“But, unlike the Gulf war, the Afghanistan campaign was not and could not be the entire conflict. It was the beginning of a war, not its end. With the first Bush, the main political domestic risk was in fighting the war in the first place. With the second Bush, the main domestic political risk is in not continuing to fight the war.” – continued in my latest piece here.
SPEAKING TRUTH TO THE EURO-WEENIES: “Iraq? Stay put – we don’t necessarily need or desire your help. The Middle East? Shame on you, not us, for financing the terrorists on the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority and Israel? You helped to fund a terrorist clique; we, a democracy – go figure. Racism? Arabs are safer in America than Jews are in Europe. That 200,000 were butchered in Bosnia and Kosovo a few hours from Rome and Berlin is a stain on you, the inactive, not us, the interventionist. Capital punishment? Our government has executed terrorists; yours have freed them. Do the moral calculus. Insensitive to the complexities of the Middle East? Insist that the next Olympic games are held in Cairo or Teheran, and let a deserving Islamic Turkey into the EU.” – From Victor Davis Hanson’s brutally acute analysis of the current Euro-American divide. Don’t miss it.
EVEN OP-EDS GET NEUTERED: I’ve edited plenty of columns and articles in my time and there’s often a gripe from authors when their treasured prose gets altered in some way. But in general, the rule for opinion pieces is to edit to make their point more clearly, rather than to change the point entirely. Check out this account from the Jerusalem Post of how New York Times editors allegedly did all they could to neuter, change or soften an op-ed criticizing the U.N. for its bias against Israel. Eye-opening.
THE TIMES AND STALIN: Stunning sub-headline in the New York Times Book Review yesterday. Let’s run it through the usual test, as blogger Counter-Revolutionary suggests:
“Nobody likes Hitler, but Martin Amis seems to have a thing about him. In his new book, ‘Adolf the Dread,’ he attacks the monster as if he were current. Then he offers some tender reflections about Kingsley Amis, his father, who was once a Nazi. What’s up here?”
Would that headline ever run in the Times? Would anyone ever even think about it? Parts of the American Left still haven’t recovered from their softness on Communism, have they? Kinda proves Martin Amis’ point, doesn’t it?
TWO SUPERB REALITY-CHECKS: Who says I can’t praise the Times? Their invaluable reporter Adam Nagourney reminds me today of why it still publishes superb, measured journalism. Here’s one smart piece of analysis. And one little scoop.
The Dish 