Monthly Archives: May 2002

Some look at Israel and

Some look at Israel and fear that its current besieged state is a preview of life in America in years to come. Maybe so. But there are at least two basic differences between our situation and Israel’s. First, Israel is a tiny island of western civilization amid three hundred million Arabs. Notwithstanding recent patterns of immigration, it will always be more difficult for Arabs to operate secretly in the United »

Many people are depressed, I

Many people are depressed, I think, because they fear that our current enemies are too fanatical to be stopped. This is why suicide bombers are so horrifying. But the reality is that there have always been a great many people willing to die, as well as kill, for their beliefs. That is a constant through history. Japan’s kamikaze bombers are one obvious example out of many. A Japanese person piloting »

The second reason why some

The second reason why some bloggers have gotten pessimistic, I think, is the recent wave of terror alerts relating to everything from apartment buildings to scuba divers. Presumably these alerts are intended to point up the foolishness of Democrats who try to criticize the Administration for not having issued enough alerts prior to Sept. 11. As such they seem pretty effective to me. But I guess what makes people nervous »

Of course, what’s mostly of

Of course, what’s mostly of interest to me these days is the war. Lately, pessimism seems to be spreading through the blogosphere. Perennial optimist Andrew Sullivan has been leading the way, most recently wondering whether the Administration is “giving up on the war.” Whoa. That’s a rapid turnabout. InstaPundit has been getting pessimistic too, although more about nuclear war, I guess, than anything else. Reynolds balances that by being optimistic »

This is a new blog

This is a new blog dedicated to current events and any topics that are of interest to me. »

Maryland Democrat seeks American assurances for China and Russia

There probably are members of Congress who show greater deference to America’s adversaries than does my representative, Chris Van Hollen, but there aren’t many. In his examination of U.N. Ambassador John Bolton during hearings before a House committee (carried on C-SPAN), Van Hollen took the position that we are having trouble getting China and Russia to support tough U.N. action against Iran because the Bush administration cited prior U.N. resolutions »