Let’s be clear: the United States cannot single-handedly ensure the advance of freedom and democracy around the world. But, notwithstanding all too much conventional wisdom of late, America retains enormous diplomatic, economic, and other capacities to influence the course of events. So, it’s no coincidence that, as Freedom House reported late last week, freedom declined …
Continue reading “Freedom’s decline and U.S. silence move in tandem”
President Obama’s counter-terrorism strategy, which he unveiled last week in a high-profile speech at the National Defense University, is less off-base than incomplete, reflecting his effort to limit the scope of the problem and the requirements of the response in ways that will prove inadequate to the challenge. In nearly 7,000 words, Obama expressed ambivalence …
Heading into the 2008 elections, President Bush’s management of the war in Iraq has given the Democratic Party a huge opportunity to compete with Republicans on the issue of national security — an issue the GOP has used to its advantage for the better part of several decades. But the Democrats’ presidential candidates, congressional leaders …
Continue reading “Democratic excesses on Iraq put 2008 at risk”
AS THE WAR in Iraq continues and casualties mount and other costs escalate too, more political leaders, commentators, and activists raise the haunting specter of Vietnam. That is of a military quagmire from which America must extricate itself lest the venture end in ignominious defeat. The problem with this is not that Iraq is becoming …