From Time Magazine, 4 Reasons Putin Is Already Losing in Ukraine Excerpts: The economic impact on Russia is already staggering. When markets opened on Monday morning, investors got their first chance to react to the Russian intervention in Ukraine over the
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From Jim Talent writing Sowing the Wind at National Review Online: A great nation with neither power nor strategic purpose is just as vulnerable, and perhaps more so, than a small nation. Great nations have targets on their backs. They can never
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David Goldman at Pajamas Media writes Ukraine is Hopeless… Not Serious. Excerpts: Ukraine isn’t a country: it’s a Frankenstein monster composed of pieces of dead empires, stitched together by Stalin. It has never had a government in the Western sense
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Even the emperor’s most dedicated followers are now admitting how naked he really is. Diplomacy is often a matter of grooming allies when you do not need them so you can have a basis when you do. From Obama’s first
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Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Street Journal, Why America is Saying No: A point on how quickly public opinion has jelled. There is something going on here, a new distance between Washington and America that the Syria debate has
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from Charles Krauthammer at National Review Unserious Commander in Chief: Here’s how deterrence works in the Middle East. Syria, long committed to the destruction of Israel, has not engaged Israel militarily in 30 years. Why? Because it recognizes Israel as
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Daniel Greenfield writes in his blog Sultan Knish: The Case of Obama’s Missing Pants Excerpt: The only real argument in favor of hitting Syria is that Obama laid down a red line and Congress is obligated to protect his credibility
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from Commentary Obama Learns the Value of Allies by Seth Mandel: Although President Obama’s first-term habit of serially offending U.S. allies appeared to be a procession of gaffes and errors, there actually was a strategy behind it. Picking fights with the
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From Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post Questions for Hillary Clinton: Does the United States have national security interests at issue in Syria? Did the inability to negotiate a status of forces agreement in Iraq embolden Iran and/or unleash sectarian
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Mark Steyn writes in The National Review, An Accidental War: I see the Obama “reset” is going so swimmingly that the president is now threatening to go to war against a dictator who gassed his own people. Don’t worry, this isn’t
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from The Israeli Spring by Victor Davis Hanson in The National Review excerpts: In terms of realpolitik, anti-Israeli authoritarians are fighting to the death against anti-Israeli insurgents and terrorists. Each is doing more damage to the other than Israel ever
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From The GOP of Old by William Kristol in The Weekly Standard, Excerpt: It was (well-deserved) war weariness after World War II that led to a precipitous drawdown in Europe that in turn helped make possible Stalin’s subjugation of Eastern
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Daniel Greenfield writes Terrorism Without End in Frontpagemag.com , 2/25/13: Excerpt: Terrorism can never be defeated by fighting terrorists. Combine massive wealth in some parts of the Middle East with staggering poverty in other parts and the supply of
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Economics is far easier to measure if you are successful. The interest rate, unemployment rate, growth in GDP, distribution of income, national debt, inflation rate, and a host of other measurements that keep economists gainfully employed can paint a relatively
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“You should have shot that fella a long time ago. Now he’s too rich to kill.” Seems to sum up our Middle East Policy of the last 100 years.
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Foreign affairs is the most difficult area of government policy. To be effective it requires a continuity and consistency that transcends presidential terms. Impatience serves us well as an entrepreneurial economic growth engine, but it is our Achilles heel
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Jeff Jacoby writes The Ghost of Jimmy Carter excerpts: Like all presidents, Reagan got many things wrong. But one thing he got very right was that American weakness is provocative. A foreign-policy blueprint that emphasizes the need for American constraint,
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A few years ago I was on a trip with the United Jewish Communities to Cuba. Our objective was to lend support to the few remaining synagogues in Havana. We also visited the Jewish center which was a tiny open
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Fix that Password-Now – Ellen Schultz wrote great tips on securing your online presence. Jonathan Haidt: He Knows Why We Fight – by Homan Jenkins Jr. in the WSJ, 6/29/12. A search for “civil disagreement”, it is a review of
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Kevin Williamson writes Obama Does Not Know What ‘Outsourcing’ Means in The National Review Online, 6/26/12 Excerpts: What’s interesting about this controversy to me is the naked xenophobia of the Left on display alongside the amusing ignorance. Liberals love a
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Ignoring Diplomatic Fundamentals
from Commentary Obama Learns the Value of Allies by Seth Mandel: Although President Obama’s first-term habit of serially offending U.S. allies appeared to be a procession of gaffes and errors, there actually was a strategy behind it. Picking fights with the