Libya: The Genesis of a Bad Idea

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by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

The president spoke Monday night to clarify our intervention in Libya. Instead he made things worse, and could not explain the mission (are we/are we not after Qaddafi?), the methodology to achieve it (are we in a no-fly-zone or are we bombing ground targets essential to save the rebels?), and the desired outcome (who are the “rebels,” what do we wish from them, and are they better than Qaddafi?). Indeed, after almost two weeks, these questions still have not been asked much less answered. Continue reading “Libya: The Genesis of a Bad Idea” →

The Obama Doctrine

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by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The Obama Doctrine is simple: Proclaim a utopian policy, and then pray that most of the people who hear it are Neanderthals who will ignore it. Having said one thing, doing quite another is not only thereby okay, but also absolutely essential. Keep that paradox in mind, and almost everything the president does makes sense. Continue reading “The Obama Doctrine” →

Weeping and Other Hysterics: Have Muslim Apologists Nothing More to Offer?

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by Raymond Ibrahim

Hudson New York

From Congressman Keith Ellison’s emotional breakdown to CongresswomanJackie Speier’s accusations of “racism,” the hearings on Muslim radicalization have made it clear that those who oppose the hearings have little of substance to offer. Continue reading “Weeping and Other Hysterics: Have Muslim Apologists Nothing More to Offer?” →

Obama Still Murky on Libya

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by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

President Obama just gave a weird speech. Part George W. Bush, part trademark Obama — filled with his characteristic split-the-difference, straw-man (“some say, others say”), false-choice tropes. Continue reading “Obama Still Murky on Libya” →

The Secularist Delusion

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by Bruce S. Thornton

Advancing a Free Society

The dubious received wisdom rationalizing our current intervention in Libya was crystallized in Senator John Kerry’s recent essay for The Wall Street Journal. For Kerry, the rebels in Libya are the same as those in Egypt, “peacefully demanding freedom and dignity.” Continue reading “The Secularist Delusion” →

A Man-Made Energy Crisis

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by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Gas is well over $4 a gallon in most places in California — and soaring elsewhere as well. But are such high energy prices good or bad? Continue reading “A Man-Made Energy Crisis” →

No ‘Revolution’ for Egypt’s Christians

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by Raymond Ibrahim

FrontPageMagazine.com

On March 5, Muslims attacked, plundered, and set ablaze an ancient Coptic church in Sool, a village near Cairo, Egypt. Afterwards, throngs of Muslims gathered around the scorched building and pounded its walls down with sledge hammers — to cries of “Allahu Akbar!” Adding insult to injury, the attackersplayed “soccer” with the relic-remains of the church’s saints and martyrs and transformed the desecrated church into a mosque (a live example of history, which witnessed countless churches seized and transformed into mosques). Continue reading “No ‘Revolution’ for Egypt’s Christians” →

Our Libyan March Madness

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by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The prognosis for Libya might be better if our president cared more about it than about the NCAA. Continue reading “Our Libyan March Madness” →

America Through the Looking Glass

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by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

President Obama yesterday praised Brazil for its new offshore oil industry and said he wants to buy as much oil as possible in this new win-win partnership — although we have piled up $5 trillion in new debt, curtailed new petroleum exploration off shore and in the West, as well as kept Alaska off-limits. Continue reading “America Through the Looking Glass” →

Foreign Policy as Wishful Thinking

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by Bruce S. Thornton

Advancing a Free Society

The current military intervention in Libya by the West has been marketed with the claim that its purpose, as French President Sarkozy put it, is “to protect the civilian population from the murderous madness of a regime that has forfeited all claim to legitimacy.” Behind this humanitarian idealism, however, lurk a host of questions and dangers, reflecting wishful thinking rather than a prudent foreign policy. Continue reading “Foreign Policy as Wishful Thinking” →