Untruthful and Untrustworthy Government
The massaging of critical data undermines our society. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Transparency and truth are the fuels that run sophisticated civilizations. Without them, the state grinds to a halt. Lack of trust — not barbarians on the frontier, global warming or cooling, or even epidemics — doomed civilizations of the past, […]
Why ‘Moderate Islam’ is an Oxymoron
by Raymond Ibrahim // CBN News At a time when terrorism committed in the name of Islam is rampant, we are continuously being assured—especially by three major institutions that play a dominant role in forming the Western mindset, namely, mainstream media, academia, and government—that the sort of Islam embraced by “radicals,” “jihadis,” and so forth, has […]
Western Ignorance of the ‘Conditions of Omar’
by Raymond Ibrahim // PJ Media A jihadi group occupying the Syrian town of Raqqa recently gave Christian minorities living there three choices: 1) convert to Islam, 2) remain Christian but pay tribute and accept third-class subject status, or 3) die by the sword. According to the BBC, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria issued […]
Loud + Weak = War
China and Russia are no more impressed with empty bluster today than Japan was in 1941. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The Roosevelt administration once talked loudly of pivoting to Asia to thwart a rising Japan. As a token of its seriousness, in May 1940 it moved the home port of the Seventh […]
Of Pre- and Postmodern Poseurs
Obama’s postmodernism has met its match in premodern Putin. by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Vladimir Putin thinks he has a winning formula to restore the global clout of the old Soviet Union. Contemporary Russia is a chaotic, shrinking, and petrodollar-fed kleptocracy. It certainly lacks the population, the vast resources, and territory of its former […]
Why the Media Doesn’t Cover Jihadist Attacks on Middle East Christians
by Raymond Ibrahim // The Torch “To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace”—Hebrews 6:6 The United Nations, Western governments, media, universities, and talking heads everywhere insist that Palestinians are suffering tremendous abuses from the state of Israel. Conversely, the greatest human rights tragedy of […]
The Hitler Model
Why do weak nations like Russia provoke stronger ones like the United States? by Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas An ascendant Vladimir Putin is dismantling the Ukraine and absorbing its eastern territory in the Crimea. President Obama is fighting back against critics that his administration serially projected weakness, and thereby lost the ability to deter […]
Technology and Wisdom
Tech advancements make it too easy to forget age-old realities. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Americans now have more computer power in their smart phones than did the Pentagon in all its computer banks just 30 years ago. We board a sophisticated jet and assume that the flight is no more dangerous than […]
The Incoherence of Western Foreign Policy
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine The crisis in Ukraine is just the latest in a long series of foreign policy failures brought about by the incoherence in our thinking about foreign relations. On the one hand, we have championed ethnic-national self-determination as the highest international good, while on the other we have assumed that […]
Western Arrogance and Decline
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine For three centuries the West built up enormous economic, cultural, and military capital that dwarfs and dominates that of the rest of the world. Other countries may hate and resent Europe and the United States, but they still have to imitate, adapt, or steal the technology, financial systems, and […]
‘This Is the Last Territorial Demand I Have to Make in Europe’
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO’s The Corner Vladimir Putin all but said the above yesterday, after annexing the Crimea — and promising to let alone the rest of the Ukraine. If we just insert Ukraine and Russia for Czechoslovakia and Germany, the following speech could easily be Putin’s:
A New Obama Doctrine?
With his presidency in tailspin, Carter radically changed course. Will Obama do the same? by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online By the beginning of 1980, Jimmy Carter was in big trouble. Almost everything he had said or done in foreign policy over the prior three years had failed — and he was running for […]
Following the Trail Nixon Blazed
Obama shows the same Orwellian disregard for the Constitution. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online What would a president do if he were furious over criticism, or felt that his noble aims justified most means of attaining them? Answer that by comparing the behavior of Richard Nixon to that of an increasingly similar Barack […]
The Chihuahua Theory of Foreign Policy
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO’s The Corner The new administration party line is that Putin is now weak and acting out of just that weakness by sending troops into Ukrainian territory — a sort of chihuahua who took on a pit bull because he knew he was weak. But even weak states do not typically […]
Obama: Ike Redivivus?
Obama admirers have created a complete distortion of “the Eisenhower era.” by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online In critique of the George W. Bush administration, and in praise of the perceived foreign-policy restraint of Obama’s first five years in the White House, a persistent myth has arisen that Obama is reminiscent of Eisenhower — […]
Liberals and Their Uppity Enemies
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Why do liberals hate Sarah Palin? She has made far fewer gaffes than has Joe Biden, whose verbal mishaps have often been racist in nature. Is dropping your g’s worse than saying “corpse-men“? She does not believe that Canadians speak Canadian in the way the president thinks Austrians speak Austrian. Her […]
Islamic Jihad and the Doctrine of Abrogation
by Raymond Ibrahim // RaymondIbrahim.com While other scriptures contain contradictions, the Koran is the only holy book whose commentators have evolved a doctrine to account for the very visible shifts which occur from one injunction to another. No careful reader will remain unaware of the many contradictory verses in the Koran, most specifically the way in […]