Free Republic

June 18, 2009, 0:00 a.m. How to Crush DebateStart with a lie, add a little slander, stir with incitement to violence. By Clifford D. May Following the deadly shootings of a Kansas abortion doctor and a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, two prominent New York Times columnists, Paul Krugman and Frank Rich, spoke out forcefully against those in the media who spout lies and, possibly, incite violence. There are “lunatics� out there, Krugman wrote, and “media organizations wind up such people at their, and our, peril.� Rich warned of “toxic rhetoric� and “media demagogues,� fueling a rage...

The question posed by social scientist Charles Murray at the American Enterprise Institute's annual dinner this month could hardly have been simpler — Do Americans want the United States to be like Europe? He asked as someone who admires Europe and Europeans. He asked also because it is becoming increasingly apparent that restructuring the United States along the lines of the European social-democratic model is the change many in the new administration - perhaps including President Obama himself - believe in. Mr. Murray is convinced that Europeanizing America is a bad idea, and not only because the European model creates...

The question posed by social scientist Charles Murray at the American Enterprise Institute’s annual dinner this month could hardly have been simpler: Do Americans want the United States to be like Europe? He asked as someone who likes and admires Europe and Europeans. He asked also because it is becoming increasingly apparent that restructuring the U.S. along the lines of the European social-democratic model is the change many in the new administration — perhaps including President Obama himself — believe in. Such a redirection surely deserves consideration. Murray is convinced that Europeanizing America is a bad idea, and not only...

June 19, 2008, 0:00 a.m. We’re Not Addicts!The case for energy abundance and diversity. By Clifford D. May People say we’re addicted to oil, but that’s imprecise and unfair. Our automobiles are addicted to oil. And America has been designed around the automobile. We — America’s taxpayers — have built an elaborate interstate highway system. We have constructed sprawling cities (Los Angeles, for example) with neighborhoods connected only by roads. A big slice of our population is housed in suburbs conveniently accessible only by car. We have built thousands of shopping centers with acres of parking. Is it possible...

        Is it the sight of Americans that causes people to kill one another? Or is it perhaps our smell?In Iraq, we have been losing not clashes of arms but clashes of perceptions. Our enemies understood early on that they could not defeat American troops in combat. But they were clever enough to realize they didn’t need to. Instead, they could win a war of ideas. Their strategy was audacious: They would target their enemies — “occupiers,” “infidels,” and “collaborators” — only opportunistically and sporadically. Their most lethal weapon, the suicide bomber, they would deploy against ordinary Iraqis shopping in...

To be fair to our enemies, they are only doing what comes naturally. We are the historical oddballs. Wars have been fought since time immemorial. The vast majority have been over power and resources, to defeat rival civilizations, to vanquish hated “others.” Why did Spartans, Persians, Macedonians and Romans fight? What motivated Bonaparte to take on the Austrians, the Ottomans, the Russians and the English? What caused Imperial Japan to attempt to conquer Asia? Almost a thousand years ago, Genghis Khan provided a candid and classic answer: “Man's highest joy is victory: to conquer his enemies; to pursue them; to...

  Our enemies know this grim truth: War has never become obsolete By CLIFFORD D. MAY TO BE FAIR to our enemies, they are only doing what comes naturally. We are the historical oddballs. Wars have been fought since time immemorial. The vast majority have been over power and resources, to defeat rival civilizations, to vanquish hated “others.”“Man’s highest joy is victory: to conquer his enemies; to pursue them; to deprive them of their possessions; to make their beloved weep; to ride on their horses; and to embrace their wives and daughters,” Genghis Khan said.Sure, grievances may be a...

To The Washington Post they were simply “gunmen.” The New York Times non-judgmentally called them “armed men.” The elite media fastidiously avoid such harsh words as "terrorist" – even to describe those who, last week, rounded up five Iraqi teachers from outside their school, dragged them into a classroom, lined them up against a wall and shot them to death. The Post was quick to inform readers that “no children were hurt in the attack.” Are we to regard that as restraint on the part of these “gunmen”? The Times noted that “the killings appeared to have been motivated more...

June 27, 2005, 1:29 p.m. The Greatest Generation A suggestion for the president's Tuesday night address. My fellow Americans, my parents' generation is known as the Greatest Generation. But it was not because they were the Greatest Generation that they prevailed in World War II. Rather, they became the Greatest Generation because of the struggles and hardships they were willing and able to endure — in order to win World War II. Their struggle then was against the forces of totalitarianism and terror. Our struggle today is — once again — against the forces of totalitarianism and terror. Their challenge...

President Bush's appointment of Karen Hughes and Dina Powell to the two top communications jobs in the State Department tells us this: He recognizes that perception is as important as reality -- not just in domestic politics but also in the most critical area of foreign policy, the “War of Ideas” against terrorism and the ideologies that drive it. Hughes is Bush's confidante, a former journalist who has long helped him communicate more effectively with the audience that most matters to any politician: voters.Powell is 31, Egyptian-born, Arabic-speaking, charming, brainy and beautiful. The fact that she could come to America...

When a politician or a journalist talks about an "exit strategy" from Iraq, there is only one appropriate response: Roll your eyes and leave the room. Imagine some senator or reporter during World War II asking Roosevelt and Churchill to define their "exit strategy" from Europe and the Pacific. They probably would not have dignified the question with an answer. Or, if they had, they might have said: "We have a strategy for victory. The alternative would be a strategy for defeat. Do we look like defeatists to you?" Indeed, the leaders of the Anglo-American alliance made no attempt to...

An old saw has it that a lie can circle the globe before the truth even laces its sneakers. That's more accurate now – an era when satellites and the Internet have revolutionized communications – than ever before.  In Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the United States is fighting not just a war of arms but, simultaneously, a war of ideas. Consider how effectively our enemies have learned to meld actions, words and images into weapons.When Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, bombs Iraqi policemen, murders aid workers, or decapitates foreign hostages while rolling video cameras, and...

We've come to believe we had just two choices in Iraq: (1) stay out and hope to keep Saddam Hussein “in his box”; or (2) proceed exactly as President Bush did – remove the dictator, occupy the country and attempt to bring peace, freedom, human rights and democracy to the Iraqis. But there were other options. Thinking about them may help us determine where to go from here. Start with this: Almost exactly two years ago, then-Presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer said that Bush administration's policy was “regime change.” But, he added, that did not necessitate a military invasion. “The...

THE TERRORIST ATTACKS of 9/11 — self-evidently — signaled the worst intelligence failure in American history. Less well understood: They also signaled the worst policy failure. For more than two decades, extremist ideologies within the troubled Islamic world gathered strength. On campuses and in Washington think tanks, most “experts” either misunderstood radical Islamism or underestimated the terrorist threat it posed. “Experts” in the Foreign Service prescribed only weak broths as remedies. Such failures should be prompting re-examinations within the foreign-policy community. Evidence that is not happening is the formation of a group calling itself Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change....

The 60th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy gave President Bush an opportunity to draw parallels between World War II, on the one hand, and the war in Iraq and the broader global conflict, on the other. Astonishingly, this proved controversial. “Many here … emphatically reject Bush's repeated comparison,” the Washington Post's Keith B. Richburg wrote from France. Richburg quoted Helene Luc “a Communist Party senator,” who insisted that “the American army must leave Iraq,” and Abu Mohammed, a Moroccan immigrant who asserted that “there is a big difference” between the liberation of France in 1944 and the liberation of...

In World War II, Americans sought victory. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill would accept nothing less than the unconditional surrender of the totalitarian regimes against which they fought. A few years later in Korea, the United States did accept less - an armistice. President Eisenhower preserved the independence of the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, but the north was left in the hands of totalitarian extremists who, more than 50 years later, continue to oppress the people of that land and to threaten Americans. The war in Vietnam ended without victory and without even a real truce....

CONSIDER WHAT’S required to wear the label “Pro-Palestinian.” To start, you have to appear non-judgmental about innocent Palestinian children being raised to become human bombs. You must refer to those who send such children on suicide/mass murder missions as “political leaders” or, even better, as “spiritual leaders.” Call them militants if you must, but never terrorists. To be thought of as pro-Palestinian, you must cite the plight of the Palestinian refugees as a key motivation for violence, ignoring the fact that there would have been no refugees had Israel’s Arab neighbors not launched a war to destroy the tiny Jewish...

Bob Woodward's new book is less an expose than an inkblot test. It's remarkable how people can see the same words on the same pages - and come away with entirely different pictures. In an election year, it's to be expected that members of the opposition party would thumb eagerly through a book like "Plan of Attack," looking for stones to throw at the incumbent president. More troubling is that so many media figures also are viewing the book through a partisan prism - headlining whatever casts the president in an unfavorable light, conspicuously ignoring those chapters that challenge the...

It's not supposed to be about politics. It's not supposed to be about settling scores. It's not supposed to be entertainment. But those are the ways the 9/11 commission's work is being framed for American and international audiences. The 9/11 Commission — formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States — was charged with two goals: (1) Figure out how trans-national terrorists managed to defeat America's intelligence and national security community, and (2) provide recommendations for more effectively combating the Free World's sworn enemies in the future. But partly because of the elite media's penchant...

SOMETIMES the little articles in the back of the newspaper tell you more about global trends than do the big pieces on the front pages. A few days ago, a small Associated Press item was headlined: “Norway: Swastika Art Removed.” The item read: “A painting that featured the words Israel and the United States and replaced each ‘s’ with a Nazi swastika was removed from an Oslo art exhibition.” How is it possible to confuse the tiny Jewish state with the vast Nazi empire that attempted to exterminate the Jews? And how is it possible to confuse the United States,...

TOWARD THE end of the last century, Harvard professor Samuel Huntington offered what seemed an eccentric prediction. While others saw economic, political and ideological tempests ahead, he glimpsed different and darker clouds on the horizon. "The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural," he forecast. "The principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future." But in the afterglow of the Cold War, most politicians — on the...

Early in the final decade of the last century, Harvard professor Samuel Huntington offered what seemed an eccentric prediction. While others saw economic, political and ideological tempests ahead, he glimpsed different and darker clouds on the horizon. “The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural,” he forecast. “The principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” It is for scholars such as Dr. Huntington to warn of...

<p>Divided though we Americans are, surely we can agree on this proposition: The United States needs a national security policy that addresses the specter of global terrorism.</p> <p>And perhaps we can agree, too, that the United States did not have an adequate national security policy prior to September 11, 2001 — that the administrations of Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan all failed to recognize the growing magnitude of the terrorist threat, all did too little to prevent terrorist leaders from organizing, recruiting, training, plotting and carrying out attacks.</p>

Borders: President Bush last week unveiled a new plan to address the disaster and the crisis that is US immigration policy. Conservatives immediately attacked the proposal. Why? Because it rewards lawbreakers. Liberals immediately attacked the proposal. Why? Because Bush proposed it. One thing should be clear: We need a debate in this country over immigration. This is a national security issue at least as much as an economic issue. No nation fighting terrorists can afford to have porous borders. Today there are millions of illegal immigrants in the US, including hundreds of thousands who have been ordered out of the...

Militant Islamists first used terrorism against Americans more than 20 years ago when a Hezbollah suicide bomber slaughtered 241 marines in Beirut. But the US learned little from that defeat, just as we learned little from the terrorist attacks we suffered later in the ‘80s and throughout the ‘90s as well. Only since the devastating atrocity of Sept. 11, 2001 have Americans begun seriously to consider how to defend themselves. What lessons should we take into 2004? Here are several: It's a world war, stupid: Jihadi terrorists tell us virtually every day whom they are fighting: Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists...

<p>The 21st century wasn't supposed to be like this. We Americans were meant to be spending our "peace dividends," while the high-tech stocks in our 401(k)s grew like Jack's beanstalk. Precision weaponry would deter anyone from even thinking about harming us. Besides, with the Berlin Wall reduced to paperweights, nations around the world would conclude liberal democracy was the only way to arrange their politics, and democratic capitalism the only way to organize their economies.</p>

The 21st century wasn't supposed to be like this. We Americans were meant to be spending our “peace dividends,” while the high-tech stocks in our 401Ks grew like Jack's beanstalk. Precision weaponry would deter anyone from even thinking about harming us. Besides, with the Berlin Wall reduced to paper weights, nations around the world would conclude that liberal democracy was the only way to arrange their politics, and democratic capitalism the only way to organize their economies. Instead, of course, we find ourselves facing a uniquely daunting period in our history. In essence, there are two formidable challenges that Americans...

It's come to this: Howard Dean will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2004. Today, the remaining Democratic candidates will be brainstorming furiously, trying to figure out a way to prevent the inevitable. But the only way is to take off the gloves and start throwing punches at Dean's fast-moving mouth — and they'll decide not to do that, in part because Al Gore this morning warned them not to, in part because the candidate who attacked Dean would not only drive up Dean's negatives but also his own. In other words, whoever brought Dean down would benefit not...

In the wake of September 11th, people of good will were naturally concerned that innocent Muslims might be scapegoated But in Europe, something else happened: anti-Semitism surged. For example, in recent days a Jewish school near Paris was firebombed and two synagogues in Istanbul were attacked by terrorist truck bombers. A member of the German Parliament suggested that the Jews bear collective responsibility for atrocities committed by communists during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis said of Israel: “This small nation is the root of evil.” To its credit, the European Union commissioned a study of anti-Jewish...

Immediately following 9/11, much of the world expressed great sympathy for the United States. That sympathy probably would have persisted – if a victimized America had been willing to continue playing the victim. But Americans decided not to do that. Instead, Americans decided to fight back against terrorists, those who harbor terrorists, and those who conspire with terrorists. American military action in Afghanistan angered many people around the world. But 9/11 had clearly demonstrated the capabilities and intentions of al Qaeda and the Taliban. American military in Iraq angered many more. But whatever questions may linger about Saddam Hussein's capabilities,...

The United Nations finally gave its Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval to the American effort in Iraq (with a 15-0 vote in the Security Council) and now the Bush administration is asking the “donor community” to pitch in with some cash and troops. Yet a series of questions keeps arising. Among them: Is the U.S. illegally occupying Iraq? Or did the US liberate Iraq and are Americans now expending blood and treasure to give Iraqis a chance to build a decent nation for the first time in generations? Should the US retain military and political control? Or should President Bush...

The Bush administration is mounting a major public relations offensive regarding Iraq. The problem? It doesn’t go far enough. The goal of the current PR campaign is to persuade Americans that more progress is being made in Iraq than most people have been led to believe by the major media. That’s true enough. A coalition led by the U.S. and the U.K. liberated 25 million Iraqis from a brutal fascist dictatorship. No one should regret that or apologize for it. And by the way, the media still have not adequately told the story of Saddam’s decades of genocide, ethnic cleansing...

Mr. Wilson is now saying (on C-SPAN this morning, for example) that he opposed military action in Iraq because he didn't believe Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and he foresaw the possibility of a difficult occupation. In fact, prior to the U.S. invasion, Mr. Wilson told ABC's Dave Marash that if American troops were sent into Iraq, Saddam might "use a biological weapon in a battle that we might have. For example, if we're taking Baghdad or we're trying to take, in ground-to-ground, hand-to-hand combat." Equally, important and also overlooked: Mr. Wilson had no apparent background or skill as...

It's the top story in the Washington Post this morning as well as in many other media outlets. Who leaked the fact that the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV worked for the CIA? What also might be worth asking: "Who didn't know?" I believe I was the first to publicly question the credibility of Mr. Wilson, a retired diplomat sent to Niger to look into reports that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium for his nuclear-weapons program. On July 6, Mr. Wilson wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he said: "I have little...

It's the top story in the Washington Post this morning as well as in many other media outlets. Who leaked the fact that the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV worked for the CIA? What also might be worth asking: "Who didn't know?" I believe I was the first to publicly question the credibility of Mr. Wilson, a retired diplomat sent to Niger to look into reports that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium for his nuclear-weapons program. On July 6, Mr. Wilson wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he said: "I have little...

September 11 will be remembered as the worst terrorist attack America ever suffered — if we're lucky. If not, if we're not extraordinarily successful in waging the war on terrorism, there remains this possibility: That years from now, Osama bin Laden and 9/11 will be to terrorism what the Wright Brothers and Kitty Hawk were to aviation — just a modest beginning. =Too many leading political figures and pundits either don't understand this or refuse to accept it. They view what's taking place today in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, India, the Philippines, and other places as separate skirmishes engendered by...

AMONG EUROPE’S many criticisms of America is now this: We refuse to relinquish substantial authority in Iraq to the United Nations. Until and unless we do, we’re being told, don’t expect much military or economic support from overseas. But if the United Nations has the expertise to quash rebellions and construct sound government institutions, why is that not on display in Liberia? Why is the U.N. pleading instead for American troops to assume responsibility for restoring law and order in that distressed corner of Africa? Liberia is a pretty straightforward conflict. On one side, are government troops with guns. On...

<p>July 26, 2003 -- AMONG Europe's many criticisms of America is now this: We refuse to relinquish substantial authority in Iraq to the United Nations. Until and unless we do, we're being told, don't expect much military or economic support from overseas.</p>

Whatever you think about George Bush, whomever you'd prefer to see in the Oval Office come 2005, this much is clear: What the President said in his State of the Union address was accurate. British intelligence analysts did believe that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa. British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he believed it then - and that he believes it now, based on sources "independent from that of the U.S." That doesn't mean there's no problem with what Bush said. But the problem hasn't to do with honesty. It has to do with whether a president, in...

July 11, 2003, 11:00 a.m. Scandal! Bush’s enemies aren't telling the truth about what he said. The president's critics are lying. Mr. Bush never claimed that Saddam Hussein had purchased uranium from Niger. It is not true — as USA Today reported on page one Friday morning — that "tainted evidence made it into the President's State of the Union address." For the record, here's what President Bush actually said in his SOTU: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Precisely which part of that statement isn't true? The British government...

Richard Holbrooke is a diplomat and a gentleman. Which means you can’t read him the way you’d read Ann Coulter, Bill Safire, Tony Blankley or others who make their livings speaking their mind as plainly as possible. You have to read between Mr. Holbrooke’s lines.Mr. Holbrooke is now taking on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich – attacking his crusade for reform of the U.S. Department of State. That crusade began with a controversial speech at the American Enterprise Institute a couple of months ago, advanced with a “seminar” for senior journalists last month (hosted by Foreign Policy magazine and the Foundation...

QUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEW townhall.comAll Terrorists Are Created EqualClifford D. May (back to web version) June 26, 2003 “The targeting of the high-profile figure last week made it more difficult to go forward with the road map, and I think the Israelis understand.” - Secretary of State Colin Powell, 6/19/03 I’m glad the Israelis understand – because I sure don’t, and I can’t imagine that many Americans do. The “high-profile figure” Mr. Powell is referring to is Abdel Azis Rantisi, a leader of Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization,...

President Bush’s address to the nation Thursday night was more than just an inspired photo op and a tribute to the troops. It also was a welcome elaboration of the president’s vision of what in an earlier administration was called “the new world order.” American forces accomplished two key objectives in Iraq: Saddam Hussein — a ticking time bomb — was defused, and the people of Iraq were liberated from a tyrant they hadn’t the power to overthrow on their own. “In this battle,” said the president, “we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of...

Death and destruction aside, what is most disturbing about Tuesday's terrorist attack in Tel Aviv is who has claimed responsibility. The attack was jointly planned by Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, according to Agence France Presse. Hamas always has been candid about its goal: the annihilation of Israel. But the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are tied to Fatah, and Fatah is the organization of Yasser Arafat — and of Mahmoud Abbas, a.k.a. Abu Mazen. A terrorist attack by the Martyrs' Brigades, in association with Hamas, just hours after Abu Mazen was confirmed as the new Palestinian Authority prime...

“We have yet to find any weapons of mass destruction. …Does it matter that we were misled into war?” - New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, 4/29/03 “Nissar Hindawi, a leading figure in Iraq's biological warfare program in the 1980's, says the stories and explanations he and other scientists told the United Nations about the extent of Iraq's efforts to produce poisons and germ weapons ‘were all lies.’ …He said military officials had asked him to tell inspectors that he was the head of a single-cell protein facility. The plant, in fact, had made botulinum toxin and anthrax. He said...

Gingrich's Ideas on Diplomacy: Look at the history of the last dozen years and you can only come to one conclusion: Generals learn; ambassadors don't. In 1991, U.S. forces methodically and efficiently pushed Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. It was impressive, but nothing like the spectacular, high-tech, precision-guided blitzkrieg of 2003 - a quantum leap in American military capability and performance. By contrast, U.S. diplomats, communicators and aid officials are today operating just as they did a dozen years ago, and a dozen years before that. Of course, new technological developments can be more readily applied by soldiers on battlefields...

Well, one thing's for certain: Saddam Hussein has not hired David Frum and Peggy Noonan as speechwriters. After Iraqi state television announced "Saddam to Address Nation Tuesday Night," the big event turned out to be a bureaucrat reading boilerplate to a camera. That's like promising the finale of The Bachelorette and getting a rerun of The Dating Game. (And isn't it telling that when Saddam's regime sends out a flack to read a statement or to interview a fellow propagandist such as Peter Arnett, he wears a uniform. When they send soldiers out to fight, they're more likely to be...