Free Republic

Knowing one's adversary, according to Sun Tzu, the author of "The Art of War," is a prerequisite for victory. Costly missteps in the war on terror, especially the invasion of Iraq, suggest that the Bush administration doesn't grasp al-Qaida's ideology. As a result, the United States, though scoring short-term tactical victories against the jihadists, all too frequently furthers Osama bin Laden's long-term strategic aims. A deeper understanding of al-Qaida's philosophy would help the United States gain the initiative in the war of ideas. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Bush administration settled on a simple narrative to explain why...

I have smelled the stink of fear in the most unlikely places. In polite liberal gatherings of very nice academics, well-paid writers, journalists, even lawyers (who need fear nothing, surely) I have sensed a special kind of fear. It resembles, but is subtly different from, the unease that I dimly remember from my communist youth in the old British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, where if one said the wrong thing it might contradict the party line as it came down to us from time to time from Stalin's Moscow, together with the disguised funds that kept the office going. It...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of black children living in extreme poverty has risen sharply since 1999, according to a report released Wednesday by a children's advocacy group. About 932,000 black children under 18 lived in extremely poor conditions, up almost 50 percent from 1999 and about 25 percent since 2000, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Children's Defense Fund. The number is at its highest level since 1979, the earliest figures available. The group defined ``extreme poverty'' as kids living in families with after-tax income below half the poverty line. Poverty thresholds differ according to...