by Bruce S. Thornton
Private Papers
In 636 A.D., the caliph Umar gave these instructions to the commander he sent to Basra during the conquest of Iraq: “Summon the people to God; those who respond to your call, accept if from them, but those who refuse must pay the poll tax out of humiliation and lowliness. If they refuse this, it is the sword without leniency.” Continue reading “Sword Without Leniency”
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
I think Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Henry Stimson, and George Marshall conducted the Second World War brilliantly, despite “thousands of mistakes.” But I can also envision how our present intelligentsia and punditocracy would have sized up their sometimes less than perfect efforts or applied their own reporting to the struggle against Japan and Germany. So imagine something like the following op-ed appearing, say, around May 1, 1945. Continue reading “In the Eye of the Beholder”
by Victor Davis Hanson
Real Clear Politics
Listen to the present televised hysteria. Too few troops! No, too many still there! The CIA is out of control! No, it is weak and irrelevant! The Iraq mess only empowered Iran! No, its democratic experiment is the best way to undermine that neighboring theocracy. Continue reading “The Prison of the Present”
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune Media Services
The debate in the U.S. over how to contend with Iran as it pursues nuclear weapons goes like this: Continue reading “Give Iran Some Rope”
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
After September 11, there were only seven sovereign countries in the Middle East that posed a real danger to the policies and, in some cases, the security of the United States — Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Continue reading “For Better or Worse?”
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune Media Services
The thousands of illegal aliens protesting this past month have essentially been telling the American people the following: Continue reading “Immigration Checkmate”
by Victor Davis Hanson
Historically Speaking
As a long admirer of Thucydides I must plead guilty to agreeing with almost all of the sensible points that Colin S. Gray has made. Continue reading “Passions: A Primordial Landscape”
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
It is common now to hear of an American Middle East policy in shambles. And why not, given the daily mayhem that is televised from the West Bank, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the overt threats of Iranian President Ahmadinej(ih)ad? Continue reading “Our Orphaned Middle East Policy”
by Bruce S. Thornton
Private Papers
As if there isn’t enough evidence of the ideological corruption of America’s universities, along come Chicago’s John Mearsheimer and Harvard’s Stephen Walt, arguing that the “Israel lobby” dominates American foreign policy to the hurt of our own national interests. Continue reading “The Caldron of Anti-Semitism”
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune Media Services
The most vibrant cities of the Roman Empire were often not found in Europe. Many were located along the southern and eastern Mediterranean and Aegean, such as Leptis Magna, Ephesus and Pergamum. Continue reading “Libya Awake Again”