Fifteen years ago, a deep pessimism seemed to be stalking the American landscape. It arose from diverse quarters, took different forms, and cited a congeries of different symptoms–military, economic, social, cultural, and spiritual–in support of its dark diagnosis. For some, like the Yale historian Paul Kennedy, America's commitments abroad–dubbed by Kennedy a species of “imperial

We haven't reached the point where the wheels are coming off the Clinton campaign. But we're getting close. The last few weeks have been very bad ones for her, from her contradictory answers (within two minutes) on whether illegal aliens should get drivers licenses, to Bill Clinton's (false) claim that he opposed the Iraq war

Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has written an article for Foreign Affairs magazine, the first two paragraphs of which are stunningly silly, misguided, and, unfortunately for Huckabee, deeply revealing. The two opening paragraphs read this way: The United States, as the world's only superpower, is less vulnerable to military defeat. But it

The man who authored The Death of the West has now turned his considerable spirit of despair to America. Patrick J. Buchanan has written Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart. According to excerpts posted on The Drudge Report Monday, Buchanan writes, “America is coming apart, decomposing, and …. The

Two and a half years ago–in the wake of elections in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, and especially Iraq (as well as the fall of Lebanon's pro-Syrian government) — we were witness to what became known as the “Arab Spring.” Commentators were declaring President Bush's “freedom agenda” a success. In February 2005, New York Times columnist

Since the rise of the religious New Right two generations ago, the religion-and-politics battle in America has been fought on many fronts. The most obvious one involves electoral politics, although even here the story is not so straightforward as often depicted. As Richard John Neuhaus showed two decades ago, the new activism of evangelical and

Much of the political class is talking about Senator Larry Craig, who pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in an airport restroom. What has garnered so much attention in this case is that Craig, a conservative Republican who is married, was arrested because he was attempting to engage in “lewd conduct” with another

If 2006 was an awful year for Iraq, then 2007 has been significantly better. Although the central government is frustratingly ineffective and Iraq remains a fragile and riven nation, we are seeing indisputable evidence of progress in the security realm, as well as political reconciliation from the bottom up. Iraq, which was hurling toward civil

As we approach next month’s report by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, the debate about Iraq will intensify. One key point of discussion will be a threshold question: How important is Iraq in the larger war against Islamic extremism? Is Iraq a central battleground in the fight against jihadists, or a distraction? Many leading political

As a friend and former colleague of both Matthew Scully and Michael Gerson — I was deputy director of speechwriting in the Bush administration in 2001-02 — I have many thoughts on the piece written by Matt in the forthcoming issue of The Atlantic). But as a preliminary matter, I should say I believe Scully’s