Dictatorships

What Drives Vladimir Putin?

Aggressors often attack weaker neighbors to restore a sense of pride.  by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online  Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a disaster of a declining population, corruption, authoritarianism, a warped economy, and a high rate of alcoholism. Why, then, would Putin want to ruin additional territory in Crimea and Ukraine the way …

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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 …

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Governing by Pen and Phone

Obama used to sigh that he was not a dictator who could act unilaterally. No more. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online  Lately a weakened President Obama has fashioned a new attitude about consensual government: “We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the …

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Ignoring History: The Folly of Our Iran Pact

Dictatorships abandon treaties when they become inconvenient. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online  According to our recently proposed treaty with the Iranian government, Iran keeps much of its nuclear program while agreeing to slow its path to weapons-grade enrichment. The Iranians also get crippling economic sanctions lifted.  Share This

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Why Did We Invade Iraq?

by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online On the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the back-and-forth recriminations continue, but in all the “not me” defenses, we have forgotten, over the ensuing decade, the climate of 2003 and why we invaded in the first place. The war was predicated on six suppositions. Share This

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Can Israel Survive?

by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Will Israel survive? That question hasn’t really been asked since 1967. Share This

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The Middle East Mess

by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and the All the Same Old, Same Old Mess Each country in the Middle East poses unique challenges. That said, gender apartheid, religious intolerance, tribalism, dictatorship, statism, and lack of transparency and free expression are widely shared in the region, and mean that any particular …

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The Nature of Arab Unrest

by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Across the Middle East, millions are rebelling against their poverty and lack of freedom, blaming their corrupt leaders, who have ransacked their countries’ treasuries and natural wealth. Share This

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The Secularist Delusion

by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The dubious received wisdom rationalizing our current intervention in Libya was crystallized in Senator John Kerry’s recent essay for The Wall Street Journal. For Kerry, the rebels in Libya are the same as those in Egypt, “peacefully demanding freedom and dignity.” Share This

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