Middle East & Israel

While the objectives of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan differed significantly, their shortcomings had much in common. Whereas the war with Iraq was justified by reference to evidence of a somewhat indeterminate WMD threat, the case for war in Afghanistan was based...

Despite the rapidity and efficiency of the American war in Iraq–and the glowing moments accompanying the liberation of Baghdad–the Bush administration has confronted a series of embarrassments since major combat operations were declared over on May 1st....

Few Americans would want to trade places with the people of Iraq. But come tax time next April, they may begin to wonder who’s better off. That’s because the Iraqis soon will enjoy something we don’t — a simple and fair tax system. Beginning in...

Three years after the Palestinians’ violent response to the most generous and practical proposal by an Israeli government to end the decades-long conflict, hatred directed at Israel as a Jewish State has never been as extreme. From paeans to homicide bombings by...

What to do in Iraq? The question is made urgent by the steady attrition of coalition forces, punctuated by seven large car-bomb explosions. The latest of them, on Sunday, killed six and wounded dozens at the Baghdad Hotel. More broadly, the briefly held gratitude to...

Voices on the left argue that Iraq will become a “quagmire” because of U.S. “arrogance” and “unilateralism.” They are actually half-right: disaster may indeed be looming–but only because of a lack of self-assertiveness by the...

Israel’s proposed border fence, a necessary physical separation between a lawful nation and its homicidal neighbors, is a powerful symbol of the political gulf separating the West from the Arab world. When Israel was founded, its inhabitants established the only...

“I have developed a habit,” writes Richard Ingrams, a columnist for The Guardian, a far-left British newspaper, “when confronted by letters to the editor in support of the Israeli government to look at the signature to see if the writer has a Jewish...

Israel’s recent release of approximately 400 prisoners – including 210 members of known Arab terrorist organizations – is immoral, as those released directly threaten the lives of Israelis. Though the Palestinian Intifada officially ended — for...

In an agreement brokered last month by U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian terrorist groups agreed to a temporary cease-fire on condition that Israel ceases its practice of “targeted killings” (executing would-be terrorists before...

Pundits say creating a free Iraq means “democratically” divvying up political power among its various religious and ethnic factions. “[We need] to make sure all the different groups get a fair shot,” said Senator Trent Lott recently. That just...

Israel’s proposed border fence, a necessary physical separation between a lawful nation and its homicidal neighbors, is a powerful symbol of the political gulf separating the West from the Arab world. When Israel was founded, its inhabitants established the only...

The bromide, often quoted today, that we have won the war but now we have to “win the peace,” is meant to remind us that we have to turn from achieving our military goals to achieving our political goals in Iraq. But what if our political goals were such...

For years, we have heard about Saddam’s brutal suppression of political freedoms in Iraq where free elections, free speech, and a free press were non-existent. But we have heard little about the absence in Iraq of economic freedom and opportunity. As leader of...

With the end of war, the United States is now working rapidly to restore civil administration in Iraq and get its economy moving again. A key issue will be the Iraqi tax system, which cannot wait until all the questions about Iraq’s form of government are worked...

Who’s to blame for the destruction of Iraqi museums, libraries and archives, amounting to what The New York Times calls “one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle Eastern history”? The Bush administration, say academic specialists on...

Having been forced to recognize that our soldiers won a brilliant military victory in Iraq, media commentators are trying to minimize that achievement by loudly proclaiming how much more difficult it will be to “win the peace” by establishing a stable and...

Estimated to cost as much as $200 billion, the plan for rebuilding post-war Iraq is astounding in its scope–from repairing roads and sewer systems to revamping the Iraqi government payroll system and printing school textbooks. Yet no one is paying attention to...

Leaders of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund met in Washington over the weekend for their annual spring meeting. They were under great pressure from the United States to step in to Iraq and help get that country’s economy back on its feet. However,...

Many of those who oppose military action in Iraq cite the cost as a principal reason. Before the war, they often exaggerated the monetary outlay, the loss of American lives, the danger of a long war and other concerns in order to discourage U.S. engagement. They were...

In exchange for a withdrawal of US and British troops, Saddam Hussein sends word that he is prepared to share some of his power with a senior member of his Baathist inner circle. Instead of maintaining absolute control over the Iraqi state, Saddam agrees to name Tariq...

The Bush Administration has accused Moscow of selling sensitive military equipment to Saddam Hussein in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions. During a March 24th telephone conversation, President George W. Bush discussed the sales of night vision goggles,...

The campaign to liberate Iraq is going well, though you might not know it from the shock and awe of the media, which apparently discovered only this week that war — even for a winning army — is hell. As is the case in nearly every war, brave soldiers have...

Every day, Americans watch their televisions in awe, as U.S. cruise missiles and precision bombs rain down on Baghdad. There is also much destruction going on elsewhere in Iraq. It may seem absurd, therefore, to suggest that the war in Iraq could somehow end up being...