Was Hitler crazy? He certainly believed in bizarre contra—factual conspiracy theories, had a deep interest in the occult, and is believed by many historians to have so ineptly and arbitrarily handled German military strategy and weapons development that he turned quite possible victory into... More

I suspect that you have found recent events in Lebanon rather disconcerting. One of your leaders, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezb'allah, is quoted as saying: 'We did not think, even one percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known... More

The story that developed in July was just too good to pass up: a Jordanian—born restaurant owner in Xenia, Ohio had been the apparent victim of repeated attempts to burn down his store. The day after the third attack, when a Molotov cocktail had been thrown through the front window of his... More

The gentle whooshing sound audible throughout the Greater Beltway is the deflating hopes of assorted journalists, Bush haters, and Democrat officials whose fantasies of frog marches and impeachment hearings are now dead. Today, the Wall Street Journal excoriates Richard Armitage, Colin Powell,... More

The 70 million people of Iran are now under the whip of a raving suicide cult intent on getting nuclear weapons. Whether the regime is really intending martyrdom or not it may not even know itself. It certainly talks and acts as if it is. Tehran just made 500 Hezbo fighters sacrifice their lives... More

During the recent war launched by Hezb'allah against Israel I served as an escort officer with the IDF Military Spokesperson's Unit. In that role, Captain Doron Speilman and I on separate occasions hooked up Martin Fletcher of NBC News, and a separate BBC crew with the Deputy Commander of an... More

The forced conversion of two television journalists to Islam is nothing new — except for the use of videotape and the celebrity value in play. The jihad of today is actually very old, and embedded in the very foundations of Islam. Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and his... More

One day a madman could come along and make the missiles and blackmail all of us. — Ronald Reagan, to Mikhail Gorbachev, 1985 No doubt, President Reagan would have agreed with the Jack Ryan's, the hero of Tom Clancy's novels,  mentor in the Sum of All Fears, when he stated that he did... More

Back in the late 1940s, The New Yorker wants us to know, Richard Gosser, president of a United Auto Workers local in Toledo, Ohio, wanted to set up a union pension plan for the workers. Ten cents an hour was all it would cost to give the workers a decent retirement, writes Malcolm Gladwell... More

When Noam Chomsky shook hands with Hezbo Sheikh Nasrallah in May of this year, we could see the handwriting on the wall: no left—wing US administration is now going to support Israel in a standoff against a nuclear—armed Iran. The "Soros Democrats" are now in the hands of Chomsky... More

In dealing with the mullahs ruling Iran, what you see is not what you get, and what you hear is not what they mean. Transparency and honesty are not their strong suit. So, we need a first—rate sleuth to see through their smoke—and—mirrors, as well as beyond their twisted tongues... More

President Bush was asked about Iraq at his press conference last week and answered, 'The strategy is to help the Iraqi people achieve their objectives and their dreams, which is a democratic society. That's the strategy. The tactics — now, either you say, yes, its important we stay there and... More

Contrary to what is now the accepted wisdom in the media, Hezb'allah in its recent offensive against Israel neither 'badly bloodied the Israel Defense Force,' nor 'fought it to a standstill' in Southern Lebanon. In fact, the opposite is the case. By any legitimate measure Hezb'allah was handed a... More

Ned Lamont and his supporters are doing immense harm to the Democrats' cause, thanks to Senator Joseph Lieberman's independent candidacy for Senator, a quest which deserves the support of all sentient Republicans.  Polling showing the official GOP nominee Alan Schlesinger pulling low single... More

When the GOP gets clobbered in November with the angry and apathetic conservative base sitting on their hands, the Republican establishment will need to look for the stupid and self—defeating moves responsible no further than Connecticut to find Exhibit A. For with the gushing praise,... More

My attitude toward public education in America usually vacillates between anger and despair. Despite spending more money per pupil than any other major country, American public schools progressively dumb down our kids, as revealed in international comparisons on standardized tests. The longer our... More

The New York Times reportedаthis past weekаthat most Americans don't see the connection between the war in Iraq and defeating our current determined, patient enemy, one dedicated to killing Americans and ultimately destroying Western civilization. Sadly, I have to ask, is it any wonder? The only... More

Eddie Kelly was one of those seasoned cops who had learned policing from his father, who had also been 'on the job.' He was about 48 when I first met him, working as his partner one night during a 4pm to midnight shift. For many years, Eddie had worked a steady sector that covered JFK airport as... More

America's national leadership since 9—11 has said that we are in a 'Global War on Terror.' More recently, they describe it as a 'Long War.' Putting it together then we are in a 'global—long war on terror' against  jihadists, Islamic fascists, or however you want to describe that... More

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert must go. He is endangering the security of Israel and he now poses a serious liability to American security as well. Good leadership is indivisible — Olmert cannot be bad for Israel and simultaneously be good for America. Just who is Ehud Olmert, the ex... More

Ongoing attempts over the years by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) — speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights — to sponsor an Islamic Charter 'in accordance with the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam' (1990) are a direct challenge to the Universal... More

If anyone ever thought the war between the White House and the CIA boiled down to some kind of senseless, meaningless bureaucratic squabble with no real consequences for the future of our security, think again. The partisanship, the ideological conflicts, the personality clashes, the arrogance, and... More

Before there was Global Warming Theory to scare the public into rash action, there was Nuclear Winter Theory. The two theories are contradictory, but both were peddled by the political left, and both used some similar rhetorical and political tactics. This year is the 25th  anniversary of Carl... More

Larry Johnson, a reputable terrorism expert, has published an essay in which he assails Bush and Blair for the revelations concerning the UK Sky Bombing Plot. He says, to put it succinctly, that the plot was not mature and that the move to stop the terrorists was political. However, he did not... More

When Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D—IL—5th), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), rallied Democratic heavy weights such as Senators John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to support Tammy Duckworth in her congressional primary race, the obvious was so... More

Islam, the 'religion of peace,' is anything but peaceful, particularly when it comes to other religions. To the oppressive Islam, there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet—the seal of the prophets at that. Grudgingly, Islam barely tolerates people of the book—namely Jews and... More

Over the past week, the Democratic National Committee drastically changed the rules for nominating a Presidential candidate. In doing so, they junked the long—standing tradition of having the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary launch the vote—gathering primary season.а In the... More

A lot of car guys don't appreciate New York Times foreign policy columnist Thomas Friedman setting up as an expert on the auto industry.  He allowed as how he thought Toyota should take over the bankrupt General Motors.  It would be in America's economic interest and its geopolitical... More

Defusing the present dangerous confrontation between Islam and the West demands rational, impartial and cool heads to untangle facts from myth. We must seek to understand the Muslims' mindset in comparison with that of the West, acknowledging vast individual and cultural differences within each... More

Who would have thought it twenty years ago? In the first decade of the 21st century the most important world political movement is  based on something recently thought to be as dead as the dinosaurs — the Third Reich. There has always been an Arab connection to the Third Reich, though.... More

The recent cessation of hostilities in the Israel—Hezb'allah '34—day war' has military experts, media personnel, and politicians scrambling for conclusive analyzes.  The early diagnoses lean toward a Hezb'allah victory, with analysts divided over the type of victory, i.e., a... More

The Lebanon War of the summer of 2006 has now come and gone. It was not yet a nuclear war, but given the way it started and ended it certainly was a prelude. Once again the Arab world displayed its duplicity and once again the West displayed its cowardice, while the Israeli government turned out... More

The end of hostilities across the Lebanese—Israeli border now necessitates a considered after action review to determine the lessons learned. The first determination that needs to be made is the end state. During conflict we hear the term 'fog of war' when we just can't quite fit all the... More

There is either an arrogance or ignorance on the part of liberal storytellers which occasionally makes it impossible for them to conceal their moral madness. Three recent movies display the flaws inherent in the dogma in liberal lives onscreen. Conservatives know who the culprits are, those who... More

Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; Part Five; Part Six; Part Seven; Part Eight; Part Nine.   Part Ten concludes our dialogue.   Soliman al—Buthe (or al—Buthi) wrote an Open Letter to Congress in 2005. Then he initiated a dialogue with me, so we decided on this... More

Today's print edition front—page of the New York Times (visible here) features a large heart—rending photo, above—the—fold, by Tyler Hicks. A visibly grieving female Arab mourner is being being consoled by another woman. Out of curiosity, I researched... More

''Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'  — George Santanya, 1905* At long last Jimmy Carter has discovered the answer to securing lasting world peace and has finally earned his Nobel Peace Prize. During an interview with Der Spiegel, the former President hit... More

Part One,  which has a brief Introduction; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; Part Five; Part Six; Part Seven; Part Eight    Soliman al—Buthe (or al—Buthi) wrote an Open Letter to Congress in 2005. Then he initiated a dialogue with me, so we decided on this... More

Grand Ayatollah Sistani is said to be the most important friend the Coalition has in Iraq. But he is a troubling friend. Almost universally regarded as the most important figure in Iraq's domestic politics, his 2003 fatwa urging Iraqis to not resist the invading Coalition forces helped make the... More

Last April, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton wryly noted at a Federalist Society event in Manhattan that the United States is the only member of the U.N. that is expected to do anything other than advocate on its own behalf. To the contrary, Bolton pointed out, Americans are chastised when we protect... More

Global warming enthusiasts love to jump to conclusions from sequences of numbers, regardless of their provenance. In the same spirit of reckless conclusion—jumping, why not enjoy ourselves? First, let's look at the Farmer's Almanac for July 15 of this year.  Sunrise was at 5:27 am,... More

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Hezb'allah is starting to spread the green around Southern Lebanon, offering $10,000 per family for rental assistance for a year, while clearing roads, helping reconstruct houses, feeding the returning residents and helping them with purchases of new... More

The American Association for the Advancement of Science claims for its journal Science 'the largest paid circulation of any peer—reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million.' Be that as it may, Science is the Dan Rather of science... More

Hollywood has rushed into the debate over climate with one—sided movies that will scare a few people and enlighten no one. As much as I like popcorn, I'm not buying any tickets until the global warming alarmists can satisfy my Four—Part Test for Global Warming. I'm no scientist, but... More

It has finally happened. The left is beginning to turn against New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., known far and wide as 'Pinch.' It is simple to understand why: the New York Times is becoming a failing business under his stewardship, and the Left needs the NYT. Faithful readers... More

The "Defeat at Any Price" Democrats have found a new trope: Iraq is now in a "civil war." But as usual they get their facts wrong. Civil war is what Saddam waged for thirty years on the majority Shiites, Marsh Arabs, Kurds, and any Sunnis who didn't cower to the Baath tyranny. In that sense, civil... More

One would think that the revelations by Great Britain's MI5 of the plot by Islamic terrorists to destroy themselves and as many as 10 commercial airliners enroute to the United States might stimulate a deeper, more critical look at recent developments in the news.  This could be termed... More

Islam sees history playing out in centuries of bloody warfare until all infidels are converted.  Modern cultures dream of a permanent peace among sensible peoples. Both dreams are fictitious, but jihadi Muslims are much readier to die and kill for their cause. Even innocent killings are... More

Far too many people in the public eye mischaracterize the acts of terrorists and other villains as inconsistent with "mainstream" Islam, as a "corruption of the faith." While this belief is comforting, especially to those who know, work with, or must obtain cooperation from... More

The good thing about 8/10 is that it was an inconvenience.  When the terror plot was foiled in London on August 10, 2006 many flights were canceled.  Tens of thousands stood in line to submit to new security procedures.  People missed flights.  Baggage got left behind. ... More

'Another such victory and we are undone.'  —— Pyrrhus, after the Battle of Asculum (279 B.C.) You know you're in trouble when Israel lets you down. One of the few useful methods of judging the results of a war is whether you are better off at the end than at the beginning. (This... More

It is easy to imagine the heated arguments in Israel's war cabinet, but it's hard to know what they portend for the future. The Doves, led by Shimon Peres, are saying, in his words, "We didn't start this war, so we don't have to win it." On the face of it that is simply false; Israel can't afford... More

Last week was certainly a bad one for shares of Democrat companies. From Tuesday's drubbing of Lieberman Locks, to Thursday and Friday's hammering of Appeasements 'R' Us, the Standard & Poors Democrat Index reached a low not seen since before the Dubai Ports World merger fell apart in... More

In an opening scene of David Lynch's 1986 perverse but relevant film Blue Velvet, a man is watering his front lawn on what appears to be a halcyon suburban day in the American town of Lumberton.  It's a carefree scene that follows a montage of similarly placid images. A white picket fence... More

The Battle of Hastings  was a turning point in Western Civilization, as the Norman invaders (from France) crushed the Saxon defenders, and eventually gave the world what was to become British civilization. The hapless Saxons were led by Harold Godwinson, AKA Harold the Saxon.  Harold's... More

Part One,  which has a brief Introduction; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; Part Five; Part Six; Part Seven   This part concludes the discussion begun in Part Seven. The Open Letter to Congress defining jihad is repeated here:   Open Letter to Congress... More

More than twenty people have been arrested in Britain in a plot to kill thousands of innocent air passengers. The British press is undoubtedly looking frantically for somebody to blame. But they won't see the most obvious one: the tax—funded BBC. If you were a young Muslim teenager growing... More

Despite calls from many quarters for a deeper Israeli ground offensive into Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his cabinet have thus far avoided the risky move.  The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) do not want a repeat of 1982.  They know it is a new day, a new war.  The... More

Don't worry about Cynthia McKinney's future. She's got it made. Despite her defeat by almost a 60—40 margin in the August 8, 2006 Democratic primary for Georgia's 4th Congressional District seat, her future is secure.� In Congress, which is an institution that struggles to rise above the... More

Last week, a Los Angeles 'rabbi to the stars' invited an allegedly remorseful Mel Gibson to address the Jewish congregation at Temple of the Arts with a public apology for anti—Semitic slurs the actor made after being stopped July 28 for speeding in Malibu. Rabbi David Baron suggested Yom... More

And so it ends, not with an assassin's bullet or a military strike or even a popular uprising (at least not yet). Instead, the messianic Castro appears as though he will succumb to intestinal bleeding, if not already, then in the very near future. Not exactly the fate most envisioned or hoped for,... More

Yesterday morning our frequent contributor Bob Weir had breakfast with Congressman Michael Burgess of the 26th District in Texas, back from a visit to Gitmo. BW: Congressman, there have been a lot of negative news stories about the treatment of prisoners in GITMO; what did you learn during... More

'Very Soon, This Stain of Disgrace [i.e. Israel] Will Be Purged From the Center of the Islamic World — and This is Attainable'  ——— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, October 26, 2005 "'Imam [Khomeini] said: 'This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the... More

As I recline in my virtual hammock this lovely Midwestern midsummer's day, feeling the warm, gentle breezes as they waft across my face ('God's air conditioning' we call it out here), my thoughts turn to the currents and eddies of history that are churning just below the placid surface of the... More

If a Senate study concluded that legislation signed by George W. Bush and supported by Halliburton was partially responsible for today's high oil and gas prices, do you think you would have heard about it? Well, such a report was released by the Senate. However, the president that signed the law in... More

Journalism has changed forever. Two of the world's most prominent news organizations have been forced to retract material and eat humble pie, thanks to the debunking of internet journalists. Spotting anomalies and, in spontaneously self—organized fashion, combing through the evidence and... More

Aаrecentаarticle by Pulitzer—winning AP writer Charles Hanley entitled "Half of U.S. still believes Iraq had WMD" builds a not so subtle argument: those who believe Saddam Hussein still had WMD need to get fitted for tin foil hats.а He begins the piece with a reasonable question 'Do you... More

Smell the whiff of panic?  Iraq has/may/will soon collapse into civil war!  Israel may not be able to fully dismantle Hezbollah!  Like Falstaff before battle we whine to Prince Hal that we "would 'twere bed—time, Hal, and all well." It's as if Europe never had its tribal... More

Though I am five thousand miles away, I think that I can detect the vibrations emanating from West Norwood Cemetery in London. For surely Paul Julius Reuter, the German rabbi's son who founded the Reuters News Agency a century and a half ago, is spinning in his grave. No other news agency can match... More

In calling attention to genuine dangers today we run the danger of inspiring fear and not hope. But that would be a mistake. Realistic alarm is no cause for despair. It is a call for unity and strength. But we also need high hope and constant confidence in the future. The greatest leaders in our... More

Islam enjoys a large and influential ally among the non—Muslims: A new generation of 'Useful Idiots,' the sort of people Lenin identified living in liberal democracies who furthered the work of communism. This new generation of Useful Idiots also lives in liberal democracies, but serves... More

One of the quickest, surest ways for a journalist to obtain the life altering, career making award known as the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism is to expose aberrant behavior on the part of US Armed Forces service members. Service members make up a cross section of American society and at any given... More

Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times columnist who never apologized for supporting terrorist—funder Sami Al—Arian, now attacks Ehud Olmert for defending his people, delivering a stunning first line in his column today: "As I see it, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is shooting Israel... More

Stop the pixels! Caught red—handed publishing a fake photo, using PhotoShop or similar program to exaggerate the smoke rising from Beirut after an Israeli air raid, Reuters has withdrawn the picture. As in the case of the Rathergate memo, credit goes to Charles Johnson of Little Green... More

There are pivotal moments in history, events in which the course of human affairs is altered forever.  One such moment occurred along the Danube River in 1683. On that fateful morning in the later 17th century, the fate of Western Civilization was sealed by the determination of those brave... More

[On July 2, 2006 The American Thinker published an interview  from the Kenyon Alumni Bulletin with Professor Vernon Schubel.  Kenyon alumnus, Henry Wickham, commented on the Schubel piece, and concluded that it was a whitewash of Islam.  Professor Schubel has responded.  His... More

Part One,  which has a brief Introduction; Part Two; Part Three;  Part Four; Part Five; Part Six.   Soliman al—Buthe (or al—Buthi) wrote an Open Letter to Congress in 2005. Then he initiated a dialogue with me, so we decided on this sequence.   1. In 2005,... More

Ballistic Missile Defense(BMD) is one of those military assets that — along with the F—22 Raptor, carrier battle groups, and guided—missile subs — have been criticized in recent years as being irrelevant to the new strategic realities of the War on Terror. It's a little... More

Last week the Washington—based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) released a report containing satellite images of work underway at the Khushab nuclear complex in Pakistan's Punjab province. The report's authors concluded that Pakistan is expanding its plutonium... More

Americans as a rule have a remarkably short span of collective memory. Thus when terrorists seize aircraft to plunge themselves into skyscrapers in New York we are doubly aghast.  What must be the motivation behind such desperate acts?  Similarly, the Middle East is rife with suicide... More

Jefferson Morley writes about the international online media for the Washington Post.  He is sneering at conservative websites which dared to raise questions about the troubling inconsistencies in reports, and some very curious photographs that seem, well, posed to extract maximum outrage... More

Stubborn or courageous? Calculating or clueless? Smart or dumb? Historians will have a tough time trying to define George Bush. At least the honest historians will. And by honest, I mean those who will make an effort to glean the truth from the avalanche of contemporary reports portraying the 43rd... More

Does the name Ali Larijani ring a bell? No, he's not the brilliant TV and movie character Ali G, created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, famous for duping celebrities and political figures into interviews where he asks outrageous questions and watches his victims squirm. No, Ali L is... More

Israel lost its first war in Lebanon when it fought Hezbollah for eighteen years and withdrew suddenly in 2000 without victory. If it loses this second war, it will be for the same reasons: political immobility, military timidity, and the fear of negative world opinion. This was not the case when... More

Most guys who made a personal profit well into the hundreds of millions of dollars on their last film might feel pretty happy. If the film triumphed over a generally hostile press and the opposition of industry big—shots, the pot of gold would seem all the sweeter, one would think. And if... More

A major segment of the global media is behaving in a manner that makes terrorism and mass killings more likely rather than less likely. They enable and encourage terrorist slaughter of innocents by supplying providing a propaganda bonanza for the terrorist cause. Without the gain, there would be... More

Since Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans last summer, there has been a lot of media and left—wing speculation that the apparition called global warming is responsible for an upsurge in hurricane activity and intensity. Fortunately, for those seeking sanity amidst the hysteria, a new... More

'For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.' — Romans 7:22—23 I am really heartbroken at Mel Gibson's... More

The world situation remains normal: full of armed conflicts. Only a few of these attract the attention of the world's mass media. The border lands of the former Soviet empire are one area that remains a source of of instability. While the world's attention has been focused on the IDF's... More

I worked for President Reagan at the CIA, and during those years I made quite a number of overseas trips.  While having dinner one evening with some of our local CIA people, I fell into a conversation with a young woman who had recently completed her training and was on her first foreign... More

Recent dueling essays on The American Thinker have debated whether Israel is following the tactics of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at the expense of Gen. George S. Patton's methods.  James Lewis argued that indeed the IDF's approach was more Monty than Patton whereas Glen... More