by Bruce S. Thornton
Advancing a Free Society
The death of Osama bin Laden has some symbolic value, particularly for the United States. A great power exercises influence not just through its military and economic assets, but through its prestige. Continue reading “Bin Laden Is Dead, But Our Delusions Live On”
by Victor Davis Hanson
Ricochet
There are a number of videos circulating about from “free Libya” showing grotesque head-loppings, executions, torture and desecration of bodies, of African mercenaries who apparently were captured or killed by the rebels in Libya. Continue reading “Humanitarian Beheading”
Bruce S. Thornton
Advancing a Free Society
The outbreak of protests and rebellion throughout the Middle East have quickly generated an orthodox narrative: When people suffering under brutal autocrats and dictators have finally risen up to satisfy the innate human longing for freedom and democracy, we should support these aspirations on moral grounds. Continue reading “Foreign Policy Charity Should Start at Home”
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
Almost every promise, almost every reset proclamation from Barack Obama about the struggles against, and those within, the radical Muslim world has either been withdrawn or proven bankrupt. Continue reading “A Middle East Policy in Shambles”
by Victor Davis Hanson
PJ Media
The president spoke Monday night to clarify our intervention in Libya. Instead he made things worse, and could not explain the mission (are we/are we not after Qaddafi?), the methodology to achieve it (are we in a no-fly-zone or are we bombing ground targets essential to save the rebels?), and the desired outcome (who are the “rebels,” what do we wish from them, and are they better than Qaddafi?). Indeed, after almost two weeks, these questions still have not been asked much less answered. Continue reading “Libya: The Genesis of a Bad Idea”
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
The Obama Doctrine is simple: Proclaim a utopian policy, and then pray that most of the people who hear it are Neanderthals who will ignore it. Having said one thing, doing quite another is not only thereby okay, but also absolutely essential. Keep that paradox in mind, and almost everything the president does makes sense. Continue reading “The Obama Doctrine”
by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO’s The Corner
President Obama just gave a weird speech. Part George W. Bush, part trademark Obama — filled with his characteristic split-the-difference, straw-man (“some say, others say”), false-choice tropes. Continue reading “Obama Still Murky on Libya”
by Bruce S. Thornton
Advancing a Free Society
The current military intervention in Libya by the West has been marketed with the claim that its purpose, as French President Sarkozy put it, is “to protect the civilian population from the murderous madness of a regime that has forfeited all claim to legitimacy.” Behind this humanitarian idealism, however, lurk a host of questions and dangers, reflecting wishful thinking rather than a prudent foreign policy. Continue reading “Foreign Policy as Wishful Thinking”
by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO’s The Corner
What a No-Fly Zone Means
Now that we are committed to a no-fly zone (an unwise idea, I think, given the absence of consistent aims or defined objectives), we must support it and ensure its success. Continue reading “America’s Sorta Rescue?”
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
As with Egypt, American sympathies instinctively side with Libya’s oppositional forces as they seek to overthrow the tyrant Qaddafi — and rightfully so. But where US foreign policy is concerned, prudence is in order. Continue reading “Libya, What To Do?”