Trailblazing

In the Golden Age of the exploring colonists, the trailblazers were anthropologists, botanists, soldiers and, later, benevolent trading companies. These fine gentlemen categorized and conquered, bringing glory, wisdom and riches back to the motherland, but little changed for the farmers and petty merchants whose lives they jotted down into their notebooks. One hundred or so … Continue reading “Trailblazing”

SEDUCING BILL KRISTOL

I‘ve always loved needling Bill Kristol and his neoconservative buddies as lefties in conservative drag: their whole “national greatness” agenda is such a dead giveaway that I often wondered how anyone to the right of, say, John McCain, could possibly be taken in by it. In column after column, I’ve exposed and excoriated the neocons … Continue reading “SEDUCING BILL KRISTOL”

Eugen Richter on War and Empire

AN ECHT LIBERAL IN BISMARCKIAN GERMANY Somehow, in my last column I wandered into 19th-century Germany. I wish to dwell there long enough to say something about perhaps the most echt (“genuine”) of all late 19th-century German liberals, Eugen Richter. Anyone who has suffered through a standard course on the history of that period will … Continue reading “Eugen Richter on War and Empire”

IS ZIONISM RACISM?

On August 31, the UN will convene a conference on racism that has already caused a storm of controversy here in the United States and abroad. We have only to invoke its formal name, the “World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance,” to get some idea of the bogus nature of this … Continue reading “IS ZIONISM RACISM?”

THE BALKANS: WHAT IS BUSH UP TO?

A recent New York Post editorial deplored the deepening US commitment in the Balkans and wondered why the Bush administration wasn’t following through on Dubya’s campaign promise to get us out of that particular quagmire. Noting the President’s pronouncement that the "American contribution is essential, both militarily and politically," because "ethnic extremists are still stoking … Continue reading “THE BALKANS: WHAT IS BUSH UP TO?”

Defining Terms Unilaterally

Our political culture – insofar as it is intelligible to speak of such a concept – seems to have a gift for asking the wrong, mostly irrelevant, questions and then obsessing about them at great and usually unhelpful length. Thus in recent weeks we have heard a great deal about “unilateralism” and various talking and … Continue reading “Defining Terms Unilaterally”

I’M GOING TO SERBIA!

The Balkans have long been the focus of the War Party, and now here’s your chance to experience the consequences of US intervention firsthand – while learning more about the ancient culture and uniqueness of the region. The Rockford Institute is sponsoring a trip to Serbia and Montenegro, September 17-28, and I’ll be going – … Continue reading “I’M GOING TO SERBIA!”

THEY FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT

For as long as the cold war lasted, the history of the conservative movement before about 1955 – the history of what I call the Old Right – was for the most part ignored: when they talked about it at all, historians of both the left and the right invariably dismissed it as too politically … Continue reading “THEY FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT”