Iraq is a wreck and Afghanistan is deteriorating, but that doesn't foreclose war with Iran. To the contrary, there is no evidence that the president realizes how much destruction he has wrought. Give him enough time, he seems to believe, and pro-American democracies...
Readings in the Age of Empire
The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party Ryan Sager Wiley, 2006 248 pp. The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get it Back Andrew Sullivan HarperCollins, 2006 294 pp. Religious Americans always have...
The Wreck of the War Party
The wild, drunken neocon joyride is over. After running as the candidate of national restraint and humility, George W. Bush metamorphosed into a modern Alexander the Great, promising to bring civilization and democracy to both the known and unknown worlds. He...
The Painful Death of Humanitarian Intervention
Iraq was about many things, supporters of the war intone. The fact that no WMD were discovered is irrelevant. President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, and a host of Republican (and many Democratic) legislators solemnly proclaim that knowing what they...
Readings in the Age of Empire
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster, 2006 558 pp. "On some of these issues I don't trust anybody that's that sure," Secretary of State Condi Rice allegedly said of the "extremists" on the Iraq war. One wonders why she continues to...
Nation-Destroying
in the Balkans
PRIZREN, Kosovo - Life in a monastery is normally a challenge. But life in the Monastery of the Holy Archangels is a particular challenge. The original building was destroyed in the 16th century by the invading Turks. The Orthodox Church eventually built a small...
Bush Versus Principled Conservatism
George W. Bush has been vilified by the Left, but his harshest critics should be on the Right. One of the most momentous consequences of the Bush presidency is the destruction of the philosophical core of modern conservatism. Like most political movements, American...
Readings in the Age of Empire
Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman Pantheon, 2006 199 pp. George W. Bush still has more than two years to serve as president, but it isn't too early to proclaim his foreign policy to be a failure. America no longer...
Normalizing Relations
With Japan
Shinzo Abe has become the youngest postwar prime minister of Japan. He is seen as a reformer, following the lead of his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. Of greater significance to the U.S. and the rest of world, Abe also is a nationalist dedicated increasing his...
A Foreign Policy of Failure
Rare is it to find a president whose foreign policy has imploded as dramatically and catastrophically as has that of George W. Bush. Little more than a year after taking office, the candidate who espoused humility turned into the chief executive who embraced empire....