Foreign Affairs
Instapundit does us another public service by highlighting this Pajamas TV commentary about Jon Stewart claiming Truman was a war criminal: Jon Stewart, War Criminals & The True Story of the Atomic Bombs. As one of my friends wrote me after listening to it: “We were moved nearly to tears by this. What has happened…
Thomas Friedman thinks President Obama has taken the most pragmatic approach regarding the Bush Administrations “torture memos.” But he also explains why fighting a unique enemy, al Qaeda, brought us to this point. And he wonders what the attitude towards “torture” would be had another attack on American soil occurred. [T]herefore, the post-9/11 environment remains…
A few days ago, Associated Press writer Liz Sidoti issued perhaps the most disturbing bit of “journalism” in recent memory: It didn’t take long for Barack Obama — for all his youth and inexperience — to get acclimated to his new role as the calming leader of a country in crisis. “I feel surprisingly comfortable…
The Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl makes an observation and then wonders… New American presidents typically begin by behaving as if most of the world’s problems are the fault of their predecessors — and Barack Obama has been no exception. In his first three months he has quickly taken steps to correct the errors in George…
For those of us living in countries with democratic processes and smooth transitions of power, it’s good to be reminded what the opposite looks like. From the Telegraph. (Scroll past the excessively long ad at the top.) President Ratu Josefa Iloilo used a nationally-broadcast radio address to announce that he had abolished the constitution, assumed…
First, to update the ongoing pirate story, it appears the Captain, Richard Phillips of Vermont, is still being held (it sounds like on a lifeboat). Additionally, I remembered reading about a maritime school training its cadets in anti-piracy tactics a week or so ago. Turns out, it was Massachusetts Maritime…and the instructor of the course?…
So Somali pirates decided to take a U.S. flagged ship. Except they apparently didn’t realize that U.S.-flagged ships have something other ships don’t–U.S. Merchant Mariners (including a couple from nearby Mass. Maritime Academy). So, while other countries bargain and dicker with pirates, this U.S. crew took matters into their own hands: The crew of a…
Now events in France are beginning to look a bit more like a logical social correction: French workers burned tires, marched on the presidential palace and held a manager of U.S. manufacturer 3M hostage Wednesday as anger mounted over job cuts and executive bonuses. Rising public outrage at employers on both sides of the Atlantic…
… reflected in this letter to the ProJo. It was the Bush administration’s detention and torture policies that made us less safe and more reviled by the Muslim world. Former President Bush’s torture and detention policies certainly radicalized many individuals across the Muslim world, and President Obama’s executive orders are a first step to defusing…
I’m sure they are: President Obama said yesterday that he had told Russia that reducing Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon would in turn lessen the need for a U.S.-planned missile-defense system in Eastern Europe that Moscow has opposed. But Obama said he sought no “quid pro quo” with Moscow. Obama also said it was…