In taking fifteen British sailors prisoner, the Iranian government is merely following its tradition of win-win hostage-taking. When in trouble (and there is some evidence the mullahs are in a certain amount of internal political difficulty in Iran), the best … Continue reading →
If you’ve ever had a bad back you know the drill: the doctor places your legs and feet in various positions, takes his hands and pushes in various ways, and asks you to push back each time. What’s he doing? … Continue reading →
I happened across the February 19th issue of Newsweek at the home of friends with whom I’m staying. Picking it up and thumbing through it (and how odd it seems to me nowadays to see a hard copy of a … Continue reading →
A succinct headline in the Washington Times summed it up nicely: “Anti-war protesters echo Vietnam.” The accent is on the word “echo”—as in “a distant, fainter, repetition.” The anti-Iraq War demonstrations in DC over this weekend were self-consciously and purposefully … Continue reading →
[See Part I.] After Proctor’s turnaround speech, more and more former naysayers came on board in support of war with Spain for the liberation of Cuba. But still, McKinley tried his best at negotiations to avoid it, machinations that ultimately … Continue reading →
Remember the Spanish-American War? You probably learned about it in your history classes–which was a long time ago, perhaps. If you were anything like me, you only remember a few key phrases: “yellow journalism.” “Remember the Maine.” The American people … Continue reading →
During a war, it used to be that the body counts published in the newspapers focused on the number of enemies killed. And the populace reading those accounts were supposed to be happy, not sad; the statistics were supposed to … Continue reading →
[Part I, “saving them,” is here.] Children are the future of any society. This makes them a double-edged sword: since most cultures are devoted to the protection and nurturance of their own children, most societies are uniquely vulnerable when those … Continue reading →
Neocons are accused of having started the war in Iraq in order to further the naive and unattainable dream of bringing liberal democracy to the Middle East. But the Iraq War was actually a multi-determined one—although the Left often seems … Continue reading →
The Left likes to position itself as the champion of the underdog, the third world, the downtrodden, the oppressed. Until, that is, someone from one of those countries has the temerity to disagree with the party line. Just as the … Continue reading →
This WSJ editorial by Daniel Hettinger clear-sightedly, and with some puzzlement, describes the remarkable defeatism that seems to be spreading throughout the American Congress and public like some easily transmitted virus. Defeatism is the new feel-good emotion; it allows us … Continue reading →
In my recent post about how poorly our own Civil War had been going for the North even as late as the spring of 1864, I mentioned the incredibly high casualties in that war compared to what we’ve suffered so … Continue reading →