Zakaria again: The Future of American Power

Absolutely fascinating. Not necessarily succinct but shorter than the book, and a must read imho.

On sports

This blogging thing is contagious - I've given it to myself. My blogging on sports, which for now consists of one post on the Yankees' Joba Chaimberlain, can be found at BleacherReport.

Tibet - an alternate view

Most people are (I hope) familiar with the recent Chinese crackdown on Tibet. Because China is hosting the Olympics this summer, there have been a series of protests following the Olympic torch, and several world leaders have decided to boycott the opening ceremonies. There have been calls from the campaign trail for Bush to do the same.

I think doing so would send a strong public message. But Fareed Zakaria, whom I find generally to be thoughtful in his writings, thinks that a strong public message is actually the wrong way to go if you want real results. His piece is definitely worth a read.

Repub and Dem get it right

Former President Jimmy Carter plans to meet with Hamas head Khaled Mashal. Republican Rep. Mark Kirk (IL-10) and Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley (NV-01) state it best in their letter to Carter:

"Hamas terrorists are responsible for the murders of at least 26 American citizens—some of them teenagers, children and infants...these American voices from the grave beseech you – do not meet with the man who ordered their deaths."

Kudos to AIPAC (full disclosure: a former employer of mine), which is helping to publicize this effort, for their unrelenting bipartisanship in support of a strong U.S.-Israel alliance. Call or e-mail your Representative and encourage him or her to sign the letter by contacting either Kirk's or Berkley's office.

Krauthammer's "Holocaust Declaration"

A must read. Here's the statement by JFK to which he refers:

"It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union."

-- President John F. Kennedy

Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation

And his proposed statement:

"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear attack upon Israel by Iran, or originating in Iran, as an attack by Iran on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon Iran. As a beacon of tolerance and as leader of the free world, the United States will not permit a second Holocaust to be perpetrated upon the Jewish people."

Whether or not deterrence is sufficient, it is certainly necessary. Read it all.

Three Revolutions

Often I agree with him; sometimes I don't. Either way, I think Henry Kissinger is very good at getting to the essence of an issue and asking the right questions.

Preaching to the converted

Michael Reagan, son of the late former President, has an important piece today on the truth about the Haditha "massacre". He tells the story of how a Time magazine article and the rantings of Democratic Rep. John Murtha (PA-12) - a man who once responded to a bribe offer by saying "maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't" but who is also a decorated Marine veteran who volunteered for Vietnam - led to what now appears to be the unwarranted prosecution of six Marines, five of whom have been exonerated to date.

This is an article that people who automatically assume the worst about our military, those for whom Haditha instantly became our generation's My Lai though the facts had not yet fully emerged, ought to read. This is especially an article that moderates and those without knowledge of or an opinion on the issue ought to read. It's so important that the truth get out, and I commend Reagan for telling it.

So what does he title it? "Haditha: The Collapse of a Liberal Fiction". Why?

I get it - most of the people playing jury before the investigation was complete were on the left - Murtha, Kennedy, Huffington. I get that there's a disturbing amount of reflexive America-hating on the left, and that it may even be more pervasive than the jingoism found on the far right. And I also feel outrage when courageous Marines are slandered. But are all liberals knee-jerk military-bashers? Are they all America-haters? How about the centrists? How about moderate conservatives (like me) - do we all assume the worst about our liberal fellow citizens?

They aren't, and we don't. But by holding every self-identified liberal responsible for the fiction of Haditha, all Reagan (or his editor, whoever came up with the headline) does is alienate the very people who need most to hear what he has to say. By implying that a whole wing of the political spectrum has been colluding to pull one over on the rest of us, he instantly loses credibility with all the moderates who say, "ah forget it, he's just another wing warrior." Those (like me) who came across it at RCP will just skip to the next article (I think), and his crucial message will not be heard.

Of course, none of that is entirely true. Wing warriors on the right, who likely make up the bulk of the readership of Human Events ("Leading the Conservative Movement Since 1944"), will read it. And that's the point, isn't it. To some, it seems, it's more important to bring the converted to a righteous fervor than to bring the uninitiated (in this particular controversy) into enlightenment.