The Failure of American Leadership

Obama’s foreign policy of appeasement has created a dangerous void in the international order.

by Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas 

The standard critique of President Obama’s foreign policy is now generally well-known—Photo Credit: Robert Hruzek vic Flickrmercurial, paradoxical, and passive. “Leading from behind” seems at odds with the traditional American commitment to ensure—preferably with allies or, if need be, alone—the continuance of the postwar global system of sovereign borders, free trade, safe commerce, and open communications.

Many of Obama’s recent foreign policy initiatives have resulted in a diminished United States and they have found little success. The reset with Russia earned us a strange sort of contempt from Vladimir Putin. Moscow almost gratuitously thwarts the U.S., gloating that we offer loud self-righteous sermons to others that are not backed by consequences.

The Obama administration’s approach to radical Islam and the larger Middle East has been especially confused. Al Qaeda is not, as the president assured, on the run, but more likely moving onward and upward. Continue reading “The Failure of American Leadership”

Syria in the Age of Myth

by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media 

Myth I. Conservatives opposed to bombing Syria are isolationists.

Hardly. It would be better to call conservative skepticism a new Jacksonianism that is not wedded to any Pavlovian support for intervention or particular political party. Continue reading “Syria in the Age of Myth”

Fifteen Minutes of Foreign Policy Malfeasance

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine 

On the eve of the 12thanniversary of the terrorist strikes on 9/11, President Obama last night addressed the nation and reprised every delusional and bankrupt internationalist idea that contributed to that disaster. The current Syrian crisis––merely the latest Middle Eastern example of Obama’s incompetence––exemplifies more thoroughly than the rest just how politicized, incoherent, hypocritical, and dangerous to this country’s security and interests Obama’s foreign policy has been. Continue reading “Fifteen Minutes of Foreign Policy Malfeasance”

On 9/11 — A Look Back, a Look Forward

The as now, the Arab world’s self-induced pathologies cannot be cured by American self-doubt.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

September 11, 2001, was not just a tragedy, but rather a willful act of war by radical Islamists who hate Western civilization and the American version of it in particular. They achieved, by their cunning and our laxity, a horrendous loss of 800px-Wtc-2004-memorialAmerican life. Indeed, they did something that no enemy had succeeded at since the War of 1812: bringing the war home to the U.S. and inflicting human, material, and economic damage on a colossal scale.

They were emboldened by our prior inability to respond to provocations. A 20-year cycle of Islamist-inspired violence from Tehran to Lebanon to the 1993 World Trade Center attack to the USS Cole in Continue reading “On 9/11 — A Look Back, a Look Forward”

The Middle East: All Bad Choices

From Libya to Iran, our past actions have drastically limited our current choices.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

Survey the Middle East, and there is nothing about which to be optimistic.

Iran is either fueling violence in Syria or racing toward a bomb, or both. Continue reading “The Middle East: All Bad Choices”

The Return of Al Qaeda and Jihad

by Raymond Ibrahim // FrontPage Magazine

With the ousting of Muhammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, al-Qaeda has been vindicated and the terror-jihad exonerated, in the opinion of many Islamists, that is. Continue reading “The Return of Al Qaeda and Jihad”

America as Pill Bug

Closing out embassies was prudent in the short term. But what message does it send?

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

We’ve all run across the pill bug in our gardens. At the first sign of danger, the tiny paranoid crustacean suddenly turns into a ball — in hopes the danger will have passed when he unrolls.

That roly-poly bug can serve as a fair symbol of present-day U.S. foreign policy, especially in our understandable weariness over Iraq, Afghanistan, and the scandals that are overwhelming the Obama administration.

On August 4, U.S. embassies across the Middle East simply closed on the basis of intelligence reports of planned al-Qaeda violence. The shutdown of 21 diplomatic facilities was the most extensive in recent American history.

Continue reading “America as Pill Bug”

Libyan Intelligence: Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi Involved in U.S. Consulate Attack

by Raymond Ibrahim

RaymondIbrahim.com

According to a Libyan intelligence document, the Muslim Brotherhood, including Egyptian President Morsi, were involved in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where several Americans, including U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, were killed. Continue reading “Libyan Intelligence: Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi Involved in U.S. Consulate Attack”

Where’s the Patriotic Wrath Over Benghazi?

by Bruce S. Thornton

FrontPageMag.com

Remember Benghazi? Continue reading “Where’s the Patriotic Wrath Over Benghazi?”

What the Obama Scandals Reveal About Progressive Ideology

by Bruce S. Thornton

FrontPageMag.com

The three scandals dominating the news this week all reveal the moral and intellectual corruption at the heart of progressive ideology. Continue reading “What the Obama Scandals Reveal About Progressive Ideology”