Making ‘Islam’, ‘Muslim’, not terrorism disappear
Opinion Column
We have met the enemy and he is “self-radicalization.” No, wait: We have met the enemy and he is the Internet. We have met the enemy and he is broadband video?
Another terrorist attack, another U.S.-Saudi cover-up?
Opinion Column
After the FBI rescheduled another postponed briefing on the Boston Marathon Massacre for 8 p.m. on Wednesday night — and then canceled that one, too — that was it. I was going to give the news circus a rest until morning.
Obama uses children as pawns in his power grab
Opinion Column
Not one of the 23 executive orders that President Obama signed — flanked by schoolchildren whom none of us want to see murdered and before an audience that included relatives of murdered schoolchildren — would have prevented the massacre at Sandy Hook.
Hillary Clinton doesn't deserve American's admiration
Opinion Column
Americans, Gallup tells us, admire Hillary Clinton more than any other woman in the world — again. This latest accolade marks the 17th time Gallup has found Clinton to be the Most Admired Woman (MAW?) since she became first lady nearly 20 years ago. Only Eleanor Roosevelt (13 MAWs) comes close. Only Mother Teresa (1995 and 1996) and Laura Bush (2001) have interrupted Clinton's winning streak, and even then, Clinton came in second.
Western leaders keep silent on Afghanistan murders
Early in 2012, I opened a column with this question: "Is there a single public official who is examining — who cares about — the murder spree by Afghan security forces against Western troops and security contractors in Afghanistan?"
Petraeus betrayed country before he betrayed his wife
Was David Petraeus as great a general as the write-ups of his downfall routinely claim? This is a provocative question that I will begin to answer with another question: Did America prevail in the Iraq War?
The high road led straight to defeat for Romney
If Election Day is about picking winners, the morning after is for post-mortems. That’s when we slice open the losing campaigns, set aside the hundreds of millions of dollars that gush out, and pick apart the cause of death.
Administration welcomes wolves into the sheepfold
Opinion Column
Imagine, pre-9/11/12, that you were responsible for arranging the defense of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Would you have considered American interests and personnel best protected by bringing in a local security outfit called the February 17 Martyrs Brigade?
'Slander' and free speech are one and the same
Who said the following: "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."
Future of the Republic hangs on 2012 election
First, kudos to Mitt Romney for choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate.
Israel is on its own against terrorism
The Washington Free Beacon reported this week on the continuing omission of Israel from a U.S.-sponsored organization called the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF). At a recent forum meeting in Spain, Maria Otero, U.S. undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights, delivered a speech titled "Victims of Terrorism," but, in her roll call of victims, she didn't mention Israel. The conference at which she spoke was described as a "high-level conference on the victims of terrorism," but Israel wasn't a participant.
Nation celebrates Dependence Day
After nearly four days without power following the freak storm that left millions in the mid-Atlantic states in the dark, one thing I could do when the electricity came back on was try to figure out who coined the mortifyingly apt greeting, “Happy Dependence Day.”
Did Ephron liberate or debase women?
With so many assaults on the boundaries of governance and sovereignty in the news lately, reflecting on the career of writer and Hollywood director Nora Ephron, who died this week at 71, may seem off-topic. But upon reading through many glowing Ephron appreciations, I realize that in her work lies another broken boundary. It is a cultural one, and every bit as significant as lines on the map or in the Constitution.
Obama no longer hiding socialist views
Are we watching the meltdown of Barack Obama, soon to become a radioactive pile from which voters will run come November?
Officials choose to ignore Obama fraud
Earlier this spring, President Obama’s attorney Alexandra Hill went to court in New Jersey over a challenge to her client’s eligibility to appear on the 2012 presidential primary ballot.
When did free speech become illegal?
Back in 2001, Britain’s political parties signed a fantastic pledge. They agreed to say nothing to “stir up racial or religious hatred, or lead to prejudice on grounds of race, nationality or religion.”
Army may as well put soldiers in strait jackets
To keep former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna behind bars until 2024 for the “unpremeditated murder” of an insurgent during the war in Iraq, U.S. military prosecutors have resorted to strange and disturbing twists of law, logic and morality.
Race should not color our outrage over crimes
Is there any interest in discovering the facts about the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman? Facts, after all, can undermine ideology. They have the power to dispel fantasy. They can put the brakes on error. They lead, sometimes, to logical conclusions. All of which means, in this particular case, that when the facts come out, they might well undermine "the cause."
Zero civilian casualties possible?
I am looking at a heartwarming 1945 photograph of a Canadian-liberated town in the Netherlands, all joyous spontaneity and relief as townspeople (two wearing wooden shoes) celebrate their liberation from Nazi Germany. Nearly 70 years later, this snapshot in time is relevant to events currently swirling around a tragic, aberrational incident in which a U.S. Army staff sergeant apparently walked off base and killed 16 Afghan civilians.
Nonchalance about U.S. Marines' safety is appalling
This week, a bombshell wrapped in an SOS landed on the desk of the inspector general at the Pentagon.
Why is the U.S. apologizing for Qurans?
After all these years of official stumbling over what to call the mission the United States has spearheaded in the Islamic world in response to the 9/11 attacks, I've come up with a name -- not to brag or anything -- that I believe brings much-needed clarity to our cause.
Chalk up another one for Islam
Even after all these years, journalist-socialite Sally Quinn still embodies a Washington way of thinking -- a heart-of-Georgetown, A-list set of salon-tested assumptions "everyone" knows that provides attitudes for any occasion.
Don’t blow ‘Abu Ghraib 2’ out of proportion
Granted, it’s not civil palace etiquette or, more important, U.S. military doctrine to urinate on battle-killed enemy fighters — in this case, three dead Taliban in Afghanistan. But could we just move on?
Russia may be covering up crash’s crash
In 1952, Congress investigated the Katyn Forest massacre and proved Soviet guilt; in 2010 and 2011, there were calls in Congress for an independent investigation into the Smolensk crash. Such an investigation is urgently required in 2012, and not only to solve the mystery of a vexing crash. We must find out whether the West has once again been party to a Big Lie out of Moscow.
Iraq hawks leave a door open that should be slammed shut
I wish I could find the perfect label for the depths of denial and the heights of delusion manifested in Frederick and Kimberly Kagan’s latest declarations on Iraq, published this week in The Washington Post as “opinion.”
It’s time to stop keeping secrets
Last month, I noted that Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jim Webb of Virginia had written to national archivist David S. Ferriero on Nov. 7, asking him to open the records of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Ferriero has summarily sealed for 20 years. Guess what? Webb’s office tells me it still hasn’t received a reply. Where’s WikiLeaks when you need it?
Directive step in wrong direction
Having written countless columns and blog posts arguing that the see-no-Islam counterinsurgency strategy (COIN) has led to failure in two wars in the umma (Muslim world) and the dhimmification of the U.S. military, it’s almost funny to see the debate more or less officially joined over my recent column on what appears to be simply the gross-out, PG-13 movie topic of peeing toward Mecca. Or, rather, not peeing toward Mecca.
Why tolerate anti-American attitudes?
The last hot meal to be served at Camp Victory, the largest of 505 military bases once operated by the United States in Iraq, was a Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 20. Cooks served more than 2,000 pounds of turkey and more than 3,000 pounds of mashed potatoes to 6,000-plus military personnel.
Islamic law greatest threat to women
We haven't had a good, old-fashioned "feeding frenzy," a la Herman Cain, for a long time -- maybe not since the days of Dan Quayle.
Careful with that Quran-doting uncle
Uncle Sam is getting a little weird — make that a lot weird. Having dumped hundreds of billions of dollars into a sinkhole called Afghanistan populated by misogynistic, pederastic, tribalistic and religiously supremacist primitives to no avail, he has hit on a new plan for winning those ever-elusive Afghan “hearts and minds.”
Why Islam can let a church die
I am looking at a reproduction of an old engraving of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It is in Bat Ye'or's book "The Dhimmi," which collects primary documents from history to chronicle the impact of Islamic law on non-Muslims through the centuries.
Mullens’ mulling is carter-esque moment
Robert Conquest, pre-eminent historian of the genocides, purges and terrors of the Soviet Union, has long contemplated the blinders the West wears so as not to look at the millions of dead bodies for which the gigantically Evil Empire was responsible.
How many limbs must be lost in Afghanistan?
Only the U.S. military could build a defensive wall of words -- "dismounted complex blast injury" (DCBI) -- around the bare fact that single, double, triple, even quadruple amputations are up sharply among U.S. forces on foot patrol in Afghanistan. So are associated pelvic, abdominal and genital injuries, according to a newly released report.
Bullies shroud true face of 9/11
Having passed the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I can now say with certainty that something major was missing from all of the ceremonies, the symbolism and the media coverage. It was something that not only captures the meaning of the attacks themselves, but better defines our response to them than any other single thing. It is the face of the age itself, and it is not Osama bin Laden’s.
The only 'murder' here was justice
They are the forgotten warriors of the Iraq War, the men whose lives and families and careers blew up in "murder" charges on a vicious battlefield, the pieces coming down in Fort Leavenworth's military prison where the men now serve long sentences. Together, they make up the Leavenworth 10.- Diana West, syndicated columnist
Has Afghanistan lost the most?
Doesn't anyone want to question Petraeus' wisdom -- before he becomes head of the Central Intelligence Agency?
