Max Boot

Empire

President Trump gave a much better statement Monday on the dismaying events in Charlottesville than he did on Saturday. But while he now is willing to call out the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists as “evil,” he still won’t use the T word—“terrorism.”

Tallinn, Estonia

It didn’t get a lot of play in the United States, but on April 9 disturbing news came from the Philippines. Eighteen soldiers were killed and 52 wounded in a firefight with Abu Sayyaf militants on the southern island of Basilan. This is a tragedy for the Philippines that also raises questions about…

Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam

Following his primary victories in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, Donald Trump has established himself as the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. He has done so offering grandiose slogans — He'll Make America Great Again! He'll have us win so much we'll get…

Amid the incessant clashes of the campaign season, there is at least one thing that pretty much all of the presidential candidates can agree on.

President Obama is putting on the hard sell to market the nuclear deal he reached with Iran. On July 14, in announcing the agreement, he said: “This deal shows the real and meaningful change that American leadership and diplomacy can bring—change that makes our country and the world safer and more…

The ouster of ISIS fighters from Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, has been widely celebrated. Although this victory was brought about in no small part by American airpower, it was a triumph for Iran more than for the United States. The vast majority of fighters on the front lines belonged to…

December 17 was already an important milestone for the North Korean regime: It’s the day the “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong-il, died in 2011, opening the way for his son Kim Jong-un to succeed him as absolute dictator. That anniversary was marked Wednesday with commemorations to signal the end of a…

Tunis 

Last week brought a reminder of what the United States has lost since Bob Gates and Leon Panetta left the Obama cabinet. Both are straight shooters with a centrist, hardheaded sensibility. 

Lhasa

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has long been hard for the central government to control because of its combustible mix of Arabs and Kurds. The first time I visited Mosul was in August 2003 when a tenuous calm was maintained by the 101st Airborne Division. Its commander, a then-obscure two-star…

Arthur Schlesinger posited the existence of cycles in American political history alternating between “public purpose” and “private interest”—his jaundiced labels for liberalism and conservatism. There are also cycles in American foreign policy alternating between interventionism and…

If you want to see both the potential and the peril in Latin America, you could not do better than to visit Honduras and Colombia, as I did in mid-May: The former is Exhibit A for all that is wrong with the region, from drug trafficking and violence to governmental corruption; the latter a showcase…

It is not possible—at least not yet—to program a computer to predict all the consequences of adopting one foreign policy over another. Policymakers therefore tend to act with one eye cocked on the rearview mirror, making decisions based on what has worked and, especially, what has not worked in the…

Everyone still remembers T. E. Lawrence, if only because of David Lean’s magnificent movieLawrence of Arabia and Lawrence’s own literary masterpiece,Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Yet far fewer remember Lawrence’s distant cousin, the British Army officer Orde Wingate, who was in many ways his World War…

Things are getting ugly in Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents somehow managed to penetrate the coalition’s main base in Helmand Province, Camp Bastion, and blow up six Marine Corps Harrier jump jets and damage two others, making this the greatest single-day loss of American warplanes since the Vietnam…

It’s been a bad few weeks in Afghanistan. The burning of several Korans by U.S. military personnel at the Bagram airbase on February 20 sparked protests and riots. More troubling were several incidents of “green on blue” attacks in which Afghan security personnel turned on their American advisers;…

The “realist” case for Bashar al-Assad—and before him, for his father, Hafez—was that he was supposedly a pillar of stability. The Assads, we were told, were all that stood between Syria and chaos. If that was ever true, it definitely is not true now. Assad’s heavy-handed attempt to repress a…

Kabul

President Obama did a good job of feinting to the right on national security issues during his first two years in office. Lacking much standing on military policy, he often acceded to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Michael…

Ah, social science. All those numbers. All those technical terms. How comforting. How reassuring.

Opinion polls consistently show that the U.S. military is the most trusted institution in America. Republicans have benefited indirectly from that hard-won reputation because since the 1970s they have been seen as the strong, hawkish party, while Democrats have had to fight the stigma that they are…

In 1991, at the end of the Cold War, there were 710,821 active-duty soldiers in the U.S. Army. By 2001, that figure was down to 478,918. That 32 percent decline in active-duty strength severely limited our options for a military response to 9/11, practically dictating that the forces sent to…

When President Obama announced his Afghanistan policy a year ago, some conservatives had understandable reservations. Was the president sending enough troops? General Stanley McChrystal had asked, in essence, for 40,000 more troops, but Obama sent only 30,000 or so. Was Obama really committed to…

In English-speaking countries, the French armed forces have become a joke. Literally. Entire websites are devoted to one-liners like: “How many gears do French tanks have? Six: five reverse and one forward.” This is a gross slander of a nation that, back in the days of Louis XIV and Napoleon, was…

Erbil, Iraq

Bogotá

Baghdad

Kabul

President George H.W. Bush thought that after the victory in the Gulf war we had "kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all." How wrong he was.

Detention policy is one of the least discussed but most important aspects of the war in Afghanistan. The handling of prisoners gets publicity only when there is a major screw-up such as at Abu Ghraib or the smaller-scale abuses that occurred in Afghanistan in the early years of the U.S. presence…

Jerusalem

Zamboanga City, Philippines

The Genius

Summits

Baghdad

Traveling to the Middle East can be a disconcerting experience. One day you feel as if you're journeying into the future, the next day into the past.

HERE'S A QUICK test to determine if you're a high brow or a low brow. Two men died recently. Both were described as geniuses in their field. Which one meant the most to you? Was it Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish director of gloomy, arty movies? Or Bill Walsh, one of the greatest football coaches of…

Sydney

Since February, General David Petraeus and his team in Baghdad have been implementing classic counterinsurgency precepts that have worked wherever they have been tried in adequate strength over a sustained period of time--from the Philippines and South Africa in the early 1900s to Malaya in the…

The news from Iraq is, as usual, grim. Bombings, more bombings, and yet more bombings--that's all the world notices. It's easy to conclude that all is chaos. That's not true. Some parts of Iraq are in bad shape, but others are improving. I spent the first two weeks of April in Baghdad, with side…

A NUMBER OF SCANDALS have erupted in Israeli politics lately. The president and the justice minister have both made headlines for their involvement in separate sex-related controversies, while Prime Minister Olmert himself has been under investigation for possibly receiving an above-market price…

PRESIDENT BUSH admitted in late July that the security situation in Baghdad was "terrible" and announced that he was sending more troops to quell the violence. Because this is what I advocated in a May 24 column, I should be happy with the president's decision. But, alas, as with so many American…

Fiasco

A LOT HAS BEEN written in recent years about stateless terrorism. The events of the last few weeks show, to the contrary, that some of the world's most malignant terrorist groups continue to rely on state support. Hamas runs its own quasi-state--the Palestinian Authority. Hezbollah is a…

Kabul

FOR THE LAST three years, the Bush administration has pursued a policy of wishful thinking in Iraq, operating under the hope that some deus ex machina--either elections or the capture of insurgent leaders--would salvage a deteriorating situation. Well, Iraq has now had three successful nationwide…

SO THE UNITED STATES has brokered a cease-fire among the warring factions in Darfur, and the U.N. Security Council has authorized the deployment of a peacekeeping force. To anyone blissfully unfamiliar with history, this sounds like a decisive step that will finally end the violence that has left…

THE INAUGURATION of a coalition government suggests that the situation in Iraq is not as gloomy as some opponents of the war claim. But the aftermath also shows that the situation is not as sunny as some supporters of the war believe.

DURING HIS FIRST four years in office, President Bush made impressive strides toward achieving the improbable goal laid out in his second inaugural address--"ending tyranny in our world." American troops liberated 50 million people and midwived representative governments in Afghanistan and Iraq.…

Mao

The Case for Goliath

Camp Victory, Iraq

Dear George Clooney,

No True Glory

Restless Giant

IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY A few months ago that commentators were blithely babbling about how much relations between Beijing and Washington had improved since the start of the Bush administration, which was marred by China's downing of an American EP-3 surveillance plane and the detention of its crew. The…

William Pitt the Younger

A DECADE AGO, WHEN I was writing about telecom deregulation (and you think you have a boring job), "video on demand"--the ability to order any movie, any time, directly through your television set--was supposed to be just around the corner. And yet, until recently, I was still waiting on line with…

I FIRST BECAME AWARE of Thomas E. Woods Jr.'s Politically Incorrect Guide to American History when the New York Times Book Review took note of its rise on the paperback bestseller list and described it as a "neocon retelling of this nation's back story." A neocon retelling? What would that be,…

PUNDITS normally chew over the world's great ills--war, famine, terrorism, Michael Moore, and the like. But sometimes a smaller matter sticks in the craw and demands attention. This is such a time. The actions of petty-minded government bureaucrats have left a bad taste in my mouth. Literally.

ONE OF JOHN F. KERRY'S most damning accusations against President Bush is that he has made America a global pariah, thereby undercutting the international cooperation we need to win the war on terrorism. Kerry pledges to restore "America's respect and leadership so we don't have to go it alone in…

THE WORLD COURT'S ruling that the West Bank barrier is illegal and must be torn down has been greeted in Israel with a giant shrug of the shoulders. The court's opinion is only "advisory," and any attempt by the United Nations to enforce it is sure to be vetoed by the United States. The…

Cape Town, South Africa

In 1995, when I was a junior editor at the Wall Street Journal, I was handed "The Daniel J. Boorstin Reader" to review. I had heard of the author but had never read his work. As I dove into this 900-page compendium, I quickly discovered that Boorstin had a discerning eye for detail, an ability to…

Nations and alliances should move early to deal with crises while they are still ambiguous and can be dealt with more easily, for delay raises both the costs and risks. Early action is the objective to which statesmen and military leaders should resort. --Wesley Clark, "Waging Modern War" (2001)…

WHEN CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS set sail from the port of Palos de la Frontera on Aug. 3, 1492, no doubt there was some peasant standing on the wharf, muttering to himself, "A fine waste of royal escudos. As if we don't have enough problems at home. Why are their stinkin' majesties funding a voyage to…

TO JUDGE by Libya's promise to give up its weapons of mass destruction, President Bush's get-tough approach in Iraq and Afghanistan has impressed our enemies. But what about our ostensible allies?

PITY THE POOR Democratic presidential candidates. They're really in a bind: They have no choice but to join in the international rejoicing over the capture of the Butcher of Baghdad, but at the same time they can't simply offer blanket approval for President Bush's Iraq policy. With the economy…

Tokyo

PRESIDENT BUSH hasn't been talking much about the ''axis of evil'' lately. Instead, while touring Asia this week, he said he would be willing to offer North Korea a multilateral security guarantee in return for giving up its nuclear weapons program--precisely the sort of deal he once denounced as…

I WENT TO IRAQ in August, the day after a bomb had ripped through the United Nations compound in Baghdad, killing 23 people including the U.N. special envoy. I came home the day after another massive car bomb exploded at a mosque in Najaf, taking more than 95 lives including that of a leading…

I'M OUTRAGED. I can't believe the president would try to distract attention from his domestic problems by attacking foreign regimes based on suspect intelligence. He should be impeached! Actually he already was. I'm referring of course to Bill Clinton, who in 1998 bombed terrorist bases in…

THE U.S. OCCUPATION of Iraq is still in its early stages. It is ludicrously premature to call it a failure, as some critics already do. Assuming that the United States and Britain keep their nerve in the face of growing guerrilla attacks, there is little doubt that they can still make good on…

I JUST SPENT two weeks traveling across Europe, visiting Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium, France, and Portugal. I was on business, but (shhh! don't tell my boss) I had my share of pleasure, too. How could it be otherwise when you're in a continent-sized theme park? I gazed at the marble…

Brussels

OPPONENTS of the war in Iraq must be chagrined to see pretty much all of their arguments discredited by events. The invasion did not cause greater regional unrest; instead it led to a resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. There have been no massive refugee flows or other humanitarian…

THERE IS SOME IRONY, though not of the pleasant sort, in the fact that last week's suicide bombing in Riyadh occurred shortly after it was announced that the remaining American troops would be withdrawn from Saudi Arabia. This move was designed to remove one of the grievances held by Al-Qaeda and…

WHAT IS the greatest danger facing America as it tries to rebuild Iraq: Shiite fundamentalism? Kurdish separatism? Sunni intransigence? Turkish, Syrian, Iranian or Saudi Arabian meddling? All of those are real problems, but none is so severe that it can't readily be handled. More than 125,000…

A GROUP OF foreign policy thinkers led by Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge spent much of the 1890s arguing that America needed to build up its navy and take a leading role on the world stage. The most influential expression of their views was Alfred Thayer Mahan's book "The Influence of Sea…

Jarhead

WHEN IT COMES TO IRAQ, media policy seems to be: Good news is no news.

GIVE SADDAM HUSSEIN CREDIT. He learned from the first Gulf War that it makes no sense to go toe-to-toe with U.S. forces in conventional combat. In the second Gulf War, he has adopted a smarter strategy of retreating into urban areas and harassing U.S. supply lines with irregular forces. Saddam's…

ANTIWAR CROWDS are taking to the streets in London and Madrid, Washington, and San Francisco. But what about Ground Zero? No, not New York. That's Ground Zero for terrorism. I mean Berkeley, California, Ground Zero for antiwar sentiment.

WE INTERRUPT the latest bout of hand-wringing over the fate of the Atlantic Alliance with an important news flash: The United States won a significant victory last week in its long-term quest to ensure that Europe remains a friend, not a competitor.

FOLLOWING HANS BLIX'S devastating report and President Bush's compelling State of the Union address, Saddam Hussein looks more and more like a dead man walking. In all likelihood, Baghdad will be liberated by April. This may turn out to be one of those hinge moments in history--events like the…

IN AN INTERVIEW LAST MONTH with Britain's Sunday Times, Yasser Arafat rebuked Osama bin Laden for seeking to exploit the Palestinians' cause for his own ends. "Why is bin Laden talking about Palestine now? . . . He never helped us. He was working in another, completely different area and against…

IN THE LARGER WORLD, despite the expectations of numerous political scientists and pundits, unipolarity still rules. America stands head and shoulders above all other nations, with no real competitor in sight, not Russia or China or Japan or Europe. In the world of professional football, by…

OF THE MANY silly reasons propounded for leaving Saddam Hussein on his blood-stained throne, the silliest has to be the suggestion that to remove him would promote "instability." As a guiding philosophy for policy-making, the mantra of "instability bad, stability good"--endlessly repeated by…

QUESTION: What are the implications of the U.S. government's missile strike [on al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen] yesterday? . . . I'm sure many Israelis are wondering what the difference is between this and a targeted killing. And me, too. . . . STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN RICHARD BOUCHER: Our policy…

IN THEIR EAGERNESS to stop a U.S. invasion of Iraq, antiwar activists have adopted an interesting argument. Containment and deterrence worked against the Soviet Union, they say, and they will work against Saddam Hussein. Now they tell us. The Left's enthusiasm for containment and deterrence was, to…

First Great Triumph How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power by Warren Zimmermann Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 544 pp., $30 American Empire The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy by Andrew J. Bacevich Harvard University Press, 320 pp., $29.95 IN THE PAST YEAR, the United States has…

POOR BILL CLINTON. He tried so hard to be a peacemaker, and until recently it appeared that he had at least partially succeeded. Sure, Middle East peace didn't emerge from the frenzied negotiations at Camp David in July 2000. But at least he had succeeded in brokering deals to bring "peace" to…

The Path to Victory America's Army and the Revolution in Human Affairs by Donald Vandergriff Presidio, 376 pp., $34.95 LAST MONTH the United States Army brought approximately 3,000 troops of the Tenth Mountain Division back from Kosovo and 3,000 troops of the 101st Airborne Division back from…

MANY HAVE SUGGESTED THAT THE September 11 attack on America was payback for U.S. imperialism. If only we had not gone around sticking our noses where they did not belong, perhaps we would not now be contemplating a crater in lower Manhattan. The solution is obvious: The United States must become a…

I SAW HENRY KISSINGER THE OTHER DAY in New York. For a moment I was disoriented. It was as though Bismarck or Metternich had walked out of a history book and straight into my path. Like his nineteenth-century heroes, Kissinger now seems mostly to belong to history: He has earned his place as one of…

American seems fated to play in the twenty-first century the role Britain played in the nineteenth: Globocop -- the country that protects the weak from the strong (the Ottoman Empire from Russia, Kuwait from Iraq), safeguards international trade while stamping out contraband (slaves, nukes), and…