A quick overview of my take on where we are in Iraq: (1) We are winning the war and we must and will pursue it to a final completion, provided we have the political will to do so, with or without UN support. (2) In fits and starts, trial and error, we are successfully building […]
A Transforming Event – Part 2
In November 2001 I wrote: “The ultimate outcome [of the war on terror] will be transformational, for I believe there is no way to avoid the massive restructuring of the Muslim world that will follow (and parallel) this conflict. The ruling elites in these societies, friend and foe alike, must choose which future they want, […]
Defending Moral Clarity In Foreign Policy
As we move deeper into the “funny season” of Presidential election politics, it becomes increasingly more important to stay tightly focused on the principles of moral clarity that have defined Bush foreign policy since 9-11. The strategy of those who oppose the Bush Doctrine, particularly the policy of pre-emption, is to attack the so-called “soft […]
Liberty, Security, Stability, And The State Department
A couple of months ago, Newt Gingrich was highly visible speaking and making the rounds of the various talk shows with his call for major reorganization of the U. S. Department of State, criticizing its institutionalized duplicity and incompetence in the process. The furor settled down, but my immediate thoughts were that it is about […]
Dealing With The “Curse” In Iraq
Of all the interlocking components of the massive project before us in Iraq, I believe that an early indicator of long-term success will be the way we handle the country’s oil properties. This wealth has been characterized as a “curse” and, in fact, it has been exactly that for all the oil-rich Arab states in […]
The “Road Map”
Count me as one who is highly skeptical about the chances for success of the “road map” to peace in the Holy Land as currently conceived. In fact, I have always been troubled by any characterization resembling a “peace process” for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, which, almost by definition, is an invention of the internationalists in […]
Why We Fought
My friend Stuart Schube related to me some conversations he has had recently with friends preparing for the upcoming Jewish Day of Remembrance observing the Holocaust. To one of them he commented (and I paraphrase), “If George W. Bush had been President in 1933 and available to respond to the Nazi threat in 1933-39, there […]
Random Thoughts On The War
“However long it takes. It isn’t a matter of timetable, it’s a matter of victory.”—George W. Bush It is very difficult to focus on much of anything lately except the war in Iraq, so here are some thoughts on it I have been kicking around: * There once was a responsible anti-war left in this […]
Of Old Europe, New Europe, And U. S. Foreign Policy
With all the attention given to the confrontation on war policy between France and Germany on one hand and the U. S. and Great Britain on the other, it is useful to look at some underlying issues that do not usually make the evening news. For example, Charles Krauthammer has recently noted that the phenomenon […]
What Are We Waiting For?
If I hear the words “no smoking gun” one more time, I think I’ll throw up. Did we really believe that the UN arms inspectors were going to discover new evidence sufficient to indict Saddam Hussein for weapons possession before a grand jury? And who is the jury, anyway? The UN, which has just appointed […]