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The Gun Wasn’t Smoking Until Hasan Pulled the Trigger
3 comments on The Gun Wasn’t Smoking Until Hasan Pulled the TriggerI’m reconsidering my declaration that it’s “silly” to debate “whether Hasan’s rampage could have been prevented. But I still believe it’s unrealistic to think atrocities can be prevented by flawless foresight based on evidence that…
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Fort Hood Reminds Us That We Can’t Consistently Anticipate Evil
Hasan’s political beliefs are clearly significant in hindsight — but it’s absurd to think the Army somehow should have known he was dangerous. Our society doesn’t take action against people for thinking wrong thoughts, or…
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87 More Days Until Obama Breaks His Guantanamo Pledge
This week brings further reminders of why breaking that pledge will be the better part of valor. Many of the Gitmo detainees are Very Bad People, and there’s no good option for relocating them.
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Old Europe, an Unearned Nobel Prize, and a War of Necessity
Our European allies clearly have no stomach for the fight. As America considers sending up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, even the (relatively) stalwart UK today announced plans to send… um… 500. As in…
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Encouraging Signs of Al Qaeda’s Decline
I just hope that Islam can reform itself more quickly than Christianity did. More than 130 years of religious violence passed between the 95 Theses and the Treaty of Westphalia.
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Ajami, on Taking the War into the Arab World
President Obama, who seized hold of the “good war” as a club to batter Bush’s “bad war,” has little choice other than to give the strategy that succeeded in Iraq a chance to succeed in…
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Never Forget
The events of 9/11 were the legacy of more than two decades of doing nothing, or next to nothing, in response to attacks from fascists in Islamic guise.
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Torture, Euthanasia, and Decision-Making Without A Bright Line
Bright-line rules provide the comfort of easy decision-making. But many times there is no bright line, leaving people of good will to agonize about the lesser evil, often under intense pressure. When does a ticking-time-bomb…
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Moderate Muslims Hold the Key to the War Against Islamic Fascism
For some time I’ve been meaning to highlight the work of M. Zuhdi Jasser and the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. As their website describes, “AIFD was formed as an unmistakable expression of American liberty…
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God Knows: An IED in Iraq Shows Who, How, and Why We Fight
My point here is not to advocate waterboarding, a practice I oppose. To paraphrase a recent American president, my point is that good and evil both exist in the world — and the God of…