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"What Would America Fight For?" That question shouts from the cover of this week's Economist. It is, asserts the magazine, "the question haunting its allies." While most agree that America would fight to defend her treaty allies and to protect vital interests if imperiled, the question is raised by President Obama's reticence in Crimea, Ukraine and Syria. Asked in Manila how he answers critics who say his foreign policy appears to be one of "weakness," the president, stung, replied: "Typically, criticism of our foreign policy has been directed at the failure to use military force. And the question ... I...

"This is my last election," President Obama said in words caught on an open mic. "After my election, I have more flexibility." He was speaking in Seoul, South Korea, in March 2012, almost exactly two years ago, to Dmitry Medvedev, then in his last year as Vladimir Putin's stand-in president of Russia. The subject was missile defense, and Obama was apparently seeking time to assuage Russia's objections that a proposed U.S. missile defense system, sited in Romania, Poland, Turkey and Spain, would not be aimed at Russian missiles. Earlier, in September 2009, Obama canceled missile defense installations in Poland and...

With twin suicide bombings in Volgograd, at a train station and on a trolley, 34 Russians are dead and scores are injured and hospitalized. Moscow and the world have been put on notice by Doku Umarov, the Chechen Islamic terrorist, that the winter Olympics in Sochi, six weeks away, may not now be safe for visitors. How should friends of Russia respond? President Obama, in a gesture of solidarity with the Russian people, who have suffered more than any European people from Islamic terror since 9/11, should announce he has changed his mind and will be going to Sochi. The...

Not many foreign policy experts would argue with the proposition that the country with which the United States has the most problematic relationship is Pakistan. Most Americans, when they have thought about it, have taken a similar view since Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by Navy SEAL Team Six in May 2011. Bin Laden was hiding in plain sight in Abbottabad, Pakistan, just a few miles from Pakistan's military academy. It is hard to believe that his whereabouts weren't known to Pakistan's military or its intelligence agency, the ISI. It has been apparent for some time to...

When it comes to President Obama's prowess as commander in chief, "leading from behind," at this point, would be a step up. Some believe that the United States should engage in military action in foreign countries when America's national interests or those of our allies are at stake. Some believe we should rarely do so, perhaps only when we are under attack. Some think we should actively export democracy to other nations, whether or not our national security interests are currently on the line. And some, like President Obama, are literally all over the map, a quagmire of incoherency. Since...

Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospective: It has to be shattered before being ascertained. --Vladimir Nabokov After 9/11, the prevailing view was that "nothing would ever be the same." The sight of bodies plunging 100 stories from the flaming towers of the World Trade Center seared into our psyches the reality that America has cruel and wanton enemies. The USA Patriot Act, which sought to repair some of the intelligence lapses that permitted the 9/11 attacks to go undiscovered, passed the House by a vote of 357 to 66 and the Senate by 98 to...

Many serious Americans are distressed by what they see going presently regarding matters of race. They are perplexed by the obvious anger and hatred directed by some against others, including examples of random people being beaten in various places following the Zimmerman verdict, "for Trayvon". They see entertainers boycott an entire state because of what the entertainers absurdly claim is racism, the result of a verdict in a grossly manipulated case in which the black "victim" purposefully initiated a beating on the "cracka" who then shot him. The jury wasn't fooled. The system worked, even if the malcontents did not...

BEIJING - Pyongyang has allegedly asked Beijing to send them an envoy in order to improve their soured relations, but Beijing turned it down, seen as a warning regarding the regime’s recent warmongering rhetoric. Multiple sources in Beijing told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday that “North Korea asked China to send a high-ranking envoy at the deputy-ministerial-level, but China rejected it. “China said ‘if they want an envoy, North Korea should send their envoy [to China] first,’” the source said. However, the North hasn’t sent an envoy to Beijing so far, the sources said. If they do, China is likely...

One of the most deeply rooted concepts in science and in our everyday life is causality; the idea that events in the present are caused by events in the past and, in turn, act as causes for what happens in the future. If an event A is a cause of an effect B, then B cannot be a cause of A. Now theoretical physicists from the University of Vienna and the Université Libre de Bruxelles have shown that in quantum mechanics it is possible to conceive situations in which a single event can be both, a cause and an effect...

PHILADELPHIA—Ask Americans how race relations have changed under their first black president and they are ready with answers. Ashley Ray, a white woman, hears more people debating racial issues. "I know a lot of people who really thought we were OK as a nation, a culture, and now they understand that we're not," she says. Karl Douglass, a black man, sees stereotypes easing. "White people deal with me and my family differently," he says. Jose Lozano, who is Hispanic by way of Puerto Rico, believes prejudice is emerging from the shadows. "Now the racism is coming out," he says. In...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Turkey and Israel are looking for ways to normalize political relations, saying, “We want to restore relations with Turkey.” Netanyahu spoke to a group of Turkish journalists in Jerusalem and his comments were reported by the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman. “In a region where instability reigns, Israel and Turkey are two quite stable countries. I believe in [our] common interest,” Netanyahu told the journalists, adding that Turks and Jews have a long history. The newspaper noted that the conversation between Netanyahu and the Turkish journalists was the first time since the May...

The president keep on saying how all his allies are the most important and are punching over their weight class.

Labor Day is a celebration of the American worker, who helps turn management’s vision into reality. In that spirit, I wish everyone a happy Labor Day. Well, almost everyone. Let me explain. For as long as I can remember, my father owned a small manufacturing company in southwest Michigan. He didn’t pay the highest wages in the area, but he treated each employee with respect, and these workers in turn gave Dad an honest day’s work. That mutual respect, combined with a unique bonus program that all his employees participated in, made for a steady workforce.

It probably would not surprise you to learn that the Obama administration is apparently using the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as a battering ram to aid powerful (and financially supportive) unions. The target is the Boeing Corporation. And Judicial Watch has launched a full investigation into the matter. On Monday, August 15, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the NLRB to obtain records concerning the agency’s decision to file its lawsuit against Seattle-based Boeing for opening a $750 million non-union assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina to manufacture its Dreamliner plane

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will be on a trade-focused charm offensive when he touches down in New Delhi Wednesday for a two-day visit. The past year has seen a worsening in relations, with clashes over shared Himalayan borders and China’s close relationship with Pakistan. Defense ties were suspended this summer after China refused a visa to a top Indian general. Beijing is seeking instead to turn the spotlight during Mr. Wen’s trip, his first here in five years, on the burgeoning trade relationship between India and China. Some 400 business leaders will accompany the premier, twice the initial expected number,...

Last night I met a buddy at the bar for a couple beers after the Ranger/Yankee game. My buddy was sitting with two girls, one Indian (dot not feathers) and one very light skinned hispanic. My friend's mom is Korean and his dad is hispanic but his ancestry dates back a few hundred years to Colorado via Spain. He looks Filipino and he is very conservative.When I walked up the hispanic girl couldn't believe I was this guy's friend (I'm white) she kept calling me "white boy" to which I responded "you're whiter than me by far" and I put...

If there are tensions between urban police departments and the African-American community, this kind of stuff won’t help one bit. An Indianapolis police officer was invited to give a presentation at a youth symposium where organizers staged a fight to see how the [white] officer would react. Full story...

The American Jewish Council's Annual Survey of Jewish Opinion shows that over one quarter of Jews in the United States define the current state of relations between the US and Israel as negative. When asked to characterize relations between Israel and the United States, 10% chose “very positive,” 63% “somewhat positive,” 22% “somewhat negative” and another 4% “very negative.”

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written a searing critique of government efforts at “strategic communication” with the Muslim world, saying that no amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting. The critique by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, comes as the United States is widely believed to be losing ground in the war of ideas against extremist Islamist ideology...The Obama administration orders fresh efforts to counter militant propaganda, part of its broader strategy to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan...“I would argue...

Has President Obama narrowed the racial division between blacks and whites since taking office? A Weekly Poll.