The Washington Times

Every so often I retreat to the privacy of my cerebrum to debate the following proposition: Resolved, that the sole reason the United States remains democratic in character at the national level is the election of its president every four years, the Congress of the United States having become a dysfunctional and decadent institution. The majority of my neurons always vote to defeat the resolution, but it’s amazing how close the “ayes” have come.     

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The Washington Times

Just about a year ago at the United Nations, leaders at the world summit embraced a principle that amounts to a revolution in moral consciousness, the “responsibility to protect.” Briefly, the doctrine holds that states have a responsibility to protect the persons living on their territory. In the event they are unable to fulfill this obligation, or in the event they themselves choose to violate it through such practices as genocide or ethnic cleansing, then the responsibility to protect devolves to the international community as a whole, which may take appropriate action, up to and including the use of military force, to protect the at-risk population.   

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The Washington Times

We are all Americans, “Nous sommestous Americains,” was the headline in France’s Le Monde five years ago today, as the world began to take stock of the shocking attack the day before. The sense of solidarity, with scores of thousands of people turning up at U.S. embassies around the world to express sympathy, was undeniably a comfort in a time of great distress.  It was also short-lived and in fact fully dissipated by the halfway point between then and now, over Iraq. Some have suggested that the solidarity expressed then was something the United States could have sustained over the long haul and therefore should have worked overtime to achieve, for the benefit of an international environment more trusting of U.S. actions and motives.    

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The Washington Times

Suppose, five years after September 11, 2001, you had to assign yourself a single adjective to describe how you feel and what you think in relation to the events of that day. I think I would pick “astonished.”

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