158 articles
Onetime hawk John Edwards ran away from his pro-war Iraq vote long ago. At the time of his vote, the politics were good for the then senator from North Carolina. Saddam would be deposed and his wmd uncovered. Edwards, like Kerry, could then claim credit for being a tough Democrat on national…
In case you missed it, Gen. Jack Keane and Fred Kagan wrote the following in Wednesday's Washington Post: Reports on the Bush administration's efforts to craft a new strategy in Iraq often use the term "surge" but rarely define it. Estimates of the number of troops to be added in Baghdad range from…
COLLEGE FOOTBALL is inherently flawed and inferior to its professional relative. Any sport where the national champion is decided by the votes of coaches and journalists isn't a real sport. It's no better than figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics, or any other activity where "style points" are…
THE BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP Series formula often seems as absurd as medieval alchemy: A combination of two human polls and six computer algorithms spit out the college football rankings, from which are determined the teams that will play in the top bowl games and which two teams face off in the…
The Drudge Report recently highlighted a shocking story from the BBC that centered on "disturbing video footage" of "dismembered tiny bodies." "Healthy new-born babies" in the Ukraine, "the self-styled stem cell capital of the world," have allegedly been killed "to feed a flourishing international…
REPORTS ON the Bush administration's efforts to craft a new strategy in Iraq often use the term "surge" but rarely define it. Estimates of the number of troops to be added in Baghdad range from fewer than 10,000 to more than 30,000. Some "surges" would last a few months, others a few years.
GERALD FORD WAS an underappreciated president. His greatest feat, leading America out of the traumas of Watergate and Vietnam, has routinely been viewed as an important but hardly towering achievement. But it was no small accomplishment. It was not something that any politician who stepped into the…
EARLY IN JANUARY victorious congressional Democrats will swarm into the offices from which they have evicted their Republican foes. Republicans who have lost their seats will find reasons to get work as Washington lobbyists, rather than return to the hometowns they have always said they love.…
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 Project, a…
Dragon Fire
Spring and Fall
The death of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte marks the definitive end of his efforts to associate himself with conservatism. It also marks the ultimate success of his efforts to avoid accountability for his murderous behavior as a leader of the Chilean military junta that took power in 1973.
Pessimism
Michael J. Fox made headlines for Democrats in the recent election campaign by promoting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research that the actor deems critical to finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease. Unbeknownst to him, his message was part of a massive bait-and-switch. That's because the…
A NOTE FROM FALLUJA
Nothing else pumps up the municipal pride of once- glorious cities, now moribund, like the pertinent anniversaries of their artistic native sons long dead.
White Savage
Harare and Johannesburg
Remembering a Heroic Navy SEAL
It's that time of year again--avian flu panic season. As the weather turns colder in the northern hemisphere and the flu starts making its annual rounds, the media and their anointed health experts are chirping and squawking once again about how we could be blindsided by a pandemic that some have…
New Delhi
May we recommend . . .
The Book of Dave
It turns out you only have to attend a White House Christmas party to find out where President Bush is headed on Iraq. One guest who shook hands with Bush in the receiving line told him, "Don't let the bastards get you down." Bush, slightly startled but cheerful, replied, "Don't worry. I'm not."…
Mission impossible. That's the best way to describe Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson's just-concluded trip to Beijing, ostensibly to persuade the Chinese to do something to whittle down their huge trade surplus with the United States. Paulson and his colleagues--the delegation included the…
Tinsel. No one needs tinsel. Even the word is a tinselly kind of word. It ought to have been a mild profanity, suitable for bridge clubs and 1950s sorority girls: "Oh, tinsel, I forgot my keys again, Janie." Instead, it names one of the most destructive substances known to humankind. Originally…
The Holiday
Christmas honors the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago. But Providence has also employed subsequent Christmas days in historically powerful ways, not least of all in America.
John Kerry has an op-ed in today's Washington Post pushing for a deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Fred Kagan, coauthor of this Iraq report, explains in today's Sunday Times why the policy pushed by Kerry and others would lead to defeat. He writes: A decisive moment in world history is at…
(Russian obstructionism at the UN has strengthened the hardliners in Tehran, argue the editors of the Washington Post today. So far, it's win-win for Moscow and Tehran. Russia, a G-8 member, abets Iran's nuclear program, rakes in lots of cash doing so, and yet remains on a path to gain membership…
Weekly Standard contributor Max Boot goes at it with British journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft on the topic of U.S. foreign policy on the New York Times web site. You may find the lengthy discussion here. One thing Max Boot addresses is the rampant historical amnesia on who supported the invasion of…
The failure to increase the size of the U.S. ground force post 9-11 was a mistake - one that the president is now correcting with his call for a larger Army and Marine Corps. Similarly, British Defense Secretary Des Browne says that they too "will have to consider increasing the size of the army."…
IT IS DIFFICULT to grasp the full tragedy of the Allen Iverson trade. The Answer was only the second player in the history of the NBA to be put on the trade block while leading the league in scoring. And the Sixers did not really "trade" Iverson. They held a fire sale.
From an interview with CNBC's Larry Kudlow: KUDLOW: General Haig, … Can we do this troop surge, and will a heavier footprint in Iraq work in your judgment? HAIG (Former Secretary of State Under President Reagan): Well, I think the consequence of not having it has got to be considered. And, you…
"A close aide to the British commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan has been accused of passing secrets about activities there to Iran," reports AFP. Thursday's reports come as British-led forces struggle against fiercer than expected Taliban insurgents in the south of the country, invaded by…
From the AP: Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the rest of the Bush administration may be undecided on whether to send more troops to Iraq, but several soldiers he met with at Camp Victory here on Thursday morning here said extra forces would help. "Sir I think we need to just keep doing what…
MOST PEOPLE HAVE an item or tradition that gets them into the Christmas spirit. There are two traditions that I must complete before I can feel the holiday spirit. First, I have to read my favorite childhood book, The Polar Express, which brings me back to a time when pure belief in the magical was…
REMEMBER KOSOVO? The little statelet of 2 million, still technically an "integral part" of Serbia, was the inspiration for an unprecedented NATO campaign, the first of its kind: bombing, in those less sensitive times, Christian troops on Easter. The prevention of genocide and the resulting…
From the Hartford Courant: "After speaking with our military commanders on the ground," he said Wednesday in an email, "I strongly believe that additional U.S. troops must be deployed to Baghdad." Lieberman, D-Conn., visited Iraq last week with a Senate delegation. He also traveled to Kuwait and…
Does Bush have more running room with Americans on Iraq than the Washington media suggest in its news coverage? Recent polls hint he may if it's part of a comprehensive new strategy to improve things on the ground in Iraq. The other day Gallup's Frank Newport discussed some interesting numbers with…
The International Herald Tribune reports on a bit of good news: In the three and a half years since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has been the spiritual custodian of Shiite political dominance here, corralling Iraq's fractious Shiite political parties into a single…
AT THE CONCLUSION of each congressional session, the Humane Society releases its Humane Scorecard, "A snapshot of U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives and their records on major animal welfare policies." In the 109th Congress, as is typical, Democrats scored much higher than Republicans on an…
WHEN THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY of the global war against Islamist extremism is written, it may well be recorded that one of the psychological victories by al Qaeda and its Saudi financiers and commanders was to convince Western governments and media that Wahhabism, the fundamentalist Sunni sect that…
"Pentagon Cites Success Of Anti-U.S. Forces in Iraq" reads a front-page headline in today's Washington Post. "The Pentagon said yesterday that violence in Iraq soared this fall to its highest level on record," the Post reports, "and acknowledged that anti-U.S. fighters have achieved a ‘strategic…
The "scary" theme of today's piece by Richard Cohen is an old one for the Washington Post columnist. Cohen, who supported the invasion of Iraq, penned many columns on the "militant mood" that ushered Reagan into power and the "scary" policies the president pursued with the Soviets, on nuclear…
The governor made some good points on the report in this interview last week with National Review online: The members of the Iraq Study Group deserve credit for their hard work. But their recommendations read like the product of a flawed process - one more focused on reaching consensus for the sake…
HOUSE SPEAKER-DESIGNATE Nancy Pelosi has reportedly said she will create a new panel to examine President Bush's intelligence budget to ensure that taxpayer funds are being spent wisely. This coincides with another intelligence-related item on her to-do list, which is to attempt to make…
Yesterday, on ABC's This Week, Gen. Jack Keane, former acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, discussed "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success" in Iraq. Video of the exchange Keane had with the newly elected Cong. Joe Sestak, a retired vice admiral who advocates troop…
On the heels of Sen. Reid's support for a short-term surge in U.S. forces in Iraq, Sen. Clinton said this morning that she could support a surge if it's tied to a different strategy. I am not in favor of doing that unless it's part of a larger plan…. I am not in favor of sending more troops to…
When I first met Jeane Kirkpatrick in 1972, she was an academic political scientist mainly interested in domestic politics. She was also a Democrat and a close associate of Hubert Humphrey who, both as a senator and as Lyndon John son's vice president, had been identified with the tradition of Cold…
For the second time since 9/11, Americans have been treated to the undemocratic phenomenon of private citizens assuming the responsibilities and prerogatives of elected officials. First we had the 9/11 Commission. Not content to present its findings and recommendations to the president and…
President Bush won his first skirmish with the Iraq Study Group. James A. Baker III and Lee Hamilton, the ISG directors, insisted the president adopt all 79 of its recommendations for changing policy in Iraq. Bush balked, and for good reason. A sizable chunk of the ISG's advice--its call, for…
Having won an overwhelming reelection victory, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez--who famously called President Bush the devil in an address to the United Nations--now has a free hand to pursue his revolutionary ambitions. His victory also presents the United States with an important opportunity to…
It's all up to the president now. The James Baker public relations blitz will of course continue, and the members of Baker's Iraq Study Group will go to book signings and be regulars on morning TV, and maybe even go on a nationwide tour like the Rolling Stones. Alan Simpson will continue to…
In 1982, Jeane Kirkpatrick brought out a collection of her essays under the title of the best known of them, "Dictatorships and Double Standards." The book is dedicated to "Douglas, John, Stuart, and Ricardo."
The Good German
These remarks were prepared by Irving Kristol for a conference held November 30-December 1 by Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, "The Public Interest and the Making of American Public Policy: 1965-2005." I was, of course, immensely pleased to receive…
SANDRA D. OR SNOOP D.?
Running Alone
Iran looms intractable on America's radar, while the Bush administration casts about for nonmilitary weapons to use against it. Although President Bush insists that we are in a war of ideas with Iran, he has yet to unlimber some of America's most potent instruments to fight it. Chief among these…
How the Cold War Began
The Dick Cavett Show: Hollywood Greats
In early 2006, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney gained national attention by negotiating a plan with the Democratic state legislature to pursue universal health insurance coverage in his state.
The Wisdom of Soldiers
Princeton
Moyock, N.C.
In the astoundingly popular best-seller Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt argues that people with absurd names have trouble landing jobs not because of their names, but because people with ludicrous names tend to come from poor backgrounds, and it is a crummy education that creates the roadblock to…
WHILE THE MAIN focus of the Sunday morning talk shows was, of course, Iraq, a variety of other issues were discussed as well. This Week featured an interview with incoming Senate majority leader Harry Reid. He passed on good news about Senator Tim Johnson; the South Dakota Democrat is recovering…
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told an audience in New Hampshire today that the "only realistic choice" we have in Iraq is to withdraw our troops. An American withdrawal won't be "pretty," he says, but fewer people will die if we "get out of the way." The only realistic choice we have is to stand…
(From today's New York Times: "Military planners and White House budget analysts have been asked to provide President Bush with options for increasing American forces in Iraq by 20,000 or more. The request indicates that the option of a major "surge" in troop strength is gaining ground as part of a…
On the other side of the Atlantic, a mini-scandal is brewing over the decision by British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to call off a bribery inquiry that would likely have implicated the Saudi royal family. According to the BBC, the Serious Fraud Office was investigating allegations that…
Garry Kasparov marches in Moscow. From the BBC: The rally is being organised by former chess world champion Garry Kasparov, who has said its participants would try to avoid any possible provocations. The march is against what protesters describe as rampant corruption and a Kremlin crackdown on…
The Connecticut senator "spoke strongly in favor of a substantial troop increase, saying 'a failed state in Iraq will be a disaster for the region and the world,'" reports the NY Times news wire from Baghdad.
MEL GIBSON'S Apocalypto is one of the few films that can rightly be described as a journey. The viewer is snatched from the confines (and comforts) of a Hollywood movie and thrown deep into the jungles of Central America. The film itself is a visual masterpiece; shot entirely in a Mayan dialect,…
IT'S BEEN A good week for the Joint Strike Fighter. The one-size-fits-all, multi-purpose fighter, designated F-35, is slated for its first flight test this week, after delays of more than a year. Perhaps more significant was the Pentagon's acquiescence to British demands for "operational…
(Eli Lake of the NY Sun has an interesting piece today on how a surge of U.S. troops in Baghdad would play in the 2008 presidential race. McCain's been calling for more forces in Iraq since 2003. Today, he supports a surge in Baghdad. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, the National Review, the…
Gen. Jack Keane, former acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, former Afghanistan coalition commander Lt. Gen. David Barno, officers involved with the "successful operations of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in Tal Afar" under the command of Col. H.R. McMaster, and…
(The Pentagon will establish a new Africa command within two months, reports Reuters.) Posted on October 16, 2006: 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…
JACK KEVORKIAN will soon be out of jail on parole: Let the media races begin.
LAST MONTH on the 43rd anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, I had hoped that public reflections on that tragic event would be more discerning than in the past. I was disappointed.
FERTILITY RATES around the world are dropping for a variety of complex reasons (see "The Population Sink" and "Darwin's End"). While population itself continues to increase--the United States, for instance, recently passed the 300 million mark--this is the product of waning demographic momentum.…
From the AP: In a direct affront to the Bush administration, a Democratic senator spent an hour Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, emerging from the meeting to say Assad was willing to help control the Iraq-Syrian border…. "Assad clearly indicated the willingness to…
Hotline reports: It's official... AP has called TX 23. Ex-Dem Rep. Ciro Rodriguez is coming back to Congress. With 94% of precincts reporting, Rodriguez leads GOP Rep. Henry Bonilla 55-45%…. Frankly, not only is Rodriguez's victory a mild surprise (Bonilla fell just 2 points short of avoiding the…
The Washington Times columnist has an excellent piece in today's paper. He writes: [Bush's] political opponents stand triumphant, yet barren of useful guidance. Many -- if not most -- of his fellow party men and women in Washington are rapidly joining his opponents in a desperate effort to save…
ON SATURDAY, December 2, incoming-Senate majority leader Harry Reid asked Jim Wallis, the liberal religious activist, to give the Democrats' official response to President Bush's weekly radio address. It was a curious, odd moment--the equivalent of Republicans inviting Jerry Falwell to respond on…
From the American Forces Press Service: AL ASAD, Iraq - Even with all the debate in the U.S. over Iraq strategy, morale on the ground here is good, the commander of Multinational Force West said today. Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer said that retention among Marines based in Iraq is more than 140…
That's right. You don't need glasses. Gary Schmitt and Reuel Gerecht of the American Enterprise Institute argue: Since the suburban riots last August, the perception that France is in decline has become de rigueur in French, European, and American circles. Economically, culturally, educationally,…
On April 12, 1945, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton entered Ohrdruf, a subcamp in the Buchenwald concentration camp system. Eisenhower.jpg (Eisenhower at Ohrdruf, courtesy of ushmm.org) Eisenhower then cabled Gen. George C. Marshall: The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of…
BEN BERNANKE thinks the economy is strong and that inflation remains a danger. The equities market believes the Federal Reserve Board chairman, so share prices hover around record levels. The bond market doesn't, and expects that he will soon have to recognize the economy's underlying weakness by…
Stars and Stripes reports: U.S. troops delivering aid to Kenyan flood victims A team of American servicemembers assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa has begun delivering relief supplies to areas of Kenya hit by severe flooding, the military said Monday. In all, the team of soldiers,…
("Shell is being forced by the Russian government to hand over its controlling stake in the world's biggest liquefied gas project," the Guardian reports, provoking fresh fears about the Kremlin's willingness to use the country's growing strength in natural resources as a political weapon." The…
From NY1 News: McCain Assails Iran's Nuclear Aspirations In Yeshiva Address During his address, McCain called Iran "the chief state sponsor of international terrorism." "There's only one thing worse that a military solution, and that, my friends, is a nuclear-armed Iran," McCain said. "The regime…
A BIT OF HISTORY COMES to mind in the wake of South Korean president Roh's refusal delivered at the recent APEC summit in Hanoi to sign up as a full participant in the Proliferation Security Initiative, the U.S.-led effort to prevent North Korea from trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.
In the frenzied final week of the Iraq Study Group's deliberations, co-chairmen James Baker and Lee Hamilton took time out to pose for a photo spread for a fashion magazine, Men's Vogue. This might seem a dubious decision given the gravity of the moment and their self-appointed roles as the…
Commentary Magazine 1945-1959
One of the most cynical political tricks played in the 2004 presidential campaign was the false rumor, started by Democrats, that if George W. Bush was reelected, he secretly planned to reinstate the military draft. Clearly, this was aimed at striking fear into the American student population and…
As communism was to Pope John Paul II, so radical Islam is to Pope Benedict XVI--the most pressing geopolitical problem of his time, of course, but also something more: a test of whether Catholicism is going to buttress the moral, political, and intellectual struggle against a violent and…
If you write a biography of Oscar Wilde or George Bernard Shaw, as my friends Richard Ellmann and Michael Holroyd have respectively done, the books sell in America. My life of John Betjeman has been a top bestseller in Britain; but only a puny number of copies have sold in the United States. Why is…
Putnam Camp
We sometimes hear of the place of the great books in a democratic education (not, unfortunately, at Harvard). When it is spoken of approvingly, that place is at the center or in the foundation of education or both. We also sometimes hear of the need for excellence in our education. For some reason…
THE SUPERANNUATED membership of the Iraq Study Group shepherded by former secretary of state James Baker conjures a line from the film The Sixth Sense: "I see dead people." Two centuries ago, Europeans dreaming of reform and freedom must have felt just as crestfallen as they watched their…
Moral Minority
Aristotle and Hamilton
A Guest at the White House
Copperheads
The world according to Heaney and Strand.
IN DEALING WITH the new Democratic Congress, President Bush is said to have a big choice to make. To get anything done, he either has to compromise with Democrats or ally himself with an as-yet-unformed majority coalition of Republicans and moderate-to-conservative Democrats. But there's a third…
SCALIAS OF JUSTICE
London
Being a superstitious fellow, I have tended not to think deeply about retirement. By that, I don't mean that I haven't been paying into various employer programs and federally mandated schemes, or investing wisely, over the decades. No, what I mean is that I haven't planned--or to put it…
IT JUST HASN'T WORKED OUT the way the punditocracy planned: The "adults" of the Bush 41 administration were supposed to talk Bush 43 off the ledge, get him to give up his dream of democracy in Iraq and return to reality. But the main recommendation of the Baker- Hamilton "Iraq Study…
Murder in the Model City
A Concise History
THE MAN WHO CALLS HIMSELF Mullah Krekar and claims to be an Iraqi Kurd is not quite a star of the global jihad, but he is worthy of attention nonetheless. Krekar is the emir, or chief, of Ansar al-Islam, a Sunni extremist network that has distinguished itself with murderous attacks all over Iraq.…
IRAQ STUDY GROUP co-chairmen Lee Hamilton and James Baker were the weekend's most popular guests, but we're going to start with the one show on which they did not appear. This Week featured an interview with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. On Iraq, and the consequences of a premature withdrawal,…
That was the date the UN Security Council gave Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment activities or else. But it's been nearly 4 months, and there's little evidence the "or else" will amount to much anytime soon. And with the release of the Iraq Survey Group's report, Tehran has dug in its nuclear…
From the current Weekly Standard: "Among the many intelligent and forceful criticisms of the meretricious Baker-Hamilton report, THE SCRAPBOOK's favorites have been from soldiers, ranging from lieutenant colonels to sergeants…. First, listen to T.F. Boggs (check out his blog), a 24-year-old…
Sen. Lieberman on the passing of the Amb. Jeane Kirkpatrick: America has lost a clarion voice for freedom. Ambassador Kirkpatrick was a genuine patriot who played a critical role in liberty's triumph over totalitarianism in the Cold War. Ambassador Kirkpatrick profoundly understood that ideas have…
Gen. Zinni, Gen. Keane, Sen. McCain and many others want to surge forces in the Baghdad area, preferably by increasing overall troop levels in Iraq, not by pulling forces out of Anbar. One reason may be reports like this this from the AP: But as the White House faces calls to revisit its Iraq…
From today's Wall Street Journal: Senior military officials are betting that larger U.S. military training teams that would live and work with Iraqi units could speed the development of an Iraqi army force that has shown some promise, but is still bedeviled by corruption, absenteeism and logistical…
THERE'S NO MORE OCTOBER EXCUSE. Not anymore. If it's Halloween, once ran the tagline, it must be "Saw"--an annual celebration of torture, dismemberment, and Snowden's secret from Catch-22: "The spirit gone, man is garbage." How fast the spirit departs nowadays--holiday spirit or no. The latest…
From AFP: MOSCOW - Russian prosecutors said they were opening their own murder inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko as a funeral was held for the former Russian spy at a central London mosque. A spate of new poisonings added further intrigue to the affair, including that of a private…
In its report, the ISG concludes: The ability of the United States to shape outcomes is diminishing. Time is running out. But as Frederick Kagan explains in today's New York Daily News, the ISG's plan is based on time "we don't have." He writes: Yet the Baker Report devotes scant space (8 pages out…
There was a lot of backslapping and talk of "consensus" yesterday when the ISG members held their press conference. But evidently some of the retired military officers who advised the panel disagree with the report's primary security recommendation. The NYT's Michael Gordon reports: By the first…
AFTER MONTHS OF WORK, access to the best experts in the world and weeks of anticipation from politicians and the American public, the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report landed in our laps yesterday.
On page 1, the report states: The Iraqi people have a democratically elected government that is broadly representative of Iraq's population, yet the government is not adequately advancing national reconciliation, providing basic security, or delivering essential services. The level of violence is…
On page 37-38: Because of the importance of Iraq, the potential for catastrophe, and the role and commitments of the United States in initiating events that have led to the current situation, we believe it would be wrong for the United States to abandon the country through a precipitate withdrawal…
(A reader emails: "on the military front, they looked at an increase of 100K to 200K and - surprise! - found that it would be hard to sustain. By inflating the numbers they took it off the board.) From page 73: Because of the importance of Iraq to our regional security goals and to our ongoing…
Newsweek reports: In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a stepped up effort to "dismantle the militias." Like Reyes, McCain also has…
WHILE PRESIDENT Bush was in Singapore last month, Chee Soon Juan, a leading democracy campaigner, addressed an open letter to him. The letter asked Bush to press Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, on democracy, arguing that "a democratic and free Singapore will not only benefit the people…
Mort Zuckerman of US News asks, "What's the most dangerous geopolitical development in the 21st century?" The answer: "Iran's emergence as the Middle East regional superpower. Why? Because it places the center of the world's increasingly stretched energy resources more and more under the influence…
Yesterday on Fox News, the president said he'd review the Baker-Hamilton recommendations on Iraq but he also added: "More importantly, when it comes to military matters, I want to listen to the military, to come up with a way of achieving our objective quicker. And so this is an important period."…
(It won't happen, but I'll say it again anyway.) Posted on November 15, 2006: 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,…
WHILE DEMOCRATIC CONTROL of Congress poses new challenges to the Bush administration's handling of Iraq and the war on terrorism, former CIA Director Robert Gates's appointment as secretary of Defense is expected to create a less contentious atmosphere with lawmakers than existed under his…
"YANKEE, STAY HOME" is what the world's currency markets are trying to tell us, as the dollar sinks to a level where it takes $2 to buy one British pound, and over $1.30 to buy a euro. And if you're thinking about a major purchase of a made-somewhere-other-than-the-U.S. product, think again. The…
A Study in Greene
The Myth of
Dakar/Santa Cruz de Tenerife
IN DEFENDING their decision to expose the Bush administration's secret bank-surveillance program earlier this year, the editors of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times emphasized that they had carefully weighed "the merits of publishing against the risks of publishing." Bill Keller and Dean…
George Mason
The other day, getting dressed, I reached for a T-shirt to put on, and grabbed one that turned out to be faded and threadbare. Rummaging through my drawers, I noticed it wasn't the only one. My entire stockpile had thinned, and it left me with a pang of nostalgia. Let me explain.
The memory of Philip Johnson, who died early last year at age 98, may not linger for very long. But we shouldn't let his centennial year--he was born July 8, 1906--pass without contemplating his significance. Johnson was, after all, the original "starchitect," and perhaps no other 20th-century…
We are beginning to get used to national security elections in America. The 2006 election cycle was the third in a row focused almost exclusively on the war on terror and Iraq. Apart from immigration and the vague odor of corruption, it is hard to find a single domestic issue that candidates…
THE ISSUE OF GLOBALIZATION--which has been growing from a preoccupation of the political fringe to a battle cry of the Democratic mainstream--may well become the sleeper issue of 2008. Listen to the postelection chatter in Washington right now, which can be boiled down to one question: Did the…
The Honorable Smith Hempstone
IT IS HARDLY CONCEIVABLE that Donald Rumsfeld will end up serving a prison sentence in some modern counterpart of Spandau Prison, where the Nuremberg defendants served out their terms.
Foreign policy realism is ascendant these days, we are told. This would be encouraging if true, because our foreign policy must indeed be realistic. But what passes for "realism" today has very little to do with reality. Indeed, if you look at some of the "realist" proposals on the table, "realism"…
Taipei
IN 1989, the first hijab incident in Europe took place in Creil, a suburb of Paris, when three high school girls tried to go to class wearing the Islamic headscarf. The students were expelled. Fifteen years later, with the hijab spreading fast among Muslims in France, the government formally banned…
For Your Consideration
Many months into the debate over finding a new strategy in Iraq, two myths continue to cloud the discussion. The Washington Post recently proclaimed: "The United States and its allies in Iraq would need at least 500,000 and perhaps more than 1 million troops" to bring order to the country. Incoming…
Two pieces worth a read: Jeff Jacoby's "Fighting to win in Iraq" and Mark Steyn's "Iraq is just test of will for America."
NEWSWEEK some weeks back had an arresting picture on its cover. The famous photographer Annie Leibovitz--tall, blonde, and 57, dressed in black trousers and a black V-neck top--stands with her three young daughters: a radiant, curly haired 5-year-old and adorable blonde toddler twins. Leibovitz is…
NATIONAL SECURITY adviser Stephen Hadley was all over your television set this weekend, with appearances on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and This Week. (What, too busy to swing by and check in with the guys at Fox?)
Syria keeps arming Hezbollah. From Reuters: The United Nations has documented 13 incidents of illegal weapons in southern Lebanon since early September, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday, calling Beirut's border monitoring deficient. U.N. Security Council resolutions have called on…
(Andrew Sullivan reacts to my Rumsfeld post. He writes: "The president refused. Where we are is not Rumsfeld's responsibility. It's Bush's. He's the president. It's been his non-strategy all along. And yet the WS did nothing but back him, lionize him and enable him." Come again. From an April 26,…
From the New York Times: Senator John Cornyn, a Republican member of the Armed Services Committee from Texas, said he believed that it would be necessary to send tens of thousands more troops to Iraq in the short term to stabilize Baghdad and control the sectarian militias that were killing one…
Democrats ran under the "Bring the Troops Home" banner, but they now expect Republicans to concede defeat along with them. According to today's Christian Science Monitor, After winning back control of the House and Senate largely on the basis of opposition to the war in Iraq, Democrats are ramping…