Distortion’s Feedback Loop
by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers A review of Covering the Intifada: How the Media Reported the Palestinian Uprising, by Joshua Muravchik (Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy)
The Hard Road to Democracy
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Fostering elections in Iraq is a hard road, well apart from the daily violence of the Sunni Triangle. The autocratic Sunni elite of surrounding countries prefers democracy to fail, warning us that an Iranian-sponsored theocracy will surely follow in Iraq, legitimizing a new Arab Khomeinism.
Has Iraq Weakened Us?
by Victor Davis Hanson Commentary Magazine Whatever the results of the elections scheduled for late January in Iraq, a new pessimism about that country, as well as about the larger war on terror, has taken hold in many circles in the United States.
Strange Politics: The Rise of the Not-So-Conservative Conservatives
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There are several issues ahead, such as immigration, deficits of all sorts, and energy dependence, that have the potential to erode conservatives’ appeal to the general public.
Stories of Imperial Collapse Are Getting Old
by Victor Davis Hanson New Criterion The most recent doom-and-gloom forecast by Matthew Parris of the LondonTimes would be hilarious if it were not so hackneyed. After all, Americans long ago have learned to grin any time a British intellectual talks about the upstart’s foreordained imperial collapse.
Illegal Immigration Is a Moral Issue
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services As President Bush’s guest worker proposals slog through Congress, new reports suggest that there may be not 8 million, but almost 20 million illegal aliens in the United States, a population larger than most entire states.
Idealism and Its Discontents: Thinking on the Neoconservative Slur
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Neo- is a prefix that derives from the Greek adjective veos — “new” or “fresh” — and in theory it is used inexactly for those conservatives who once were not — or for those who have reinterpreted conservatism in terms of a more idealistic foreign policy that eschewed both Cold […]
Will Abbas Bring an End to Conflict?
Abbas must stop the murder of Israelis by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers Just as in the days after the death of Arafat, the Palestinian elections have sparked an outburst of international optimism that perhaps the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can begin to be resolved.
Islamicists hate us for who we are, not what we do
by Victor Davis Hanson Chicago Tribune Co. As the third recent Middle East election nears in Iraq, Americans are still puzzled over why well-off Islamic fundamentalists crashed planes into skyscrapers and now send mercenaries to the Sunni Triangle to slaughter us as we sponsor democracy.
Triangulating the War
Yesterday’s genius, today’s fool, tomorrow’s what? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Reading the pages of foreign-policy journals, between the long tracts on Bush’s “failures” and neoconservative “arrogance,” one encounters mostly predictions of defeat and calls for phased withdrawal — always with resounding criticism of the American “botched” occupation.
Heartbreak Aside, Iraq Progresses
by Victor Davis Hanson This column was syndicated by the Herald Tribune Co. and appeared in newspapers last weekend. This New Year, Americans should reflect on what we have accomplished in more than three years of hard war since being attacked on Sept. 11. The Taliban and Saddam Hussein are gone — but without the envisioned […]
Fighting for Free Speech
FIRE’s guide to defending student rights on campuses by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers If you have a child in college the most important book you both should read is available free of charge.
The Disenchanted American
Are we growing world-weary? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There is a new strange mood of acceptance among Americans about the world beyond our shores. Of course, we are not becoming naïve isolationists of 1930s vintage, who believe that we are safe by ourselves inside fortress America — not after September 11.
This is Your Wake-up Call
Jared Diamond can’t find the key to superior civilization. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers UCLA professor Jared Diamond’s journey into academic superstardom was jump-started when President Clinton held up Diamond’s 1999 Guns Germs and Steel before the news cameras, after which bestseller status and numerous prizes, including the Pulitzer, followed.
Into the Tar Pits: Dinosaurs Either Evolve or Die
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There was a time when the political lines about foreign policy were well drawn. Those on the Left felt that American democracy and global capitalism did not necessarily offer the rest of the world a much better alternative than either Soviet-sponsored Communism or third-world thuggery.
Our Challenges in the Year Ahead
What we learned from three years of war. by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers A shorter version of this essay recently appeared in the Australian Financial Review.
From Gulag to Israel
Will freedom necessarily conquer fear societies? by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The Case for Democracy. The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror by Natan Sharansky, with Rom Dermer (Public Affairs, 2004) 303 pp.
Leave Rumsfeld Be
He is not to blame for our difficulties by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The Washington Post recently warned that doctors are urging interested parties of all types to get their flu shots before the “scarce” vaccine is thrown out. But how is such a surfeit possible when our national media scared us to death just […]
The Modern World’s Greatest Delusion
How enlightened are modern myths of sexuality? by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers If you want a good guide to the pathologies of the liberal mind, look no farther than Frank Rich’s weekly column in the Sunday New York Times.
Gay Old Times?
Oliver Stone perpetuates a classical myth by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Magazine The consensus about Oliver Stone’s Alexander is that the film’s splashy gay motifs could not overcome the stilted dialogue, ludicrous Irish-brogue and Count Dracula accents, and excruciating minutes of dead screen time devoted to model-like poses, secretive eye contact, and soap-opera double entendres.