SARKO AT YORKTOWN
How do you say "Ronald Reagan" in French? Many in Europe's establishment fear it might be "Nicolas Sarkozy." Mr. Sarkozy was elected president of France last Sunday (5/6) by a comfortable margin (53-47 percent) over the Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royale. Voter turnout was an eye-popping 85 percent. "Sarko" is not your typical French politician. He had a picture taken of himself shaking hands with President Bush, something some of the GOP candidates for president are leery of doing. It's a welcome change from recent, and not so recent, history. There would have been no United States of America were it not for the French. When Lord Cornwallis marched his troops out of Yorktown on Oct. 19, 1781 to surrender to General Washington, he did so because a French fleet prevented the evacuation of the British. The army to which Cornwallis surrendered had nearly as many French soldiers in it as Americans. Things have gone downhill since then.
THE TEMPER TANTRUM THAT COULD KILL AMERICA
From his years of psychological counseling, Dr. Joel Wade can tell you all about what horrific consequences a temper tantrum can have. A temper tantrum can cause the loss of friends, a career, a marriage, even a life. Nations can have temper tantrums too, and the consequences can be equally disastrous. Last November, American voters had a collective temper tantrum. They lost their temper at Republicans and voted against them. They didn't vote for any positive reasons, they went strictly negative. The voters lost their temper at George Bush, at the war in Iraq, at bridges to nowhere in Alaska and no fences along our southern border, at... it was a long, long list of complaints. What voters did not do last November is vote for surrender and defeat in Iraq, higher taxes, more government spending, and national security imperiled. Yet that's what they got with the Democrats. And our country is in grave risk because of it. The risk is growing by the day.
THE NEXT NUTSHELL?
I am so appreciative of the warm response to Sarkozy and History. These "nutshell histories," as TTPers have dubbed them, are such a hit that I have a request. I'd really like to hear from you as to what country or period of history should be the next nutshell. TTPer "Leebailey," for example, in our User Forum recently made an astute observation on the consequences of the fall of the Ottoman Empire on the entire Middle East. Given that the Ottoman remnant of Turkey is so prominent in the news right now - a predominantly Moslem country engaged in a huge tug-of-war between secularists and Islamists - wouldn't that be a good candidate? But the world is so large, so much of import is going on within it, and history so long, that there is a plethora of such good candidates. So I'd like to know what you guys n' gals consider your favorites. There's a lot to choose from. I am really intrigued by what your choices might be. Let me know. Thanks...
ACHIEVING A TRULY PRO-AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
[This is an address I am delivering at the Conservative Leadership Summit conference here in Washington tomorrow, Saturday May 5.] I am not going to begin this discussion with a litany of examples of how we don't have a pro-American foreign policy, but rather an anti-American foreign policy, examples that would go back for so many decades. We're not going to waste our time demonstrating the obvious and focus on the past. We'll focus on the future instead and how we can affect it for the betterment of our country. But I will tell you just one story.
IS PBS ON THE SIDE OF RADICAL ISLAM?
Since September 11, 2001, many of us have wondered: Where are the moderate Moslems? If they are out there, why are we not hearing more, and getting more help, from them in the fight against our common foe -- the totalitarian Islamists? My effort to answer this question took the form of a 52-minute documentary I helped produce for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's "America at a Crossroads" series. The film, entitled Islam vs. Islamists, features compelling stories of anti-Islamist Moslems who have had the courage to stand up to co-religionists who are using faith to accomplish political ends. Yet PBS has decided to refuse to air the film. It's a frighening possibility that our taxpayer funded television network is on the side of Radical Islam.
TENET’S TANTRUM
In December 2001, I participated in discussions between two Pentagon officials and Iranians who claimed knowledge of Iranian-sponsored efforts to kill Americans in Afghanistan. We met in Rome, Italy over several days. The discussions were approved by Stephen Hadley, the deputy national-security adviser, and the two Defense department officials' travel was approved by their superiors. The American ambassador in Rome was fully informed in advance, and fully briefed afterwards. The conversations produced detailed information about the identities, locations, and plans of Iranian-trained terrorists in Afghanistan. This was passed on to the proper authorities at the DoD, and I was later told by military officers that the information likely saved American lives. Now comes the former DCI (director of central intelligence), George Tenet, with several pages about the meeting in his new book. His every word, it seems, is meant to justify the chilidish tantrum he had over the meeting.
THE ANTI-WHOREHOUSE T-SHIRT
Want to send a powerful - yet discrete - message to Islamofascists? Or a message of encouragement to moderate Moslems who oppose them? Wear our Anti-Islamofascist T-Shirt. Although we don't label it as such - it's officially called The Anti-Whorehouse T-Shirt. The greatest insanity of Radical Islam is its adherents blowing themselves up to slaughter "infidels" as a ticket to Moslem heaven, where they believe, six dozen eternally virginal whores await to satisfy their every desire. Yet you'll note that our t-shirt says nothing - nothing - about Islam or Moslems. Who could object to its message? Someone who thinks heaven is a whorehouse? Someone who condemns it as "anti-Islam"? But how can it be anti-Islam when there's no mention of Islam at all? So here it is. There's an order link in the right side bar. Order one today and wear it proudly - get one for your friends. The belief that heaven is a whorehouse for murderers is what sustains Islamofascism. Do your part in denouncing this evil conviction.
CHINESE WISHES
You'd think the Chicoms would pay attention to their culture's repository of proverbial wisdom. Specifically to the ancient Chinese proverb: Be careful what you wish for - because you just might get it. More than anything else in the world, the Chicoms wanted to host the Olympic Games in their capital of Beijing. It was to be their great coming-out party to the world, the ultimate showcase of Chicom success on the global stage, proof of their moral acceptance as members of the entire international community. So they are getting what they wished for. But now it's looking like their dreams of prestige and glory may become a nightmare. It's not just that the Beijing Olympics of 2008 has started being compared to Hitler's Berlin Olympics of 1936. It's that the candidate best able to skillfully exploit Chicom vulnerabilities during next summer may be the one who gets elected president next November.
A HIDDEN COLLEGE TREASURE
The experience FBI Director Robert Mueller had two weeks ago when he tried to give a speech at Harvard seems typical of many colleges campuses these days. "Mueller, who was set to speak before a full crowd managed by tight security detail, had just begun his prepared remarks when the first protestor interrupted with screams," reported the Harvard Crimson. Yet recently I went to a college campus to hear a controversial speaker on a hot button topic in a lecture hall packed with students. The speaker (my friend Ralph Peters) had no security, and needed none. No attempt was made to disrupt his remarks. The questions the students asked were polite, respectful, and intelligent, indicating both a familiarity with the topic and a desire to learn more about it. Obviously, I wasn't at Harvard - or, say, at Columbia, where the administration let off with wrist slaps students who physically assaulted a speaker last semester.
TENET’S WHINE
Washington memoirs tend to be self serving, but ex-CIA Director George Tenet's At the Center of the Storm is remarkable even for the genre. Michael Scheuer, the first head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, said the book "seems designed to rehabilitate Tenet in his first home, the Democratic Party." Mr. Tenet's reputation is in need of rehabilitation because it was he who assured President Bush the case against Saddam on weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk." And there was that 9/11 thing the CIA missed on his watch. None of this was his fault, Mr. Tenet assures us. It was the neocons who screwed up Iraq. Intelligence collection and analysis about 9/11 would have been better if President Clinton hadn't slashed his budget. Book stores should serve cheese with this whine.