236 articles
President Bush will entertain his Russian counterpart at Kennebunkport this weekend, and they have a lot to talk about. Putin is fresh off a meeting with Hugo Chavez--a good customer for conventional arms who's kicking the tires on an Iran-style nuclear program. And while Putin's Russia has become…
From the Moscow Times: Chavez Lashes Out, Putin is Low Key, by Anna Smolchenko. From CFR: Soul-Searching in Kennebunkport, by Lionel Beehner. From Policy Review: Terrorism, the Military, and the Courts, by Benjamin Wittes. From In From the Cold: General Cartwright's Blog, by Spook86. From the New…
In what has become something of an annual ritual, the House of Representatives yesterday approved an amendment to appropriations legislation to expand commerce with Cuba. But while the House has voted every year since 1999 either to lift the embargo or the travel ban, this year it limited itself to…
More details have emerged on the operations in the Thar Thar region of Anbar province. Meanwhile, operations in Baghdad and Baqubah continue to evolve, while the Iraqi and U.S. recruiting and training of local police south and west of Baghdad is showing some positive results. The 3rd Battalion, 1st…
Earlier this week in Washington, I had the opportunity to sit down for an informal discussion with visiting German defense minister Franz-Josef Jung. While the mounting security risks for Germany's more than 3,500 soldiers currently deployed in Afghanistan certainly ranked high on his political…
Angelo Falcón, president of the National Institute for Latino Policy, is exactly the type of spokesman you'd want for your grassroots campaign: He returns reporters' call promptly and answers questions honestly and fully. But he wasn't who I really wanted to talk to.
Today President Bush made his first trip to Rhode Island, to speak at the Naval War College regarding the war in Iraq. With the final elements of the surge having arrived in Iraq just a few weeks ago, Operation Phantom Thunder has begun. The president highlighted the successes so far: Last…
Baghdad and the Belts. Red bordered units identified as active in offensive operations. Click map to view.
The Washington Post reports today that the Chinese government quietly dispatched its vice foreign minister to meet with representatives of several presidential campaigns last week: One of China's top government officials reached out to the leading U.S. presidential contenders last week, holding an…
The good folks over at the New York Times finally got around to taking a look at Indoctrinate U in the education section yesterday. As we might have expected, the Times's take on the film was less than flattering--indeed, the author seems to use Evan Coyne Maloney's film as little more than an…
From THE DAILY STANDARD: American by Choice, by Peter W. Schramm. From AEI: To Be, or Not to Be . . . an Empire, by Gary J. Schmitt. From the Washington Times: Another Great Wall, by Senator Wayne Allard. From National Review: Surging to Defeat, by J .D. Johannes. From the Orlando Sentinel: Hone…
THIS WEEK, I am being honored by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as an "Outstanding American by Choice." This strikes me as an interesting name for an award. It is meant, of course, to recognize selected citizens who were not born in America. But the idea of being an American…
IN THE PAST YEAR, we have seen the battlefield deaths of such prominent terrorists as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq, and Shamil Basayev and Abu Hafs al-Urdani in Chechnya, as well as a host of less publicized kills and captures. While the death of any prominent terrorist is a victory for the United…
iraq-cover-inx-large.jpg Spc. Luke McMahan, 22, of Mountain View, Ark., talks
It's rare that Republicans and Democrats can agree on anything in Washington. But the fight over Iran's nuclear ambitions shows that even when they do come together, that doesn't guarantee that the White House will jump on board as well. Yesterday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed…
Over at The Danger Room, Noah Shachtman managed to score an interview with Dr. David Kilcullen, chief counterinsurgency adviser to General David Petraeus. Kilcullen seems to have taken a special interest in the power of the blog, posting regular contributions to the blog run by the Small Wars…
From THE DAILY STADNARD: Lugar's Plan B, by Fred Barnes. From the Philadelphia Inquirer: A volunteer eyewitness to the hidden side of war, by Edward Colimore. (HT Ares) From National Review: Confessions of a Cheney Fan, by Jonah Goldberg. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Lesson of History:…
Dean Barnett writes the definitive post on today's Times poll on the attitudes of Americans aged 17-29. Barnett notes that the poll was cosponsored "by that most reputable of news agencies," MTV, and then informs readers that he will analyze the numbers himself, "unguided by Adam [Nagourney's]…
It looks like earmarking continues to run rampant--even in defense bills. The Politico reports: Just how open and honest the reformed process is can be seen in the new Department of Defense authorization bill that came out of the House Armed Services Committee in May. It did list 449 earmarks -- in…
Le Bourget The 47th running of the biennial Paris Air Show closed as it always does. Huge crowds on the public days of the last weekend, an air display of fighter and commercial aircraft, and dozens of vendors hawking baseball caps, t-shirts, jackets, refrigerator magnets, and plush toys with the…
The BBC reports that "several petrol stations have been torched in the Iranian capital Tehran, after the government announced fuel rationing for private vehicles." And then adds this comment, attributed to the BBC's correspondent in Tehran, about three-quarters of the way through: It is a dangerous…
This morning the House Committee on Foreign Affairs is holding hearings on the question "Iraq: Is the Escalation Working?" The witnesses include WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Frederick W. Kagan, whose testimony is posted in its entirety at THE DAILY STANDARD. Here's an excerpt, and it's worth reading…
Testimony delivered by Frederick W. Kagan, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, June 27, 2007.
THE BUZZ IN WASHINGTON this week is all about Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his speech Monday night about Iraq. Lugar isn't ordinarily a topic of lively conversation--except when he bails on President Bush on the "surge" in…
Kimberly Kagan, executive director of the Institute for the Study of War, and Frederick W. Kagan, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute--both WEEKLY STANDARD contributors--have put out a great fact sheet on Operation Phantom Thunder, which Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno described…
There are a lot of rumors flying around about the fate of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Last week the AP reported that the Bush administration was "nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere." Since…
A MAJORITY of the American political and media elite appears enraptured with the notion of engagement and dialogue with Islamists. But rather than supporting moderate Muslims as they struggle with radical Islam, "engagement and dialogue" typically takes the form of fretting about the concerns of…
Baghdad and the Belts. Red bordered units identified as active in offensive operations. Click map to view.
the Heritage Foundation's Baker Spring and Peter Brookes led a forum on ballistic missile defense this afternoon. Spring has just authored a piece on the competing missile defense bills being considered in the House and Senate. His assessment: The Senate Armed Services Committee's version of the…
Less than a month ago, People's Daily, the organ paper of the Chinese Communist Party, announced that Sino-Japan relations had gone from "ice to nice" since the two countries' premiers exchanged visits. This was followed by news reports that China and Japan are to step up military exchanges,…
The always interesting blog at Small Wars Journal has a post up today from David Kilcullen, the chief counterinsurgency adviser to General David Petraeus. Kilcullen is the man in the middle of this new strategy to secure Baghdad and its environs...it ought to go without saying that his assessment…
From THE DAILY STANDARD: Reality Check for the Antiwar Crowd, by Pete Hegseth. From the Washington Times: We're Losing, by Newt Gingrich. From the Boston Globe: The Power of the Navy, by H.D.S. Greenway. From the NC Times: Interview with Lt. Gen. James Mattis, by Mark Walker. (HT The Tank) From…
The Hill reports today that some Congressional Democrats won't be satisfied with a withdrawal from Iraq--they want out of Afghanistan, too. chairman_Abercrombie.jpg Chairman Abercrombie
The Washington Post's Richard Cohen makes a point that has been brought up several times here--that the Democratic presidential candidate might suffer in 2008 from a perceived weakness on defense: The history I have in mind is 1972. By the end of that year, 56,844 Americans had been killed in…
IF YOU ARE one of those people who doesn't mind worrying, really worrying, think of the High Grade Structured Leveraged Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund. The hedge fund, run by Bear Stearns, is struggling to raise cash so that it can avoid passing into the dustbin of history. Like another…
AS AN IRAQ WAR VETERAN who participated in combat operations and political reconciliation efforts, I take issue with some of the arguments repeatedly being made on Capitol Hill. Most recently I was bothered by statements from Sen. Carl Levin, who cited three common antiwar arguments in his June 21…
Up in Honey's Room
The Dangerous Book for Boys
An Overdue Memorial
The American Home Front: 1941-1942
Before Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Scooter Libby earlier this month, he was flooded with letters from more than 100 friends and colleagues urging leniency for Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. Such letters are common at the end of trials. High-profile defendants and anonymous…
For the coffee table.
Dean Acheson
There is a power plant in Old Town Alexandria, the old port city nestled along the Potomac River just south of Washington. It was built by the Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) in 1949, at the north end of town, hard on the bank of the river. Back then, the neighborhood was industrial and…
Hong Kong will soon mark the tenth anniversary of its return to China. At midnight on July 1, 1997, amid the mournful downpour of a tropical monsoon, as British soldiers lowered the Union Flag for the last time and Tony Blair, the fresh-faced new prime minister, looked on, another chapter in…
Divisadero
Since becoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has campaigned for unconditional withdrawal from Iraq with surprising fervor, making it sound as if "the war" and George W. Bush were America's only enemies. I had supposed that the Democrats would prefer to keep up a drumbeat of criticism of the…
Mellon
Edith Wharton
Last week, a group of tribal leaders in Salah-ad-Din, the mostly Sunni province due north of Baghdad, agreed to work with the Iraqi government and U.S. forces against al Qaeda. Then al Qaeda destroyed the two remaining minarets of the al-Askariya mosque in Samarra, a city in the province.…
Don't let the gimmicky name fool you. The "12 Commitments to the American People" that former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani unveiled in a June 12 speech in Bedford, New Hampshire, are more than political slogans.
In the good old days when Republicans ruled Congress, their instructions for President Bush were: no vetoes, especially of spending bills. Republican leaders--House speaker Denny Hastert, for one--made it clear a Bush veto would cause ill will on Capitol Hill. So over a six-year period the…
Fathers and Sons
As violence persists in Lebanon and escalates to civil war in Gaza, it would be foolish to minimize the turmoil as merely more of the same. The events in Lebanon and Gaza, though separated by a few hundred miles, are closely related. They were ignited from the same source--Syria, and by extension…
A Leader Born
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
P6210264.JPG At the Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace.
With the traditional Boeing-Airbus foodfight dominating the news coverage of the biennial Paris Air Show, one of the stand-out companies that receives less attention than it deserves is Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A., or Embraer, as it is more commonly known. Embraer jet and…
P6210220.JPG Georgia governor Sonny Perdue gets a look inside the Super Hornet.
THE PAST WEEK has been a good one for terrorists. The birth of the world's first truly terrorist state in Gaza was quickly followed by a Western response that, if sustained, all but guarantees that terror state's survival.
[img nocaption float="right" width="319" height="480" render="<%photoRenderType%>"]8870[/img] Ketchikan
The Paris Air Show was graced today with the presence of international superstar John Travolta, who appeared to draw a far larger crowd than the show's other star, the Airbus A380--and he certainly drew a larger crowd of photographers. To be honest, after I took out my binoculars to see what all…
The deal to replace the aging tankers of the United States Air Force has been one of the most contentious and corrupt in Pentagon history, but to listen to Ron Marcotte, Boeing vice president of Air Force Airlift and Tanker programs, tell it, that is all in the past. Be Carefully orchastrated…
[img nocaption float="right" width="319" height="480" render="<%photoRenderType%>"]8869[/img] Sitka
The crowds at Le Bourget are overwhelming, as is the traffic inside the show, which is almost entirely comprised of high-end model Mercedes-Benzes. Here you can see the crush in between two rows of corporate chalets just off the main runway. IMG_0132.jpg
Truth is stranger than fiction--or so the saying goes. Nothing illustrates this more than the intersection of arms salesmen, government spokesmen, press reporting and a series of mysterious events leading up to the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget. In the first week of March, Ivan Safranov, a retired…
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is by all accounts an awesome aircraft. Stealthy, speedy, and offered in three variants to satisfy the varied requirements of the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, it represents the future of fixed-wing aircraft for the U.S. military. As the Lockheed…
Bruce Lemkin, the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for International Affairs, has no counterpart in the Army or Navy, but Lemkin says "[his] job is not selling airplanes, [his] job is building relationships between the U.S. Air Force and other air forces around the world." His goal is to…
To call Bell-Boeing's tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey a controversial military acquisition would be an enormous understatement. Yet the press corps, long dubious of the aircraft's capabilities and survivability, seemed to hold its collective tongue during yesterday's briefing at the Boeing chalet--there…
Senator James Inhofe arrived at the Paris Air Show early Monday morning. As "the last active commercial pilot in the United States Senate," Inhofe makes a point of never missing the show, and I had the chance to sit down with him just a few hours after the show kicked off to discuss a wide range of…
ONE OF THE RECURRING themes of press coverage of the Long War, and particularly the conflict in Iraq, is that soldiers are victims. According to this trope, soldiers and Marines are sacrificing themselves in a cause already lost, by an administration that cares little for the men and women in…
The Baqubah region. Click map to view.
[img nocaption float="right" width="640" height="426" render="<%photoRenderType%>"]8868[/img] Yakutat Bay, Alaska
During the Cold War, defense procurement was a fairly straightforward proposition. The Soviet Union would produce a new weapon, and the United States would respond with something bigger and better. The Russians would then respond with some weapon that challenged the American military. And so it…
Since I first saw Israel's massive exhibition complex, I've been intrigued to find out what our New Jersey-sized ally has to offer and why in the world they would need so much space to display it. Unfortunately for the Israelis, my curiosity put me in the minority at Le Bourget. At their…
Yesterday the U.S. Air Force's RQ-1 Predator caught my eye. Unlike the myriad UAVs on display at the air show, the Predator has seen plenty of combat in the war on terror. If robots could win medals, the Predator would have fruit salad. Built by General Atomics, the Predator has a wingspan of 48.7…
The V-22 Osprey isn't at Le Bourget, but its civilian cousin, the Bell Agusta 609 Tiltrotor is. The BA 609 is being marketed to that executive who already has everything else and just can't stand having to take a helicopter to his private jet, and why not...Here you can see the tiltrotor coming in…
ON MONDAY, June 18, some of Washington's "usual suspects" in the controversy over the Mesopotamian war assembled at the invitation of Sen. Joseph Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and George Washington University professor Amitai Etzioni. The topic for debate…
Last September the U.S. Air Force flight tested a B-52 using a 50-50 mix of synthetic jet fuel and conventional JP-8. Of the B-52's eight engines, only two were burning the mix, while the other six ran on conventional JP-8, but the Air Force has been hyping the test as evidence of the potential of…
DAY ONE OF Le Bourget is like being at the biggest Macy's store you can imagine on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Only it is around 90 degrees, you are fighting a crowd all day long and running to get from one place to the next--all the while perspiring through your coat and tie. At the end of the…
DAY ONE OF Le Bourget is like being at the biggest Macy's store you can imagine on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Only it is around 90 degrees, you are fighting a crowd all day long and running to get from one place to the next--all the while perspiring through your coat and tie. At the end of the…
[img nocaption float="right" width="640" height="426" render="<%photoRenderType%>"]8867[/img] Juneau
IMG_0011low.jpg Northrop Grumman's MQ-8B Fire Scout
At a lecture hosted by Sikorsky Aircraft, the company that bears his late father Igor's name, Sergei Sikorsky today recalled attending the air show in the early 1950s, when it was first held at Le Bourget field, here in the northern suburbs of Paris. The show featured an appearance by Charles…
P6180023.JPG Commandant of the Marine Corps
There's a fairly large delegation from the United States Senate at the show. Led by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, the crew seems to be having a pretty good time. Kansas City, or the "Paris of the Plains" as it is being called here, has set up a booth featuring a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Here you…
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Skylark.jpg
The continuing political crisis in Pakistan--triggered in March by President Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the country's top judge for alleged corruption, and heightened by the subsequent violence in Karachi that took 40 lives--creates uncertainty about the country's leadership. We should be…
The schedule for June 7 said Rudy Giuliani would address the 38th annual meeting of the Airport and Seaport Police at 8 P.M. at a Marriott hotel here in downtown Washington. Campaign and event staff said not to hurry, however. Giuliani routinely begins his events late, and in this case he had to…
Ralph Ellison
During the late 1990s, police superintendent Edward F. Davis III presided over epic crime reductions in Lowell, Massachusetts. Under his leadership, the city's crime rate fell almost 60 percent from 1995 to 1999. An economic revival followed, and the city, once among the most dangerous in New…
Prague
Three months ago, after Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury and false statements, we argued in these pages that pardoning Libby was in President Bush's interest and in the country's interest. And we suggested that if the president did intend to pardon Libby, there was no reason to wait.
John Macquarrie, one of the most influential and prolific theologians of the 20th century, died May 28, a few weeks short of his 88th birthday. Walking the boundary between existential philosophy and Christian theology, Macquarrie was a mediator between the secular and the religious, between…
SACRED SOIL
In April 1979, 64 percent of the black citizens of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) lined up at the polls to vote in the first democratic election in the history of that southern African nation. Two-thirds of them supported Abel Muzorewa, a bishop in the United Methodist Church. He was the first black prime…
Confirmation Wars
Mr. Brooks
I Love You, Beth Cooper
Tancredo's Tall Tale
Where was Barack Obama? The moment was perfect last week for the Illinois senator and champion of bipartisanship to step forward and help save the compromise immigration bill from a premature death. All he needed to do was switch his vote to oppose an amendment whose passage was going to shatter…
In early March, only a handful of Fred Thompson's good friends knew that he was even thinking about a bid for president. Three months later, according to several polls, Thompson is in second place nationally, trailing frontrunner Rudy Giuliani. He spends his days raising money and assembling an…
Michael Moore has just finished a documentary on the problems of American health care. But it turns out Michael Moore is the problem with the U.S. system. Well, not exactly Moore, but people like him, if you follow the logic of Senator Hillary Clinton. Americans are obese, costing the system…
According to writers with a weakness for self-pity--which is to say, writers--writing a book is a dispiriting, unhappy enterprise. "No one who ever did it would willingly go through it again," said George Orwell, who nevertheless managed to get out eight books before the last one finished him off…
Paris, France
Paris, France
The Inside Passage
Don't forget...the WWS is heading to Paris next week to cover the biggest air show of the year. We will be filing updates all week long with the support of the good folks over at Pratt & Whitney, so be sure to check back for all the latest news. As for predictions, this being my first trip to the…
(But Still Pretty Bad) A little while back my colleague, Ulf Gartzke, wrote a piece on the perverse demographic effects of the European welfare state. The Economist follows with a piece that provides details on some of those effects, and some very interesting data. But while the piece is presented…
Much of the discussion on Capitol Hill nowadays centers on earmarks: those discrete priorities that senators and representatives quietly insert into moving legislation. While House Republicans celebrate a commitment by Democrats to subject earmarks to scrutiny and challenge, word comes that one of…
Violence in Baghdad and greater Iraq remains low as the Iraqi government is enforcing a curfew in the major population centers where the threat of sectarian backlash from the Samarra mosque bombing remains high. There have been one confirmed report of a mosque attack and no major clashes on the…
The senator has an Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal that's a must-read: I recently returned from Iraq and four other countries in the Middle East, my first trip to the region since December. In the intervening five months, almost everything about the American war effort in Baghdad has changed,…
NATE was helping me limp off the soccer field, bearing the weight that would otherwise fall on my rapidly swelling knee.
Dissecting the controversy--ginned up controversy in the estimation of the folks involved--over Harry Reid calling Generals Pace and Petraeus "incompetent," a few unresolved questions jump out. First off, the "progressive" bloggers with whom Reid was speaking seem to have no idea exactly what was…
Yesterday's destruction of the twin minarets of the revered Askaria mosque in Samarra threatens to reignite the sectarian war which began in February of 2006 after the dome of the same mosque was destroyed by al Qaeda in Iraq. Almost immediately after the minarets were bombed, Iraqi and Coalition…
From the Washington Post: The Power China Is Building, by Gary Schmitt. From the Washington Times: A 'Ballistic Missile Triad', by Fred Stakelbeck. From the New York Post: Iraq and the Arab Suicide Cult, by Ralph Peters. From Flying: Night Carrier Qualifications, by Lt. j. g. Doug Masters. From the…
Ever since the Democrats regained the majority in the House of Representatives, Congressman John Murtha has been a train wreck. Whether it was the attention paid to his role as unindicted co-conspirator in AbScam, his promise to use a back-door way to 'slow-bleed' the war effort in Iraq, his push…
reidcommie.photo.jpg
Gant.png Major James Gant and his interpreter and friend, Mack,
The Iraqi police have made arrests in this morning's twin bombings of the al Askaria mosque's remaining minarets. While early reports indicated that the Iraqi National Police were responsible for securing the mosque complex, it was, in fact, a provincial police unit that was guarding the area. As…
A great piece on life at Camp Anaconda from Baltimore Sun reporter David Wood... Elsewhere in Iraq, soldiers and Marines patrol into dangerous Iraqi neighborhoods from squalid COPs, temporary Combat Outposts set in those neighborhoods, places where heat, dirt and foul odor triumph and plumbing, air…
From the Wall Street Journal: Our Common Struggle, by Nouri al-Maliki. From Contentions: Lieberman's Vision, by Max Boot. From the New Atlantis: China's Military Ambitions--And Ours, by Jeff Kueter. From CFR: The Candidates on North Korea Policy, by Carin Zissis. From USA Today: Lock Up Dangerous…
The Golden Dome of the al-Askaria Mosque and its two minarets prior to the bombings in 2006 and 2007.
The Pentagon held another blogger roundtable today, this time with Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, chief of staff for Strategic Effects at MNF-I. General Bergner opened with a statement about "the vicious attack that took place today on the al Askari Mosque in Samarra. It really is, in every…
I've noted before that debates over energy in Congress seem disjointed and tend to focus on a laundry list of responses to today's political concerns, rather than any overarching strategy for addressing our future energy needs. While Congress may not yet be up to the challenge, the U.S. Chamber of…
This is unquestionably bad news. Here's the statement from Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and General David Petraeus on the attack: "We strongly condemn this morning's vicious attack on the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra. This brutal action on one of Iraq's holiest shrines is a deliberate attempt by…
Some time ago I warned Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi that they were making a mistake in not clarifying to their supporters that they would not withdraw funds for US troops in Iraq. Now, in explaining that Senate Democrats will seek to force additional votes on Iraq, Reid admits the truth…
ON MAY 2nd, four days after his much-scrutinized wedding, the youngest son of 79-year-old Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak made international headlines again. In a rare interview, Gamal Mubarak, a deputy secretary-general in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), denied reports that he would…
A SIMPLE DISTINCTION explains why President Bush is unlikely to alter the outcome of the Senate debate on immigration reform, his visit to a Senate Republican luncheon yesterday notwithstanding. Despite his relatively low presidential approval rating, Bush has plenty of power. There's the veto and…
Blackfive posted on the U.S. Navy's new mission in Iraq, patrolling the Euphrates River, including the waterways of Ramadi, on small riverine craft. In December of 2005, I embedded with the Damn Security Unit (or DSU) at Haditha Dam in Anbar province. You can see the photogallery here. The DSU was…
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's 'Tear Down this Wall' speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. And this morning marked the dedication of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, which was commissioned by Congress and funded through a combination of taxpayer dollars and private…
WWS pal Tim Slagle writes in with word on Al Gore's epic global warming concert series, which is to feature musical performances from all seven continents broadcast live on July 7. Unfortunately, it seems that the concert that is to take place on Antarctica will not quite have the star-power that…
FRED THOMPSON IS adding more big-name policy talent as his testing-the-waters committee continues to grow into a real presidential campaign. Among the new additions: Mark Esper, national security adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist; Joel Shin, a top policy staffer on Bush-Cheney…
From Contentions: Warships for China? by Gordon G. Chang. From the AP: Rightist asks Japan to revive its army, by Hiroko Tabuchi. From the DEW Line: Subsonic Long Range Strike: So Much for That, by Stephen Trimble. From Wired: Soviet-Era Arcade Games Crawl Out of Their Cold War Graves, by Alexander…
Seth Gitell has an excellent piece at the New York Sun on the reaction to Senator Lieberman's comments on Face the Nation this week regarding military action against Iran. Gitell writes: Pillory the American official who deigns to be so brazen as to state that it might be necessary to attack a…
Really.
NEARLY FOUR MONTHS since the Baghdad Security Plan was announced, the Sunni population in the provinces continues to turn on al Qaeda in Iraq, and attempts to weaken support for the group inside Baghdad are showing early signs of success. Al Qaeda in Iraq, for its part, has focused its attacks…
Nearly four months since the Baghdad Security Plan was announced, the Sunni population in the provinces continues to turn on al Qaeda in Iraq, and attempts to weaken support for the group inside Baghdad are showing early signs of success. Al Qaeda in Iraq, for its part, has focused its attacks…
SEVERAL ARTICLES IN the news in the past few days have raised questions about the success and even the wisdom of American efforts to turn former insurgents--and Iraq's Sunni Arab population in general--into allies against al Qaeda. Stories in the Washington Post and the New York Times highlighted…
SOMETIMES, you can have too much of a good thing. That's what the new mega-rich, the private equity entrepreneurs, are finding out. It doesn't matter that there might be sound economic reasons for allowing these risk-takers to pay taxes on their interests in the ventures they put together at low…
As President Bush follows his G-8 visit to Berlin with a stop in Bulgaria, Congressional Quarterly covers a bizarre 'kerfuffle' over a North Korean money laundering operation involving a Bulgarian bank: During a private meeting in Washington last February, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert M.…
THERE IS SOMETHING alarming about the way Russian neo-Stalinist Vladimir Putin and his cohort revel in their obstructive behavior on the status of Kosovo. At the G8 summit, Russia blocked a compromise proposed by the French (no surprise there) that would have postponed a United Nations vote on…
Defense Daily reports today on a new armored vehicle, which, the manufacturers claim, is capable of defeating the simple but deadly explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) that have been causing so much trouble in Iraq. The report says that, Ceradyne Inc.'s Vehicle Armor Systems in conjunction with…
Several articles in the news in the past few days have raised questions about the success and even the wisdom of American efforts to turn former insurgents--and Iraq's Sunni Arab population in general--into allies against al Qaeda. Stories in the Washington Post and the New York Times highlighted…
The Wall Street Journal runs an excellent editorial today on the decision by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates not to renominate Marine Corps General Peter Pace to a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Gates explained the decision as an effort to avoid a "quite contentious" debate in…
From Contentions: The Price of One Leak, by Gabriel Schoenfeld. From RealClearPolitics: The Power & Promise of American Realism, by Condoleezza Rice. From the Philadelphia Inquirer: A positive story from the Iraq war, by Kevin Ferris. Two From Defense Tech: Blues out of San Fran? by Pinch Paisley.…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has a full-time position available for a staff assistant. This is a clerical position working with the editors. Duties will include answering phones and emails, updating our website, research, and record-keeping. Candidates should address a cover letter and résumé to…
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates succeeded in securing guarantees from Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiev for continued U.S. use of the Manas air base. During a June 5th press conference in Bishkek--the Kyrgyz capital--Secretary Gates reiterated the importance of Coalition operations at…
AL QAEDA blew up a bridge in Iraq on Sunday using a suicide truck bomb, the latest in a series of attacks against bridges in Baghdad and the "belts" of territory surrounding the capital. Such bridge bombings are best understood as part of a territorial struggle between al Qaeda and rogue Shia…
Ferguson's Lincoln
American foreign policy in the Middle East can produce severe cognitive dissonance. Take Palestine and Iran. The White House's evolving policies toward the Palestinians and the clerical regime in Tehran show how easy it is for history to take a back seat to process, for reality to give way to…
Once
WIDE WORLD OF VIOLENCE
In our over-eroticized culture, it is common to hear people rate their enthusiasms by saying they are "better than sex." I reluctantly volunteer that information about fly fishing. For I like "spawning" as much as any non-fisherman--more even. But unlike fly fishing, it's a hard activity to perform…
The Life of Kingsley Amis
What do Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Gutseriev, and John Browne have in common? They all thought their desire for profits from Russia's vast oil reserves trumped Vladimir Putin's lust for power. Khodorkovsky now languishes in a Siberian jail. When his sentence is served, he will be rearrested and…
The Reagan Diaries
Boston
Is the number of Senate Republican defectors from President Bush's Iraq strategy about to rise? Probably, but not in a way that would bring an end to the war anytime soon.
The Iraq Study Group is back. Even before the current strategy has had a chance to succeed or fail, some administration officials and platoons of congressmen are once again touting its report from last December as if it were a magic talisman that could save them from making tough decisions and…
Zabul Province, Afghanistan
Conservatives are sometimes blind to what's in their own best interest. This is especially true on immigration, all the more so on the narrower matter of the bipartisan immigration reform bill now before the Senate. The bill gives conservatives a large chunk of what they've wanted for years, plus…
The Cure
Narrative ballets aren't really designed to make you think. They're more about delivering the works--from dazzling pointe work onstage to waterworks pouring from the eyes of sentimental fans. Even when a choreographer transposes a piece of literature to the stage, any grappling with the text tends…
After months of internal wrangling, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its latest report on prewar intelligence on Iraq. This new report covers assessments of what we should have expected, both inside and outside of Iraq, once Saddam was removed from power. To call the committee's…
The big news on the Sunday circuit this week was Joe Lieberman's declaration on Face the Nation that "we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq.'' You can watch the video here, and here's an excerpt of Lieberman's…
The January 20 attack on the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center by the Iranian backed Qazali Network, which resulted in the kidnapping and murder of five U.S. soldiers, was long known to be an Iranian planned and sponsored strike. While Iran has insulated itself with its cutouts in the…
MEMRI has posted a translation of an interview with Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard, Nasser Al-Bahri. He confirms what we already knew; theological differences do not preclude cooperation between the Sunni al Qaeda and Shiite Iran. Al-Bahri explains (emphasis added): UBL_BG.jpg Nasser Al-Bahri,…
volunteers-756333.jpg John Edwards's idea of counterterrorism.
InsideDefense.com reports: Army leaders are heading to Iraq and Kuwait on a mission to determine exactly how many Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles the service needs, an assessment that could propel the total size of the MRAP program well beyond 23,000 vehicles and the price tag north of $23…
The Senate Armed Services Committee held hearings yesterday on the confirmation of Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute as the administration's new "war czar." Lute was a controversial pick for the job, having previously gone on record with his own doubts about the president's new strategy for bringing stability…
Qods Force logo, click to view.
THE MOST POIGNANT MOMENT of the May 31 dedication of the Billy Graham Library was the tribute to the 88-year-old evangelist by 82-year-old former President George H.W. Bush.
DESPITE A STELLAR RESEARCH RECORD, Iowa State University astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez is being forced out of his job for the expression--outside the classroom--of an inconvenient personal belief.
From Kristol's latest column for Time magazine, now available here: In the old days, historians--at least some of them--were patriotic and moralistic. No longer. We live in what Andrew Ferguson, in his brilliant new book, Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America, calls "a wised-up era." Now,…
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Yesterday's news from Iraq was dominated by rumors of a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq. The news turned out to be false, as Ankara, Baghdad, and Washington all denied the reports from two unnamed Turkish officials. Turkey has seen an increase in attacks from the radical Kurdistan Workers' Party…
From the New York Times: Defeat's Killing Fields, by Peter W. Rodman and William Shawcross. From RealClearPolitics: The Lessons of D-Day, by Victor Davis Hanson. From the Wall Street Journal ($): '68 Redux, by Robert McFarlane. From Defense Tech: Dragon Skin Takes a Beating on the Hill, by…
Dr. Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia writes on 15 bellwether races that will help determine control of the House of Representatives in 2008. Although 14 of the seats are held by Democrats, he gives the Democrat an edge in just 5 of them. But Sabato stresses that while this means the GOP…
Our friends over at Ares are weighing the merits of the F-22 versus the Su-37, and others. The discussion was prompted by the video that's been posted here and elsewhere of the F-22's recent performance at Langley, AFB. Here's a taste: This demonstration is interesting, particularly the low-speed,…
We've chronicled before the Democratic retreat on promises to limit and fully disclose the lists of pork-barrel projects included in appropriations bills. Now House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey has clarified that even though pork-barrel projects won't be added to bills until…
THE FACE OF TERROR is constantly evolving as terrorist tactics, and even the foot soldiers trying to attack America, change. When authorities announced last weekend that they had foiled a plot designed to blow up New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, its fuel tanks, and a jet fuel…
The surge is failing, according to the New York Times. The U.S. has fallen short of securing Baghdad by July, and the Iraqi Security Forces have been hopelessly infiltrated by Shiia militias.
ONE OF the most disturbing aspects of the JFK terror plot is its Caribbean roots.
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Foreign Affairs takes a whack at everyone's favorite alternative fuel: ethanol. Loved by Republicans and Democrats alike because it curries favor in farm states and shows 'bona fides' on global warming, both parties have pushed to expand its use. Increased ethanol use however, presents significant…
From today's Australian: ALEXANDER Downer has distanced Australia from US and Japanese complaints about China's rapid military build-up, saying the concerns are exaggerated. The US and Japanese Governments have complained about the escalation and "opaqueness" of Beijing's military spending, but Mr…
From THE DAILY STANDARD: Nice Guys in New Hampshire, by Fred Barnes. From Contentions: Three Interrogators, by Max Boot. From Armed Forces Journal: Peril in Pakistan, by Peter Brookes. From the Daily Mail: PC brigade ban pin-ups on RAF jets, by staff. From Defense Review: New Defense Against…
Drudge is linking the story, and we've been trying to get more information on the situation, but as yet all we've heard from the military is that more information will be coming out soon and that "it appears this incident has been misreported." We'll see. The U.S. commanders in northern Iraq sure…
Al Qaeda continues to attack tribal leaders in opposition to its Islamic State. "Attacks on tribal chiefs in Iraq, particularly in the Sunni-dominated areas of central and northern Iraq have increased recently," Azzaman reported. Yesterday, three prominent tribal leaders were murdered. "The attacks…
Congressman Bill Jefferson (D-LA) has been indicted on 16 count--including a first-ever indictment of a federal official for violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Republicans and Democrats moved quickly to champion an investigation into the charges by the House Ethics Committee :…
We've covered here before the inter-service debate over the role of airpower in counterinsurgency operations. For some background information, check out this article in Air Force magazine, and this post at Small Wars Journal. There seemed to be a pretty good consensus that the counterinsurgency…
THERE WAS A MOMENT in Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate that must have caused a massive sigh of disappointment among the media. It came when former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney declined to attack Arizona senator John McCain on immigration. The day before, McCain had criticized…
The surge is failing, according to the New York Times. The U.S. has fallen short of securing Baghdad by July, and the Iraq security forces have been hopelessly infiltrated by Shiia militias. The Times's conclusion is based on a one-page memo. The memo, actually a status update on the situation in…
SPEAKING TO NATAN SHARANSKY last month about the Conference on Democracy and Security currently wrapping up in Prague, one could almost hear the desperation in his voice. With progress in Iraq stalling and the American public turning against the war, Sharansky felt he had to show the world just…
I had the opportunity to attend a speech by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today at the Heritage Foundation. Paulson was highlighting the achievements of the Strategic Economic Dialogue with China. The SED was established last year, by Presidents Bush and Hu, "to provide an overarching framework…
"The President said that he felt terrible for the family, especially his wife and his kids." --Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino, accompanying President Bush on Air Force One, Tuesday I FEEL TERRIBLE for Scooter Libby's family. Millions of Americans feel terrible for Scooter Libby's…
From the Wall Street Journal: Realists on Iraq, by Dan Senor. From the Chicago Sun-Times: Bush has chance to set wise policy on Russia, by John O'Sullivan. From Haaretz: Who Deters Whom? by Moshe Arens. From Flight: Air Forces Keep Faith With JSF, by Craig Hoyle. From Asia Times: US Ramps Up…
Senator Lieberman spoke yesterday at the Conference on Democracy and Security in Prague, Czech Republic. Here's an excerpt from the speech (you can read the full text here): "The outcome of the struggle in Iraq will go a long way towards determining whether our future in Europe, and America, and…
General Petraeus was interviewed by Lara Logan on the Early Show this morning. Here's the teaser video...and you can go here to see the full video. The bottom line: Petraeus says the full surge hasn't even started yet, that American forces are still moving into place, and that it won't be in any…
We're reminded so many times each day that new technology is profoundly changing the way we live. Bright people talk about how technology is empowering individuals and ad hoc networks to bring powerful institutions to heel. In that vein, you might want to hold off on that sleek new…
YESTERDAY the New York Times published yet another article in an ongoing series that might be called "The Surge Has Failed." This one was titled "Commanders Say Push in Baghdad Is Short of Goal." The article reports on a one-page summary of a document the Times characterized only as an "internal…
SO THERE IS LIFE in the Bush administration yet. And a bit of good sense. After allowing the 10,000-person staff of the World Bank to sink Paul Wolfowitz for reasons that had less to do with Wolfowitz's girlfriend than with his support for the policy that led to the Iraq war and his attempt to…
THE THIRD-RANKING REPUBLICAN in the House of Representatives will support Fred Thompson for president. Adam Putnam, who represents Floridians in the suburbs and exurbs of Tampa and is a key player among conservatives in the House, will join the growing Thompson operation in a leadership position in…
In today's New York Times, David S. Cloud and Damien Cave look at the state of the Baghdad Security Plan three months in, and essentially states the operation to secure the capital has fallen short of its goal. While this issue will be addressed in a more extensive article for THE DAILY STANDARD…
June will be a busy month in the House of Representatives as the focus shifts to passing the 12 appropriations bills that fund all discretionary programs. Congressional Quarterly reports that the House is prepared to spend $23 billion more than the president has requested--and has already exceeded…
From this week's Scrapbook: THE SCRAPBOOK is feeling like a proud papa these days--or maybe a doting uncle. That's because our friend and colleague Andrew Ferguson has just published Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America (Grove/Atlantic, $24), and in THE SCRAPBOOK's considered opinion, if…
The Washington Post ran a piece yesterday that described an increase in Iranian assistance to the Taliban. Iran has increased arms shipments to both Iraq's Shiite extremists and Afghanistan's Taliban in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to pressure American and other Western troops operating in…
From the Times: "I'm a pure and absolute democrat." An interview with Vladimir Putin. From the Ottawa Citizen: The Case for Bombing Iran, by David Harris. From the Honolulu Advertiser: U.S.-Japan Defense Alliance Strengthens, by Richard Halloran. From Wired: The Military's Next-Gen Water Gun, by…
Official Chinese media have given considerable coverage to the growing tension between Washington and Moscow. A headline in Friday's People's Daily asks "At What Direction is the Russian Missile Test Targeted?" After noting that "Russia has expressed strong opposition to U.S. plans to extend its…
Don't listen to Teddy Kennedy. If you belong to the small band of conservative brothers inclined to support immigration reform, the Massachusetts senator is on your side. But what he says is likely to make you anxious, vexed, or even crazed. At times, Kennedy makes the compromise immigration bill…
A World Apart
Should America have public schools, or would we do better without them? Nothing is more important to this country than the transformation of children into educated American citizens. That's what public schools are for, and no institutions are better suited to the role--in principle. They used to…
The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes
Knocked Up
When George Bush dropped by Bogotá during his recent tour of Latin America, he became the first president to visit the Colombian capital since Ronald Reagan in 1982. His brief stopover was mainly symbolic: a sign of the improved security climate and a tribute to Colombian president Alvaro Uribe,…
The war over the war in Washington is quiet for the moment. Congress has finally appropriated funds for America's warriors without setting a deadline for their defeat. Now the president can turn his undivided attention to fighting the enemies who are attacking our soldiers.
First there was Dallas and then there was Dynasty, family tales of intrigue in high places, guilty pleasures that kept us couch-bound each week in the 1980s, dazed by the money, the jets, the power, the houses, not to mention the rows and affairs. Then, just as these were reaching the end of their…
What do cicadas have in common with Jack Kevorkian? They share a cacophonous anniversary. In June, after 17 years, cicadas are expected to crawl from underground across the Midwest. These grim insects produce such a din that just one can overpower other sounds. Also in June, exactly 17 years after…
Sydney
Hair Force One
Liberal Reform in an Illiberal Regime
Fallen Founder
In wartime Washington there is but one point of bipartisan agreement: The land forces of the United States are too small. Hillary Clinton may be trying to make her fellow Democrats forget her vote to go to war in Iraq, but she insists that "it is past time to increase the end-strength of the Army…
On a recent episode of Law & Order, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom is the victim of a homicide. After returning from the war, he'd struggled with severe mental problems, while a bureaucratic snafu had left him without adequate disability benefits and finally homeless. He is found dead in a…
The Uses of Memory
The first thing on Rep. Mike Rogers's mind was: Don't lose your cool.
This Week featured interviews with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and Democratic congressman Jack Murtha. The two offered strikingly different views of America's role in world affairs. First, Talabani: We are thankful to the great and glorious American people who liberated us. We think that…
The Iraq Study Group was established in March 2006 at the United States Institute of Peace. It released its report on December 6, 2006. The ISG was never intended to be an ongoing project, and its findings have not therefore been updated to account for changes in the circumstances in Iraq. Recent…
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Banner of the Islamic State of Iraq. Click to view.
From Foreign Affairs: Rising to a New Generation of Global Challenges, by Mitt Romney. From the Philadelphia Inquirer: A general says Iraq is not hopeless, by Kevin Ferris. From USA Today: MRAPs Can't Stop EFPs, by Tom Vanden Brook. From FP Passport: Graffiti Warfare in Iraq, by Blake Hounshell.…
The Hill reports that OMB director Rob Portman is pledging to track earmarks in all spending bills enacted for 2008: The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stated Thursday that it will keep track of earmarks during the 2008 fiscal year appropriations process. In a memo to all…
With the G8 Summit in Germany just days away, the world's eight leading industrialized countries have so far failed to come to an agreement on what was supposed to be Chancellor Merkel's historic breakthrough on the international stage: forging, for the first time, a consensus that climate change…
THE THEOLOGIAN David Hart famously wrote that Europe is dying of metaphysical boredom. That may be true. But surely unseriousness has something to do with it, too. For the latest example of European dithering, we turn to the Republic of Ireland.