Commentary
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June 19, 2008
Islam’s War Doctrines Ignored
by Raymond Ibrahim
MESH (Middle East Strategy at Harvard)
At the recent inaugural conference for the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA)...
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May 1, 2008
No Country for Old Liberals
by
Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
According to liberals, they are tolerant, open-minded, sensitive to complexity and nuance, and wary of simplistic explanations. So why is a column by the liberal Michael Hirsh, in the liberal newsweekly Newsweek, so intolerant, close-minded, simplistic and bigoted?
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April 25, 2008
Jihad Studies as Trivia
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
This article was first published in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard.
A new article by Thomas Hegghammer in the Times Literary Supplement, entitled “Jihadi studies: the obstacles to understanding radical Islam and the opportunities to know it better,” lives up to its title — not so much by delineating what these obstacles are, but rather by being representative of them. Regrettably, the author evokes the same old mantras prevalent in modern academia’s study of jihad and jihadists.
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April 17, 2008
Leaving the New Episcopal Church
by Craig Bernthal
Private Papers
Most Christians in America probably don’t know much about what is happening in the Episcopal Church (TEC).
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April 15, 2008
Islam’s Public Enemy #1
Coptic priest Zakaria Botros fights fire with fire.
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros — named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid — has been making waves in the Islamic world.
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April 3, 2008
Treat Breast Cancer?
Not in My Backyard.
by Linda Halderman, M.D., FACS
Private Papers
In November 2007, the Canadian NRU nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ontario shut down for five days of routine maintenance.
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April 2, 2008
Real Talk?
The Saudi king ought to stop killing non-Muslims first.
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
According to the Associated Press, Saudi King Abdullah, in an unprecedented move last week, “made an impassioned plea for dialogue among Muslims, Christians, and Jews” — going so far as to refer to the latter two as “our brothers.” The Jerusalem Post states that such talks would be geared to developing “respect among religions.”
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April 1, 2008
Spitzer’s Comic Fall
To understand the disgraced governor, brush up your Aristophanes.
by Bruce S. Thornton
City Journal
Commentators are already calling the rise and fall of New York governor Eliot Spitzer “tragic.”
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March 21, 2008
The Old Script
Does Obama really think he settles racism with relativism?
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
Barack Obama’s attempt to defuse the crisis in his presidential campaign caused by videos of his “spiritual mentor’s” bigoted sermons has been spun as “the most significant public discussion of race in decades,” as The New York Times gushed.
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March 13, 2008
Paying the Piper
by Craig Bernthal
Private Papers
Temperance is not high in the current list of American virtues. We are the 9th most obese people on earth, according to the World Health Organization, with 74% of American’s over 15 identified as overweight.
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March 11, 2008
No Small Word
Biblical meaning of Amalek not lost.
by Raymond Ibahim
Private Papers
During the eulogy of the eight slain students of the March 6 terrorist attack at Mercaz HaRav yeshiva school in West Jerusalem, highly-respected Rabbi Ya’akov Shapira made, for the average gentile, a rather illusive allusion regarding the attack: “The murderer did not want to kill these people in particular, but everyone living in the holy city of Jerusalem.
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February 27, 2008
The Future with Europe
The Swiss newspaper Junge Freiheit interviews VDH
Private Papers
JF: Professor Hanson, you criticize U.S. immigration policy in your recent book Mexifornia. What is it that bothers you about the development at the Southern border?
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February 15, 2008
Our Ailing Meritocracy
Merit takes second place to gender and religion
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
When all the political sophistry is said and done, there is no denying that the claim to fame of the Democratic Party’s two superstar candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama, is that the one is a woman, the other black and from something of an “ambiguous” religious background (little wonder bland John Edwards stepped out, with the jocular yet true remark during January’s CNN Democratic Debate that being white and male wasn’t helping his cause).
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February 6, 2008
Muslim “Moderates”
What's in a word?
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The war against Islamic jihad continues to be compromised in the West by the dominant narrative that supposedly makes sense of the conflict.
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January 4, 2008
A Pyramid of Choices
by Yishai Kabaker
The Stanford Review
Egypt is still a land of pharaohs. Its complex and multi-faceted society has always thrived under strong central leadership.
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December 28, 2007
Common Sense
Who needs "intelligence" to know Iran wants nukes?
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Much of the current debate surrounding Iran’s nuclear aspirations centers on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report which “judge[s] with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.”
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December 26, 2007
Straight Talk
Podhoretz corrects the record on Islamic terrorism.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
A review of World War IV. The Long Struggle against Islamofascism by Norman Podhoretz (Doubleday 2007, 240 pp.)
World War IV is an indispensable book for these times.
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December 19, 2007
California Healthcare Reform
Revisiting the Governor’s plan
by Linda Halderman, M.D., FACS
Private Papers
One twelfth of the United States is poised to adopt a sweeping program, making some dubious assumptions about funding along the way.
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December 16, 2007
An Encouraging Revelation
Bin Laden’s Latest Message in Context
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Full of the same old complaints, threats of retaliation, and victim status role that have become mainstays of al Qaeda propaganda, Osama bin Laden’s latest release would seem to offer nothing new.
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December 11, 2007
Epistle to the Muslims
Christian leaders abase themselves before Islam.
by Bruce S. Thornton
City Journal
On November 18, the New York Times ran a full-page ad entitled “A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You.”
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December 6, 2007
Poor, Not Dumb
A New Model for Sensible Reform of Healthcare
by Linda Halderman, M.D., FACS
Private Papers
Within the national debate over healthcare reform, an assumption has been revealed in several proposals: Healthcare decisions for poor Americans are best left to the U.S. Government.
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November 25, 2007
Ideology Trumps Truth on Campus
The doors are open for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but closed for Larry Summers.
by Bruce S. Thornton
City Journal
Many observers noted that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to Columbia University took place at about the same time that the University of California at Davis canceled a speaking appearance by former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, citing his remarks in 2005 about the underrepresentation of women in the sciences.
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November 22, 2007
Bateman Encore
by Victor Davis Hanson
Pajamas Media
And on and on and on and on from the increasingly unhinged LTC Bateman….
The Bateman Files — Case Closed
by Victor Davis Hanson
Pajamas Media
I was once more under-whelmed by Mr. Bateman’s fourth and final attack on Carnage and Culture.
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November 18, 2007
The Fascistic Mind
A Comparison of The Al Qaeda Reader and Mein Kampf
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
A number of book reviewers have recently pointed to the similarities between The Al Qaeda Reader and Mein Kampf.
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November 8, 2007
Liberal Racism
The assault on skilled, independent, intelligent blacks.
by
Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
When Barack Obama accused Hillary Clinton of “playing the gender card,” the hypocrisy that typically defines our public discourse on race descended into the surreal.
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November 5, 2007
Squaring Off
Hanson replies to criticisms of Ltc. Bateman
by Victor Davis Hanson
Pajamas Media
I used to have a great deal of respect for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Squaring Off Part II
Hanson replies to criticisms of Ltc. Bateman
by Victor Davis Hanson
Pajamas Media
I suppose “devil” is not as bad as “pervert” or “feces.”
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October 30, 2007
Healthcare’s Fake Facelift
Government mandates are not new ideas.
by Linda Halderman, M.D., FACS
Pajama’s Media
Senator Hillary Clinton recently released her plan to reform U.S. healthcare and ensure universal coverage.
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October 21, 2007
Patients without Doctors
The Governor's plan for California
by Linda Halderman, M.D., FACS
The American Thinker
According to Governor Schwarzenegger’s Senior Health Policy Advisor, the Governor’s Health Care Proposal will add 900,000 Californians to Medi-Cal, the State’s version of Medicaid.
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October 20, 2007
Yearning for Democracy: Thailand and Burma
by Yishai Kabaker
The Stanford Review
This summer I had the rare opportunity to visit Thailand and Burma, both of which have recently made the news for their tumultuous political situations.
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October 17, 2007
Noble Nobel?
Al Gore’s evangelical liberalism reconsidered.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
Al Gore embodies a type that usually turns up in high school or university faculties, what we can call the evangelical liberal.
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October 12, 2007
Newsworthy Reconsidered
Paris Hilton or Colonel Sean McFarland?
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
Which of these two do we Americans know anything about?
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October 10, 2007
Hillary-care
We will pay with Clinton's healthcare plan, and how!
by Linda Halderman, M.D., FACS
PajamasMedia.com
Can Americans with their doctors make sound healthcare decisions?
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October 3, 2007
The Two Faces of Al Qaeda
by Raymond Ibrahim
Chronicle for Higher Education
When the September 11 attacks occurred, I was in Fresno, Calif., researching my M.A. thesis on the Battle of Yarmuk, one of the first yet little-known battles between Christendom and Islam, waged in 636 A.D.
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September 26, 2007
Europe Whimpers
The showy compromise of free speech in Belgium.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
As the headquarters for the European Union, Brussels is the capital of the EUtopia that Europeans and blue-state Americans keep touting as the social-political order superior to that of the United States.
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September 22, 2007
Peace to Whoever Follows Guidance
More al Qaeda double talk.
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
As with every message directed to the West, Osama bin Laden’s most recent address begins and ends with his hallmark sentence: “Peace to whoever follows guidance.”
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September 18, 2007
Fighting at a Disadvantage
Bad cultural habits plague the West in the War on Terror.
by Bruce S. Thornton
City Journal
Six years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, we continue to hunt for those whose blunders let them happen.
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September 13, 2007
Jesus and Mohammad, Version 2.0
In academic revision, Christ is confused, the Prophet humanitarian.
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
Few things are more demonstrative of the sad state of affairs of modern academia than the increasingly fictionalized portrayals of the founders of the two largest religions in the world: Jesus and Mohammad.
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September 9, 2007
War and the Fallacies of Our Critics
Interview by Bernard Chapin
FrontPageMagazine.com
Bernard Chapin is a writer and school psychologist living in Chicago. His latest book concerns the implosion of a school he worked at and loved: Escape from Gangsta Island: A School's Progressive Decline.
BC: Thanks so much for giving us some of your time, Dr. Hanson.
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September 4, 2007
Faith and Altruism
The cases of Pope Benedict and Osama bin Laden
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
After being accused of having a special vendetta against Muslims, Pope Benedict XVI is back in the spotlight for offending Jews, Protestants, and the Orthodox.
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August 29, 2007
War on Campus?
Interview with Victor Davis Hanson
MindingTheCampus.com
John Leo, Editor of MindingTheCampus.com, hosts Victor Davis Hanson to discuss his most recent article from the summer issue of City Journal, "Why Study War?". Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a City Journal Contributing Editor.
Leo: Welcome Dr. Hanson, your article "Why Study War?," strongly criticizes the academy for its increasing neglect of military history. How do you explain this neglect?
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August 22, 2007
Waning Support for Suicide-Attacks in the Muslim World?
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
A recent poll released by the Pew Research Center indicates that, among other things, support for suicide-attacks — or, what are known in Islamic terminology as “martyrdom operations” — is on the decline in the Islamic world.
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August 15, 2007
American Culture
The truth about 40 years in the movies.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
As New York Times critic A.O. Scott wrote recently, forty years ago this summer the movie that changed the movies premiered.
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August 7, 2007
Flying Imams
John Doe provision in perspective
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
As a 6’3”, 250-pound weightlifter of Middle Eastern descent, who sometimes wears a full beard, seldom wears a (perfunctory) smile, and who’s last name is “Ibrahim” — a name that sometimes appears in rather “unflattering” headlines, such as the recent attacks in Glasgow — I don’t mind telling you that, well, sometimes I get askance looks of “concern” whenever I board airplanes. Do I take any special delight in that? Not really. Do I understand it? Totally.
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July 10, 2007
By the Sword
Ibrahim and Spencer unveil the truth of Islam.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The New York Times’s Thomas Friedman is right on the mark most of the time in his analysis of the dysfunctions troubling the Muslim world and of our own failures in confronting them.
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June 29, 2007
The Passion of the Left
CIA’s new revelations fan the flames of “progressive” myths of our past.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The publication of the CIA’s “family jewels” — the record of its domestic spying, hare-brained plots against Castro, and mind-control experiments, among other oddities — is sure to add fuel to that roaring bonfire of a myth that so-called “progressives” have been warming their egos at for forty years.
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June 21, 2007
Wanted
Coptic minorities fleeing religious persecution in Egypt
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Lest you think that the U.S. court system has made humanitarian considerations its first priority, one need look no further than to the equally recent court decision to deport Sameh Khouzam.
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June 14, 2007
Murder in Gaza
Why Israel and not Fatah is demonized.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
In Gaza the fighting between Fatah and Hamas has escalated to the point of all-out civil war, replete with dead women and children, kneecapping, and handcuffed prisoners thrown from roofs.
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May 25, 2007
Crying Wolf
What is the real scandal in the World Bank?
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The departure of Paul Wolfowitz from the World Bank has nothing to do with his alleged misdeeds.
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May 23, 2007
France Sans Socialism
Are the recent elections a turning point for the French?
by Sarah Bernthal
Private Papers
The runoff between the two French presidential finalists, frequently summed up by the French media with the phrase “Sego vs. Sarko,” captured a large portion of the French attention span during the spring of 2006.
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May 21, 2007
Seeking Sympathy from the Infidel
Zawahiri invokes the language of social justice.
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
In an unprecedented effort to rally popular support, al Qaeda is apparently trying to refashion its image from an ultra-conservative, radical Islamist group with clear and precise goals — the ultimate being to implement sharia law around the globe — to what the liberal West has long had a soft spot for: a romanticized revolutionary movement of the “Ché” variety, fighting to overthrow oppression and exploitation (which, as the usual story goes, are products of U.S. greed and aggression).
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May 16, 2007
Islamic Apologetics
Ignore history and focus on platitudes of peace and love?
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
Islamic apologist extraordinaire Karen Armstrong is at it again.
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May 8, 2007
200 Million Minority
Islam’s apologists completely miss the point.
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
For three consecutive days, April 10-12, Tariq Ramadan, the controversial Muslim activist who was denied a U.S. visa for questionable activities (such as making “charitable” donations to the terrorist organization Hamas, which regularly commissions suicide-attacks), was invited by Georgetown University to give a one-way talk live via satellite — a move which many, including several Georgetown faculty, protested.
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May 4, 2007
Hydra of War
Radical Islam will ensure the constant replacement of whatever terrorists we kill.
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
Is the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Masri, dead? Iraqi authorities just proclaimed that he was recently killed due to infighting.
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May 2, 2007
Suffering Mascots
Why the West fails to understand humanity in Africa.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
American Idol has been a remarkable success. The show revives the old myth of Pygmalion to chronicle the transformation of ordinary Americans into pop-stars and instant celebrities, a plot-line familiar from a thousand Broadway plays and Hollywood musical comedies.
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April 25, 2007
Communiversity
Welcome to Big Brother’s “The National Survey of Student Engagement”
by Craig Bernthal
Private Papers
This week an on-line questionnaire went out from the thought police — oops — I mean the Provost, to the faculty in the university where I teach, asking us what we do in the classroom.
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April 20, 2007
Imminent Danger
Madness at massacre will not result in sound gun laws.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The reaction to the murders in Blacksburg is eliciting the usual liberal nostrums.
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April 11, 2007
What Do Muslims Want?
Priority problems.
by Raymond Ibrahim
National Review Online
All humans generally live according to some set of priorities.
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April 6, 2007
Fighting Faith
Is Judeo-Christian violence the same thing as Islamic violence?
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Since the terrorist strikes of 9/11, Islam has often been accused of being intrinsically violent. In response, a number of apologetics have been offered in defense of the religion.
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March 29, 2007
Third-Worldism
What does Africa need?
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
I hate to use a cliché, but “bleeding-heart liberal” is just too accurate not to use.
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March 23, 2007
An Interview
Reflections on Iran, Iraq, the Middle East and the West.
by Ellis Weintraub
Private Papers
The Jerusalem Post recently published a portion of Weintraub's interview with Victor Davis Hanson.
What steps should be taken on Iran by Israel, the United States, or the West in general?
I believe we have one to two years, a little more at best, so [the U.S.] must up our military profile in the Gulf, pursue and enhance the U.N. sanctions, get the Europeans to stop selling this regime almost anything it wants (the E.U. is Iran's largest trading partner), work with neighboring Arab states, and collapse the price of oil to below $50 a barrel, which would cut off the petrol wealth of this corrupt and shaky regime.
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March 15, 2007
Fair or Foul Play?
The reasonable concerns of the U.S. in WMD diplomacy.
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
As is common to our age, reality has taken a second-seat to rhetoric.
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March 7, 2007
The Word Police
Legislating words is silly, arbitrary, and a danger to freedom.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The New York City Council recently passed a resolution banning the use of the word “nigger.”
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March 1, 2007
Bureaucratic Bog
Why the experience of French “efficiency” confounds Anglo nationals.
by Sarah Bernthal
Private Papers
In the French novel Ipso Facto, by Iegor Gran, an ordinary French citizen is pushed to the margins of society after loosing his high school diploma.
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February 18, 2007
The Stink
What makes the worst lies in the Middle East acceptable?
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
Remember Big Daddy in the movie Cat on Hot Tin Roof?
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February 15, 2007
Do No Harm
State healthcare needs freer markets, lower taxes, and less inefficiency.
Linda Halderman, M.D., FACS
Private Papers
“First, do no harm” is the foundation of modern medicine. But for sick patients to benefit, illness must then be actively treated. Avoiding harm by simply ignoring a problem is rarely the best way to solve it.
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February 13, 2007
D’Souza Knows Not
A Letter to Dinesh D’Souza from the Traditional Muslim World
Private Papers
[Editor’s Note: Dinesh D’Souza’s recent work on Muslim culture and the decadent West has received a great deal of criticism, but not quite like the letter below recently sent to the website.]
Dear Mr. Hanson,
I greatly appreciated your just and thoughtful critique in "The Enemy at Home." As a woman from South Asia, originally from a "traditional Muslim" community, and now domiciled in the U.S., I have much to say to Mr. D'Souza — but feel there's no use in doing so.
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February 9, 2007
The Truth about Tolerance
How our therapeutic thinkers threaten Western values.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
Acceptance of a double standard has always been a sign of inferiority.
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January 27, 2007
Relieving California’s Healthcare Crisis
Can we get there from here?
by Linda Halderman, M.D., FACS
Private Papers
Paved with good intentions, California’s proposed road to universal coverage will lead straight to chaos. The Governor’s current proposal aims to provide relief for Californians suffering under a healthcare system in desperate need of repair.
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January 11, 2007
Just Deserts
Separating Hussein's execution from therapy.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
In Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, a "committee of sappy women" petition the governor to pardon the murderous Injun Joe.
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January 6, 2007
The Sense of Good
American confidence necessary to succeed in a war for freedom.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The execution of Saddam Hussein should be a moment of celebration for Americans.
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December 30, 2006
Qassams Fired on Central California
What happens when terrorism comes to a small town.
by Dr. Linda Halderman
Private Papers
SELMA, CA — For the eleventh consecutive day, residents of rural Selma, California have sustained vicious and unprovoked rocket attacks.
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December 24, 2006
A Symphony Unheard
Go see The Nativity Story.
by Craig Bernthal
Private Papers
Here is the plot and the theme: God creates the universe, not because he needs to, since he is complete in himself, but as an act of gratuitous love.
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December 20, 2006
High Anxiety
How modernity feeds Arab anti-Semitism.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
There’s an Elvis Costello lyric that goes, “I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.” Before 9/11 that was pretty much my philosophy.
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December 7, 2007
Holy Wisdom
Why the Pope should call for the return of the Hagia Sophia.
by Bruce S. Thornton
Private Papers
Many in the West are congratulating Pope Benedict XVI’s recent trip to Turkey, where in the Blue Mosque he prayed facing Mecca and made other gestures meant to salve the wounds raised by his references to Islam’s history of violence.
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December 3, 2006
Conquest and Concession
The fate of the Hagia Sophia and the Aqsa Mosque
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Previous to Pope Benedict XVI’s November 30th visit to the Hagia Sophia complex in Constantinople, Muslims and Turks expressed fear, apprehension, and rage.
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November 26, 2006
Vanity Care
How Botox and not Medi-Cal helps fund cancer treatment.
by Dr. Linda Halderman
Private Papers
When I opened the doors of my rural general surgery practice in 2003, I thought I had the right formula:
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November 24, 2006
Twisted Proverb
Osama bin Laden’s “Peace to whoever follows guidance”
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Whenever Osama bin Laden addresses the West he always prefaces his message with the simple statement, “Peace to whoever follows guidance.”
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November 12, 2006
The Sage and the Sword
Jihadists see West’s tragic flaw in blinkered tolerance.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The West’s condemnation of Israel’s accidental shelling of two Palestinian Arab houses that killed 18 people once more reveals the bizarre incoherence that addles our thinking.
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October 4, 2006
Total Silence
Conquest reveals Western “traitors to the human mind.”
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
I’ve been reading one of the great works of recent history, Robert Conquest’s Reflections on a Ravaged Century.
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September 27, 2006
Warning: Quote History at Your Own Risk
The Pope’s Remark Revisited
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
The Pope is under attack. Once again, riots, demonstrations, and “retaliations” have sparked throughout the Muslim world.
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September 19, 2006
Islam’s Appeal
Or, Boys will be Boys
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
If seeing Arab, Pakistani, or other “ethnic” Muslims menacingly wave their hands while lambasting the West is nothing strange, seeing homegrown, non-accented Western converts doing the same thing is.
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September 17, 2006
Dearest Illusions and Dangerous Mistakes
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
In 1944 F. A. Hayek wrote in The Road to Serfdom, “The number of dangerous mistakes we have made before and since the outbreak of the war because we do not understand the opponent with whom we are faced is appalling.
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September 13, 2006
Where the Illiberal Is in Liberalism
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The whining of Democrats and ex-Clintonistas about the “docudrama” The Path to 9/11 has given us all another example of liberal mendacity and hypocrisy.
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August 23, 2006
Inside the “Cease-fire”
U.N.’s looming failure reveals West’s moral confusion.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
With every crisis in the war against Islamic jihad, the West displays a suicidal appeasement that heartens the enemy and lessens any chance of victory.
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August 22, 2006
Peace Frogs
“Dearbornistan” and the Strange Case of the Caro Terrorists
by Craig Bernthal
Private Papers
In Frankenmuth, Michigan, among a complex of little shops that sell junk to tourists, there is a T-shirt store called “Peace Frog.”
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August 13, 2006
No Resolution At All
Why the U.N. can’t solve the problem of Hezbollah.
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The U.N. resolution that supposedly will solve the problem of Hezbollah is a perfect example of the delusions inhibiting the West in its fight against jihadist terror.
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July 25, 2006
The Impossible Peace
by Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
The New York Times editorial page published last Saturday a collection of short editorials on
Israel
’s campaign to neutralize Hezbollah.
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July 20, 2006
Red-Carding
America
The Politics of the
French Street
during the World Cup
by Sarah Bernthal
Private Papers
In the past few weeks during the World Cup, while
France
experienced an uninterrupted string of victories until its final match against
Italy
, the atmosphere of
Paris
completely changed.
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June 20, 2006
The West’s Multi-Headed Monster
Placing Zarqawi’s death in perspective
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Immediately after the announcement of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death — Osama bin Laden’s “prince of al-Qaeda in Iraq” — almost every major politician, including President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Iraq’s new Prime Minister Maliki gave some sort of victory speech, some highly triumphant, others more cautious.
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May 31, 2006
Lying, Defying, and Demoralizing
OBL’s three-fold strategy to defeat the West
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Like all of Osama bin Laden’s previous messages to the West, his most recent communiqué contains three Ladenese trademarks — lying, defying, and demoralizing — that are always present whenever the al Qaeda chieftain addresses the West.
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May 18, 2006
What Would Mohammad Do?
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
We’ve all seen them — those little wristbands Christians sometimes wear, or put on bumper stickers, with the acronym “WWJD?” — What Would Jesus Do?
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February 12, 2006
Unreported History in Baghdad
Parliamentary election results hold constant.
by Lt. Col. John M. Kanaley
Private Papers
[Lt. Col. Kanaley is currently stationed in Baghdad and writes periodic dispatches on the course of the war, bringing a much needed soldier's perspective to our readers.]
The silence was deafening and the seats were empty.
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January 22, 2006
Truce or Taqiyyah
The Koran, Islamic tradition and al Qaeda's leadership shed light on bin Laden's offer.
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Osama bin Laden is apparently certain that the vast majority of Americans, including their policy-makers, are ignorant of al-Qaeda’s goals and strategies.
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December 31, 2005
Straight from the Front
A letter to war detractors
by Ltc. John M. Kanaley
Private Papers
[This letter expresses the opinions of soldiers who write us from the front and was written by a soldier currently on duty in Baghdad]
Honorable Member of Congress,
The following is addressed to those opposed to the war:
During the pursuit of national security, there are times that require the struggle for political power to be relegated to a subordinate position for the benefit of the entire country.
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December 6, 2005
Delium
The Battle Only One Man Wanted
by Victor Davis Hanson
Military History Quarterly
[Delium appeared in a five part series December 6-12.]
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November 13, 2005
All the Wrong Reasons
Zawahiri’s democracy may be just what the Persian President needs.
by Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Iran and the U.S., who may otherwise be on a collision-course, share one common goal: promoting democracy in Iraq.
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October 5, 2005
Al Qaeda’s Offensive Rhetoric
What Does Al-Qaeda Ultimately Want?
Raymond Ibrahim
Private Papers
Al-Qaeda has shrewdly seen to it that, along with the sword, they also employ the pen in their Holy War. In order to vindicate their actions and rally support, they have orchestrated a series of carefully constructed messages. These messages fall into two distinct genres, each revealing a different goal.
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September 6, 2005
The Blame Game
Shouldering the blame for Katrina’s destruction
by Jennifer Heyne
Private Papers
Last Thursday, CNN declared that “New Orleans resembles a war zone.” But quite frankly I would rather be in a war zone than the Superdome. At least, there might be some fleeting chance of logical rules of engagement, of knowing where and who the enemy is.
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September 4, 2005
From Nationalism to Fascism to Terror
Parallels between Germany and the Arab World
by Ray Ibrahim
Private Papers
On occasion, one finds a historical pattern that provides a paradigm useful for interpreting contemporary world events.
One such paradigm is the almost eerie parallel between Germany’s history — its progress from Nationalism to Fascism and ultimately Terror — and the recent history of the Arab world.
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August 30, 2005
Gaza and Victory?
Palestinians believe they have both, but Israel intends to exchange one for the other.
by Joey Tartakovsky
Private Papers
Q: Israelis fear that Gaza could become “Hamasland” after the withdrawal.
A: Let Israel die.
—Hamas spokesman, in an interview with the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat, on August 18th.
The heartbreaking scenes in Gaza show us what the managed exodus of hundreds of families looks like. It means tearing down synagogues and kindergartens, exhuming graves, and ordering an armed force to resettle its own civilians against their will — at a cost of billions of dollars and what seems like as many tears. But Ariel Sharon’s abandonment of Gaza is the act of a statesman.
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August 28, 2005
America’s Historian in Chief
by Alan W. Dowd
American Legion Magazine
Victor Davis Hanson emerged from the relative obscurity of his academic post at Fresno State University on September 11, 2001, to become something akin to America’s “Historian-in-Chief.” Spurred by a legion of eager editors, Hanson has translated his expertise in classical military history to the war on terror. The result is some 300 essays (and counting) and a literal army of devotees. He notes with pride that he receives 10 to 20 supportive emails each week from U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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