We can debate endlessly whether we have adequately upgraded our military, secured our borders or protected key potential targets of terrorist attacks, such as chemical weapons plants. But, national security begins not with the arming of troops, fencing along borders, and X-ray machines at airports. It starts with the recognition that we are at war, …
Long-standing conflicts between peoples often create their own myths – over grievances, appropriate uses of force, and likely paths to peace. Nowhere is this truer than in the Middle East. With Israel and Hezbollah engaged in escalating conflict, leaders, experts and media the world over assume predictable, if not helpful, positions on the causes, consequences …
Enraged that U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman supports the war in Iraq, insurgent Democrats who are fueling Ned Lamont’s primary challenge to Lieberman have tightened the gap with the incumbent. They may feel good about it but, in fact, they are threatening not just the Democrats’ hold on that seat but also the national party’s growing …
Continue reading “Challenge to Lieberman could hurt all Democrats”
In the West’s approach to Iran, we are witnessing a classic example of appeasement toward not just a rising threat to Middle East stability but a growing global threat to freedom and democracy. Most recently, this appeasement has taken two forms. First, leading European nations announced plans to offer Iran new incentives to halt its …
Continue reading “West must stop appeasing, start pressuring Iran”
The global reaction to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent comments about the Holocaust and threats to Israel is settling into a predictable pattern – denounce, rationalize, ignore – that illustrates the challenge of rallying the world to confront evil. Ahmadinejad’s comments, particularly his call that Israel be “wiped off the map,” sparked initial outrage from …
Continue reading “West must wake up to possibility that Iran’s saber-rattling is real”
When a suicide bomber from the Islamic Jihad killed five Israelis and wounded dozens more in the coastal town of Hadera earlier this fall, the silence from America’s Muslim leaders was deafening. There was no statement of denunciation or even regret from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the most influential Muslim American organization; nor was …
The shadow of Ronald Reagan hovers over the conservative Republican revolt against President Bush, with hard-core conservatives saying Bush does not measure up to the standard set by their hero. In fact, one disgusted conservative, commentator Bruce Bartlett, has just penned a book called Imposter: How George Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. …