It is almost impossible to predict how it will all shake out, but "old Europe," in former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s dismissive phrase, will almost certainly be politically different than it is today. The election in France, which brought...
Tragic Russia
The death of Boris Yeltsin, who might be described as the first and apparently the last relatively democratic leader of Russia, makes one wonder whether Russia will ever have anything approaching decent governance. (I'm not sure there is any such thing as good...
Tragic Russia
The death of Boris Yeltsin, who might be described as the first and apparently the last relatively democratic leader of Russia, makes one wonder whether Russia will ever have anything approaching decent governance. (I'm not sure there is any such thing as good...
Getting Out With Some Dignity
There’s a certain charm in hearing a politician tell the truth, but in political terms Majority Leader Harry Reid put his foot in it when he said in public that he told President Bush in private that "this war is lost" and that the "surge"...
Portents of Failure
It has not been a good week for the dwindling band of true believers who still think just a little more effort using somewhat different tactics will yield something resembling a U.S.-Iraqi-quasi-government military victory, or even a tolerable stability, in Iraq....
Lamenting Lack of War
Well, as I predicted a few days ago, the release of the British hostages/captives/whatever has been quickly followed by lamentations and gnashing of teeth. As David Pryce-Jones put it on Thursday over at National Review Online, "now is the time for...
Clumsy Political Process
Far be it from me to defend elected Democrats in most circumstances. However, a certain amount of criticism of Democrats in Congress for not acting strongly enough to end President Bush’s misbegotten war in Iraq suggests an inordinate impatience that reflects a...
Nuclear Transformations
Earlier this week another of the Bush administration hawks fairly quietly left the State Department, apparently upset at the deal the administration struck with North Korea. Robert Joseph occupied a "special perch" in the administration, according to David...
Bush the Flip-Flopper
I'm not sure whether it's an encouraging sign or not, but recent weeks clearly show that a criticism I among many others have made of President Bush – that he is so stubborn he can never change policies no matter what the facts on the ground might indicate as...
Breaking the Presidential Pattern
President Bush last week continued his rather pathetic tour of former presidents, stopping at Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home on the Potomac, to deliver a speech that tried, with all the subtlety of a jackhammer, to compare the current occupant of the Oval Office...