The Commentator’s European readers could learn lots from how we, in the United States of America, run our government. We are, after all, the world’s richest, most powerful, and most stable democracy. Nothing better illustrates our genius for governance than how we do our most fundamental business, which is to set our priorities through our …
President Barack Obama raised eyebrows in Jewish circles recently when word leaked that, according to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, he had been privately saying “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.” Obama’s comments, reflecting weariness more than anger about Israeli behavior, came when – in response to a UN General Assembly vote in late …
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When, in 1944, Winston Churchill suggested that the Allies consider the Vatican’s views when planning the future of a heavily Catholic Poland, Stalin famously replied, “The Pope? How many divisions has he got?” The Pope had no divisions, of course. But, as Stalin’s successors would learn, he had millions of supporters whom he could spur …
Continue reading “U.S. leadership vital for freedom’s future”
“War is hell,” is the popular phrase that dates back at least to William Tecumseh Sherman, and no one knows the reality of war better than the two prospective new members of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team. If confirmed, Chuck Hagel and John Kerry will bring to their positions as Secretaries of Defense and …
All hail America’s middle class, the vast majority of families who apparently must never pay a penny more in federal taxes or receive a penny less in services. All hail them; all fear them; all bow before them. That’s the message behind Washington’s successful effort to strike a deal that averted the “fiscal cliff” but …
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Happy New Year – we should hope – because 2013 could prove a defining one on a host of interrelated challenges in the Greater Middle East, and elsewhere, that will have profound consequences for the United States and its allies for decades to come. The challenges include Iran and its nuclear program, Syria and its …
Continue reading “For The United States, A Treacherous New Year”
President Obama’s likely appointment of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary has focused attention on Hagel’s controversial views on Israel, its terror-sponsoring neighbors, and the appropriate U.S. posture towards the world’s most volatile and dangerous region. Fine. There’s lots to review and lots to criticize. But, as with all presidential appointments, the issue …
Continue reading “What appointing Chuck Hagel would say about Obama”