The Washington Times

When the war started, an acquaintance asked me if I was going to be busy during the course of it thinking of the possibility, no doubt, that I might be doing commentary of one kind or another. No, I said, for what it’s worth, I didn’t think I’d be busy at all, which suited me fine. U.S. strategy, national security and high politics, yes, but I don’t do military operations. I’m happy, I said, to leave that to the generals for the duration. I’d be glad to come back when we are doing politics again, but not until we are done with the continuation of politics by other means, namely, the fighting, which I am not qualified to address.

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The Washington Times

In this space last week, I published a statement I signed along with 22 others, roughly equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, calling for a U.S. commitment to “the establishment of a peaceful, stable, united, prosperous, and democratic Iraq free of all weapons of mass destruction.”

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The Washington Times

I devote my space this week to a statement I signed with 22 others just before the war started. I won’t claim that the list of signers is uniquely bipartisan in the annals of Washington, but it does show that common ground need not be obtained at the expense of clarity. The statement contains an unequivocal endorsement of military action and an equally unequivocal vision of what must happen afterward.

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The Washington Times

The only time I ever saw Zoran Djindjic, the prime minister of Serbia who was assassinated as he stepped out of a car in front of his Belgrade office last week, was at an off-the-record appearance he made in Washington not long after Slobodan Milosevic gave up as ruler of Yugoslavia. One appearance was enough, however, for him to make a lasting impression as one of the most serious and brilliant politicians on the world stage. What happened last week was a timely and shocking reminder that even the serious and brilliant are sometimes not serious and brilliant enough for the tasks they face.

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The Washington Times

On the question of war with Iraq, I think there are no more arguments to advance, pro or con. At this point, everything that is serious on either side of the question has been fully and competently aired. There will yet be a certain additional amount of nonsense coming out, but the serious cases are subject now only to restatement.

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The Washington Times

There was no reason to be surprised by the content of President Bush’s speech last week laying out his postwar vision for a free Iraq. There is nevertheless ample reason to marvel at the scope of its ambition – and by extension, the president’s own.

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The Washington Times

When top Democratic campaign operative Donna Brazile grants an interview to The Washington Times telling Democrats they had better watch how they handle their attacks on presidential aspirant Al Sharpton lest the party run the risk of losing its hold on the black vote, I think the metaphor that can fairly be applied is “going nuclear.” What is going on?

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The Washington Times

In 1981-82, millions of demonstrators gathered in the streets of Western Europe to protest the planned deployment of U.S. Pershing II missiles in response to the Soviet Union’s intermediate-range nuclear weapons. The government of West Germany’s Social Democrat Chancellor Helmut Schmidt fell over the uncontainable opposition to the Pershings from the left wing of his own party. The new German chancellor was the largely unknown and untested Helmut Kohl.

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The Washington Times

Eventually, the Iraq business will be over. Then it will be time for those most vexed with the Bush administration over Saddam Hussein – namely, left-wing Democratic partisans at home and an uncertain segment of opinion abroad – to find something else about which to be driven to distraction. May I suggest a closer look at a creeping Bush neo-environmentalist agenda touched upon in the State of the Union speech?

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The Washington Times

I wouldn’t bet the farm on it, but in fact there is a decent chance of another Security Council resolution on Iraq – one declaring that Saddam Hussein has missed his last chance and authorizing the forcible disarmament of Iraq. If there is, it will be an amazing diplomatic achievement for the Bush administration.

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