The Conditional Support Obama Should Offer Iraq
As a conspiratorial Shiite who spent long years of exile in Iran, Nouri al-Maliki has long been suspicious of the United States and overconfident about the capabilities of his own security forces. He had to be brought around to support the U.S. troop surge in 2007 because even then, even as the state was collapsing around him, he had exaggerated ideas about the ability of the Iraqi military to handle matters on his own. Four years later, in 2011, he drove such a hard bargain over renewing the U.S. Status of Forces Agreement that President Obama walked away and left Iraq bereft of all U.S. troops. Maliki didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, at least not in public.
The Conditional Support Obama Should Offer Iraq
Must-Reads from Magazine
Notes on Trump’s Usurper
The 2020 race has begun.
It’s no secret that President Donald Trump is no fan of Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. He’s gone so far as to encourage Flake’s prospective primary challengers and to attack Flake at a rally in the senator’s home state. Turnabout is fair play. Asked whether the president’s habit of engaging in internecine feuds with his fellow Republicans made a primary challenge to Trump more likely, Flake did not give a political answer. “I think he’s inviting one,” he said. Flake is right, but don’t take his word for it. Donald Trump’s own pollster confirms it.
Not What You Expect In a President
Podcast: Does Trump have to start worrying about the primary?
The second COMMENTARY podcast of the week features me, Noah Rothman, and Abe Greenwald digging deep into new polls—including one issued by President Trump’s own pollster showing Trump with shockingly low support among Republicans as they look ahead to the 2020 primaries—and exploring the question of whether the president actually wants a border wall or just wants to keep talking about one to keep his base riled up. Give a listen.
Fear of What Other People Think
The savior complex.
When James Clapper, Obama’s former director of national security, said last night that he questions President Donald Trump’s “fitness to be in this office,” he was referring to the president’s mental faculties. The longtime national security analyst was being coy; in blunter terms, he appears increasingly convinced that the president is mad and “could be” a threat to his country’s national security.
Down Syndrome Speaks
Modern day eugenicists.
Last week’s CBS News report on the virtual eradication of Down Syndrome in Iceland shed rare and necessary light on the growing threats to the dignity of life across the West and in Northern Europe in particular. With new tests that can detect chromosomal abnormalities earlier in the pregnancy and with greater precision, an entire category of human beings faces extermination in societies that claim to prize tolerance and diversity above all.
England’s Online Speech Crackdown
Hate speech is free speech.
Censors are always looking for fresh opportunities to censor. So they relish moments of ideological ferment, antagonism, and intemperateness. At such times, people are more susceptible to moral panic and likelier to silence opposing views. We are living through such a moment now, with neo-Nazis, Communists, and various other haters and cranks on the march, both in the streets and online. That’s why open societies should be doubly vigilant against efforts to restrict free expression.