Victor Davis Hanson from CaglePost.com Columns by Victor Davis Hanson from CaglePost.com http://rss.caglepost.com/columns.aspx?name=Victor+Davis+Hanson Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://rss-net.sf.net/ The Earmarks Dodge WASHINGTON -- So President Obama has dealt with the earmarks disgrace by promising to take care of it next year. After turning his other cheek to the stimulus rebuffs by congressional Republicans, he's done the same on earmarks toward resisting membe... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9b807067-fd2e-410f-9953-c81b0f270e9e.html Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT Now Obama Tells Us? Imagine that last fall before being elected, Barack Obama had outlined the positions he has embraced since being inaugurated as president. An honest campaign speech could have gone something like this: "As we approach Election Day, the American peopl... http://www.caglepost.com/article/27335f3a-9d1d-408a-9b7b-ce21692eecbc.html Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT Accounting For California's Suicide What went wrong in California? I think we can all agree on at least three observations. First, California is by nature the most richly endowed region in the world. Nowhere else is there so much fertile land, watered by gravity-fed winter runoff from ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/5732f34b-2313-4d1f-ae24-b10a2166797e.html Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:00:00 GMT A Funny Sort Of Depression Are we headed to something like the Great Depression? There is clearly much to be worried about. Most of America's private retirement 401(k) accounts have significantly decreased in value since last autumn's crash. Home equity has plunged. The unempl... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9092ca52-693e-4094-a63c-333b3a321e8c.html Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT An 'Impulsive' America? President Barack Obama's first TV interview was with the Dubai-based, partly Saudi-funded Al Arabiya satellite channel. In passing, he faulted past American policy for too readily "dictating" in the Middle East. He had better things to say about Saud... http://www.caglepost.com/article/bf1b9572-b946-4636-8db6-948ce558cda7.html Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Hardly The Best And Brightest Most historians agree that earthquakes, droughts or barbarians did not unravel classical Athens or imperial Rome. More likely the social contract between the elite and the more ordinary citizens finally began breaking apart -- and with it the trust n... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1bac3848-6567-48cf-a904-b453117e5305.html Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Been There, Done That In The Middle East With much fanfare, President Barack Obama announced a new effort to end the endless Israeli-Palestinian struggle -- by naming a brand-new Middle East envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell. The announcement was underwhelming, to say the least. For 40 yea... http://www.caglepost.com/article/49c49c74-15ec-46f0-bb3e-d0baf09eedd5.html Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Time To Beam Down To Earth, President Obama Last week the United States got lucky again and took out several suspected terrorists by Predator drone attacks over Pakistan. Anti-war critics prior to Jan. 20 used to decry "collateral damage" from such controversial strikes. But there was a weird ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/14d542e6-f52f-4e9f-816a-79fc060bbf8d.html Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Unreal Expectations? President Obama Asked For Them For nearly three months since the election, we have been warned by President Obama, his staff and the media not to burden him with unreal expectations that no mere mortal could meet. But why then consciously borrow from Abraham Lincoln's speeches? An... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1b1743b4-fc45-49d7-a0ec-d7719395167a.html Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Don't Waste A Crisis? Euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemia , which means "using the good word" -- usually in place of the accurate bad one. Recently we've become experts at it. Printing trillions more dollars and growing government to cover new debts isn't so bad... http://www.caglepost.com/article/3a0a81ba-4194-4048-851a-35e3382f0050.html Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Try A Little Honesty In 2009 The country is still divided over the government bailout of the Big Three automakers. Mostly Democratic supporters cited the need to save jobs and ensure that a hallmark manufacturing industry remains healthy and American. Mostly Republican opponents... http://www.caglepost.com/article/90494089-e373-4bc7-8a9a-4933a88f0491.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT The Gaza Rules The Israelis just struck back hard at Hamas in Gaza. In response, the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab world (at least publicly) expressed their anger at the killing of over 300 Palestinians, most of whom were terrorists and Hamas offi... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9225100d-a08b-4154-b451-31226194930e.html Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2008 -- Our 'That Was Then, This Is Now' Year As 2008 comes to a close, almost nothing has turned out as was expected at the beginning of the year -- whether we consider oil prices, the war in Iraq, political corruption or the collapse of the U.S. financial system. OIL For much of the year, the ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/4660d24c-fc5e-4d27-9f40-d7a4ceb42a6d.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT Campaign Rhetoric And Presidential Reality -- A Brief History American presidential election rhetoric always paints the incumbent as incompetent in foreign policy, the challenger insightful and skillful. A look at recent history, however, shows that once the opposition gains office, the world suddenly becomes n... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9d50aa62-f47b-4c20-9520-d90c696a72a0.html Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT Blame Bush, Obama -- Or Us? When someone screams about a terrible policy of the present administration, just pose four questions: First, was the controversial decision taken with bipartisan support? Second, were there precedents for such action in prior Democratic administratio... http://www.caglepost.com/article/e1480da5-1bc8-42a1-a3c2-b485faeba718.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT Back To The Old 9/11 World For three days, Islamist gunmen nearly shut down Mumbai, the financial center of India. The terrorists -- Pakistani militants, according to Indian authorities -- murdered almost 200 innocents and left hundreds of others wounded, giving reprieve only ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/16b1c324-5d7f-49c4-9bb5-54d0f8fa8f30.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT The Hysterical Style Politicians now predict the implosion of the U.S. auto industry. Headlines warn that the entire banking system is on the verge of utter collapse. The all-day/all-night cable news shows and op-ed columnists talk of another Dark Age on the horizon, as ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/c56a3385-fd49-4874-bf7c-306395b45f9a.html Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT Failure Is Not An Option We all remember the advice about failure we received from our parents and teachers. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." "Learn from your mistakes." "Failure breeds success." The common theme was that some sort of failure in life is inevi... http://www.caglepost.com/article/fe9e8841-1821-44bc-a3b0-2eca5d5a121d.html Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT The Same Old Change We will likely see a lot of political "readjustments" come January, once President-elect Barack Obama and many new Democratic congressmen assume office, and the Republican administration leaves. Take the filibuster. For much of the Bush administratio... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9352390b-0e47-4e94-8fd9-9a0ce7b677cd.html Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT Make Haste Slowly, President Obama? Festina lente. Make haste slowly. That was the motto of the revolutionary minded young Augustus who soon grasped that he needed to build upon Rome's past, rather than dismantle it. Amid the celebration of the historic victory of Barack Obama, the co... http://www.caglepost.com/article/e972e90d-22b0-46b5-b06b-10657d1befde.html Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT America Compared To What? After the September financial meltdown, many abroad, and some at home, immediately -- and with undisguised glee -- blamed America's problems on cowboy excess and forecast the end of American global influence. But while those opportunistic critics had... http://www.caglepost.com/article/bac54bfd-8cf2-46e8-abf7-c3d939c03c95.html Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT The Obama Enigma Lame-duck Republican President Bush's dismal poll ratings have descended to those of Harry Truman's when he left office. The Democratic majority in Congress will probably widen after the election. Republican nominee John McCain has not run a dynamic ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a6129ae8-c218-4be2-bc77-eb40f94cb252.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT It's The Debt, Stupid Who caused the American financial panic and the wild swings in our financial system -- and what are we going to do about it in the long term after the markets settle down? Republicans point to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Politically wired executives ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7848c299-b5aa-48e5-a3b9-57f4f7686f4f.html Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT Correction: Wall Street 101 Until the past few weeks, the financial panic was still mostly far away on Wall Street. But not now. Car loans, mortgages and college financing are suddenly harder to come by. Millions are stuck in houses not worth what is owed on them. Cash-strapped... http://www.caglepost.com/article/d51b8dad-c6a3-4d43-a1f1-2892f792b3c4.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT America's Nervous Breakdown -- And The World's Ancient thinkers from Thucydides to Cicero insisted that money was the real source of military power and national influence. We've been reminded of that classical wisdom these last three weeks. In a manner not seen since the Great Depression, Wall St... http://www.caglepost.com/article/03a0936f-5104-4dd1-a940-8934555ebbe4.html Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT Dr. Frankenstein's Wall Street When the mortgage bubble burst, Americans were "shocked" at how many Wall Street buccaneers had been gambling in a vast pyramid scheme with someone else's money. Paper fortunes were made buying and selling questionable sub-prime mortgages on the sill... http://www.caglepost.com/article/68fb71c0-758e-4746-82fc-13e5b2a16939.html Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Obama Proves All Too Humam Many of the things that Barack Obama did to soar past Hillary Clinton during the primaries are now causing him problems as the general-election race tightens. Obama once ran successfully as a novel outside critic of Washington. He posed as a politica... http://www.caglepost.com/article/2552231c-ce09-4ff9-bd50-86957dcf78f4.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT What Was Feminism? The media went hysterical over Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and Republican nominee for vice president. She may have appeared to the public as an independent, capable professional woman, but to a particular elite she couldn't possibly be a real fem... http://www.caglepost.com/article/68b995f3-ef8a-48f3-9e21-f8181546a209.html Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Want Real Change? Quit Nominating Lawyers! The 2008 presidential campaign is supposed to be a referendum on "change" -- who brings it and who doesn't. Real change, however, hasn't yet proven to mean new politics. The "hope and change" Barack Obama sounds like a traditional Northern liberal wh... http://www.caglepost.com/article/3f9fd83b-65ed-405b-a98c-a7881e8473ca.html Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Farewell, Nato When I was growing up in the 1960s, we had a majestic Santa Rosa plum orchard on my family's farm. The trees were 40 years old and had grown to over 20 feet high. My grandfather would proudly recall how its once-bumper crops of big, sweet plums had h... http://www.caglepost.com/article/e583a3ad-e94b-4580-9dcf-e9bdc042a201.html Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Blame Everyone But Russia! Everyone is distracted by the Olympics. The squabbling here on the campaign trail consumes the media. Two presidential candidates and a lame-duck president all are weighing in on foreign policy. No wonder Vladimir Putin thought it was a good time to ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/187294bd-8299-43c5-a361-af7b5a6d8958.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Brave Old World Russia invades Georgia. China jails dissidents. China and India pollute at levels previously unimaginable. Gulf monarchies make trillions from jacked-up oil prices. Islamic terrorists keep car bombing. Meanwhile, Europe offers moral lectures, while J... http://www.caglepost.com/article/01714b87-862c-4df5-ac26-51a69e12adf5.html Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Hillary's Growing Shadow Barack Obama and John McCain are running neck and neck. Impossible? It would seem so. Republican President Bush still has less than a 30 percent approval rating. Headlines blare that unemployment and inflation are up -- even if we aren't, technically... http://www.caglepost.com/article/dd2f69f4-083d-445a-9dd8-c2fa6f7e8add.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT What If Iraq Works? There is a growing confidence among officers, diplomats and politicians that a constitutional Iraq is going to make it. We don't hear much anymore of trisecting the country, much less pulling all American troops out in defeat. Critics of the war now ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a769686e-1acc-42fe-95f4-f501e3ab94c4.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT The '60s Won't Go Away What more can anyone say about the 1960s and all its legacies? Those who protested some 40 years ago often still congratulate themselves that their loud zeal alone brought needed "change" to America in civil rights, the environment, women's liberatio... http://www.caglepost.com/article/57278b7d-4dd0-4bcf-9256-e10afab7cfee.html Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT America Is Not A Post-Anything In the last 20 years, we were lectured constantly about "post-industrial" America. Experts proclaimed that the United States had evolved into an "information society" of "high-tech jobs." The traditional sources of American strength -- manufacturing,... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7910913a-499d-4f43-985a-54919b695fc5.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT Barack W. Bush? Almost everyone is talking about Barack Obama's flip-flops, as the Senate's most liberal member steadily moves to the political center and disowns firebrands like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger. But less noticed is that Obama is not ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/0a8c7118-2654-4b07-9789-c56e33deb32a.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT Imagining The Election One way to envision the McCain-Obama presidential race is as a boxing match -- particularly like the famous Mohammed Ali championship fights. The deliberate McCain is like a Sonny Liston or George Foreman trying to cut the ring in half and force his ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ff1fe5c2-7f70-406a-93fc-14cdc5c8d9eb.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT The Can't-Do Society We have become a nation of second-guessing Hamlets. Shakespeare warned us about the dangers of "thinking too precisely." His poor Danish prince lost "the name of action," as he dithered and sighed that "conscience does make cowards of us all." With g... http://www.caglepost.com/article/2c8565ea-d76c-4684-a13f-5ae03ccd0627.html Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:00:00 GMT Obama Promises Change -- But What Kind? By this point in the presidential campaign, the public knows that a charismatic Barack Obama wants sweeping "change." While the national media have often fallen hard for the Illinois senator's rhetoric -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews said he felt a "thrill... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a81abb6a-f3cb-4a9e-bb77-e35abc68f318.html Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:00:00 GMT Do The Right Thing -- Start Drilling! The other day in southwestern Fresno County, a poor part of Central California, I talked with a number of folks at a rural gas station. Most drove second- and third-hand pickups, large cast-off sedans or used SUVs. Their general complaint was twofold... http://www.caglepost.com/article/eeb9a5ac-8ff0-4569-890a-40f10a06f641.html Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:00:00 GMT The Bad War? NORMANDY, France -- Questioning the past is a good thing, but rewriting it contrary to facts is quite another. In the latest round of revisionism about the Second World War, the awful British and naive Americans, not the poor Germans, have ended up a... http://www.caglepost.com/article/5885e6af-4451-4816-b3a1-89b5ea41ba90.html Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:00:00 GMT All About Me Here is how our baby-boom generation solves problems: - Recently, George Bush went to Saudi Arabia to ask the ruling House of Saud to pump more oil. That request had about as much chance of success as the Democratic-led congressional effort to "sue" ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b92cd853-5f5a-4277-936d-b54853567759.html Thu, 29 May 2008 07:00:00 GMT Do We Still Have Grants And Shermans? Who becomes a general - and why - tells us a lot about whether our military is on the right or wrong track. The annual spring list of Army colonels promoted to brigadier generals will be shortly released. Already, rumors suggest that this year, unlik... http://www.caglepost.com/article/50aaa13d-520c-4ee3-8ad4-0809cd941b6c.html Thu, 22 May 2008 07:00:00 GMT The War Over The War The war in Iraq is in its sixth year -- and we, the public, are in our sixth year of reading warring accounts about it. The most recent is Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez's "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story." Sanchez, a senior ground commander in Iraq fro... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ceb7ae27-c5e2-4b9f-8178-6e8f3d70a2c0.html Thu, 15 May 2008 07:00:00 GMT Presidential Pariah We are in one of the longest presidential campaigns in modern memory -- and haven't even started focusing on the general election. It's been enough to drive most of us mad, but if there's one person in particular suffering the most, it may be Preside... http://www.caglepost.com/article/5470e071-45fa-4598-831a-ef71387a57cb.html Thu, 08 May 2008 07:00:00 GMT The Half-Won, Half-Lost War The gloomy election-year refrain is that America is mired in Iraq, took its eye off Afghanistan, empowered Iran and is losing the war on terror. But how accurate is that pessimistic diagnosis? First, the good news. For all the talk of a recent Tet-li... http://www.caglepost.com/article/bb6294bf-da7a-4a8b-abe0-3d9bfc78745e.html Thu, 01 May 2008 07:00:00 GMT A New Environmentalism Tuesday was Earth Day, and it reminded us how environmentalism has helped to preserve the natural habitat of the United States -- reducing the manmade pollution of our soils, air and water that is a byproduct of comfortable modern industrial life. Bu... http://www.caglepost.com/article/eb7a77f5-94c9-454d-8943-4a7ead297706.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:00:00 GMT CasualitiesTies of The Campaign It is only four months into 2008, but the presidential campaign -- already too long and nasty -- is still a long way from over. And the casualties are mounting. First, George Bush's popularity remains dismal -- even though some of the complaints abou... http://www.caglepost.com/article/faa93969-02f3-443d-b2cb-e0f79ccfd926.html Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:00:00 GMT Where Have All The Liberals Gone? These days Democrats are not sounding very liberal. Classic liberals, after all, would support free markets, internationalism and the universal desire for constitutional government, while downplaying racial affinity. But the following examples highli... http://www.caglepost.com/article/d428c3e9-346e-4943-82da-d6bdb6bb96e9.html Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:00:00 GMT The Year That Wasn't 2008 was supposed to have been an ideal year for the Democratic Party. There's an unpopular, lame-duck Republican president presiding over an iffy economy and an unpopular war. Plus, the Democrats won big in the 2006 elections, and there's no Republi... http://www.caglepost.com/article/55080def-6180-4450-9fa9-cdeafccb01bb.html Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:00:00 GMT A Speech Sen. Obama Could Have Given Had Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., just said the following words last week in his speech on race in America, his problems with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, would probably now be over: "You have all heard the racist and anti-American outbursts... http://www.caglepost.com/article/54d44fb7-e3f4-4707-a62d-b45890170065.html Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:00:00 GMT Hope And Change Amid Despair "I think the magic is over." That's what French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner recently said about the United States' global reputation. It's never been a great idea to rely on the assessments of French politicians, but the daily news coming out ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/62557705-3e74-43da-9a36-83da4c74e22a.html Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:00:00 GMT The Tired Gaza Two-Step Gaza erupted in celebration last week to the news that a Palestinian had murdered Jewish religious students in Jerusalem. And almost daily terrorists send rockets from Gaza into nearby Israeli cities, hoping to kill civilians and provoke Israeli coun... http://www.caglepost.com/article/3149b297-cdb9-47e5-b1df-0a9cc501264e.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:00:00 GMT Let Obama Be Obama Liberal Democrats from the North haven't had much success in recent presidential elections -- not Hubert Humphrey, not George McGovern, not Walter Mondale, not Mike Dukakis and not John Kerry. Democratic Southerners -- Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter an... http://www.caglepost.com/article/73cc1206-e6a2-4bab-b6bf-ad3deaf43368.html Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:00:00 GMT The World In 2009 When President George Bush leaves office, will America once again be liked by most of the world? Not necessarily, since most current problems are either already getting better or not our fault. When the next president takes office in January 2009, he... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9e4b84e9-5b77-4e26-be9a-b12692ffa8d2.html Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:00:00 GMT Ivy League Populism The rhetoric of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton about the sad state of America is reminiscent of the suspect populism of John Edwards, the millionaire lawyer who recently dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. Barack Obama may have g... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ea6998e4-189d-45fb-a699-9e536aaadd83.html Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:00:00 GMT 'The Candidate' - Starring Barrack Obama In these uncertain times, the relatively new Sen. Barack Obama has become America's "change" candidate. But how different in real terms is the Obama candidacy? Obama's father was from Kenya, and he grew up for a time in Indonesia. But, otherwise, Oba... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9a5c192c-6537-4af3-9c74-12c3f4e325ba.html Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:00:00 GMT Weird Times, Weirder Election In this weird presidential campaign, almost everything has turned out opposite from what pollsters and pundits predicted. Even Super Tuesday proved not-so-super, and things are still not quite settled in either party race. The election was suppose... http://www.caglepost.com/article/69866e72-c29a-4109-b8f8-d70c6cdfd7b2.html Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:00:00 GMT Democrats Want To Lose- But Republicans Don't Want To Win Just a few months ago, the 2008 presidential contest seemed predetermined. The New York lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton were far ahead in their respective party polls. And in the one-on-one match-up, Sen. Clinton was all but declared the fo... http://www.caglepost.com/article/f934745d-b379-4490-8885-62813df931e1.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:00:00 GMT The Moral Economy In this heated campaign season, housing prices are plummeting. Banks write off billions of dollars in unrecoverable debt. The stock market wildly fluctuates almost hourly. Candidates promise painless and near instant relief. But despite the politic... http://www.caglepost.com/article/03cc89ca-8f1f-4c77-9770-88f5b4802e54.html Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:00:00 GMT The Use And Abuse of Reagan Ronald Reagan's presidency was a great success. He rebuilt a chaotic U.S. military and helped end the Cold War. Reagan's radical tax cuts in 1981 spurred economic growth and redefined the relationship between U.S. citizens and their government. And h... http://www.caglepost.com/article/708b49ff-4dea-4dbb-bda1-a803ab336e90.html Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:00:00 GMT The Messy Politics Of Illegal Immigration With the war in Iraq politically on the backburner, illegal immigration is heating up as a campaign issue. The public wants action, and the candidates are scrambling to react. Sen. Hillary Clinton's sure nomination was first questioned when she flub... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9ba2636e-aa14-49c1-b55d-e1953238c28e.html Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:00:00 GMT The Old Warhorse Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., early on was thought to be the frontrunner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. But by summer 2007, he had been written off as a has-been. His poorly funded, lackadaisical campaign nearly ensured that he was put... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a6c33ee8-b7ec-4a39-b6fc-2d1be6432816.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:00:00 GMT The Bills Came Due In 2007 2007 reminded us that our easy way of life comes at a price, and that there are consequences and tradeoffs in almost everything we do. Let's go down the list. Illegal Immigration President Bush's comprehensive immigration bill collapsed this s... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8dea4d65-69c5-43fa-a7ca-1deca9df02e1.html Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:00:00 GMT The Clinton Albatross If polls are accurate, Sen. Hillary Clinton's once-sure bid for the Democratic presidential nomination is now not so sure. Her wide lead vanished without warning in Iowa and New Hampshire - and maybe elsewhere as well. Was it due to her waffling on ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a9102349-fddb-4e12-b54b-e10877452050.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:00:00 GMT All mixed-up over iran Last week's U.S. National Intelligence Estimate states, with "high confidence," that Iran quit trying to get a nuclear bomb in late 2003. That's exactly the opposite of what the NIE reported just two years ago, when it claimed Iran's ruling mullahs w... http://www.caglepost.com/article/6acf2c14-c370-4bcb-a929-8650d39c2d36.html Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:00:00 GMT Of Teddy Bears and Cartoons Here we go again. Thousands of Sudanese Muslims took to the street last week to threaten death to a British schoolteacher in Khartoum. Her crime? She inadvertently committed the felony of allowing her class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad." The ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/10cc349b-0d86-479d-9a8c-7ad74f1581bb.html Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:00:00 GMT A Few Good People In the last few years, it has become popular to say that history is determined largely by sweeping inanimate forces of technology, the environment, gender, class or race. We play down the role of individuals - as if the notion that one person can sha... http://www.caglepost.com/article/eb615703-bfaf-4dfc-bdab-31ae9163c0ee.html Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:00:00 GMT With Iraq Improving, Will Neocon Ideas Return? More than seven months ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., claimed that Iraq was "lost." But that was hardly the case. In fact, Sunni insurgents were just beginning to turn on al-Qaida and join us. So now, despite their noisy anti-w... http://www.caglepost.com/article/0cae0c40-b588-4488-920c-4fb7d9c23ec7.html Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:00:00 GMT When Good News Is No News There's an old expression about war: "Victory has many fathers, while defeat is an orphan." But in the case of Iraq, it seems the other way around. We've blamed many for the ordeal of the last four years, but it is the American victory in Anbar provi... http://www.caglepost.com/article/d58791e8-cb24-4542-8d7a-200a8e6afb40.html Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:00:00 GMT The Oil Hydra Oil is nearly $100 a barrel. Gas may soon reach $4 a gallon. And Americans are being bitten in almost every way imaginable by this insidious oil hydra. Two billion people in China and India are now eager consumers. They want the cars, gadgets and ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a6468e5b-b36a-443f-a4e7-1815f05c5dc0.html Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:00:00 GMT Please - Not Another Farm Bill The House this July passed another five-year, multi-billion-dollar farm support bill. The Senate now has its own version under discussion. And we can probably expect that the compromise bill that passes will be at least the $286 billion allotted by t... http://www.caglepost.com/article/d48480e7-d591-405e-9cd4-65a32c9a2637.html Thu, 01 Nov 2007 07:00:00 GMT So Who's Afraid of an Iranian Bomb? At first glance, it would seem a straightforward thing to stop a relatively weak but volatile Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. It would also seem to be something a concerned world community would be actively working to do. After all, the Sunni ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/cadba575-6eba-4044-9376-bc4120eb252b.html Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:00:00 GMT Congress' New Role: Undermining U.S. Foreign Policy The president establishes American foreign policy and is commander in chief. At least that's what the Constitution states. Then Congress oversees the president's policies by either granting or withholding money to carry them out - in addition to appr... http://www.caglepost.com/article/3035e5d8-5f61-409f-8f10-fb814455925d.html Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:00:00 GMT Hope Yet For Iraq? Iraq for most Americans is now a toxic subject - best either ignored or largely evoked to blame someone for something in the past. Any visitor to Iraq can see that the American military cannot be defeated there, but also is puzzled over exactly ho... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1897bdcb-6bb7-466b-805a-3cea6b4d451e.html Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:00:00 GMT Charge It! America President Bush's current approval ratings are about 32 percent. Only one in four Americans approves of the Democratic-controlled Congress. So why are we so upset with our political leadership? Despite the housing slump, it is not the worst of time... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ad977dd2-c8a9-44a7-8bdf-fe8a073518ec.html Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:00:00 GMT The University Madhouse Have American academics lost their collective minds? This week, Columbia University allowed Iran's loony President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be a lecturer on its campus. In the circus that followed, Ahmadinejad weighed in on everything from Israel... http://www.caglepost.com/article/0b3c2bfd-d048-4541-a4e0-c1faa22b8657.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 07:00:00 GMT What Does Bin Laden Want? We've been arguing over al-Qaida's aims since before 9/11. Some take Osama bin Laden's specific complaints seriously. But we shouldn't, as we learned this month from his latest rambling communiqu?, which faulted America for seemingly everything - glo... http://www.caglepost.com/article/d38995b9-b9e3-445b-9ea3-e828e62f389f.html Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:00:00 GMT Looking for Scapegoat, World Again Turns to Jews Who recently said: ""These Jews started 19 Crusades. The 19th was World War (1). Why? Only to build Israel."" Some holdover Nazi? Hardly. It was former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan of Turkey, a NATO ally. He went on to claim that the Jews -... http://www.caglepost.com/article/03fc6e72-0d92-481c-91d0-e5f4fc467832.html Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:00:00 GMT The Eye of the 9/11 Storm Another anniversary of 9/11 is near. It's been nearly six long years since a catastrophic attack on our shores, and we've understandably turned to infighting and second-guessing - about everything from Guantanamo to wiretaps. But this six-year cal... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8f10470b-283f-4f87-9312-6f153a16e56c.html Thu, 06 Sep 2007 07:00:00 GMT The Many Enemies of George Bush George Bush is not a very popular fellow. Witness the enraged reaction last week from critics to his suggestion that leaving Iraq now could have the same dire consequences as our withdrawal from Vietnam did. ""It just boggles my mind, the distorti... http://www.caglepost.com/article/650bfb3e-dc2b-4dfc-bca2-0206187c6b09.html Thu, 30 Aug 2007 07:00:00 GMT Back to School Blues Last week I went shopping in our small rural hometown, where my family has attended the same public schools since 1896. Without exception, all six generations of us -- whether farmers, housewives, day laborers, business people, writers, lawyers or ed... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ecf45255-81d0-42d7-8fe8-b8b86245f4fd.html Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:00:00 GMT No More Anonymous, Please! The New Republic magazine recently ran into big trouble for publishing a first-person account of military savagery in Iraq. The author, Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, used the pseudonym "Scott Thomas" to write of the debasement of war that he claims he... http://www.caglepost.com/article/fb6d1607-6329-4c74-9939-022787018fc1.html Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:00:00 GMT Surging Politics Critics of the U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq, called for by President George Bush in January, early on cited American losses and then announced the plan's failure. Supporters, on the other hand, have seen progress from new tactics (which, many argue, sh... http://www.caglepost.com/article/bd2fac82-1cc2-4b02-a4d3-05388d73133f.html Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:00:00 GMT Grow Up, Middle East! Radical Islamists love to scream about the "decadent" West. Everything from our operas to our attitudes about women outrage these loud pious critics. As part of their condemnation, fundamentalist Muslims say they put a higher premium on family val... http://www.caglepost.com/article/113c57ce-de67-4e25-a47a-094b5bfda026.html Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:00:00 GMT Back to the Future in the Middle East? If Gen. David Petraeus can't stabilize Iraq by autumn - or if Americans decide to pull out of Iraq before he gets a fair chance - expect far worse chaos eventually to follow. We will see ethnic cleansing; mass murder of Iraqi reformers; Kurdistan thr... http://www.caglepost.com/article/91e7e05c-806d-430a-acd5-6765adb3071e.html Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:00:00 GMT All's Fair in Love and Talk Radio Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., caused a stir recently when she criticized talk radio for its role in stopping the recent immigration bill. Talk radio, she lectured, "pushes people to . . . extreme views without a lot of information." Feinstein ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/05b04b4e-0209-42cf-94e2-c5429dbbc526.html Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:00:00 GMT Upside-Down Politics in the Middle East Jimmy Carter - a self-proclaimed champion of human rights and nonviolence - has called the U.S.'s unwillingness to accept the 2006 Palestinian election of the terrorists of Hamas "criminal." But unlike Carter, Egyptian reformer Sa'd Al-Din Ibrahim... http://www.caglepost.com/article/af669890-7adf-4d73-b16d-4831d4c7676d.html Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:00:00 GMT The Revolt on Illegal Immigration After the utter collapse in the Senate last week of a comprehensive immigration bill, Washington insiders are blaming everyone and everything. Supposedly, talk-radio hysteria killed the bill. Or was it the purported racism of yokels? Or did most o... http://www.caglepost.com/article/6a55756d-2a5f-4e0d-b1ff-97f6acbcc774.html Thu, 05 Jul 2007 07:00:00 GMT The Impending Food Fight While we worry about gas prices, the costs of milk, meat and fresh produce silently skyrockets. So like the end of cheap energy, is the era of cheap food also finally over? Since the farm depression of the early 1980s - remember the first Farm Aid... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a3edc01d-c82b-4930-9f5d-13c6278dfc48.html Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:00:00 GMT More Middle East Madness "The Palestinian people will never forgive the Hamas gangs for looting the home of the Palestinian people's great leader, Yasser Arafat." So Palestinian Authority spokesman Abdel Rahman recently exclaimed. "This crime will remain a stain of disgrace ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/dc2a3b03-1553-4901-a78e-59dbcc163e1d.html Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:00:00 GMT Who is Illiberal on Immigration The collapse last week of a comprehensive immigration bill in Congress that called for a huge guest-worker program, fast-track visas and a sort of earned citizenship for illegal aliens has unleashed a backlash against those opponents of it who prefer... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ef3bd5a2-a516-4296-b2cd-e4711fcf826b.html Thu, 14 Jun 2007 07:00:00 GMT The Other D-Day Sixty-three years ago this week, we landed on the Normandy beaches. As on each anniversary of June 6, 1944, much has been written to commemorate the bravery and competence of the victorious Anglo-American forces. All true. But as we ponder this ac... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b9de9961-b578-4194-b730-df191323dc7e.html Thu, 07 Jun 2007 07:00:00 GMT The Global Immigration Problem Thousands of aliens crossing our 2,000-mile border from an impoverished Mexico reflect a much larger global one-way traffic problem. In Germany, Turkish workers - both legal and illegal - are desperate to find either permanent residence or citize... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9191b867-0386-49d5-91dd-52c8fcc1eeda.html Wed, 30 May 2007 07:00:00 GMT Is Sky Falling on America? The suicide-murders and roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan sicken Americans. Soon-to-be nuclear Iran seems loonier than nuclear North Korea. American debt keeps piling up in China and Japan. And we think of angry Venezuela, the Middle East and Ru... http://www.caglepost.com/article/55ac3f42-e217-4e4e-b534-14adf9851f3e.html Thu, 24 May 2007 07:00:00 GMT

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