The Washington Times

Because of Iraq, 2004 has been a very edgy year. The absence of bad news is excellent news, minimal bad news on any given day is good news, and as for good news, there isn’t enough to take the edge off for long. At least the nature of the challenge has clarified itself over the past couple months: on one side, Abu Musad Zarqawi’s world of barbarity, mayhem and beheadings; on the other, the United States, its allies, the new Iraqi government and what would seem to be the vast majority of Iraqis themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Washington Times

The main reason for going to war in Iraq, in my view then and now, was the danger posed by Saddam Hussein going forward. This is a view I came to only after starting to think about the nexus of rogue states [such as Saddam's Iraq], terrorist organizations [such as al Qaeda] and weapons of mass destruction [WMD] that might be produced using the resources of states but transferred to terrorist organizations for release.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Washington Times

There is nothing wrong with George W. Bush’s re-election prospects that a little conspicuous success wouldn’t cure. The economy is now delivering the goods – and the jobs – and it is probably only a matter of time before Mr. Bush gets credit for basic competence in its management. The most recent Associated Press/Ipsos poll shows that a solid majority of Americans, 57 percent, think the economy has lost jobs in the past six months, when in fact employment has grown by 1.2 million. Perception eventually will move more into line with reality.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Washington Times

The legacy of an American politician has two main components. One of them relates to policy, the way in which the country’s affairs, its position in the world and world order itself changed as a result of the politician’s guiding hand. On this score, Ronald Reagan looms larger with each passing year. The second component is only slightly less consequential: It is a politician’s political legacy. If politics is the art of the possible, then a great politician has an effect on what is possible not only during his own term in office but also in the years that follow. By now, the imprint that Mr. Reagan left has been visible for fully a generation and shows few signs of fading anytime soon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Printed in both The Washington Times and The Hoover Digest

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA—At the checkpoint where my car is stopped, it is pretty clear from those in attendance—in assorted military garb or the ill-fitting suits that remain the uniform of the lower ranks of the successor organizations to the KGB—that there is a list inside the guardhouse with my name on it. So I will not, after all, be visiting Transnistria, the region of the former Soviet republic of Moldova that saw the worst violence in the breakup of the USSR and remains under the control of a local strongman, Igor Smirnov, who maintains his Stalinist grip thanks to an extensive security apparatus and a 1,300-strong contingent of Russian “peacekeeping” troops.

Read the rest of this entry »