Foreign Affairs

Being a People to Believe In

By Justin Katz | April 15, 2008 |

This is a point worth making over and over again: [Iraqis] were willing to help us, but they are not a stupid people. They know that if they commit to the American side and the Americans abandon them as we did in 1991, it means death for them and their families. They know this, and…

Venezuela’s Casualties of Revolution

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 14, 2008 |

This line from Ambassador William Middendorf‘s scathing critique of Hugo Chavez and his enablers published in Saturday’s Projo should really grab your attention…According to a 2005 U.N. report, more people die from gunfire in Venezuela than in any other country on Earth (including Iraq).Citing only gunfire deaths arguably obscures the issue since explosions in Iraq…

Absolut Aztlan?

By Justin Katz | April 5, 2008 |

So the makers of Absolut vodka are advertising in Mexico with the statement that, “In an Absolut World,” the Southwestern United States would be the territory of our neighbors to the south. One might call it immanentizing the endgame. Well, my choice of vodkas just became easier by the subtraction of one. (More on Gateway…

What to Do About China?

By Justin Katz | March 18, 2008 |

Concerned about your business prospects in the domestic market? Well, Providence Journal business-section columnist John Kostrzewa has a suggestion: With the local and national economies weakening, and perhaps already in recession, small and large businesses are worried about where the growth will come from in 2008. How about looking overseas, especially to China? He offers…

So What Difference Does Dictatorship Make, Anyway?

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2008 |

Perhaps a new Cuban declaration could assert the right of all people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of par (paragraphs rearranged): Golf had been played on the island since the 1920s. At the time of the 1959 revolution, Havana boasted two award-winning courses, at the Havana Country Club and the Biltmore, which hosted such…

Geldof – Press Has Shortchanged Bush’s Successful Africa Policy

By Marc Comtois | February 20, 2008 |

Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof is chastising the US Press corps for under-reporting the positive effect that President Bush’s Africa policy has had: Mr. Geldof praised Mr. Bush for his work in delivering billions to fight disease and poverty in Africa, and blasted the U.S. press for ignoring the achievement. Mr. Bush, said Mr. Geldof,…

How Disappointing Is This Administration

By Justin Katz | January 19, 2008 |

As if to demoralize conservative hawks heading into an election year, the Bush administration is falling back to the U.S. political-class default with respect to Palestinian terror: The “road map” for peace, conceived in 2002 by Mr. Bush, had become a hindrance to the peace process, because the first requirement was that the Palestinians stop…

The Power of Snow

By Justin Katz | January 12, 2008 |

So here’s a question: Does the effect of snow transcend culture, or has Iraq absorbed enough of the culture that flowed from Northwestern Europe to have a similar cultural reaction? After weathering nearly five years of war, Baghdad residents thought they’d pretty much seen it all. But Friday morning, as muezzins were calling the faithful…

Benazir Bhutto Killed in Suicide Bombing

By Carroll Andrew Morse | December 27, 2007 |

From CNN…Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday outside a large gathering of her supporters where a suicide bomber also killed at least 14, doctors and a spokesman for her party said. While Bhutto appeared to have died from bullet wounds, it was not immediately clear if she was shot or if her…

After Latest NIE, Some Appear Willing to Believe that “Death to America” Really Does Mean “I Love You”

By Marc Comtois | December 6, 2007 |

Cliff May boils down the problem with the reaction to the NIE report: Many commentators are fudging the distinction between Iran “suspending” and “abandoning” its nuclear weapons program. According to the new NIE, Iran not only continues to enrich uranium, it also is “continuing to develop a range of technical capabilities that could be applied…