Soviet empire

April 7, 2017 | Michael Ledeen |

The Real War in ‘Syria’ and the Strategy for Long-Term Victory

Of course I loathe Assad. And of course I despise the Obamans for that phony red line and the subsequent retreat-and-bogus-Russian-deal. But just carrying out vengeance against Assad isn’t...

March 30, 2015 | Benjamin Weinthal |

Analysis: To confront Iran’s jingoism and domestic repression, change its regime

The self-immolation death of an Iranian Arab last week in the province of Khuzestan offers a window onto the court of a neglected alternative to an Iran on the brink of nuclear weapons breakout:...

January 20, 2015 | Michael Ledeen |

The Citizen’s Guide to Regime Change

All of a sudden, it’s OK to talk seriously about regime change in Iran and even elsewhere.  It had been a taboo subject since the final years of the G.W. Bush administration, aside fro...

November 25, 2014 | Michael Ledeen |

Khamenei Spits in Our Face Again—and We Pay for the Pleasure

He did it again, as we should have expected.  Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei walked us right up to the finish line, spat on us, and walked away. Months and months of secret an...

March 26, 2014 | Clifford D. May |

The Power-Hungry vs. the War-Weary

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, seething over the collapse of the Soviet Empire, wants to become the hegemon of Eurasia — at least. Iran’s Ali Khamenei, outraged by the...

December 6, 2013 | Michael Ledeen |

Dare We Say It? The Mullahs Must Go

Sanctions and diplomacy have thus far failed to induce the Iranian regime to cease its nuclear weapons program. We shouldn’t be surprised by this. Top Iranian leaders, from Supreme Leader A...

October 24, 2013 | Michael Ledeen

Remembering The Invasion of Grenada 30 Years On

One night in late October, 1983,  I listened to a BBC short wave broadcast reporting that the United States was about to invade Grenada.  I chuckled, said to myself, “Crazy Brits,...

August 3, 2012 | Michael Ledeen Claremont Review of Books |

The New War Against America

Last January, President Obama went over to the Pentagon to announce deep cuts in defense. He took the occasion to proclaim: “Even as our troops continue to fight in Afghanistan, the tide of...

January 31, 2012 | Michael Ledeen Faster, Please! |

When Did the War Start? Or Did It?

Almost everything you read about the “increasing tension” between Iran and the United States revolves around the rhetorical question, “will there be a war?” Whether it&rsq...

January 9, 2012 | Michael Ledeen Faster, Please! |

You Cannot Reform a Totalitarian (You’ve Got to Defeat Him)

Back when I was even younger, and living in Rome, the main topic of conversation was of course Communism. Italy had the largest Communist Party outside the Soviet Union, and it was forever on the...

December 27, 2011 | Michael Ledeen Faster, Please! |

Why Tyrants Fall

What spells the doom of dictators?  Nobody really knows, and there are so many “whats” that the whole subject defies quantification.  Coups and assassinations, revolutions,...

September 7, 2011 | Michael Ledeen Faster, Please!

The New, Neoconservative, New York Times

At first I thought it was an anomaly, a personal thing.  One New York Times  columnist has an epiphany.  But now there are two  of them, two very liberal Tim...

August 23, 2011 | Michael Ledeen Faster, Please! |

It’s a Real War, Stupid. A Big War. A Worthy Challenge for America

If we are going to win in the Middle East, we have to get the context right.  As I wrote in The War Against the Terror Masters, long before the invasion of Iraq, we cannot just “do&rdq...

August 22, 2011 | Michael Ledeen Faster, Please! |

The War with Syria

So the president finally swallowed hard and pronounced the three words: “Assad must go.” Well, not exactly. That would have been too simple....

July 27, 2011 | Michael Ledeen Faster, Please!

The Myths of Oslo

The more I look at the Oslo massacre, the more I am struck by how archaic it all is. The killer fancies himself a noble defender of a Western world that no longer exists, and has not existed, rea...

June 16, 2011 | Faster, Please! |

How To Make Revolution Work

I am a big fan of Walter Russell Mead, and his recent essay on “The Conservative Revolutionary” shows him in top form.  Mead is one of the few who understands that human history...

March 22, 2011 | Michael Ledeen Pajamas Media

The Wimp Goes to War

I was right to worry about what the president might do to demonstrate his virility on the international stage, and the confusion surrounding just about everything having to do with the Libya thin...

January 20, 2011 | Michael Ledeen Pajamas Media

China: The First Mature Fascist State

In 2002, I speculated that China may be something we have never seen before: a mature fascist state. Recent events there, especially the mass rage in response to Western criticism, seem to confir...

July 12, 2010 | Agota Kuperman Faster, Please! |

Revolution, Iranian and Otherwise

Tell the truth: you don’t really know what a revolution looks like, do you? Chances are that if anybody asked you, you’d conjure up some picture including the storming of the B...

June 17, 2010 | Fred Piccolo Pajamas Media

The Fatal Follies of Containment

Cliff May has an outstanding piece arguing, correctly I think, that containment will not work with a nuclear Iran. It would be too costly to maintain, involve too many countries with confl...