weeks ago as a reaction against Pope Benedict's August comments about Islam. But Western church groups, more focused on denouncing the U.S. presence in Iraq than on criticizing radical Islam, have said virtually…
Lieberman wins, and he did so without compromising his position on Iraq. Indeed, he defended it. I know some Democratic strategists were privately advising him to trim his support for the war. He ignored them. Good for Joe.
Apparently, Tehran's "art exhibition" was quite a success. From the Islamic Republic News Agency: The International Holocaust Exhibition was held at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art on Wednesday November 1 and was warmly welcomed by Iranian and foreign artists…. Twelve caricaturists were…
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
The evidence that we never had enough post-invasion troops in Iraq is overwhelming (see here) -- and, no, it isn't Monday morning quarterbacking to say it. As I have noted many times, the "more troops" chorus, though small, began in 2003, in the face of a clearly deteriorating security environment,…
REPUBLICANS FACE THE PROSPECT of losing a substantial number of Senate and House seats today, but it didn't have to be that way. For sure, the war in Iraq was always going to be a drag on Republicans. And an election in the sixth year of a presidency is often perilous for the president's party, a…
THEY SAY THAT ECONOMIC FORECASTERS were invented to make weather forecasters look good. To that I might add that political forecasters were invented to make economic forecasters look good. So it is with considerable trepidation that I build this week's column on a political forecast: When the polls…
(With the opposition splintered, an Ortega victory seems likely according to preliminary results today. If he wins, will President Ortega keep some distance from Chavez or embrace him? Will President Ortega keep his campaign promises or will he go back to his old socialist, anti-American ways?)…
THE WORDS "somatic cell nuclear transfer" don't slide gracefully off the tongue. Nor do they trigger a visceral response the way, for example, the word "cloning" does. That helps explain why Missouri's Amendment 2 has prompted so much confusion and bitter acrimony.
"Soldiers in Iraq Say Pullout Would Have Devastating Results," is the headline on page A-13 of today's Washington Post. Do you think the Post's editors would have splashed this piece on the front page had these troops embraced plans for large-scale "redeployments" out of Iraq? The reality is most…
(With Hussein's death sentence for ordering the murder of 148 Shiites in the town of Dubail in the early 1980s, it's unclear whether his other trial will continue.) Posted on August 21, 2006: Saddam's second trial begins today. This time for genocide (see here for info. on Camp Slayer), as the New…
ON FRIDAY, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama arguably made the first mistake of his political career. In an address at Bowie State University he endorsed the white Democrat Ben Cardin over the black Republican Michael Steele for Maryland's contested Senate seat, saying, "I think it's great that the…
THE BIG QUESTION in tomorrow's election is whether Democrats capture the Senate, the House, or both. But there are other contests and issues at stake that have gotten little press attention but are nonetheless important (or at least interesting). Some of these are actually eye-catching or may have…
The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman
It's been a bad autumn for public school leaders in the state of Washington, a battleground in the nation's reemergent math wars. First, a whopping 52 percent of seventh graders and 41 percent of fourth graders failed the statewide math test. That dismal news further energized a new parents' group…
IF NOT NEW JERSEY, then (besides Massachusetts) where? A liberal state with no explicit prohibition on same-sex marriage in state law, and no law barring state officials from performing such marriages for out-of-staters--New Jersey would seem the perfect state in which to persuade the highest court…
A Secular Faith
Museums are always changing, and the change is rarely good. In 1999, David Brooks recorded the decline and fall of the Smithsonian's Museum of American History in these pages. The changing presentation of the monuments on the national mall, well covered in THE WEEKLY STANDARD by Andrew Ferguson and…
AMERICAN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY in the Middle East did not have a good week. An Arabic-speaking State Department official named Alberto Fernandez made news on October 21 when he spoke too candidly about U.S. missteps in Iraq on Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television channel based in Qatar. Not only…
Hartford
In the midterm elections of November 1986, six years into the Reagan presidency, the Republican party lost control of the Senate. Barely six weeks beforehand, that still-GOP-led body had handily confirmed two crucial Reagan Supreme Court appointments: Associate Justice William Rehnquist's promotion…
Funniest Political Ad of 2006
DEFENDING THE DoD
Soldiers & Ghosts
Marie Antoinette
The culture so dramatically symbolized by the Southern redneck [is] the greatest inhibitor of the plans of the activist Left and the cultural Marxists for a new kind of society altogether. From the perspective of the activist Left, [rednecks] are the greatest obstacles to what might be called the…
Evansville, Indiana
Cleburne, Texas
St. Louis
Fred Baumann on the German rehearsal for genocide.
Senator Mel Martinez of Florida said that it would not the other day on Fox News: I believe that cutting and running from a difficult endeavor is not a way to strengthen our military, but a way to weaken it. Martinez was referring to the "strategic redeployment" plan advocated by many senior…
I'm skeptical, but let's hope. Via Hotline blog: Pew is out with their final pre-election poll and just like the ABC/Wash. Post poll, Pew shows Republicans with momentum. In the generic ballot, Dems lead by just 4 points. More importantly, the GOP has made significant cuts into the Dems once…
The History Channel notes that on this day in 1979: Student followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini send shock waves across America when they storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The radical Islamic fundamentalists took 90 hostages. The students were enraged that the deposed Shah had been allowed to enter…
ONE OF THE MOST DISAPPOINTING TRENDS for Republicans in the 2006 campaign is their failure to compete effectively against incumbent Democrats. In fact, no Republican challenger has led a House Democrat in a single public poll. And while Republican Tom Kean Jr. ran ahead of Democratic Sen. Bob…
William Kristol
(On October 2, 2006, I wrote: "Last January, the Kremlin cut off gas supplies to the Ukraine to punish Kiev. Is Tbilisi next?" Evidently, it's approaching that line. The AP today reports: "Russia's state-controlled natural-gas monopoly [Gazprom] said it would more than double the price of gas for…
(Since the media is focused on Saddam's nuclear weapons program and Iran's ongoing one, I dusted off this post from last month.) 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…
This piece in today's New York Times notes that Saddam was "as little as a year away" from getting a nuclear weapon. He was that close, as I have noted before. But while I'm no fan of how the Times often frames news stories, it's pretty clear the reporter is referring to 1991 - the year inspectors…
TWO SENIOR AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS met with India's foreign secretary last week. While the meeting received scant attention in the States, it was big news in India. According to Indian press accounts, the role Pakistan's intelligence service (the ISI) played in the July 11, 2006 Mumbai…
In an editorial today, "STRAIGHT TALK ON THE ARMY." the editors of the New York Post write: Sen. John McCain of Arizona wants more troops. Both in Iraq - and for the Army and Marine Corps generally. McCain is poised for a presidential bid in '08, so there's a bit of political risk to his proposal.…
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE in Congress is one of a handful of polarizing issues at the forefront of this election season. In Arizona's District 8, which sits adjacent to the Mexican border, immigration is the issue. When asked to name the single most important issue when choosing a candidate, 45.8…
(CNN just released a presidential preference poll for '08. They note: "On the Republican side, there is a virtual tie for first place, with 29 percent of registered GOPers expressing preference for Giuliani and 27 percent opting for McCain. McCain has picked up 6 points of support since September,…
Reuters reports that Beijing is being its usual helpful self on Darfur. Sudan must first agree before any United Nations peacekeeping force enters its war-wracked Darfur region, China said on Thursday, as its President Hu Jintao met the president of the African state. Beijing is hosting dozens of…
IF DEMOCRATS HOPE to retake the House of Representatives next week, they're going to have to win seats like New Mexico's 1st district. With an increasingly Hispanic population, and mounting woes for the national Republican party, the Albuquerque district is a prime pickup opportunity for the…
ON OCTOBER 18, the Washington Post reported on "the first revision of U.S. space policy in nearly 10 years." The specifics of that revision remain largely classified; however, the government did post an unclassified overview of the new policy which can be read here.
The most powerful military alliance in the world can't muster any more troops for its ground commander? From AFP: NATO troops in Afghanistan are insufficient to guarantee a swift victory for coalition troops there, the organisation's commander in the Asian country said in interviews for the British…
John Kerry's comments stirred up quite a bit of emotion yesterday. The American Legion promptly denounced them, and John McCain and President Bush rushed to hold press conferences. Kerry vowed to apologize "to no one" and insisted that the statement--"education, if you make the most of it, you…
Today's Financial Times has an interesting piece on Moqtada al-Sadr, who Powell advised dealing with long ago, and the Mahdi militia: Mr Sadr's movement probably began to splinter in late 2004, when he called off an insurrection against US and British troops. It appears to have disintegrated even…
The veterans group released the following statement: Vets for Freedom, America's largest nonpartisan orgaization representing the active duty troops and veterans of the War on Terror, called for an apology from Senator John Kerry for his remarks belittling U.S. troops. In a campaign stop in…
George Will writes in today's Washington Post: Yet with Allen much diminished and perhaps out of contention, and with Rudy Giuliani not yet doing serious groundwork for a national campaign, the Republican field is already down to two. That is good for only one of them: Romney. But what about Newt…
Dear Senator Kerry, We have not yet met, but I feel moved now to write you, in view of the latest assault on your honor, and the cruel blows being dealt you by fate. Your life has been hell since the last election, when those hanging chads in Ohio tricked all those people into voting for Buchanan,…
THE RIGHT TO VOTE is a quintessential American value, a solemn trust. For decades the Democratic party led the movement to expand voting rights. Democrats championed the 1965 Voting Rights Act (and its renewal four times). More recently, Democrats have spearheaded efforts to mobilize young people…
THE 2006 MIDTERM ELECTION, despite all the hoopla, is turning out to be quite normal for the sixth year of a presidency. This doesn't bode well for Republicans. With President Bush now deep into year six, Republicans are bound to lose House and Senate seats. That's par for the course for the party…