How to Vote for the President
Wed 20 Aug 2008 • Responses: 3 • by William Edgar
Character, discernment, trust
Senior Fellow William Edgar looks at the factors we should consider in the upcoming U.S. elections—or any election, for that matter.
Humanitarian ‘Impulses’ vs. Convictions
Wed 20 Aug 2008 by Joseph Loconte
Writing in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Princeton professor Gary Bass observes that despite the ongoing crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan and the difficulties in the U.S.-led war in Iraq, “the idea of humanitarian intervention remains intact.”
In his essay, “Humanitarian Impulses: Why Interventions Aren’t Going Away,” Mr. Bass argues that the concept of military intervention to stop ethnic cleansing and genocide is as much a European idea as an American one:
Putin’s Brezhnev Doctrine
Wed 20 Aug 2008 • Responses: 1 • by David Aikman
Forty years ago this August, all of Europe and the U.S. watched with horror as the Soviet army, in conjunction with units from four of its Warsaw Pact allies, rolled into Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring.” The “Spring” had been a dramatic movement for reform and liberalization of Czechoslovakia’s Communist system that had been introduced by Czech Communist leader Alexander Dubcek and some others.
The 200,000 invading troops met only token resistance, because Dubcek had ordered Czech citizens not to oppose the invasion. But in a singular act of brutal humiliation, Dubcek and his associates were transported to Moscow in chains in the belly of a Soviet cargo plane, then made to face the bullying shouts of the assembled Soviet Politburo. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev’s rationale for the invasion became known as the “Brezhnev doctrine,” a principle that Communist Party control of the countries of Eastern Europe should never have to submit to reforms that might bring capitalism and democracy to them.
The U.N.’s Human Rights Charade
Wed 13 Aug 2008 by Joseph Loconte
The Geneva-based U.N. Watch has just released its critique of the tenure of former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour. Entitled, “The Right to Name and Shame,” the report offers a clear-eyed look at the record of the U.N.’s most prestigious human-rights official. Sadly—but predictably—Ms. Arbour’s performance, painstakingly examined, receives mixed reviews:
The Greatness of Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008)
Mon 11 Aug 2008 by David Aikman
A Second Look
David Aikman looks back at his three interviews with the great Russian writer and offers a different assessment of his life, message, and influence.
Social Justice and Conservative Politics
Sun 10 Aug 2008 • Responses: 2 • by Joseph Loconte
Americans don't pay much attention to the domestic politics of other countries, but the tectonic shift of political fortunes in Great Britain deserves some reflection. In a recent cover story of The Weekly Standard, "First, Lose Three Straight Elections," executive editor Fred Barnes describes how the Conservative Party has emerged from a long and lonely trek in the wilderness. The youthful face and articulate voice of party leader David Cameron only partially explains their astonishingly strong support in public opinion polls. Once known as "the nasty party," Conservatives have redefined themselves—not only in style but in substance.
Islamist Ideology in the UK: Doing Fine
Sun 10 Aug 2008 by David Aikman
Three years after “7/7,” the British version of 9/11, when four suicide bombers immolated themselves and fifty-two other innocents—British people, foreign residents, or visitors to the UK, including Muslims and an Israeli woman who feared to return to Israel because of the danger of suicide bombings—any belief that the Islamist rage fueling the murderous rampage grew out of economic resentment has surely been laid to rest.
At least two new two pieces of information back up this view. First, poll after poll has revealed that British-born Muslims at British universities share a view of Islam dangerously sympathetic to Islamism, the preferred technical term for radical Islamic ideology. Second, two former British Islamists, Ed Husain and Maarjid Nawaz, have founded a counter-extremist Islamic think-tank in the UK that exposes the domestic roots of British Islamic extremism and is attempting to counter extremist ideas freely current in the British Muslim community.
Evangelicals, AIDS, and the Presidential Race
Wed 06 Aug 2008 by Joseph Loconte
Megachurch pastor Rick Warren will deliver questions about faith, values, and human rights at a forum this month with presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain. Given the vapid media treatment of the presidential campaign so far, Mr. Warren’s event could raise the political profile of issues such as Sudan and global AIDS, issues that he and his evangelical congregation care about deeply. Yet it runs the risk of inviting political pandering and blurring the real ideological divisions between the candidates.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, RIP
Sun 03 Aug 2008 by TTF Staff
“A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country.”
Broken Promises for Human Rights in China
Tue 29 Jul 2008 by Joseph Loconte
Though painfully overdue, a leading human-rights organization has finally focused serious and sustained attention on a leading human-rights abuser: China. In a scathing report released ten days before the Olympic Games in Beijing, Amnesty International has concluded that China “continues to persecute and punish” those who advocate for human rights and democratic reform.
