Roundup: Media's Take

Slawomir Debski: Taking Central Europe for Granted

[Slawomir Debski is director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw.] WARSAW — Washington’s pullout from the missile defense projects in Poland and the Czech Republic has been received there with disappointment. Not so much because of the logic behind the decision, but mostly because of the arrogant way it was sold to the world, trampling previous informal arrangements. The credibility of U.S. foreign policy was dealt a painful blow. Some of the peop

Mary Kissel: Bureaucrats At the Barricades (book review of "Misadventures of the Most Favored Nations")

[Ms. Kissel is editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia editorial page] The last time the prospects for free trade looked as bleak as they do now, flapper skirts were in style. The World Trade Organization's Doha Round of global trade talks is so bogged down that it barely rates a mention anymore. In the past nine months, the U.S. has started trade firefights with China and Mexico in the name of "fairness," while Congress sits on free-trade deals with South Korea, Colombia a

Joe Conason: The vast right-wing conspiracy is back

[Joe Conason writes a weekly column for Salon and the New York Observer. His new book is "It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush." ] Wearily familiar as he is with the "vast right-wing conspiracy," Bill Clinton says the network that sought to destroy him and his wife, Hillary, remains malignant as ever, yet lacks the might of a decade ago. "It's not as strong as it was, because America's changed," he told David Gregory on "Meet

Jed Babbin: Lyndon Baines Obama

[Mr. Babbin is the editor of Human Events and HumanEvents.com. He served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration.] Deciding the right strategy begins with asking the right question. When the White House was waltzing McChrystal around trying to find a way to talk him out of his request for more troops, I questioned the wisdom of applying the Petraeus counterinsurgency strategy which worked in Iraq -- temporarily -- to Afghanistan. Where,

Simon Tisdall: Obama's Kennedy moment on Afghanistan

[Simon Tisdall is an assistant editor of the Guardian and a foreign affairs columnist.] Imagine the scene aboard Air Force One, the US president's plane, sitting on the tarmac in Copenhagen on Friday. Barack Obama is exhausted, having flown the Atlantic overnight to back Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic games. He is also feeling humiliated, since his efforts on behalf of his adopted home town have been roundly spurned. Rio got the gig – and Michelle is not best pleased.

John Prados: Diplomatic History in the Bush era

[John Prados is a senior fellow of the National Security Archive in Washington, DC. He is author of 'How the Cold War Ended: Debating and Doing History'(Potomac Books, forthcoming).] Apart from all the other excesses of the Bush Years there may be special problems for diplomatic history and historians. To some degree this is rooted in the changing dynamics of international relations but it also has a policy aspect. When the diplomatic history of the presidency of George W. Bush come

Bruce Feiler: The Ten Commandments teach that freedom depends on law. How Moses Shaped America

[Bruce Feiler is the New York Times best-selling author of seven books, including WALKING THE BIBLE, ABRAHAM, and WHERE GOD WAS BORN, an award-winning journalist, and the writer-presenter of the PBS miniseries WALKING THE BIBLE.] "We are in the presence of a lot of Moseses," Barack Obama said on March 4, 2007, three weeks after announcing his candidacy for President. He was speaking in Selma, Ala., surrounded by civil rights pioneers. Obama cast his run for the White House

NYT Editorial: The Damage of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Sixteen years after passage of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, there is reason to hope that the military is edging away from its destructive opposition to allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly. At the very least, a prize-winning essay in a prominent military journal suggests that the issue is open to debate and even dissent. The essay, which won this year’s Secretary of Defense essay contest and was reviewed in advance of publication by the office of Adm. Mike Mullen, the c

Frank Rich: The Rabbit Ragu Democrats

[Frank Rich is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times.] In the annals of American excess, there often arrives a moment when those with too much money, too much clout and too much hubris just can’t stop themselves from tempting the fates. They throw an over-the-top party in public, or parade their wealth and power before the press, and the next thing you know their world, and sometimes ours, has crashed. In the go-go Reagan 1980s, the junk bond king Michael Milken bed

Drew Thompson: China at Sixty

[Drew Thompson is the Director of China Studies and Starr Senior Fellow at The Nixon Center] China celebrates the 60th anniversary of its founding today. The massive military parade, propaganda films and genuine outpouring of pride by the Chinese people are befitting China’s growing clout and influence. I can not forget sitting up at midnight on July 1, 1997 when Hong Kong was handed over to China and a smaller parade of military vehicles crossed the border into the New Territories

Robert Nedelkoff: The Statue of Mao In Yorba Linda

[Robert Nedelkoff worked on behalf of the Richard Nixon Foundation at the National Archives in College Park, MD From 1997 until March 2009. He has published articles in several magazines, including GQ and McSweeney’s.] Today, as is noted elsewhere at TNN, the People’s Republic of China celebrates its sixtieth anniversary. The day is being marked with celebrations throughout that nation and in Chinese communities around the world. But there are also a considerable Chinese with a prof

John Dickerson: Why Obama may want to ask Bush what to do in Afghanistan

[John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail.] President Obama came into office promising he wouldn't be captive to groupthink. He would test the assumptions of his advisers by seeking outside voices. As if to prove he meant it, he has already spoken to his predecessor at least once. He may want to do so again as he puzzles through what to do in Afghanistan. The call wouldn't be for strategic advice—Obama has kept much of the Bush

James Taranto: Out of Work? Blame Reagan.

[James Taranto is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal] New figures are out showing the unemployment rate within a hair's breadth of 10%, which means it's time to make fun of the Associated Press for putting a political spin on economic news. Last year, with a Republican in the White House, the AP was eagerly anticipating a recession (which, in fairness, did eventually arrive). This year, by contrast, there always seem to be portents of improvement, no matter how bad things get..

Economist Editorial: China's place in the world

FOR a country that prides itself on its “peaceful rise”, it was an odd way to celebrate a birthday. The People’s Republic of China marked its diamond jubilee on October 1st with a staggering display of military muscle-flexing (see article). Goose-stepping soldiers, tanks and intercontinental ballistic missiles filed through Tiananmen Square, past the eponymous Gate of Heavenly Peace, where, 60 years ago, as every Chinese schoolchild is taught (wrongly, it now seems), Mao Zedong declared that the

David Warren: Is Obama Like Gorbachev?

[David Warren, once editor of the Idler Magazine, is widely travelled - especially in the Middle and Far East. He has been writing for the Citizen since 1996.] There is nothing new under the sun: and I mean, nothing. It is a point brought home to us with increasing force by the expansion of the Internet. Conceive of an "original idea." Now, select two or more keywords suggested by it. Use them as search terms, and you will soon find that, say, 438,000 other people have ent

Caitlin Talmadge: To win in Afghanistan Obama must learn from Vietnam

[Caitlin Talmadge is a visiting fellow at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University. She is also a doctoral candidate in the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and coauthor of "US Defense Politics: the Origins of Security Policy."] A prompt exit from the country – and attainment of many of America's more ambitious strategic goals there – ultimately depends on the viability of Afghan security forces, not on the US

World views: Commission finds Tbilisi bears prime responsibility for the war in Georgia

La Repubblica - Italy The left-liberal daily La Repubblica calls the EU report on the war in Georgia a Solomonic judgement:"The report accuses both sides of severely violating international law and human rights. But paradoxically the effect of this Solomonic harshness has been that both the Kremlin and the government in Tbilisi have welcomed the report. Both emphasise the accusations against their adversary, while playing down those against their own military. ... But even if

John R. Miller: Nobody Likes Us? Who Cares?

[John R. Miller, a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute, is a former Republican representative from Washington and the former State Department ambassador at large on modern slavery.] IN 1926, a time of peace, Edwin James wrote in The Times Magazine: “Of all the peoples in the world, the Americans are the least loved. That is one way of saying that the United States of America is the most unpopular nation on the face of the earth.” This should help put into perspecti

John Cory: Marching Backwards: The Spectacle of Fear

[John Cory is a Vietnam veteran. He received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V device, 1969 - 1970.] Everything old is new again. It may be 2009 but the rhetoric is strictly 1950 when a man held up a sheet of paper and declared, "I have here in my hand a list of names ..." Glenn Beck is not original, nor was Joe McCarthy. The "red scare" of McCarthyism was merely the recycled red scare of the 1920's, when Attorney General M

John McWhorter: What Should African-American Studies Students Learn?

[John H. McWhorter, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writes and comments extensively on race, ethnicity and cultural issues for the Manhattan Institute.] While this year has become best known as the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock, it was also forty years ago that the first African-American Studies department was established, at San Francisco State University. Forty-one fall semesters later, there are hundreds of such departments. Has what they teach evolved