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BARACK OBAMA V. JOHN MCCAIN TODAY's joint visit to Ground Zero may give the impression that John McCain and Barack Obama share a common analysis of the causes of 9/11 and how to deal with its legacy. They don't. The divide starts with the question: Why was America attacked? McCain's answer is simple (or, as Obama might suggest, simplistic): The United States was attacked because a resurgent Islam has produced a radicalism that dreams of world conquest and sees America as the enemy.

In this war, Russia won, Georgia lost, and US was resoundingly defeated Orly Azoulay Published: 08.13.08, 23:29 / Israel Opinion Moscow's decision to flex its muscle vis-à-vis Georgia was meant to signal to the West, and particularly to Washington, not to meddle in Russia's backyard. Even before Georgia's invasion into South Ossetia, President Saakashvili was in Russia's sights. He was too American for its taste. Saakashvili was certain he has a trusted friend in the White House; one who would come to his aid and offer significant help during times of crisis. This is what Washington made him understand. He...

...."Strategically, the Russians have been sending signals that they really wanted to flex their muscles, and they're upset about Kosovo," the diplomat said. He was alluding to Russia's anger at the West for recognizing Kosovo's independence from Serbia earlier this year. Indeed, the decision by the United States and Europe to recognize Kosovo may well have paved the way for Russia's lightning-fast decision to send troops to back the separatists in South Ossetia. During one meeting on Kosovo in Brussels this year, Lavrov, the foreign minister, warned Rice and European diplomats that if they recognized Kosovo, they would be setting...

As the U.S. armed forces have done so many times before, they entered the uncertainty of a new war in 2001, and are now trying to figure out what they gained from it. Most of what went on during this war was unreported or misreported. This is nothing new. The important details, and lessons, of all past American wars were poorly reported, and what the military is trying to avoid is taking away the wrong lessons. Throughout the current conflict, the military made no secret of what they were doing, and just kept focused on winning. They knew they would...

Here's one thing you can say about journalists: Surely no one loves us as much as we love ourselves. That's one lesson of the Tim Russert coverage. A friend told me Sunday: "I now know more about Tim Russert than I do many members of my family." After Russert's shocking death Friday at age 58, television kept serving up witnesses to his expertise, intelligence, diligence, kindness, faith, love of family, Buffalo and the Buffalo Bills. The self-indulgence was breathtaking. On Monday's "Today," Matt Lauer interviewed Russert's son, Luke. The show basically gave over the first half-hour to the Russert story....

What Can Ronald Reagan Teach the Next President? by: Melinda Zosh, June 11, 2008 It’s been 20 years since former President Ronald Reagan served in office and four years since he passed away. But his legacy is far from over. “…It’s not surprising that Republicans would say kind things about Reagan,” said Frank Donatelli, Chairman, Reagan Ranch Board of Governors and Reagan Political Director, at a Capitol Hill conference on June 5. “What’s even more interesting is the newfound interest [in Reagan] by many of our Democratic friends.” The conference Donatelli spoke at was sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation,...

WASHINGTON, June 2, 2008 – Four years ago, Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison was center-stage amid allegations of detainee abuse, and coalition forces suddenly cast as conquerors instead of liberators, losing the trust of the Iraqi people. Video Conscientious decisions and new detainee programs have helped the coalition turn the corner on the road to regaining that lost trust, Multinational Force Iraq’s commander of detainee operations said yesterday in a Baghdad news conference. “Today, we are still trying to regain that trust, and I want to tell you once again there was no justification for what happened at Abu Ghraib,”...

The highly-respected Lausanne-based Institute for Management Development (IMD) has just issued its 20th anniversary ‘World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008’ [see: ‘Britain slips down key economic league table’, The Times, May 14/15]. It is not a pleasant read for the UK. In this annual assessment of national competitiveness, the UK has fallen one place from twentieth, to twenty-first, having been overtaken by Israel. But, more significantly, the IMD report downgrades the UK’s position against its global rivals on the crucial factor of economic performance, from seventh out of 55 countries to an alarming sixteenth. And the cause of this decline? Yes, you...

Special election races for Congress have arguable value as bellwethers for upcoming general elections. Mostly these races get decided on local issues rather than national themes, as in Louisiana, where the Republicans ran a lousy candidate, considered the only person who could have lost the seat. They do demonstrate the strength of national party efforts, though, and when one party loses three special elections in districts previously thought safe, that sends a message — and rightly has Republicans worried about their chances in November: A Democrat won the race for a GOP-held congressional seat in northern Mississippi yesterday, leaving the...

No, not the lesson the national press is pushing, that Mr. Jenkins's loss is a sign of GOP disaster this fall, or that it demonstrates how difficult it will be for Republicans to link local competitors to the liberal Mr. Obama. Republicans face tough odds, yes. But that's because they've yet to prove they've learned a lesson, as they demonstrated again with Mr. Jenkins. By the lazy standards of the GOP, Mr. Jenkins should've been a cinch to win a Baton Rouge district in Republican hands for 34 years, and that President Bush won with 59% in 2004. Their candidate...

CHICAGO — Senator Barack Obama woke up on Wednesday talking of his delegate lead and of taking the fight to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. But after defeats...Snip...he also sounded like a chastened candidate in search of his lost moment. Mr. Obama once again failed to administer an electoral coup de grâce, and so allowed a tenacious rival to elude his grasp.Snip In Ohio and Texas, he drew vast and adoring crowds, yet he came up short on primary day, just as he did in New Hampshire in early January. Mrs. Clinton’s attack on his readiness to serve as commander in...

In what may well be one of the last published articles he wrote, William F. Buckley Jr. recalls the problems that arose when the John Birchers got too close to Barry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign: The society had been founded in 1958 by an earnest and capable entrepreneur named Robert Welch, a candy man, who brought together little clusters of American conservatives, most of them businessmen. He demanded two undistracted days in exchange for his willingness to give his seminar on the Communist menace to the United States, which he believed was more thoroughgoing and far-reaching than anyone else in America...

CRITICS of the war in Iraq like to claim they "oppose the mission" but "support the troops." But the experience of Vietnam shows that turning our backs on the mission always means turning our backs on the courage of those who fought for that mission, and what they achieved through their skill and sacrifice. Consider the battle that ended 40 years ago today, when US Marines and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops retook the Imperial Palace at Hue, South Vietnam's third largest city, from Communist forces after a 27-day siege. The fight for Hue tested the Marines...

Two Fatal Errors of Modern Liberalism by Dennis Campbell February 16, 2008 Two primary errors of modern liberalism are a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and an inability to learn from history. Regarding the first, liberals are always chasing the fantasy of human perfectibility, which influences so many aspects of their policies. Liberals believe that if we give a powerful central government enough resources and authority, wielded by intelligent people of good will, virtually all problems and endeavors of human society can have happy outcomes – poverty, education, racial disharmony, crime, affordable housing, universal health care. Conservatives, on the other...

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 10, 2008 – NATO and Afghanistan are now intertwined, and the experience holds many lessons for the alliance’s near- and long-term strategy, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. NATO’s effort in Afghanistan shows not only how far the alliance has come from its original mission of confronting the Cold War era’s Soviet threat, but also how far it has to go to become a force for the 21st century, the secretary said at the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy. “There is little doubt that the mission in Afghanistan is unprecedented,” Gates said. “It is,...

Some would say that the 2008 Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses solved nothing. Others would argue that this week’s votes essentially determined who the presidential nominees will be this fall. I think the ramifications and results of Super Tuesday are somewhat inconclusive and difficult to translate, but the lessons we learned are clear. First, we now know for sure that Sen. Barack Obama can over take Sen. Hillary Clinton and win it all. In the states that favored Clinton (with the exception of Arkansas) the results were extremely close and competitive. Obama’s victories however were for the most part, decisive...

The news about yesterday's suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Dimona is that it's news. In 2002, at the height of the second intifada, 451 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks, including 14 suicide bombings. By contrast, yesterday's attack, which killed one and injured 11, was the first of its kind in more than a year. This didn't happen by accident, or because Palestinian radicals have somehow become less hostile to Israel. Responsibility for yesterday's attack was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is affiliated with President Mahmoud Abbas's ostensibly moderate Fatah party. Islamist Hamas remains even...

..."Whatever the true story, though, we continue to believe the Bush and Coalition allies had no choice but to invade, given the assessment that Saddam was a real threat. And make no mistake: He was. Anyway, he got what he deserved. But America needs to heed the underlying message: Dictators won't respond to threats they don't take seriously. Had the US record reflected greater toughness, the war itself might have been averted."

The charge against Thompson, who entered the campaign last September when polls showed him a favorite among Republican voters, was repeated so often it became a cliché. Like most clichés it tells us more about the people who used it than about the state of affairs it was supposed to describe. His campaign lacked "energy." He didn't get out enough on the campaign trail, and, when he did, he didn't hold enough events. His speaking style was too low-key, and his speeches were too long, and more often than not his "performance" in televised debates was lackluster. He just didn't...