Friday, April 26, 2013

Bet He Wishes He Hadn't Said That

Obama’s ‘Red Line’ Comes Back to Trip Him, Newsday, April 26, 2013. "Last August, President Barack Obama called the use of chemical weapons a “red line.” He now faces a hard choice: Admit his red line was phony or intervene in a conflict he has sought to avoid."

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Vladimir Putin's Crocodile Tears for Boston

After Boston, Regard Vladimir Putin’s Sympathy With Distrust, Newsday, April 24, 2013. "Russian strongman Vladimir Putin expressed his sympathy for the victims of the Boston bombings last week. But make no mistake: Putin sees the bombings as an opportunity to rebuild relations with the United States on his terms."

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Samatha Powers and the Hypocrisy of the Atrocities Prevention Board

Atrocities Prevention Board, One Year Later, Contentions, April 23, 2013. "It’s about as likely that the U.S. will develop the ability to predict atrocities before they happen as it is that we’ll develop the ability to predict events like the Arab Spring before they happen. It’s all too easy to make a list of places where bad things are more likely to happen: any place where government is either really strong or really weak is a contender to head the list. Nor is there any secret about where the world’s atrocities are happening today: Syria, North Korea, Iran, the DRC, and Sudan, among others. The usual suspects. The problem is not that we lack the administrative tools to recognize this. It’s not even that this administration has in practice been more interested in cozying up to Russia, downplaying radical Islamism, and kicking the can down the road in Syria and Iran, though all of that will feature heavily in the work of a future Samantha Power. It’s that these are, in Power’s own words, problems from hell, and you don’t address problems from hell with a nice, well-mannered, invisible inter-agency board."

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Margaret Thatcher, Stakhanovite

Margaret Thatcher’s Lesson: To Triumph, Do Your Homework, Newsday, April 16, 2013. "Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s greatest prime minister since Winston Churchill, will be laid to rest today. In life, Thatcher never rested. American politicians, who have fallen into a bad habit of legislating for the camera, need to learn her habit of sweating the details instead."

On Lady Thatcher's Funeral

Margaret Thatcher’s Funeral: America Says Goodbye to a Friend, with Luke Coffey, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 17, 2013. "Margaret Thatcher will be missed. But as the world says good-bye to the Iron Lady, we can take comfort in knowing that her legacy will outlive us all."

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

On Thatcherism and Development

The Problem with Socialism Is that Sooner or Later You Run Out of Other People’s Money, Guardian, April 16, 2013. "Thatcher's achievement was to challenge this increasingly stagnant status quo by making decisions about what to prioritise, thus rejecting the belief in the state as the enabler of all good things. Predictably, it earned her the hatred of the left."

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Why Americans Liked Lady Thatcher

"Thatcher’s Radical Spirit Bridged the Atlantic to Drive a Revival of the West," Yorkshire Post, April 11, 2013. Not available online. "There’s no great mystery about why Americans liked Margaret Thatcher. They liked her because she liked them, and she said so, publicly and repeatedly. She was perfectly willing to be critical about the United States, when she thought it was appropriate, but it was always clear that she spoke as a friend."

Monday, April 8, 2013

On Lady Thatcher's Convictions

A Leader with Conviction, National Review Online, April 8, 2013. "Margaret Thatcher was not a woman who liked to look back. She never enjoyed watching her appearances on television, and when her office praised her after a victory, she replied by asking what they were going to do next. Only a leader with that kind of commitment could have rescued Britain from the slump in which it was mired in the 1970s."

Thursday, April 4, 2013

The ATT: Bad Treaty, Worse Precedent

Arms Trade Treaty: Problems with Substance and Process, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3892, April 4, 2013. "The concept of the ATT is inherently flawed, and the treaty as adopted contains significant defects. Because of these flaws, the U.S. should neither sign nor ratify the ATT. But the process by which it was adopted is even more damaging. The U.S. should in the future uphold consensus as a negotiating red line, stop supporting the transfer of failed consensus-based negotiations to the majority-rule GA, and recognize that the GA vote on the ATT is only the beginning of the process of treaty interpretation and amendment."

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

For the ATT, A Bad Treaty, A Bad Process

U.N. General Assembly Adopts the Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 2, 2013. "This morning, by a vote of 154 nations in favor (including the United States), 23 abstentions, and three against (Syria, North Korea, and Iran), the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The treaty will be open for national signature on June 3, 2013, and will enter into force for its signatories when it has been signed and ratified by 50 nations."

Monday, April 1, 2013

At the ATT, A Classic Illustration of How to Blame the U.S.

The Arms Trade Treaty: The Big Lie About July 2012, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 1, 2013. "One of the unreported stories about the negotiation of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) at the United Nations is the effort by many U.N. members, supplemented by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), to blame the failure of the first negotiating conference last July on the United States. This story demonstrates the widespread eagerness to blame the U.S. for anything, which in turn sheds light on how the ATT, once it comes into being, will be interpreted and implemented in practice."

At the ATT Conference, the Worst of All Possible Worlds

The End of the Arms Trade Treaty Conference Is Not the End of the Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 1, 2013. "Late on Thursday, the U.N. conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) fell apart when Iran, North Korea, and Syria opposed the treaty. This was a surprise to virtually all the conference observers. By mid-day Friday, almost everyone thought the treaty would get done that day, if only because the delegates were too tired of the process to do anything else. Sure, there were rumors of trouble with Iran and North Korea, but when Iran’s PressTV reported that Tehran was on board with the treaty, it was hard to take the rumors seriously. The first lesson is that as long as Iran’s regime is talking, they’re lying."

The Aftermath of the Final ATT Negotiating Conference

At the UN Arms Trade Treaty Talks, The Dictators Rule the Day, Foxnews.com, April 1, 2013. "The new Axis of Evil did object. But they weren't the only ones. I should know: I was in the room for the entire seven-hour session. The conference rules stated that only a single nation had to speak up to stop the treaty, so when Iran objected, it was game over. Syria and North Korea were merely piling on. But after the conference failed, we saw that it wasn't just those three nations that opposed the treaty."