America

John Wilson reviews 'Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear' by Matthew Kaemingk

When the young Muslim known as “Mo” decided he could no longer live in America, the Islamic State wasn’t his destination of choice. Initially, he said, he wanted to migrate to Saudi Arabia to study at the University of Medina—but he couldn’t get in. A diet of online propaganda convinced him the…

We are living in an era of political panic. Some of President Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters in 2016 were motivated to overlook his shortcomings by desperate fear that our system of government was near death and only the most extreme measures could save it. A poll conducted by PRRI and…

The optimism of Democrats about the midterm election is based on the assumption that political conditions won’t change between now and November 6. Indeed, some of them won’t.

Pollsters, pundits, and public intellectuals identify declining levels of trust in America’s civic institutions as a threat to social and political order. Public opinion data bear out that trust has indeed waned in recent decades. The great majority of citizens in the early 1960s broadly viewed the…

As I drove across the prairie, I saw the corn fields, tall and ripe. I saw the fabled waves of grain, the endless tides of amber wheat. I saw the plains unfold, down miles and miles of blacktop road. Returning to the landscape of my childhood, I leaned my head out the car window to breathe the…

A little over two years ago, The Scrapbook was pleased to welcome a new work of history from Philip F. Anschutz, chairman and CEO of The Weekly Standard’s parent company. In The Scrapbook’s words, Out Where the West Begins profiled “an astonishing variety of business entrepreneurs, visionaries,…

As President Macron and President Trump stood side by side during the Bastille Day ceremonies in Paris, it was not difficult for commentators to point out the differences between the two men. Neither in personal style nor substantive policies do they have much in common. Indeed, Macron’s victory in…

As President Macron and President Trump stood side by side during the Bastille Day ceremonies in Paris, it was not difficult for commentators to point out the differences between the two men. Neither in personal style nor substantive policies do they have much in common. Indeed, Macron’s victory in…

"To put it in a nutshell," João Carlos Espada tells us, his book "aims at providing an intellectual case for liberal democracy." This aim puts The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty on a crowded shelf of mostly desiccated husks. What gives his work vitality is his wish to clarify why European…

"To put it in a nutshell,” João Carlos Espada tells us, his book "aims at providing an intellectual case for liberal democracy." This aim puts The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty on a crowded shelf of mostly desiccated husks. What gives his work vitality is his wish to clarify why European…

We are two Americans with different family histories whose paths converged when we got involved with one of the nation's largest Hispanic charter school operators. At the peak of our efforts a couple of years ago, the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) Charter School Network enrolled more than…

We are two Americans with different family histories whose paths converged when we got involved with one of the nation’s largest Hispanic charter school operators. At the peak of our efforts a couple of years ago, the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) Charter School Network enrolled more than…

One of the most striking features of the British cemetery at Gallipoli is the attention given to honoring the diversity of the dead. Final farewells from loved ones carved upon stone plaques line the footpaths up the hillsides where the Ottomans rained down machine-gun and artillery fire. Fallen…

One of the most striking features of the British cemetery at Gallipoli is the attention given to honoring the diversity of the dead. Final farewells from loved ones carved upon stone plaques line the footpaths up the hillsides where the Ottomans rained down machine-gun and artillery fire. Fallen…

The men who drafted the Constitution rightly earned our eternal praise. In 1787, they met in Philadelphia, where they pondered, debated, and haggled for four months. James Madison, George Washington, and the rest scrapped the Articles of Confederation and replaced it with a new governing document.

The men who drafted the Constitution rightly earned our eternal praise. In 1787, they met in Philadelphia, where they pondered, debated, and haggled for four months. James Madison, George Washington, and the rest scrapped the Articles of Confederation and replaced it with a new governing document.

The Second City comic team on display at the Kennedy Center for The Second City's Almost Accurate Guide to America is a good one. Ryan Asher, Marla Ceceres, Tyler Davis, Sayjal Joshi, Andrew Knox, and Ross Taylor are all excellent comic actors, with impeccable timing, quick wits, and charming stage…

President Obama thinks Britain made a mistake by voting to leave the European Union. So does Secretary of State John Kerry. So do most on the left of American politics. Most on the right see Britain’s so-called Independence Day as a sensible democratic decision to shed the protectionist and…

In the wake of the San Bernardino attacks, Americans must confront the undeniable reality of homegrown Islamist terrorism. We must also confront how little we have learned since 9/11 about Islam and about the Muslims who are our fellow citizens. In recent days our public officials—at least the…

“It would send a demoralizing and dangerous message to the world that the United States makes judgments about people based on the country they come from and their religion.”  Have these groups ever heard of the struggle for Soviet Jewry? Was it wrong to single out that group in legislation? If not,…

Deep in the transcript of the interview ABC’s David Muir conducted with Hillary Clinton yesterday comes an indirect but very tough shot at the man she worked for and hopes to replace. In the course of answering a question about her mother, Clinton described her mother’s difficult upbringing and…

It's Labor Day—the end of summer, the beginning of the school year (though now schools usually begin earlier), the time when the pennant races get interesting (will the Mets collapse yet again?), and the traditional kick-off for the presidential races (as you may have noticed, those now begin…

How much do Americans love football?  Enough that more of them will tune in to a meaningless exhibition game in August than viewed the Stanley Cup finals.  As the Chicago Sun Times  reports, last week's

Frank Gifford was the glamor face of professional football before the world learned that there was something glamorous about the sport.  Before it became a national obsession. Before there were Monday night games and Super Bowls. Back when star players had off-season jobs because playing in the…

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Capitol Hill today that Iran "may" kill Americans or Israelis. Watch here:

Shortly after it was revealed that Jonathan Gruber was going around telling people that the Affordable Care Act had to be packaged and sold with the stupidity of the American voter in mind, the president referred to him as "some adviser who never worked on our staff.” 

The American firm with the iconic name of Colt has declared bankruptcy.  As Tiffany Kary of Bloomberg reports:

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders railed against the NSA and corporate privacy concerns this morning in an apeparance on NBC's Meet the Press.

There is an important difference between European and American appetites, in addition to those for fast foods: risk taking. “Investments in Start-Ups Pick Up Pace,” reports the New York Times after surveying the high-tech financing scene here in America. “Europe Struggles to Foster a Startup…

Former Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley said that if he runs for president, he'll launch his campaign in Baltimore:

CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill advised that "we should be strategic in how we riot."

According to Gallup, only 7 percent of Americans want immigration levels to increase, while 86 percent either want them to remain at current levels (47 percent) or decrease (39 percent).  With most current and prospective Republican presidential candidates tripping over each other to vie for that 7…

Jay Cost joined the Cato podcast to discuss his latest book, A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption:

The Washington Post has found us out.  We Americans are Philistines and slobs, utterly lacking in refinement.  

In his weekly newsletter, the boss, just back from the Munich Security Conference, shares his big takeaways:

Secretary of State John Kerry met with EU High Representative Federica Mogherini at the State Department Wednesday and afterwards addressed the press and took some questions. One question from a French reporter concerned problems with Muslim integration in Europe and the potential terrorism…

The news on race relations in the U.S. is disturbing. From Rasmussen's latest poll:

The terrorist attacks last week in Paris and the debate over the French government response brought back a simple discussion I had a few years ago regarding the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Here's David Brooks's review of the late Walter Berns's 2001 book, Making Patriots, from our May 21, 2001 issue:

At the conclusion of the latest installment of the endless Arab war against Israel, the leaders of Hamas simultaneously accused Israel of “genocide” against the residents of Gaza and took to the streets, dancing, ululating, and jubilating in celebration of their “victory” over the Zionist enemy.…

Oh, woe! Ebola has come to America and 150 people from infected countries are landing here every day. ISIS is battering the Kurds, to whom we have not sent the weapons we promised, and will chase the Iraqi army out of Baghdad as soon as they finish taking over Kobani. Europe is headed into still…

FBI director James Comey talked about Chinese hacking -- and how basically every American company has been targeted -- last night on 60 Minutes. Comey said that it's not the Chinese are so good, it's that they're "prolific." He likened their hacking style to a "drunk burglar." 

The U.S. economy added 248,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent. But the labor force participation rate continued to fall, average hourly earnings seem frozen, and over 13 percent of workers are either out of work, involuntarily working part time or too…

House Homeland Security Committee chair Michael McCaul said this afternoon on CNN that 100-200 Americans are currently fighting for ISIS in Iraq and Syria:

David Adesnik goes on camera to explain what World War I wrought:

First Lady Michelle Obama created buzz with her remark at the recent Summit of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders that "the blood of Africa runs through my veins." But later in her speech, she had some observations about the country of her birth as well. Mrs.…

As John Kerry travels from country to country on various diplomatic missions as secretary of state (almost half a million miles so far), he often addresses the staff and their families at the U.S. embassies in the countries he visits. Remarks at these informal gatherings are often more casual than…

Attorney General Eric Holder has a "lot of sleepless nights," reported ABC News this morning. Chief among his concerns? The threat of "homegrown violent extremists."

Hillary Clinton says that the "American political system is probably the most difficult, even brutal, in the world." She made the comments in a recent interview:

A live webcast of the Jack Kemp Forum on the Future of the American Idea, taking place this morning in Washington, D.C.:

Ben Carson is warming to the idea of running for president. Since the famous brain surgeon retired last year from Johns Hopkins Hospital, he’s been speaking around the country to enthusiastic audiences. And they’ve affected his thinking about seeking national office.

An excerpt from the boss's weekly newsletter:

This is not a good time to be young in America, and soon it will be less so.  The generation that elected President Obama will see the price of that college education which was supposed to open so many doors go up. As Janet Lorin of Bloomberg reports:

The Bryce Harper-Mike Trout showdown is underway and the outcome is, well, inconclusive. In round one Monday night, the Nationals leftfielder walked and went hitless in three at bats while the Anaheim Angels centerfielder went 2 for 5. On Tuesday, Harper took another collar going 0 for 4 as Trout…

As Paul M. Barrett at Businessweek writes:

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, with literary editor Philip Terzian on the Books & Arts section of our February 17, 2014 issue.

For all those civil libertarians of both the left and the right who think we ought to thank Edward Snowden for his actions in revealing NSA’s secret metadata collection program—or, at a minimum, believe the U.S. government should show leniency toward him should he ever come back to these…

The bankruptcy of Detroit, which has been a widely appreciated fact for some time now, has now become sanctioned by law.  As Reuters reports:

One of the many fine features of Veterans Day is that it's observed on the date on which it should be observed.

The French administration appears tougher on Iran than the Obama administration, reports from Geneva, where the nuclear egotiations are currently taking place, suggest. 

Seems the government is on the verge of shutting down.  And just as it was about to provide affordable health care for all.  How is that for bad timing?

The boss, from the November 1/8, 2004 issue of TWS:

Al Jazeera America has launched. Here are the opening minutes, featuring cameos by Hillary Clinton and John McCain, and a brief explanation of the new network:

INTERPOL issued a “global security alert advising increased vigilance for terrorist activity” on Saturday. While the U.S. government has warned of al Qaeda’s terrorist plotting against embassies and consulates, ordering 22 diplomatic facilities closed over the weekend, INTERPOL is alarmed by al…

The Wall Street Journal reports:

In an economic speech today, President Obama will say that "We’ve come a long way since I first took office.  As a country, we’re older and we’re wiser." But more work remains. 

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, is forcing millions of Americans living abroad to reconsider their U.S. citizenship, a lawyer, Colleen Graffy, writes in the Wall Street Journal.

Harry Reid said this morning that "Obamacare has been wonderful for America."

Adam J. White, inspired by the boss's baseball post, takes a break from perusing Supreme Court opinions and reflecting on the greatness of Justice Alito, to write: 

"Because of the way in which baseball links the generations it has been a channel through which vital traits of American character are instilled. The health of baseball concerns all of America, and the health of ­America — perhaps especially the American family — finds itself reflected in the state…

The hot dog is in decline in America, writes Paul Lukas at Bloomberg, and one thinks, "What isn't?" What institution, anyway.  If everything were not in decline, then what would there be for journalists to write about (see Andrew Ferguson  on George Packer and Haynes Johnson) and what would…

For the second time in two years, an Egyptian autocrat has been deposed. In Syria, another embattled tyrant – this one robustly supported by Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia – looks like he might hang on. Across the Muslim world, the political future hangs in the balance.

Many Republican insiders continue to push the narrative that the GOP lost in 2012 because of the Hispanic vote and social issues, rather than because a badly broken Republican nomination process produced a candidate who didn’t emphasize Obamacare and didn’t motivate downscale rural white Americans…

On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress declared independence. George Washington declared that day that “The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves....The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct…

While half the country is obsessed with the cases that the Supreme Court is about to decide—not to mention the cases that the Court may or may not take up next—Justice Alito left the Beltway this week for greener pastures. Specifically, he headed south to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, and…

At a Democratic fundraiser last night, Barack Obama praised the progress he's made as president. "Across the board, people are feeling like, all right, America is moving and it’s moving in the right direction," he said.

The Walt Disney World Resort, located outside of Orlando, has more than twice Manhattan’s land area and about the same number of hotel rooms as Philadelphia. It’s America’s largest single-site employer—over 60,000 people work there—and for many of the 17 million or so who visit each year, it is a…

“The fundamental fact that we all have to be aware of is, when we go to war now, we send less than 1 percent of our population to war and they’re all volunteers and many of them are from working-class environments. And in the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, nothing was asked of the rest of us. We…

At a Jewish American Heritage Month reception last night in Washington, D.C., Vice President Joe Biden talked about Jews, power, and influence.

In a commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, President Barack Obama recalls Jim Crow laws and racism of the 40s and 50s. Morehouse College is a historically black college.

There is a genre of books about politics written by ideologues on both sides of the divide. Their aim is to inform their fellow partisans about the misinformation, misdeeds, and malign intentions of the people on the other side, offering talking points to rally the troops for the next…

The people are speaking, through a Gallup Poll, and as Daniel Strauss writes in the Hill, they aren't talking any language the political class understands:

Congressman Tom Cotton talked about the threat facing America yesterday on Meet the Press:

Lee Smith writes:

Secretary of State John Kerry tells CNN that foreign students are "scared" of guns in America:

Thanks to our friends at Powerline for featuring Clark Griffith's recent perceptive meditation on "Baseball's Timeless Appeal." In their spirit, I'll also recommend to one and all the exchange in the Fall 1990 Public Interest between Donald Kagan ("George Will's baseball—a conservative critique")…

At a speech today in Miami, President Obama urged America to "do better."

At the New Republic, Jonathan Cohn writes,“Paul Ryan has released his new budget proposal, ‘The Path to Prosperity.’ It looks almost exactly like his old budget proposal.” Cohn continues, “That tells us a lot about Ryan’s priorities — and how little interest he and his allies have in moderating…

President Obama is feeling good about America's prospects. He made that clear last night in remarks to Organizing for Action, the group his reelection campaign transformed into since the last presidential election.

Inside the beltway, there is a pervasive sense of impending doom. The rest of the country may not much care, but sequestration is here. According to warnings by the Obama administration, failure to avert these automatic spending cuts will lead to planes falling from the skies, bridges collapsing,…

Among the guns I own, my favorite is a Pennsylvania long rifle made for me by an old friend. It is a flintlock, shoots a .50 caliber ball, and uses black powder. The wood is rich, sinuous, curly maple. The trigger guard and butt plate are brass. It is a beautiful piece, and only the most ardent…

In his State of the Union Address this evening, President Barack Obama will encourage Congress to adapt a cap and trade plan to deal with climate change. Energy, climate, and taxes are a sizable portion of Obama's speech.

At tonight's State of the Union Address, President Obama will announce that he has signed a cyber security executive order.

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, as prepared for delivery:

An unnamed "senior American official" suggests that North Korea is not just testing nukes for itself, but also for (and possibly with) the Iranians. The New York Times reports:

At a 2008 event to promote his then-recently published book, Chuck Hagel expresses more concern over Israel's nuclear weapons than Iran's and advocates the U.S. engage with Iran and Syria:

At a hearing today on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned that sequestration will lead to America becoming a "second-rate power":

In a press release, CBS claims that 108.41 million Americans tuned in for last night's Super Bowl:

Tel Aviv

In a new book on demographics set to be published next week, Jonathan V. Last writes that pets now outnumber children 4 to 1 in America. The book is titled What to Expect When No One’s Expecting.

The headline of an article on the Iranian propaganda website IRNA states, "Ahmadinejad: Muslims should mobilize resources to uproot Zionism."

This clip from an appearance on Al Jazeera seems to suggest that Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee for secretary of defense, believes America is "the world's bully":

In this freshly extended era of Barack Obama, conservatives and Republicans are evaluating, re-evaluating, pondering, questioning, tossing out, and shoring up basic principles and ideas. What does the Republican party stand for? What should, or shouldn’t, be part of the GOP’s agenda? What’s the…

The State Department announced the release of an "innovative video game" today called, "Trace Effects." The game is hosted online, on the State Department's website.

The Egyptian government has nabbed a major terrorist tied to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, according to the Wall Street Journal. And that terrorist has direct, longstanding ties to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri.

A newly released study by Transparency International finds the United States less corrupt now than it was in 2011. According to the survey's rankings, the U.S. is the 19th least corrupt country in the world this year; in 2011, the U.S. ranked 24th.

In an interview with Bloomberg's Julianna Goldman, President Barack Obama stated, "I think America is poised to take off." The main obstacle, in Obama's mind, however, is political dysfunction.

Pete Townshend admits, during an interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl, that "I'm a bit of a neocon."

Times are good in Washington and the political class is enjoying itself enormously in a game where the players see who will dance closest to the edge of a cliff.  Who knew that something as traditionally boring and pedestrian as balancing a budget could be so full of drama?  And, then, there is the…

A new poll from CNN finds that most American support for Israel's retaliatory action in Gaza targeting Hamas.

As he showed in the final presidential debate, President Obama’s understanding of the U.S. Navy—or for that matter, any navy—is suboptimal. His explanation about Navy carriers “where planes land on them,” and “ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines,” left out the largest single group of naval…

Last week, I spent some time talking about demographics and the latest CDC birth numbers. There were a number of interesting aspects to this data, but the big takeaway was that the percentage of first-child births has hit an all-time low. As I said last week, this suggests that we're slowly…

When The Decline and Fall of the American Republic is written centuries hence, the date October 17, 2012, will occupy a prominent place in the narrative. On this day, a playoff game between the Yankees and the Tigers in Detroit was called not because of rain, but because of ... the threat of rain.…

Chicago's weekend body count has become a depressingly routine story:

A pro-America rally is scheduled to be held tomorrow outside the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. The expression of support for America is being organized by Im Tirzu Movement in order to "remind the United States that Israel is America's best friend in the Middle East"

Last night at a campaign speech in Nevada, President Barack Obama seemed to try to draw a contrast between himself and Mitt Romney by saying he's the one "fighting for American values."

Statements released by two top Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday wrongly stated that 5 Americans were killed in the terror attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11. In fact, 4 Americans were killed in that attack: Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen A. Doherty, and Tyrone…

Two lasting memories. The first, from the White House on the evening of September 11, 2001:

‘Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize .  .  . is God’s gift to humanity.”

Mitt Romney’s stop in Jerusalem will probably remain the highlight of his foreign trip, but his eloquent and powerful speech today in Warsaw deserves more notice than it will probably get. In his remarks, Romney suggests a theme for his trip as a whole and a rationale for visiting the three nations…

Gail Collins traveled from Manhattan to North Dakota to see what a real American boomtown looks like and report her findings to readers of the New York Times. 

A new ad from Senator Scott Brown, contrasting statements in support of free enterprise by those like John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan with those made by Barack Obama and Brown's Massachusetts Senate opponent, Elizabeth Warren:

Vice President Joe Biden called California governor Jerry Brown "the smartest guy in American politics" last night at a California fundraiser. Via the pool report:

For those of us who think baseball is part of American greatness ("May the sun never set on American baseball"—Harry Truman), and who've worried about the declining status of baseball in American life (see Diana Schaub's "America at the Bat" in the Winter 2010 National Affairs), June has been a…

A new video released by the State Department is trying to encourage tourists from around the world to visit America. 

Just as America proved to be such a safe haven for immigrants in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, it is now seen as a safe haven for wealth attempting to escape Europe’s tax collectors and financial chaos and recession in Europe, and for foreign central banks newly enamored of the dollar.

A new chart produced by the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee shows that, according to Congressional Budget Office data released yesterday, debt per American is "on track to triple in a generation":

Joe Biden, speaking to a Jewish group earlier today, blamed America for being the "problem" regarding Iran:

Marc Thiessen, writing in the Washington Post:

If you are a first-time winner of one of the four professional golf tournaments that are considered “majors,” then you will inevitably be asked, “Is this a dream come true?” 

President Obama’s budget cuts defense by $487 billion over the next ten years. Furthermore, the president has not led an effort to avoid an additional $500 billion of cuts under the so-called “sequestration,” which will likely result in what Obama’s secretary of defense predicts will be “smallest…

It has been a tough week for the president. Just as things were supposed to be getting better for him—as they were for the economy—his support and approval ratings took a severe hit in two important polls. And then there was a survey that indicated that 80 percent of the population does not…

The $489 billion cut to defense budgets engineered by Barack Obama — as well as the played-for-fool Republican accomplices on Capitol Hill — won't just mean less American military power. These cuts have significant consequences for America's allies, as well. 

America is going bankrupt, Iran is going nuclear, the Obama administration is going after religious liberty. And Mitt Romney is going after Rick Santorum.

Whatever else the grandiose project of “building Europe” may have accomplished—and at this point the entire edifice seems to be teetering​—​it has proven an enormous boon to social scientists and legal scholars. Scores of research centers, study groups, and commissions have been created both in…

Whatever else the grandiose project of “building Europe” may have accomplished—and at this point the entire edifice seems to be teetering​—​it has proven an enormous boon to social scientists and legal scholars. Scores of research centers, study groups, and commissions have been created both in…

If you were an anti-Semite dedicated to spreading your hatred of Jews, what charges exactly would you make in 21st century America?

The Obama administration’s 2010 Nuclear Posture Review adopted the goals of reduced reliance on nuclear weapons, continued nuclear weapons reductions, and the ultimate, if controversial, goal of “nuclear zero”—the elimination of those weapons altogether. At the same time, it pledged to maintain a…

In an interview this evening with a local NBC affiliate in Orlando, President Obama claimed that America has "gotten a little soft."

As Maine is New England’s Texas, France is Europe’s U.S.A. It’s big. It’s ornery. Like us, the French are notably more inward-looking than Europe’s other populous, geographically big, and prosperous states. Despite France’s co-leadership of the European unification project, a new German Marshall…

Lots of words have been and will be written for the tenth anniversary of 9/11, but Wilfred McClay has set a very high standard of courage, clarity, and eloquence with his "Memorializing September 11th." It's in the forthcoming issue of National Affairs, and is now available on their website. Here's…

In the small town of Orcutt, California, a private association has raised donations to erect a flagpole and monument between a highway exit and a park-and-ride lot, at the entrance to the community’s Old Town section. The pole would hang the American flag, encircled by five pillars, one each for…

I know you were all waiting with bated breath to see when America's Greatest Living Public Intellectual™ would weigh in on the Osama bin Laden killing, so good news! Chomsky's dutiful stenographers have seen fit to wipe the cerebral-spinal fluid dripping out the corner of his mouth, and splatter it…

“There are those who say the United States should not be the global policeman. But if not us, who?”

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, stop whatever irrelevant busywork you're engaged in and take a moment -- well, half an hour -- to read one of the greatest of presidential utterances. If your busywork won't wait half an hour, skip to the last paragraph. It's…

Conservatives are fond of denigrating Barack Obama as a foreign policy wimp, a president determined to demonstrate American weakness around the world, one begging for dialogue with dictators, and apologizing for past American sins, real and imagined.  Even if overdrawn, there has been justification…

When an economist such as Alan S. Blinder, a professor at Princeton and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, writes on the relative merits of different forms of stimulus, as he did in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled “Obama’s Fiscal Priorities Are Right,” isn’t it…

In war, victory belongs to the most persevering. Unfortunately, the endurance and political will to persist through a tough military slog like Afghanistan are precious commodities -- particularly given tough economic times and given complicated military and political objectives. No one would accuse…