The American Conservative

After TocquevilleWhat are the prospects for global democracy when the American model is in such disrepair?FOR NEARLY TWO centuries, historians have debated whether Alexis de TocqueviUe, the author ?? Democracy in America (the first volume of which was...

The last time we heard from Ayad Allawi, he was Iraq's interim prime minister. A former Ba'athist and all-around tough guy, Newsweek dubbed him "our new s.o.b. in Iraq." But after Nouri al-Maliki's 2005 election, Allawi faded into memory. Now he's...

Mike Huckabee's surprise second-place showing at the Ames straw poll has catapulted him into contention with the leading candidates in Iowa. This was all the more remarkable given the former governor's record of "compassionate conservative" sympathies...

CASABLANCA, SEPT. 17, 2010--The international conference that opened in this beautiful city yesterday is expected to put some final touches on a United Nations-sponsored accord on the future of the new state being set up in Mesopotamia, the Confederation...

Does a Giuliani win mean social conservatives lose?IMPROBABLY, a twice-divorced, prochoice, pro-civil unions gun controller who made his city a safe haven for illegal immigrants commands the lead in all national GOP polls. After Rudy Giuliani announced...

Iran has moved to the forefront of U.S. policy attention and will remain there through the end of the Bush administration. President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have adopted a recommendation from former Secretary...

FINALLY, we're hearing concrete talk about withdrawal from Iraq. Probably this has something to do with public opinion: in a recent Gallup poll, 71 percent supported leaving Iraq in a year or less. Most public discussions of the actual mechanics...

[In the Valley of Elah] THOUGH IT IS OFTEN ACCUSED of imposing a political agenda on the public, Hollywood isn't organized to churn out topical movies quickly. Thus, only now, 54 months after the invasion of Iraq, is a major feature film about the...

Since the invasion of Iraq, the question of whether Washington would extend the war to Iran has been on the table. Ariel Sharon demanded that Bush go after. Iran "the day after" Iraq was conquered, and the neoconservatives in and outside the administration...

The neocon propaganda machine rolls toward Iran.FORMER WHITE HOUSE chief of Staff Andrew Card famously remarked that the reason the White House ramped up the case for the Iraq War in September was that "from a marketing point of view, you don't introduce...

The U.S. needlessly inflamed Iraq in the vain hope of sparking a democratic revolution. We got an inferno instead.I WRITE AS AN HISTORIAN, offering no special expertise on current Americajn politics or the military and political situation in Iraq and...

A Russian man stripped down to the waist last month for the cameras, and his muscled torso made headlines around the world. Mind you, it was the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, but few could have predicted the explosion of gossip and speculation...

Republican candidates reinvent themselves as immigration restrictionists.WHILE THE LOWER-TIER candidates have occasionally lobbed spitballs at the frontrunners, the contest for the Republican presidential nomination has mostly been a gentlemanly affair....

The speed with which Republican politicians are disappearing from public life is a marvel second only to their uniformly poor quality. Though a thinning of the herd is overdue, a more drastic culling is afoot. But near the horizon, where the bold names...

The School for Scandal [Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Case, Stuart Taylor Jr. and KC Johnson, Thomas Dunne Books, 420 pages]By Richard B. SpencerIN THEIR NEW BOOK on the Duke lacrosse fiasco,...