Op-eds

Filter

Products

January 31, 2008 The End of the Waterboarding Controversy? The waterboarding controversy should end with a whimper. It probably won’t, but it should. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has studied U.S. interrogation methods, as he committ... January 30, 2008 Energetic Economics: An Alternative to the Usual Stimulus Packages It’s become a ritual: The economy grows sluggish and politicians rush to “do something” about it. What they do almost never has a beneficial economic impact, as any reputable economist will tell you. January 30, 2008 Shattered Hopes In the midst of an eight-day trip through Europe designed to assuage fears that his country is sliding toward chaos, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has reaffirmed that parliamentary elections will be held on February 18. Though the last year has certainly shown us that events in Pakistan are always subject to change, the election date should be considered about as stable as anything in Pakistan's political scene. With less than a month before these elections, it is a good time to assess the influence that Benazir Bhutto's assassination will have. January 29, 2008 State of the SOTU Last night’s State of the Union struck me as less the speech of a lame duck than the speech of a candidate. That’s not to say it was a great speech. Candidates’ speeches seldom are. But... January 25, 2008 Flex-fuel Cars Can Break OPEC Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez recently joined Iranian president Mahmoud Amadinejad in threatening to raise oil prices to $200 per barrel. The threat should be taken quite seriously. With no practical transportation fuel alternative to petroleum available to the world market, the OPEC oil cartel has already been successful in raising prices an order of magnitude since 1999, with a 50 percent increase effected in 2007 alone. January 25, 2008 Questions for the Pentagon: Who is Hesham Islam? In the sorry tradition of shooting the messenger, the Pentagon is cashiering its top expert on Islamist doctrine, Stephen Coughlin. Some members of Congress are now contem... January 24, 2008 The New True Believers: What we should have learned about fanatical mass movements Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler was evil and perhaps a madman. But throughout history, there have been many evil madmen in many corners of the Earth. Few have attracted millions of passionate followers; fewer still have conquered Europe and committed genocide. So what made Hitler different and – for a time – effective? January 11, 2008 Hezbollah’s Billion Petrodollars A few weeks ago, articles published around the world reported that Hezbollah is undergoing two major changes. Both portend greater violence from the Iranian-sponsored global terrorist network. The first change is a shift in leadership responsibilities. A report published initially in the Saudi owned Sharq al Awsat said the office of Ayatollah Khomenei appointed deputy secretary general Sheikh Naim Qassim as the new supreme commander of Hezbollah forces and the personal representative of the Ayatollah in Lebanon. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, according to this report remains as secretary general of the organization. Sources said this change in control and command is because of "differences in opinions" between Narsrallah and Qassim. January 10, 2008 Wishful Thinking: A lethal habit when it comes to Islamist terrorists Osama bin Laden probably does not get home delivery of Parade but more than 30 million Americans do. And on the magazine’s cover last Sunday was the not-quite-smiling face of Benazir Bhutto, along with this confident quote: “I am what the terrorists most fear.” By the time Bhutto’s image and words reached America’s breakfast tables, she was, of course, dead. The January 6 issue of the magazine had gone to press before Bhutto was assassinated on Dec. 27 during a campaign stop in northern Pakistan. January 3, 2008 Soft foreign policy hurts the U.S. Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice If American diplomacy were delivering on its promises, we'd be heading into boom times for peace and security. Instead, the new year begins with Washington foreign policy increasingly cocooned in a cloud of "soft power," trying to deflect threats through the wiles of diplomacy, the art of the deal. Welcome to the world of wishful thinking. October 21, 2007 While Pakistan Burns If there were any doubt about the reach of militants in Pakistan, last week's events should have put them to rest. The ostentatious procession celebrating the return home of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was tragically cut short by twin bombs that killed over 130 and wounded several hundred more on Thursday night. The attackers almost succeeded in killing Bhutto as well. The blast shattered the windows in her vehicle and set a police escort car ablaze. The sophistication of the attack was apparent from the outset, and the bombs may have been accompanied by sniper fire. October 18, 2007 Al Qaeda in Iraq on the Run Al Qaeda is on the horns of a dilemma. Last month, some 30 of its senior leaders in Iraq were killed or captured. Now, Osama bin Laden faces a tough decision: Send reinforcements to Iraq in an attempt to regain the initiative? That risks losing those combatants, too -- and that could seriously diminish his global organization. But the alternative is equally unappealing: accept defeat in Iraq, the battlefield bin Laden has called central to the struggle al Qaeda is waging against America and its allies. October 4, 2007 COIN Is Not Small Change General David Petraeus helped write COIN. It’s the Pentagon’s job to prepare for wars of the future. But somewhere between Vietnam and Iraq, military planners confused “future” with “futuristic.” They convinced themselves that combat in the 21st Century would resemble computer games. Satellites would provide intelligence. “Smart bombs” would do much of the killing. The enemy, overcome by “shock and awe,” would lose his will to fight. October 3, 2007 An Oil for Food Exposé Having stood trial for almost a month in a Manhattan federal courtroom, 83-year-old Texas tycoon Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. struck a deal Monday. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United Nations' former Oil for Food program for Iraq. Brushing past me on his way out of the courtroom -- he's clearly familiar with my writing on the subject -- he shot a remark: "You ought to be happy." October 3, 2007 Phony-Soldier Sympathizers Stoke a Phony Controversy There really was a news story, generated by the mainstream media of all people, about phony soldiers — poseurs who falsely claim to have put their lives on the line in our country’s armed forces, at least some of whom engage the pretense precisely to libel real heroes as terrorists and marauders. September 30, 2007 Securing Africa On February 6, 2007, President George W. Bush launched a major evolution in American military posture when he formally announced that he had directed the Pentagon to establish a new unified co... September 27, 2007 Why We Fight In the Christian Science Monitor this week, Lt. Col. Chris Brady argues that America should “keep fighting for progress” in Iraq where he is currently serving a tour of duty. “America's forefathers had help from other nations when the United States was born,” he writes. “Allow us to continue to help Iraq be re-born.” September 24, 2007 Egyptian Security and the Gaza Border Following the June Hamas coup, the Egyptian government (EG) took drastic measures against the smuggling operations on its Eastern border with Gaza. The EG ordered the demolition of some 3,000 to... September 24, 2007 UN-Real Assembly As the contributors to The National Interest symposium in the current issue note, there is an emergent consensus among foreign policy analysts of all political persuasions that “going it alone” interventionism is no longer a viable option for the United States, if it ever was before. Two general solutions are now frequently bandied about in Washington policy circles and both are flawed. The first is the creation, advocated Ivo Daalder, Robert Kagan, G. John Ikenberry and others of a “concert of democracies” to “legitimately” bypass gridlock in the United Nations Security Council. The second is the opening à la Baker-Hamilton of diplomatic dialogue with the rulers of regional spoilers like Iran and Syria. Both address some of the weaknesses with the current modus operandi, but they fail to grapple with the fundamental defect of the contemporary international system: its dogmatic adherence to a post-Westphalia formal equality of states and consequent lack of a forum reflecting the realities of global power. September 21, 2007 Is Al Qaeda Iraq a Threat to Sweden? The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq recently offered a bounty encouraging the assassination of a Swedish cartoonist and his editor for having published drawings deemed insulting to the religion of Islam. Omar al Baghdadi, in an audio statement said Lars Vilks, who "dared insult the Prophet", should be killed for a reward of $100,000 and, if "slaughtered like a lamb", the killer will receive another $50,000. In addition, he offered a Jihadi financial reward of $50,000 for the murder of Ulf Johansson, the editor of Nerikes Allehanda, the Swedish paper that printed Vilks' cartoon on August 19. September 8, 2007 Bin Laden Unplugged Osama bin Laden's strength as an orator has always been his ethos. He is an eloquent and seemingly honest speaker, proud of his role in the attacks of 9/11, a principled spokesman for radical Islam's war against the West. Though bin Laden may not have penned all his words personally, the force of his ideas always shines through. As Bruce Lawrence notes in Messages to the World, "these messages are not ghostwritten tracts of the kind supplied by professional speechwriters to many politicians in the West, whether American Presidents, European Prime Ministers, or their Middle-Eastern counterparts." August 21, 2007 Ban the Old Ways We are about to learn the meaning of “ethics” in the United Nations administration of Ban Ki-moon. Eight months after Secretary-General Ban took office, promising to “restore tr... August 20, 2007 Welcoming an Asian Elephant in Africa All eyes are on China and its growing involvement in Africa, but India’s expanding relations with African countries have gone largely unnoticed. China’s intentions create anxiety; Ind... August 20, 2007 The Audacity of Shallowness Among certain Arab elites, there is considerable interest in how a Democratic administration would differ from the eight years of George W. Bush. It's a good question. Most Democrats, at lea... August 16, 2007 On the Move The new National Intelligence Estimate caught the media’s attention in mid-July by discussing an aspect of the war on terror that some analysts have warned about for over a year: al Qaeda&r... August 15, 2007 Surging: It’s getting harder to deny that General Petraeus is making progress “The only thing this surge will accomplish is a surge of more death and destruction.” That was the prediction of blogger and anti-war activist Arianna Huffington back in December of l... August 14, 2007 China’s Play for Somalia’s Oil As this column has chronicled over the past year and a half, United States policy toward the remnants of the former state of Somalia has evolved into a sort of dramatic farce played out in the fo... August 14, 2007 Protect the American Media — Whether They Deserve It or Not It is a hard thing to defend the American media. Even when they are right and even when they badly need defending. In large part, that’s because press hypocrisy is so striking. Jou... August 13, 2007 Welcome to Ramadi I was not told about our trip to Ramadi — provincial capital of Iraq’s Anbar province — until the night before. This was in order to preserve “operational security... August 9, 2007 Quién es una amenaza para la patria? El senador y candidato presidencial Barack Obama quiere luchar contra al-Qaeda en Pakistán – después de aceptar la derrota de manos de al-Qaeda en Irak. Sus críticos di... August 9, 2007 Selling AFRICOM In my testimony last week before the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the United States House of Representatives, I noted that the creation of the n... August 8, 2007 Who Threatens the Homeland? Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama wants to fight al-Qaeda in Pakistan -- after accepting defeat at the hands of al-Qaeda in Iraq. His critics say that shows his inexperience. But he... August 7, 2007 Providing Security While Peacekeepers Tarry Last week the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1769, which authorizes a force of up to 26,000 peacekeepers to restore security to the Darfur region of Sudan where fou... August 7, 2007 FISA: Don’t Mend It, End It We should all breathe a sigh of relief that sanity prevailed when Congress enacted emergency legislation over the weekend to address a national-security crisis: the hamstringing of our intelligen... August 6, 2007 An Idealistic Alternative to the Saudi Arms Deal The US Government is considering a new gigantic arms sale to the Saudi Kingdom, up to 20 billion dollars' worth of complex weaponry. The proposed package includes advanced satellite-guided b... August 2, 2007 Private Eyes I recently met a young soldier who spent most of the last seven months in Baghdad, a private first class in the 2nd Infantry Division out of Colorado. We met at the Ali Al Salem air base and &ldq... August 2, 2007 “Total Force” for AFRICOM Early last month, President George W. Bush named Army General William E. "Kip" Ward to be the first commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). If confirmed by the Senate – hea... August 1, 2007 The Good News is Bad News It’s tough being a member of Congress. Even if you’re in the majority, as is Rep. Nancy Boyda of Kansas, you never know when your ears may be assaulted by outrageous and offensive ide... August 1, 2007 Las Buenas Noticias son Malas Noticias Es duro ser miembro del Congreso. Incluso si uno está en la mayoría, como la representante Nancy Boyda de Kansas, uno nunca sabe cuándo sus oídos pueden verse asaltado... July 31, 2007 Cut Iraq Some Slack Granted, Iraq's government has disappointed. Americans liberated Iraqis from Saddam Hussein and gave them the right to vote. What we couldn't give them are the institutions, values and... July 30, 2007 Symposium: Turning Point? Yes, Virginia, there are some rational, reasoning liberals. Michael O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack have long been among them. They are serious students of national security. They are Democrats bu... July 26, 2007 Hot in Tehran On the same day that Tony Blair debuted in Portugal as Middle East envoy for the Quartet, a group attempting to advance peace efforts in the Middle East, another kind of meeting convened in Syria... July 25, 2007 Imaginando la Derrota Sólo por argumentar, imagine que los opositores de la guerra en Irak tienen razón. Suponga que nuestro ejército – diseñado para enfrentar a un enemigo distinto,... July 25, 2007 Mired in Mogadishu Two weeks ago a "national reconciliation congress" that Somalia's ineffectual "Transitional Federal Government" (TFG), under pressure from international donors who are its only means of supp... July 25, 2007 Suicide Reversal? As is the case for most surveys of public opinion in the Muslim world, the Pew survey is a mixed bag. It is encouraging that support for suicide bombings has declined in seven of the eight countr... July 25, 2007 Imagining Defeat For the sake of argument, imagine that opponents of the war in Iraq are right. Suppose that our military — designed to confront a different enemy, on a different battlefield, in a different... July 22, 2007 Degrees of Enmity and the “War on Terrorism” Last Tuesday, the Bush Administration released portions of a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland. The first of the "key judgments" of the NIE com... July 22, 2007 Give War a Chance! Two items in the batch of international news and commentary at the end of last week strike us as particularly noteworthy, justifying our recall in a new context of the title of P.J. O'Rourke... July 18, 2007 The Indian Tiger’s African Safari While the African travels of Chinese leaders and their troubling arms sales to regimes on the continent, have caused increasing concern in Washington and other Western capitals, India's grow... July 18, 2007 The First Openly Muslim Priest The day before the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops voted to confirm the church's first openly gay bishop in the late summer of 2003, conservative humor website ScrappleFace satirize...

…

247

248

249

250

251

252

253

…

275

#archivePage { display:none; } .noscript-posts { display: flex; flex-direction: column; max-width: 600px; margin: 50px auto; } .noscript-posts a { margin-bottom: 25px; text-decoration: none; display: flex; flex-direction: column; } .noscript-posts a .post-title { text-decoration: underline; font-weight: 700; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; } .pagination { list-style-type: none; max-width: 600px; margin: 50px auto; }