Category Archives: War Commentary

Business, Economics, Health, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Disintegrating Obama Presidency

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Steve Hayes has a long piece (necessarily, because it’s such a target rich environment) on how it is chock full of fail.

[Update a couple minutes later]

This isn’t from the essay, but rather from Jonah Goldberg’s latest “newsletter” (so no link), but it seems apt:

Islamic State took Fallujah and Mosul months ago and he kept calling it the “jayvee team.” As recently as August, he was telling Tom Friedman that it was ridiculous to arm the Syrian rebels. In September, he was wistfully complaining that the Islamic State made a mistake in beheading those Americans because it aroused U.S. public opinion for war. In other words, doing nothing about the Islamic State was Obama’s foreign policy until the domestic political situation made his foreign policy untenable. Chess Masters think many moves ahead, novices respond to whatever their opponent’s latest move is. Total amateurs just move pieces based on shouts from the crowd watching the game. Obama’s like a kid looking for approval every time he touches a piece.

It’s sad because it’s true.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Declaring War On ISIS

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Thoughts on presidential powers from Richard Epstein.

I’ve been thinking about a long post on whether or not we’ve entered a post-Westphalia era. A lot of the confusion we’ve had over the past thirteen years has arisen from the fact that we’ve never had a formal declaration of war. If ISIS is a state (in the Westphalian sense), it is one that has certainly declared war on us, and a great deal of clarity would form if we were to reciprocate. It would end all this nonsense of treating Islamic terrorism as a criminal matter. They are no different from the Nazis, and their goals are in fact more vile and ambitious. As Netenyahu said yesterday, the Nazis believed in a master race, and they believe in a master religion.