21 Tuesday Oct 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Times
One big question on the minds of politically attuned Californians these days is what people in Washington make of the recall venture here – the process itself, the ugliness of the campaign, the landslide election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I tell them that the view from the east is mired in condescension. Which is too bad, because Californians have taught us some useful political lessons.
20 Monday Oct 2003
Posted in Weekly Standard
The Kay Report suggests he had one, and it almost worked.
The Weekly Standard
DAVID KAY’S interim report on the investigation into Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs leaves open as many questions as it answers. Exactly what was underway and at what stage of development is still unknown. But it does establish to a certainty the critical point that Saddam had every intention of reconstituting chemical, biological, and nuclear programs as soon as he could. And this, in turn, allows us to bring some informed speculation to bear on what has been one of the great puzzles of the war: What was Saddam Hussein’s strategy?
14 Tuesday Oct 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Times
One of my fellow dads angled up to me on the sidelines of our daughters’ soccer game two Saturdays ago, gave me a wry smile and asked whether I thought this leak scandal had legs.
07 Tuesday Oct 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Times
The interim report issued last week by David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group [ISG] looking into Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs, ought to dispel all doubt on the central point leading to the decision to go to war: The Saddam regime belonged in the category of those uniquely dangerous to peace and stability. The security concerns on which this war of prevention were based were all too real.
30 Tuesday Sep 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Times
To judge by my own reaction, perceptions are lagging reality a bit when it comes to the former Yugoslavia. The beautiful lakeside town of Ohrid, Macedonia, was the scene this weekend of a conference bringing together leading officials from the Balkans. The years of upheaval in the former Yugoslavia, all agree, are past. The horrible, bloody and uncertain decade of the 1990s is over. The lives and the opportunity for progress lost are to be mourned. But it is time to move forward, and that was the agenda at Ohrid.
23 Tuesday Sep 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Times
When I first met Wes Clark at a small Washington dinner party when he was supreme allied commander in Europe, I quickly concluded that he had a bright political future if he was inclined to pursue it. That he might well be so inclined once his military career came to a close was an impression he did little to dispel. In addition to an obvious intelligence and the demeanor of complete self-assurance that is common in the top ranks of the military, he spoke about foreign policy and the importance of the spread of freedom in neo-Reaganite terms. This was especially important to me at the time, coming as it did as some of us were working on making the case for the enlargement of NATO to the territory of the former Warsaw Pact [and since, of the former Soviet Union itself].
16 Tuesday Sep 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Times
Democrats and allied pundits more or less universally panned President Bush’s speech on Iraq from a week ago Sunday. The more responsible voices of opposition welcomed Mr. Bush’s commitment to doing whatever is necessary to ensure that postwar Iraq is a success, taking the $87 billion price tag as occasion to change the subject to Mr. Bush’s tax cut and the ballooning federal budget deficit. This is honest partisan criticism – and a point to which we will return.
09 Tuesday Sep 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Post
In politics, as one of my favorite adages holds, you begin where you are. It is folly to act out of a wish that the past can be undone. Likewise, is it folly to imagine you can skip ahead to the future without the bother of getting there from the here-and-now. Those who fail to appreciate either aspect of beginning where you are usually find themselves vexed by those who get it.
02 Tuesday Sep 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Times
The worst news for organized labor this Labor Day week is that the postwar agenda of trade liberalization now seems to be getting back on track. Congress solidly approved new bilateral agreements this summer with Singapore and Chile. Later this month, the World Trade Organization [WTO] convenes a meeting of trade ministers in Mexico, at which point it should become clearer whether momentum is gathering for a broad multilateral reduction in tariffs worldwide. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has to consider whether or not to undo its worst economic decision to date – the 2002 imposition of steep tariffs on imported steel, which the WTO ruled out of bounds this summer.
26 Tuesday Aug 2003
Posted in Washington Times
The Washington Times
It’s time to get back to basics on the Iraq occupation. Maybe with the summer heat breaking in Washington, if not yet in Baghdad, people will be taking the occasion to cool their more fevered pronouncements on the subject. A few points to review:
Tod Lindberg 