Roundup: Media's Take

Mark Helprin: The Decline of U.S. Naval Power

[Mr. Helprin, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, is the author of, among other works, "Winter's Tale" (Harcourt), "A Soldier of the Great War" (Harcourt) and, most recently, "Digital Barbarism" (HarperCollins).] ...The 1968 film, "2001: A Space Odyssey," suggested that in another 30 years commercial flights to the moon, extraterrestrial mining, and interplanetary voyages would be routine. Soon the United States would send multiple mis

Yulia Latynina: It Smells Like February 1917

[Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.] The smell of February is lingering in the air — February 1917, that is. I am not talking about the revolutions in the Middle East but about Russia’s extraordinarily weak leaders and the growing contempt that the leading public figures and ordinary citizens are showing toward them. Look how quickly the seemingly ironclad vertical power structure can evaporate into thin air. For example, Bolsh

Nikolas K. Gvosdev: Tripoli Today, Havana Tomorrow?

[Nikolas K. Gvosdev, a senior editor at The National Interest, is a professor of national-security studies at the U.S. Naval War College. The views expressed are entirely his own.] Is the shift in U.S. rhetoric about Libya indicative of a changed attitude toward other entrenched autocratic, historically anti-American regimes around the world? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quite blunt in laying out her vision for the future of Libya’s “Brother Leader” Muammar Qaddafi: “It is

Jeremy Greenstock: Sit with dictators but sup with a long spoon

[The writer was UK ambassador to the UN from 1998-2003. He is chairman of the UN Association of the UK.] Britain rightly took credit for persuading Libya to give up its weapons programme. As a result, and not least because of its reserves of oil and gas, we forged a closer relationship to create opportunities for business. America did the same: Exxon’s interests played a part in removing sanctions on the regime. Now such actions look unfortunate, and there is a strong case for the

Jonathan Freedland: For dictators, Britain does red carpet or carpet-bombing

[Jonathan Freedland writes a weekly column for the Guardian.] You'd be forgiven for being confused; the pace of change has indeed been dizzying. A matter of weeks ago our rulers could not get enough of the desert tyrants of the Middle East, selling them arms, bowing as they offered up our most hallowed institutions, covering them with moist kisses. Now all that's changed. Now we want to take up arms against these evil dictators, David Cameron rushing to the Commons to rattle his &qu

Joel Pollak: We Must Not Fear the Tyrants of Tripoli

[Joel Pollak was the GOP nominee for U.S. Congress in Illinois's 9th district in 2010.] The favored excuse for President Obama's inaction on Libya is that there were hundreds of Americans stranded on a ferry in Tripoli for several days, waiting for weather conditions to improve before they could leave for Malta. Apparently, President Obama was concerned that any action by the United States -- even direct verbal criticism of dictator Muammar Gaddafi -- could provoke him to take Ameri

Bob Smith: Holding Out For A Hero

[Former Senator Bob Smith (R-NH), known as “Senator Bob,” has joined Accuracy in Media as a Special Contributor. His columns and commentaries on media and politics will be available on a regular basis on the AIM website at www.aim.org. He can be contacted at senatorbobsmith@comcast.net.] What do Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, W

Christopher Hellman: The Real U.S. National Security Budget

[Christopher Hellman is communications liaison at the National Priorities Project in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was previously a military policy analyst for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a Senior Research Analyst at the Center for Defense Information, and spent 10 years on Capitol Hill as a congressional staffer working on national security and foreign policy issues. He is a TomDispatch regular and a frequent media commentator on military planning, policy, and budgeta

Matt Mainen: On Mideast, O must copy W

[Matt Mainen is an Institute for Gulf Affairs analyst.] In his June 2009 Cairo speech on US-Islamic reconciliation, President Obama dedicated 1,020 words to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only 375 to promoting democratic ideals. That reflected a U-turn from the priorities of President George W. Bush -- and Obama's subsequent policies showed the same single-minded belief that delivering a Palestinian state would be the panacea for America's troubles in the region.

Bret Stephens: Is There an Arab George Washington?

[Mr. Stephens writes the Journal's "Global View" column on foreign affairs.] On learning that George Washington intended to follow up his victory at Yorktown by retiring to his farm at Mount Vernon, George III told the painter Benjamin West: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world." The British monarch may have wound up stark raving mad, but he knew a thing or two about the seductions of power. We celebrate Washington today as the

Ross Kaminsky: Barack Carter-Obama Is Back

[Ross Kaminsky is a professional derivatives trader, a fellow at the Heartland Institute, and a frequent contributor to Human Events. He blogs at Rossputin.com.] On Monday's edition of CNN's Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer and political analyst Gloria Borger discussed President Barack Obama's response to the situation in Libya, bringing unwitting clarity to the issue Barack Obama's projected and real weakness. First, they wondered aloud how it could have been that Bar

Leon Hadar: Burying Pan-Arabism

[Leon Hadar is a research fellow at the Cato Institute.] The uprisings in the Arab World have generated two competing narratives in Washington. The first has the making of a Middle Eastern End-of-History prototype: The Arab embrace of liberal democracy is another chapter in the historical epoch evolving since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The competing narrative—a derivative of the Clash-of-Civilizations paradigm—raises the specter of political Islamist radicalization a

Jeffrey Lord: Is Scott Walker the Next Calvin Coolidge?

[Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.]"There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time…"-- Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge to AFL leader Samuel Gompers on the"right" of Boston police to strike, September 14, 1919"…I can't afford to have a fire or crime committed where there's a gap in service. And it ultimately just

Howard W. French: How Qaddafi Reshaped Africa

[Howard W. French is the author of A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa. He teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times.] Whenever most of us think of oil-rich, Arab-speaking countries, our imagination performs a trick with our sense of geography, placing us by default in the Middle East. Of the three North African countries at the heart of the popular uprisings that have r

Charles Kenny: Iron Curtain Call

[Charles Kenny is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation, and author, most recently, of Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding and How We Can Improve the World Even More. "The Optimist," his column for ForeignPolicy.com, runs weekly.] Mikhail Gorbachev turns 80 on March 2, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, over which he presided, celebrates its 20th anniversary this fall. In the intervening ye

Richard Cohen: Can the Arab World Leave Anti-Semitism Behind?

[Richard Cohen is an op-ed columnist for the WaPo.] During World War II, the leader of the Palestinians lived in a Berlin villa, a gift from a very grateful Adolf Hitler, who clearly got his money's worth. Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and as such the titular leader of Muslim Palestinians, broadcast Nazi propaganda to the Middle East, recruited European Muslims for the SS, exulted in the Holocaust and after the war went on to represent his people in the Arab Lea

Bob Herbert: Unintended, but Sound Advice

[Bob Herbert is a columnist for the NYT.] In Lewis Powell’s now-famous memo to America’s business community, which felt beleaguered in the political environment of 1971, the future Supreme Court justice stressed the importance of organizing. “Strength lies in organization,” he wrote, “in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the p

Lance Price: Don't blame Tony Blair for talking to a tyrant

[Lance Price is an author and political commentator. He is a former BBC correspondent and media adviser in 10 Downing Street.] or a man who has grown used to deflecting unwelcome questions, Tony Blair looked desperately uncomfortable as he sought to give the fewest possible details of his recent calls to Muammar Gaddafi. His evident discomfort was understandable. Despite his reluctance to accept responsibility for many of the consequences of his decisions in office, Blair hasn't los

James Kirchick: The Upheaval in Egypt Reveals True Divide Between Israelis and Neocons

[James Kirchick is a New Republic contributing editor and writer at large with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty based in Prague.] Herzliya, Israel—For years, American neoconservatives have been accused of being lackeys for Israel, namely the Likud party. In 2008, Time’s Joe Klein wrote, “The fact that a great many Jewish neoconservatives—people like Joe Lieberman and the crowd over at Commentary—plumped for [the Iraq] war, and now for an even more foolish assault on Iran, raised the

Ed Kilgore: Republicans Want Wisconsin to Become Just Like the South

[Ed Kilgore is a special correspondent for The New Republic.] As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker tries to strip away the collective bargaining rights of public-sector unions, many liberals have latched onto the idea that his real goal is to dismantle the labor movement and the infrastructure of the Democratic Party. That is almost certainly one of his aims, but it’s not the whole story. Walker also has an economic vision for his state—one which is common currency in the