I was elected to end wars, not start them. — Barack Obama The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. — George Orwell A question has hung in the air since Barack Obama first moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and began his "fundamental transformation" of this country: Did he intend harm, or was he merely so blinded by ideology…

There are no sure things in politics, but Hillary Clinton is the closest thing to a sure thing to become the Democrats' candidate for president in 2016. This is one of the painful but inescapable signs of our time. There is nothing in her history that would qualify her for the presidency, and much that should disqualify her. What is even more painful…

After the pro-Western government of China was forced to flee to the island of Taiwan in 1949, when the Communists took over mainland China, bitter recriminations in Washington led to the question: "Who lost China?" China was, of course, never ours to lose, though it might be legitimate to ask if a different American policy toward China could…

What to make of President Obama's interpretation of the Iranian leadership? Challenged by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg to account for the seeming inconsistency of relying on the rationality of a regime that holds a profoundly anti-Semitic worldview, the president denied that the "venomous anti-Semitism" (his words) of the mullahs is a…

"Did George W. Bush Create ISIS?"  That's a headline question The New Yorker asked in its latest issue.  Predictably, the Obama Administration and left-leaning apologists engage in the same blame diffusion as ISIS expands its territorial control and ghoulish body count.  Even Rand Paul, looking to boost his 2016 presidential…

Headless bodies lie in the sand. Above those corpses stand the black-clad minions of ISIS, outlined against the coastline of Libya. This is the second video in three months depicting Islamic terrorists cutting the heads off of Christian captives. Bodies float in the Mediterranean Sea, face down. Twelve Christian bodies, thrown from a rubber boat by…

Two relatively recent photos of Barack Obama with foreign leaders reveal much about his deep-dyed leftism. The first features President Obama and democratically elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of one of America's most loyal friends. Obama looks strained. His face is stiff, and his eyes are veiled. The second is a snap of Obama at…

By abandoning virtually all its demands for serious restrictions on Iran's nuclear bomb program, the Obama administration has apparently achieved the semblance of a preliminary introduction to the beginning of a tentative framework for a possible hope of an eventual agreement with Iran. But even this hazy "achievement" may vanish like a…

Recent statements from United Nations officials, that Iran is already blocking their existing efforts to keep track of what is going on in their nuclear program, should tell anyone who does not already know it that any agreement with Iran will be utterly worthless in practice. It doesn't matter what the terms of the agreement are, if Iran can cheat…

Maybe I'm too sensitive, but when a foreign autocrat leads his people in chants of "Death to America," I take it personally. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry apparently don't. The chant, which became a staple of the Islamic Republic during the 1979 revolution, is not a relic of the past. Just last weekend, at a rally in…

There is a unicorn lair in North Korea. We know this because the Dear Leader of North Korea, Kim Jung Un, tells us so. According to the official Korean Central News Agency, archaeologists have "recently reconfirmed" the existence of the unicorn lair dating back to the Koryo Kingdom (918-1392). President Obama has his own unicorn lair. It…

Is there no end to the circus parade of tawdry Clinton family scandals?  Hillary's ill-advised and potentially illegal email activity as Secretary of State rightfully occupies the electorate's attention.  As GeekWire.com security expert Christopher Budd concluded, it might "represent one of the most serious breaches in data handling…

"Traitors!" screamed the headline of the New York Daily News. "Beneath the dignity of the institution I revere," huffed Vice President Joe Biden. "Dangerous and irresponsible," opined The Washington Post's David Ignatius. President Obama offered that it was "ironic" that the senators were on the same side as…

Senator Tom Cotton is out to teach the Iranian leadership a lesson about the U.S. Constitution, and is getting no help from the Obama administration. Earlier this week, Cotton wrote – and forty-six other Republican U.S. Senators signed – an open letter to the Iranian government explaining the short shelf life of any deal that allows them…

One aspect of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress that really seemed to get under the skin of many Obama loyalists was his contention that the Jews are facing another 1938. And of course, the historical analogy is imperfect because historical analogies are almost always imperfect. The problem for the Jews is that in this…

As they say, history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.  Sixty-nine years ago this week, one august foreign leader widely admired in the United States delivered a historic speech to an American audience, sounding the alarm against a looming malevolent regime.  This week, another august foreign leader also widely admired in the…

The Obama administration values a future relationship with Iran more than it values the historic relationship it has with Israel. Unless there's a reversal in the reported deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, all the superficial talk about this extraordinary friendship between Israel and the United States isn't going to mean much. And the histrionics…

Is non-interventionism's record of success any better than that of American projection of power?  It's a question that must be confronted at a moment in which the globe appears progressively aflame, our 2016 presidential campaign begins to take form and foreign policy concerns increasingly dominate our political discourse.  In the aftermath…

Are there two more representative hires in the Obama Administration than Jen Psaki* and Marie Harf, the pair of thirty-something State Department spokeswomen who seem like they’ve been cast in a sitcom about sorority girls in over their heads? Last March, it was Psaki* who beclowned herself when — keeping with the Obama Administration&…

At the White House Summit on Extremism That Shall Remain Unspecified Because Violent Followers Belonging To Unnamed Extremist Movement Might Take Extreme Offense And Act Extremely, the feds are touting a groundbreaking new strategy to fight terrorists. Just kidding. It's actually the same old futile strategy that big-government liberals use to cure…

President Obama's scolding of Western civilization at the National Prayer Breakfast ("Lest we get on our high horse...") may go down in history as the emblematic moment of his presidency. It was atrociously ill timed and characteristically sophomoric. My colleague Jay Nordlinger observed that Obama sounded just like the students in the 1980s…

Last year, during the funeral services for Nelson Mandela in South Africa, President Obama was photographed shaking the hand of Cuban President Raul Castro, a move that infuriated Cuban exiles and all those who oppose the murderous regime in Havana. At the time, the critics were told that they were overreacting to a gesture that was little more than…

It is often observed that American presidential elections tend to be an application of Isaac Newton's Third Law of Physics:  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.   In other words, we tend to elect presidents who contrast with their immediate predecessors.  To the degree that proves true in 2016, Senator Rand…

As the world hurtles toward a frighteningly chaotic state, unity with America's allies and toughness toward our enemies become increasingly critical.  A public opinion survey this week from Rasmussen brought new clarity to the issue, and provided a grim new milestone:  "The number of voters who think the United States is winning the…

Joe Biden uncloaked his fanciful inner hawk this week in response to escalating butchery in the Middle East, but commentators largely overlooked a tawdry irony in his most highly publicized comment:  "When people harm Americans, we don't retreat.  We don't forget.  We take care of those who are grieving.  And when that's finished…

Were Barack Obama gliding into a typical presidential dénouement — his last years in office spent primarily on ceremonial duties and trying to cement a legacy — all of the frustration about his perpetually declining work ethic — the serial rounds of golf, the fund-raising excursions, the leisurely dinners — would perhaps…

The Obama Doctrine in Iraq has proven undeniably disastrous, threatening to permanently snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  After inheriting a stabilizing Iraq in the aftermath of a Bush Administration troop surge (which Obama claimed in 2007 couldn't succeed), Obama's decisions have resulted in today's ghoulish genocide and deepening chaos…

What a difference a decade makes. Imagine if, in 2004 — with George W. Bush in the heat of a reelection campaign conducted against the backdrop of the Iraq war— some prescient observer of American politics had told you that a decade hence the Republican Party would be more unified in its position on health care than on foreign policy.…

It’s not unusual for American presidents to spend their second terms — a time when they’ve usually exhausted public good will and seen the ranks of the opposition party swell in Congress — pursuing a legacy in foreign policy. God help us if Barack Obama decides to go down that road. With more than half of his second stint in…

Back during the 2008 presidential election, Hillary Clinton and John McCain were both prone to criticizing Barack Obama’s lack of experience by saying that the presidency isn’t a position that lends itself to learning on the job. More than five years later, that’s the least of our concerns. Learning on the job would be a huge improvement…