Kurds in the Coal Mine

How will we know if the attempt to reconstruct Iraq is failing? This is a serious question. With as much hysterical anti-Iraq-war, anti-Bush-Administration fabrication going in the media as there has been, it’s tempting for a rational person to dismiss every negative report as just another load of Michael Mooronism and dismiss it. That would… Continue reading Kurds in the Coal Mine

Sowing Dragon’s Teeth

David Lucas’s op-ed in the Knoxville News-Sentinel combines with this story about active-duty military personnel criticizing Edward Kennedy and Dick Durbin’s “gulag” rhetoric about Guantanamo Bay to suggest something interesting about the long-term political impact of the Iraq War. Historically, one of the major byproducts of American wars is politicians. While it’s rare for a… Continue reading Sowing Dragon’s Teeth

American Empire Redux

A respondent to my previous post on American Empire said “For non-Americans, the concern is not necessarily “does America behave like an empire?”, but “can we trust it not to act like one when the chips are down?” (e.g. if oil supplies dwindle to the point where the US economy is at real risk). The answer… Continue reading American Empire Redux

Published
Categorized as Politics

American Empire

The American Left, and some of the Buchananite/isolationist elements of the American Right, have spent a lot of time and rhetorical energy fretting about the “American Empire”, and/or the “global system of American hegemony”. Lee Harris has written a very informative essay on Hegemony vs. Empire in which he points out that these two words… Continue reading American Empire

Published
Categorized as Politics

The Hollywood Left is from Venus?

David Koepp, the screenwriter behind the current blockbuster movie War of the Worlds has said: “the Martians in our movie represent American military forces invading the Iraqis.” As InstaPundit observed, you just can’t make this stuff up. It’s hard to lampoon the Hollywood left any more, because they keep uttering inanities that venture beyond far,… Continue reading The Hollywood Left is from Venus?

Punishment, Coercion, and Revenge

Because I’m both both a libertarian and famous for conducting a successful propaganda campaign, libertarian activists sometimes come to me for tactical advice. During a recent email exchange, one of these criticized me for wishing (as he thought) to “punish” the Islamist enemies of the U.S. and Western civilization. I explained that I have no… Continue reading Punishment, Coercion, and Revenge

Published
Categorized as Politics

Lies and Consequences

Eason Jordan has resigned as CNN’s chief news executive following rumors that he said at a conference in Davos that the U.S. military had deliberately targeted journalists for death. Jordan denied making this allegation, but two U.S. legislators who were present agree that he did, and the Davos organizers have denied repeated requests to release… Continue reading Lies and Consequences

Published
Categorized as Politics

How the Left Betrayed Iraq

Every opponent of the war in Iraq must read this essay by an Iraqi, How The Left Betrayed My Country. Short, sweet, and devastating.

Susan Sontag is Dead

Imagine a writer/playwright/intellectual whose most famous single remark was “the black race is the cancer of human history”. Who said “The Pinochet revolution is astonishingly free of repression and bureaucratization.” Who praised the attack on Pearl Harber as a brave deed. Do you suppose such a person would collect laudatory tributes and glowing obituaries on… Continue reading Susan Sontag is Dead

The Journalist as Herd Creature

In September 2004, well before the elections, I wrote an essay on the collapse of mainstream media influence. I predicted that the Rathergate scandal and the Swift Boat Vets would lock up the election for George W. Bush, despite the MSM’s most determined efforts to get Kerry into the White House. I related this to… Continue reading The Journalist as Herd Creature

Published
Categorized as Politics

Condoleeza Rice in 2008!

So Condi Rice is going to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State. I have to think this means she’s being groomed for the Republican ticket in 2008. Well, I hope so anyway. I know very little about her, but I’ve discovered that I really want to have a ringside seat on the farcical hijinks… Continue reading Condoleeza Rice in 2008!

Published
Categorized as Politics

The Terror War Comes Home

For the first time in my life, I find that I am seriously considering voting Republican in a presidential election. What has pushed me to it is this report of shots being fired into a Bush-Cheney campaign HQ in Knoxville. TN. It’s not the first shot fired at the Republicans. And it comes on top… Continue reading The Terror War Comes Home

Published
Categorized as Politics

What Did Dan Rather Know, And When Did He Know It?

Dan Rather’s just-released statement just begs to be fisked: Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question—and their source—vigorously. And we promised that we would… Continue reading What Did Dan Rather Know, And When Did He Know It?

Published
Categorized as Politics