Roundup: Media's Take

Shashank Joshi: Arming rebel groups could backfire on the West, as it has done in the past

[Shashank Joshi is an associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute.] The trickle of arms to Libya may have already begun, with the reported cargo of Britain's ill-fated task force including both weapons and explosives. The question is now whether this will turn into a flood. The White House is mulling over whether or not to funnel weaponry to the rebels in earnest, even if it yesterday insisted that sending weapons to Libya would be illegal. The obviou

Godfrey Hodgson: America and the Arab Revolts

[Godfrey Hodgson was director of the Reuters' Foundation Programme at Oxford University, and before that the Observer's correspondent in the United States and foreign editor of the Independent. Among his books are A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving (PublicAffairs, 2007) and The Myth of American Exceptionalism (Yale University Press, 2009)] The momentous protests in the Arab region, and especially Libya, present the Barack Obama administr

Elizabeth Rubin: The Feminists in the Middle of Tahrir Square

[Rubin, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, writes frequently about the Middle East.] ...The story of Egyptian female power may date back to Cleopatra, but the name I heard among women and intellectuals around Tahrir (Liberation) Square was that of Hoda Shaarawi, who was in the forefront of the 1919 revolution against the British and, in 1923, famously tossed off her veil in public. It was a symbolic act of rebellion, resented by the religious establishment and to

Michael Lind: The Neocons are Trying to Talk Us Into War -- Again

[Michael Lind is Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation and is the author of "The Next American Nation: The New Nationalism and the Fourth American Revolution."] "They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing," Voltaire said of the members of the Hapsburg dynasty of his day. The same might be said of the American hawks who are calling for U.S. military intervention in Libya's civil war. Sens. John McCain and Jo

Andrew C. McCarthy: Jean-Jacques Jihad

[Andrew C. McCarthy, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, is the author, most recently, of The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America.] The one thing that absolutely could not be tolerated was true freedom, the liberty of the individual. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the “social compact” would otherwise be “an empty formula.” The irreducible core of the utopia he envisioned, the “undertaking which alone can give force to the rest,” was quite simply this: “Who

James Carroll: The Disappearance of the Nightmare Arab

[James Carroll, bestselling author of Constantine’s Sword, is a columnist for the Boston Globe and a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University in Boston.]Since 2001, Americans have been living with a nightmare Arab, a Muslim monster threatening us to the core, chilling our souls with the cry, “God is great!” Yet after two months of world-historic protest and rebellion in streets and squares across the Arab world, we are finally waking up to another reality: that this

Aaron David Miller: For Better or for Worse

[Aaron David Miller is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former advisor to Republican and Democratic secretaries of state. His forthcoming book is Can America Have Another Great President?.] ...Obama may not be Israel's best friend, but he's not self-destructive. Unlike Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who were in love with the idea of Israel, Obama is not. He's too cool, detached, and analytical. He sees Israel primarily

Bret Stephens: If Gadhafi Survives

[Mr. Stephens writes the Journal's "Global View" column on foreign affairs.] Top government officials and ordinary newspaper pundits are debating whether the U.S. and its allies should intervene militarily against Moammar Gadhafi, perhaps by establishing a no-fly zone. This is the wrong question. The right question is: What happens if Gadhafi holds on? That possibility no longer seems remote, as the colonel and his loyalists keep a firm grip on Tripoli and sta

Anne Applebaum: The Arab world isn't clamoring for our help

[Anne Applebaum is a weekly columnist for The Post.] I'm listening hard, but I just can't hear the "voices around the world" that my colleague Charles Krauthammer said last week are "calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Gaddafi." It's true that John Bolton, former U.N. ambassador and present Fox News employee, has declared that "strong American words (and actions) were amply warranted" in Libya. It's also true that a clutch of Americ

Dana Milbank: Obama's new Gitmo policy is a lot like Bush's old policy

[Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation's capital.] It was another important moment in the education of Barack Obama. He began his presidency with a pledge to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay within a year. Within months, he realized that was impossible. And now he has essentially formalized George W. Bush's detention policy. With Monday's announcement that the Obama administration would resume military tribunals at Gitmo, co

Clay Cane: Jamaica's Violent Homophobia

[Clay Cane is a New York City-based journalist.] The country of Jamaica is almost as well-known for violent homophobia as it is for dreadlocks, reggae and Bob Marley. In 2006, Time magazine named Jamaica the most homophobic place on earth. The country is certainly living up to that title.... Why is Jamaica so deeply and proudly homophobic? The obvious answer would be religion. Regardless of the stereotypes of marijuana use, steamy dancehalls and island rendezvous, Jamai

Marc A. Thiessen: Apply the Reagan Doctrine in Libya

[Marc A. Thiessen, a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of the book "Courting Disaster" and writes a weekly column for The Post.] After weeks of dithering, Barack Obama finally spoke forcefully on Libya, declaring at a White House press conference last week: "Muammar Qaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave. . . . And the aspirations of the Libyan people for freedom, democracy and dignity must be met." Moments l

David Brooks: The New Humanism

[David Brooks is an op-ed columnist for the NYT.] Over the course of my career, I’ve covered a number of policy failures. When the Soviet Union fell, we sent in teams of economists, oblivious to the lack of social trust that marred that society. While invading Iraq, the nation’s leaders were unprepared for the cultural complexities of the place and the psychological aftershocks of Saddam’s terror. We had a financial regime based on the notion that bankers are rational c

Najma Al Zidjaly: From Oman, With Love

[Najma Al Zidjaly is an assistant professor of linguistics at Sultan Qaboos University.] NOT so long ago, we joyfully celebrated Oman’s 40th anniversary. Almost everyone — but especially the young people here in Muscat, the capital, and in small towns — decorated their houses and cars with stickers and fliers in support of the government. As an academic I usually like to watch from the sidelines; this time, I joined in and decorated my black Toyota Camry with the nation

Rebiya Kadeer: When History Catches Up With Authoritarianism

[Rebiya Kadeer, 64, is the Uyghur democracy leader. An advocate for the rights of the Uyghur people in East Turkestan, she established a multimillion-dollar trading company and worked to provide opportunities for disadvantaged Uyghurs.] The swell of people power across the Middle East and North Africa in recent weeks has laid bare the human yearning for freedom from the injustices of authoritarian dictatorships. Across an entire region the calls for democracy and human rights have s

Michael Barone: Who’s to Blame for Union Woes?

[Michael Barone is senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner.] The labor-union movement is in deep trouble. Only 6 percent of private-sector employees are union members. Voters are beginning to realize, thanks to governors like Chris Christie of New Jersey and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, that public-sector unions have negotiated unsustainable levels of pensions and benefits — and that public-sector unions are a mechanism for involuntary transfers of money from

Michael Walsh: Shrugging at Terror

[Michael Walsh, a former Time associate editor, is the author (as David Kahane) of "Rules for Radical Conservatives."] In the earliest days of the republic, President Thomas Jefferson sent the fledgling US Navy to Tripoli in response to acts of brigandage. After years of campaigning, including some serious setbacks, US forces defeated the pirates at sea and sent the Marines ashore. The pasha of Tripoli, used to receiving ransom instead of fixed bayonets, sued for peace.

Rhonda Garelick: High Fascism

[Rhonda Garelick, a professor of English and performing arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is working on a cultural biography of Coco Chanel.] ...Fashion is more than business in France: it’s a mythology, a secular religion, a source of national pride, especially during Fashion Week, when the country recalls its history as the birthplace of haute couture. In recent days, though, in response to the anti-Semitic diatribe by Christian Dior’s creative director, Joh

Boris Johnson: Britain's betrayal of the Lockerbie victims returns to haunt us

[Boris Johnson is mayor of London.] At 7.01pm on Wednesday, December 21 1988, an air traffic controller by the name of Alan Topp noticed something funny about the "squawk" sign from Pan Am flight 103 to JFK. The signal had disappeared, to be replaced by four smaller pulses that soon vanished from his screen. He was watching one of the most sadistic acts of state terror ever unleashed. Think of a two-minute silence, how slowly it seems to pass. That was the time that elapse

George P. Shultz, William J Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn: Deterrence in the Age of Nuclear Proliferation

[Mr. Shultz was secretary of state from 1982 to 1989. Mr. Perry was secretary of defense from 1994 to 1997. Mr. Kissinger was secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. Mr. Nunn is former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.] As long as there has been war, there have been efforts to deter actions a nation considers threatening. Until fairly recently, this meant building a military establishment capable of intimidating the adversary, defeating him or making his victory more co