The news that Americans want the U.S. government to mind its own business when it comes to foreign affairs has our Washington elite in a panic. The explanatory notes accompanying a new Pew poll [.pdf] describe the "rise in isolationist sentiment" that...
Obama’s War: The Reaction
I'm actually pretty surprised to see that many liberals and progressives are not climbing on board Obama's war wagon – notably Rachel Maddow, who made a stinging criticism of the escalation by comparing the rhetoric of the Bush administration and that of the New...
Obama’s War Speech:
An Unconvincing Flop
Untitled Document After 92 days of waiting for the Word from on high, the nation received its marching orders from our commander-in-chief – and it was a flop of major proportions. As his West Point audience looked on disdainfully – applauding only twice, and then...
The Galula Doctrine
Although we already know what President Obama is going to be selling this Tuesday – a radical escalation of the Afghan war involving 30,000 or more troops – we don't yet know what his sales pitch will be like. Can the peerless rhetorician apply his skills to the task...
Who Will Protest Obama’s War?
Here we are on the verge of a momentous announcement – President Obama's unveiling of his "comprehensive plan" for escalating the war in Afghanistan – and where is the so-called antiwar movement? Missing in action, as this news report reveals: "'There's this...
The Democrats’ War Tax
Sen. Carl Levin has a solution to the problem of how to finance our losing, futile war in Afghanistan – a war we are fighting to support what has now been officially deemed the second most corrupt government on earth: he wants a war tax. An "additional income tax...
The Gitmo Trial: Why Now?
Our Chief Industry: War
We often hear the complaint that America doesn't make anything anymore: that is, our economy seems driven not by producing actual things, but utterly intangible creations such as credit default swaps and securitized sub-prime mortgages. Our once-bustling factories are...
The Trial of the Century and the Long Shadow of 9/11
A weird concatenation of events – the Ft. Hood shoot-up, the decision by the Obama administration to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters, and the seizure of a mosque and other properties said to be owned by a front for the Iranian government – has...