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”
War opponents have learned a thing or two over the years. Rather than take the political risk of demonizing U.S. troops, as they did during Vietnam, they now say they “support the troops” even though they oppose whatever military exercise those troops happen to be engaging in. The war in Iraq has offered a new …
“Is there art that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art of martyrdom?” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then Iran’s President-elect, mused in a television address in 2005. “A nation with martyrdom knows no captivity.” Ahmadinejad’s broadcast over Iranian airwaves was not empty rhetoric. Indeed, Ahmadinejad subsequently launched a radical organization known as Gharargahe …
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Today, the Democratic Party has a golden opportunity to reclaim the leadership role that it played on national security for most of the 20th Century. But, to do so, the party must discard a damaging mind-set that has clouded its thinking since Vietnam—defensive about American ideals and history, standoffish (if not hostile) toward the military, …
For the many Americans who are unhappy with President Bush, ‘tis tempting to revel in Venezuela President Hugo Chavez’s characterization of our polarizing leader as “the devil.” ‘Tis tempting, too, just weeks before elections that will determine control of Congress, for Bush’s critics to use Chavez’s speech at the United Nations as political fodder. Iowa’s …
Continue reading “Just another thug bashing the U.S. president”
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 …