Thanksgiving is a great holiday because of its cultural, religious and political heritage, and that political heritage should not be forgotten. Most Americans are at least vaguely familiar with the cultural and religious background to Thanksgiving. The story of the … Continue reading
There is a time-honored tradition in American politics — a gentlemen’s agreement of sorts: Former presidents do not openly criticize current presidents, particularly on sensitive foreign-policy matters. Ex-presidents know intimately the difficulty of the job; they understand how much more … Continue reading
Los Angeles Times staff writer Richard T. Cooper, in an October 16th article titled, “General Casts War in Religious Terms,” waxed apoplectic about remarks made by Army Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. What upsets … Continue reading
In November, Pennsylvanians will have a chance to amend the state constitution to alter the nature of testimony in Pennsylvania’s courts, according to the Sept. 26 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. If the amendment is approved, it would allow people to testify in … Continue reading
On Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, my mother’s 48-year-old father and her 20-year-old brother went to the Army recruiting office to volunteer to fight Japan. The Army took my uncle but rejected my grandfather based on age. On Sept. 11, 2001, … Continue reading
In Francis Ford Coppola’s 1980 allegory of the Vietnam War, “Apocalypse Now,” Marlon Brando plays renegade U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, a highly-decorated soldier who had “split” from the Army by taking his band of Montagnard warriors … Continue reading
President Bush is back from Africa. His trip was intended to show that America cares about the plight of African Third World countries. However, if one views the bulk of Sub-Saharan African countries as sick patients needing treatment, then Dr. … Continue reading
The United States Supreme Court soon will deal with whether or not the University of Michigan can use race as a determinant in admissions. I thought the courts already settled this in the 1960s. At least that’s the way it … Continue reading
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) was the most impressive use of combined arms to achieve a decisive victory in recent military history. Only Operation Just Cause, the hydra-like “take down” of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in December 1989 came close to … Continue reading
Jesus said, in Luke 11: 21-22, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides … Continue reading
Grand strategy on the international scale is not an American strength. Historically, Americans have been open, impatient, alternatively idealistic or pragmatic, and until the twentieth century isolated from serious external threats. Still, successful powers from Rome to the British Empire … Continue reading
Introduction In 1941, on the eve of our entry into World War II, Time, Inc. publisher Henry Luce delivered a speech in nearby Pittsburgh entitled “The American Century.” In this speech Henry Luce spoke of America’s opportunity for worldwide leadership, … Continue reading
