The Middle East

The Un-Midas Touch

by Victor Davis Hanson // PJMedia Everything that Barack Obama touches seems to turn to dross. Think of it for a minute. He inherited a quiet Iraq [1] (no American combat deaths at all in December 2009 [2]). Joe Biden bragged of the calm that it would be the administration’s“greatest achievement.” [3] But by pulling out all U.S. peacekeepers — mostly for a […]

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A Stronger Israel?

Elite opinion believes Israel will lose “long-term” whatever happens in the next weeks. Not necessarily. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online In postmodern wars, we are told, there is no victory, no defeat, no aggressors, no defenders, just a tragedy of conflicting agendas. But in such a mindless and amoral landscape, Israel in

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The Cost of American Indifference

By continually taking the path of least short-term trouble, the U.S. ensures long-term hardship. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The Obama administration often either denies any responsibility for the current global chaos or claims that it erupted spontaneously. Yet most of the mess was caused by, or made worse by, growing U.S.

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Winning a Lose/Lose War

How to lose battles and gain sympathizers. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Once again neighboring enemies are warring in diametrically opposite ways. Hamas sees the death of its civilians as an advantage; Israel sees the death of its civilians as a disaster. Defensive missiles explode to save civilians in Israel; in Gaza, civilians are

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Moral Equivalence, Moral Idiocy

by Bruce Thornton // FrontPage Magazine Scenes all too familiar from the Arab conflict with Israel have followed the murder last Wednesday of a 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Mourners at his funeral chanting the Muslim war-cry “Allahu Akbar” as they carry the boy’s open coffin, the crowd shouting slogans like “Intifada rise up” and “America and

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How Obama Lost the Middle East

The president put politics and ideology ahead of preserving hard-won gains in the region.  by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online In his first term, Barack Obama all but declared victory in America’s Middle East struggles. As he precipitously pulled out all U.S. peacekeepers from Iraq, the president had his own “Mission Accomplished” moment

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Obama’s World Disorder

by Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas Amid all the talk of the isolationism that supposedly characterizes the Obama administration’s foreign policy, we forget that since World War II, the global order has largely been determined by U.S. engagement. The historically rare state of prosperity and peace that defined the postwar world were due to

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Melancholy Lessons from Iraq

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine The unfolding collapse of Iraq’s government before the legions of al Qaeda jihadists is the capstone of Barack Obama’s incompetent and politicized foreign policy. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), armed with plundered American weapons and flush with stolen money, is consolidating a Sunni terrorist state

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