How to Spot a Paranoid Government Bureaucrat

Whatever else one might say about Cass Sunstein, he surely knows who his enemies are. The former head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and member of the President’s panel on NSA "reforms" – infamous for his suggestion that...

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Obama, the Reluctant Realist

Individuals make history, but sometimes the process reverses itself and history makes individuals. President Barack Obama may have wanted to bomb Syria, and he certainly did want to meddle in Libya – where the results of his disastrous "humanitarian"...

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It’s Always World War II

They call it the "Good War," one supposes, in order to differentiate it from all the really bad wars we’ve been fighting – and losing – lately: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the future wars our political class has up its collective sleeve. I call it...

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The Progressive Crack-up

The response of self-identified progressives to the Edward Snowden revelations has been ambiguous from the beginning. On the one hand, there are the ACLU-type liberals, epitomized by Glenn Greenwald – the reporter most responsible (along with Laura Poitras) for...

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The Snowden Effect and the Liberal Implosion

We haven’t seen anything like this since the Vietnam war era: an administration caught red-handed illegally and systematically spying on Americans in the midst of an increasingly unpopular war. At that time, too, the political class was badly divided, with the...

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Down Mexico Way

As the US continues and expands its worldwide "war on terror," extending its militarized tentacles into Africa as well as the Middle East, a festering threat looms closer to home: the ungluing of Mexico and its rapid descent into the status of a failed...

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A Note to My Readers

There's no column today: looks like the flu has claimed yet another victim! But don't worry: I'll be back on Monday. Meanwhile, you can read this old column on Mexico's "vigilante" movement, which the rest of the world is beginning to notice this week. Just remember:...

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It’s All About Politics

Ron Fournier wants to get politics out of foreign policy decision-making: "This paragraph from a New York Times story on proposed new sanctions for Iran sent a chill down my spine: "’Behind these positions is a potent mix of political calculations in a...

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Defeat the Israel Lobby

The announcement by the White House that a preliminary agreement with Iran has been reached on limiting their nuclear program – stopping enrichment of uranium beyond 3 percent, dismantling enrichment facilities, and increasing the pace and intrusiveness of IAEA...

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