Leon Hadar

I‘m not a financial speculator, and I don’t play one on television. So please don’t base your decision on whether or not to bet against the U.S. dollar on my thoughts about the fate of the greenback, which has fallen to a 20-month low against the euro recently. But for someone like myself who is … Continue reading “A Losing War, a Failed President, a Weak Dollar: We’ve Been Here Before”

There is an element of Schadenfreude in the reaction of critics of Washington’s neoconservatives to the policy setbacks and ideological turbulence that their erstwhile bureaucratic rivals and ideological antagonists have been experiencing in recent weeks. With the humiliating "resignation" of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a day after the Democrats, carried by populist antiwar sentiment, won … Continue reading “Rumors of Neoconservatism’s Death Exaggerated”

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, US President George W Bush has campaigned in one presidential contest (04) and two Congressional races (02 and 2004) as a victorious "War President." Mr. Bush and his Republican allies in Congress chalked up one electoral victory after another by comparing the White House occupant to Winston … Continue reading “Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword”

The Queen, a film directed by Stephen Frears with Helen Mirren in an Oscar-winning performance as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, is meant to be the cinematic account of the composed – well, chilly – response by the queen to the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997, which … Continue reading “Can Jim Baker Save the American Establishment?”

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that the North Korean nuclear test is just the latest demonstration of the Bush Doctrine being challenged by an aggressive international player intent on defying the dictates of the current global hegemon. Hence, if after the Cuban Missile Crisis, John Kennedy could say that the U.S. and the Soviet … Continue reading “The Humbling of the Hegemon”

Nikolas Gvosdev, editor of the National Interest, a foreign-policy magazine affiliated with the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C., has recently been trying to revitalize the stale discourse on U.S. global strategy in the capital of the world’s only remaining superpower. Gvosdev, whose magazine has been shaken up by post-Iraq-invasion ideological disputes (leading to the departure … Continue reading “A New Kind of Neocon?”

Would US President George W Bush and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad run into each other by chance during their opening session of the United Nations General Assembly this week? That seemed to be the major concern occupying US officials. It seems White House aides were doing their best to avoid a run-in between Mr. Bush … Continue reading “US-Iran Shootout Is Inevitable”

A few days after U.S. troops had entered Baghdad and Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled, Condoleezza Rice (serving then as President George W. Bush’s national security adviser) told American reporters that U.S. policy toward Europe should be to "Encourage the Russians, ignore the Germans, and punish the French." The Bush administration, celebrating its military victory … Continue reading “Has the Hegemon Been Humbled in Lebanon?”

Since the start of the current Middle East crisis, analysts have been trying to figure out who is responsible for this mess. Who made the crucial decisions that triggered the fighting between the Israeli military and the Hezbollah guerrillas, which has resulted in death of many Israeli and Lebanese civilians and the destruction of villages … Continue reading “And the Loser Is… Everyone”

U.S. President George W. Bush has fancied himself playing Gary Cooper’s role in High Noon. Yep, Sheriff W. and his loyal deputy Tony B. ride into Mideastville, where they confront a revenge-seeking killer by the name of Saddam and his Islamofascist gang, while cowardly lawmen Jacques C. and Gerhard S. hide in the Old Europe … Continue reading “Playing Cowboy – and Falling Off the Horse”