Free Republic

National security and foreign policy have received short shrift in the 2012 presidential-election campaign. Mitt Romney made a quick swing through Britain, Israel, and Poland to suggest he would repair strained relations with America’s closest allies. President Obama has repeatedly reminded voters that he gave the order to kill Osama bin Laden. That’s about it. For the most part, each campaign has sung a single note: Romney has tried to convince voters he can fix the broken economy. Obama has tried to convince voters that Romney is a heartless, plutocratic tax cheat and, possibly, a murderer to boot. Consequential international...

JERUSALEM — Iran is not our enemy. The regime that enriches itself while murdering, oppressing and impoverishing ordinary Iranians, the regime that incites genocide against Israel, threatens its neighbors in the Persian Gulf and vows to bring about a "world without America" — that is our enemy. This was one of the key points driven home by a trio of extraordinary individuals gathered for a dinner in Tel Aviv last week. At the table were Bernard Lewis, for my money the greatest living historian of the Middle East; Uri Lubrani, Israel's envoy to Iran before the fall of the Shah...

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards soon could have nuclear weapons. In 1979, journalists and diplomats reported from Iran on a revolution against the shah. They were mistaken. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his followers were thinking bigger. Their goal was a global revolution — a revolution against the United States and other “oppressor” powers. The ayatollah famously called America the Great Satan. This, too, was misunderstood. His intention was less to insult than to describe: He knew that freedom, the rule of (man-made) law, peace, and equal rights for both the servants and enemies of Allah are seductive ideas that could...

Last week, Canada’s Free Thinking Film Society – love that name – was scheduled to screen Iranium, a new documentary about the regime that has ruled Iran since 1979, its drive to acquire nuclear weapons and the dangers that poses for the West. But then the Iranian embassy complained and – coincidently – threats and “suspicious letters” were received at the National Archives in Ottawa, where the event was to take place. The Archives cancelled the screening and shut the building. Archives spokeswoman Pauline Portelance explained: “We deemed the risk associated with the event was a little too high.” Apparently,...

The publication of Hubris is filled with irony for David Corn, Washington editor of the left-wing Nation magazine. He was present at the creation of the Valerie Plame "scandal," which the enemies of George W. Bush hoped could bring down a president. Nobody was more responsible for bloating this episode. Yet Corn is coauthor of a book that has had the effect of killing the story. Thanks to Corn's intrepid coauthor, Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff, Hubris definitively revealed then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as my source that Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie, worked for the CIA and suggested her...

Submit or die: An offer infidels can't refuse? Commentary By CLIFFORD D. MAY Many commentators have noted the apparent irony: The pope suggests Islam encourages violence _ and Muslims riot in protest. Many commentators have pointed out the apparent hypocrisy: Muslims are outraged by cartoons satirizing Islamic extremism while in Muslim countries Christianity and Judaism are attacked viciously and routinely. Many commentators are missing the point: These protestors _ and those who incite them _ are not asking for mutual respect and equality. They are not saying: "It's wrong to speak ill of a religion." They are saying: "It's wrong...

Four years after terrorists slaughtered 3,000 innocent Americans it should go without saying that the “international community” would not let a terrorist-sponsoring nation acquire nuclear weapons. But it does not go without saying. On the contrary, the rulers of Iran, who subscribe to an ideology not appreciably different from Osama bin Laden's, are moving closer than ever to getting their own nukes. And they are not bothering to disguise the uses to which the weapons may be put. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has infamously threatened to wipe Israel “off the map.” Less well known: He promises a “world without America,”...

Abu Ghraib was a travesty and a tragedy. It tarnished America's reputation and credibility. It gave ammunition to America's enemies and critics. It set back progress in Iraq. What took place at Abu Ghraib was illegal – and those responsible have been rightly prosecuted and punished. So what is the point of Sen. John McCain's amendment to ban "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of any prisoner by any agent of the United States? His proposal might be seen as simply sending a message, a way to clean up the mess left by Abu Ghraib -- legislation in the service...

In just a few days, I'm to debate at the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College, Dublin. Trinity was founded in 1592. The Philosophical Society – better known as the “Phil” -- is of more recent vintage: It traces its lineage back to the 17th century. Those who have preceded me at this forum include Alexis de Tocqueville and Bertrand Russell. Then again, in recent years the smarmy fanatic George Galloway, the Holocaust denier David Irving and the porn star Ron Jeremy also have been guests. The resolution I'll be debating: “This house believes that George W. Bush is a...

To The Washington Post they were simply “gunmen.” The New York Times non-judgmentally called them “armed men.” The elite media fastidiously avoid such harsh words as "terrorist" – even to describe those who, last week, rounded up five Iraqi teachers from outside their school, dragged them into a classroom, lined them up against a wall and shot them to death. The Post was quick to inform readers that “no children were hurt in the attack.” Are we to regard that as restraint on the part of these “gunmen”? The Times noted that “the killings appeared to have been motivated more...

David Corn responding to Clifford May's column in National Review. Blah, blah, blah. Unconvincing. Those of you following this closely will want to read it for clues, but I'm only going to post what (to me) was the big news: Here's another fact that may interest anyone who thinks May might have a point:Number of times I've been contacted by Patrick Fitzgerald, interviewed or contacted by his investigators, and called before the grand jury: 0. What the h*ll is this? David Corn published an article only two days after Novak's column that exposed Plame in far greater detail than Novak...

Not-so-secret agents Perhaps there was a good reason why secret agents used to stay secret. So long as espionage was a profession that average citizens encountered only in fiction, we could imagine spies were like James Bond – OK, maybe not so dashing, but at least well-trained and effective. Or, for the more sophisticated, there was George Smiley and the other nuanced characters that came from the pen of John Le Carré -- serious people who struggled with moral uncertainties but whose competence was never in doubt. Nowadays, by contrast, former spooks seem to be everywhere: writing books, columns and...

<p>Let's grant Richard Clarke is correct in charging the Bush administration did not appreciate the urgency of the terrorist threat in the eight months leading up to September 11, 2001. But neither did the Clinton administration in the eight years leading up to September 11. And neither did the administrations of President George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.</p>

THE CURRENT issue of National Review carries a photograph of a maniacally snarling Howard Dean. “Please,” reads the headline, “nominate this man.” National Review is smart, sassy and conservative, and — from a strictly partisan Republican perspective — probably correct. It’s not that most GOP strategists believe Dean will be easy for President Bush to beat. Rather, they believe he will be a weaker contender than the other serious Democratic candidates. But partisanship aside and patriotism front-and-center, Republicans should be rooting for a nominee who will give Bush a tougher contest. Why wish for trouble? Because the United States can...

<p>In the wake of September 11, people of good will were naturally concerned that innocent Muslims might be scapegoated.</p> <p>But in Europe, something else happened: anti-Semitism surged.</p> <p>For example, in recent days a Jewish school near Paris was firebombed and two synagogues in Istanbul were attacked by terrorist truck bombers. A member of the German Parliament suggested the Jews bear collective responsibility for atrocities committed by communists during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis said of Israel: "This small nation is the root of evil."</p>

President Bush's "Three Pillars" speech at Whitehall Palace today may have been the most significant of his presidency. What's more, he was almost as eloquent as Tony Blair. It must be something in the British water — or tea. Politically, his message was bad news for the neo-isolationist Right and the post-humanitarian Left. Bush made it clear that he believes freedom is the predicate for peace. He said plainly that he will not shy away from using "force when necessary in the defense of freedom." He added: [W]e cannot turn a blind eye to oppression just because the oppression is...