Roundup: Media's Take

Robert Kaplan: Man Versus Afghanistan

[Robert Kaplan is an American journalist, currently a National Correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly.] We were there to fight, to do PT, to eat, to sleep, then to fight again. There was no big-screen TV or other diversion in the barracks. It was a world of concrete, plywood, and gun oil, and it was absolutely intoxicating in its intensity and unlike anything that existed in the British military.” So recollected retired Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams of the elite British Specia

Alexander J. Motyl: Difficult Task Defining Bandera’s Historic Role

[Alexander J. Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark.] Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s decision to confer the title of Hero of Ukraine on nationalist leader Stepan Bandera on Jan. 22 has unleashed a storm of outrage inside and outside Ukraine. Critics accuse Yushchenko of whitewashing a Nazi-era fascist and betraying the ideals of the Orange Revolution that brought him to power. Some hint darkly at a resurgence of fascism in Ukraine.

James Traub: America Isn't Very Good at Nation-Building

[James Traub is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and author of, most recently, The Freedom Agenda. His new column for ForeignPolicy.com runs weekly.] The United States' first "civilian surge" took place in August 1901, when 500 teachers disembarked from the USS Thomas, a converted cattle ship, in Manila Bay -- "the men wearing straw boaters and blazers," according to journalist and historian Stanley Karnow, "the women in long skirts and

Mark E. Halperin: How Obama Is Making the Same Mistakes as Bush

[Mark E. Halperin is an American political analyst for Time magazine and Time.com.] Who would have thought that one of Barack Obama's biggest missteps as President would be repeating some of the bad habits of George W. Bush? No single factor was more instrumental in Obama's 2008 victory than his pledge to completely reverse the nation's course once in the White House. Instead, over the past year, Obama has mimicked some of Bush's most egregious blunders, leading to much of the polit

Darrell Issa: Obama ... The New Nixon?

[Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) is the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.] Richard Nixon is back. Or so it seems from much recent press coverage and punditry. In December, John Feffer of the Institute for Policy Studies argued in The Huffington Post that the current administration’s professed commitment to realism in international relations meant that Barack Obama is “shaping up to be a true heir of Richard Nixon.” Time’s Peter Beinart

Bret Stephens: Iraqis Embrace Democracy. Do We?

[Mr. Stephens writes the Journal's "Global View" column on foreign affairs.] In 2002, a presidential election was held in Iraq. Saddam Hussein won it by a margin of 11,445,638 to zero. "Whether that's because they love their leader—as many people said they do—or for other reasons, was hard to tell," reported CBS News's Tom Fenton from Baghdad. You can't say they aren't fair and balanced over at CBS. Another election has now been held in

Tom Hayden: Exit Strategies for Afghanistan and Iraq

[Tom Hayden, a former California state senator, is the author, most recently, of The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (Paradigm).] It's been a long winter for the peace movement. Waiting for Obama has proved fruitless. The Great Recession has strengthened Wall Street and diverted attention from the wars. The debate over healthcare still won't go away and has demoralized progressive advocates. Given a chance to exit from Afghanistan when the Karzai election proved to be stolen

Gary Scharrer: Does State Board Need a History Test?

[Gary Scharrer is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News.] This is what can happen when you ignore experts, don't fully know your history, and are responsible for approving textbooks for Texas schoolchildren, according to critics worried about the State Board of Education: You might delete someone recognized by Ladies' Home Journal as one of the 100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century — citing her membership in a socialist organization. You could

Rodric Braithwaite: Bullying in the Russian Army

[Rodric Braithwaite is a writer and former diplomat , who has spent much of his career dealing with Russia. He was British ambassador in Moscow from 1988-1992. In 1992-3 he was Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister Major and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.] The Russian army today, like any other army, is an institution for organising and channelling violence in the pursuit of some concept of the national interest. But violence is not easy to control, and all armies

Robert G. Rabil: Israel's Changing Strategic Situation

[Robert G Rabil is associate professor of middle-east politics and director of graduate studies in the political-science department at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of Embattled Neighbors: Syria, Israel and Lebanon (Lynne Rienner, 2003) and Robert G Rabil, Syria, United States and the War on Terror in the Middle East (Praeger, 2006).] President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, standing alongside his counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, made a notable remark at a news-co

Anne Applebaum: The End of Germany's War Guilt

[Anne Applebaum is a columnist for the Washington Post.] ...[T]he Germans have been paying for European unity -- not just the currency but also the farming subsidies, assistance to poorer regions, highways in Spain and Ireland, and so on -- for decades without much complaint. In Warsaw, some children's playgrounds display signs declaring that they have been "built with European money," most of which presumably comes from German taxpayers. So why are German taxpayers sudden

Bernard Weiner: "The Hurt Locker": When Great Art Meets Lousy Politics

[Bernard Weiner for nearly two decades reviewed films and plays for the San Francisco Chronicle. A Ph.D. in government & international relations, he has taught at universities in California and Washington and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).] I despise the implicit pro-Iraq War politics of "The Hurt Locker": There is no examination or even mention in the film of why the U.S. might be fighting there, no look at the neo-conserv

Francis J. Gavin: No Need to Ban the Bomb

[Francis J. Gavin is professor of international affairs and director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.] ...Many experts contend the world is on the verge of a proliferation epidemic. By their reasoning, a nuclear Iran might drive Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey into the nuclear club. And North Korea's nuclear program could leave Japan, South Korea and Taiwan feeling they have

Robert Fisk: Is Iraq's 'Democracy' Worth It?

[Robert Fisk a columnist at the Independent.] In 2005 the Iraqis walked in their tens of thousands through the thunder of suicide bombers, and voted – the Shias on the instructions of their clerics, the Sunnis sulking in a boycott – to prove Iraq was a "democracy". There followed the most blood-boltered period in Iraq's modern history. Yesterday, the Iraqis walked in their tens of thousands through the thunder of mortar fire – at least 24 dead before voting stations closed

Fred Barnes: Obama's No FDR

[Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.] President Obama spent seven hours last week acting like a committee chairman, not a president. Rather than preside over the nationally televised health care “summit” of Democratic and Republican members of Congress, Obama was a participant. He big-footed Democrats and responded to Republican statements himself. He talked and talked and talked, considerably more than anyone else and for a total of two hours. When Obama deliver

John Hughes: The Armenian Genocide Resolution and the Price of Moral Courage

[American journalist John Hughes is founder and Editor in Chief of ArmeniaNow internet daily in Yerevan, Armenia.] A resolution approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week, in recognizing the Armenian Genocide, asks the Obama administration to endorse history at the risk of insulting a needed ally. The passing of House Resolution 252 introduces a new dynamic into the State Department’s hopes for “normalization” of relations between Armenia and Turkey. The

Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste

[Michelle Alexander is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness  (The New Press, 2010). The former director of the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU in Northern California, she also served as a law clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Currently, she holds a joint appointment with the Kirwan Institute for the Stud

Gabriel Winant: Why Does David Brooks Hate the Tea Partiers?

[Gabriel Winant is a freelance writer and graduate student, currently living in the United Kingdom.] ...[I]n the Tea Parties, there is a certain strain of radical egalitarianism that offends [David] Brooks, in his self-designated position as conscience of the precious conservative elite. But there’s also something much older in the movement, which he misses entirely. Like the New Left, [Glenn] Beck and his followers see a bloodsucking state up on top of society. But the 1960s radica

Rupert Cornwell: Are we going to see Ronald Reagan on America's $50 bill?

[Rupert Cornwell is a columnist at the Independent.] Liberals are aghast. Historians of America's Civil War are beside themselves. How could anyone seek to change the image on the US $50 bill, replacing Ulysses S Grant – the Union general who accepted the surrender of Robert E Lee in 1865 – with a one-time Hollywood actor nicknamed the Gipper? Yet that is exactly what Patrick McHenry, a Congressman from North Carolina is seeking to do. Next year marks the 100th annivers

Robert Haddick: The Long Death of the Powell Doctrine

[Robert Haddick is managing editor of Small Wars Journal.] Mullen finished off the Powell Doctrine After a long illness and years of neglect, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, finally euthanized the Powell Doctrine. Mullen administered the coup de grâce in a speech he delivered on March 3 at Kansas State University. During his tenure as chairman, Gen. Colin Powell stated the principles he thought the U.S. government should follow