Daniel Greenfield

What it Will Take to Win the War

WWII was the high point of the long Western history of war. In it the best armed forces of industrial civilization collided and fought for years, deploying the latest technologies and throwing unprecedented numbers of of men, tanks and planes into the battle. It was the kind of war never to be repeated again.

What does Freedom mean Anyway?

With the 4th of July coming up, it is easy to get distracted by all the flag waving, the tricolor banners and the emphasis on national independence, to forget that the American Revolution was caused by the political abuse of power, rather than by a pure striving toward national independence. Rather than an independence movement on the grounds of national identity, the American Revolution saw British citizens revolting against incursions on their rights and freedoms by a distant and powerful government.

Confronting the New Islamic Imperialism

Talk of colonialism and imperialism is all the rage when academic leftists sit down to critique the problems of terrorism and the clash of civilizations. But where a century ago terms such as colonialism and imperialism were easy enough to define, back when European governments held actual colonies and protectorates in Africa, Asia and the Middle East-- what do the terms actually mean today?

Obama: A Profile in Cowardice

Meet Barack Hussein Obama. The man who turned his own middle name into a no-go zone during the election, only to bring it out of the closet when he trotted down to a Muslim country. The man whose associates labeled talk about his Muslim background as racist, only to proclaim his Muslim background loudly and proudly from the podium of a Muslim country.

WWJCD - What Would Jimmy Carter Do?

In Obama's fumbling response to the June Revolt in Iran, it was not hard to see that he was relying on the not particularly time-honored maxim of WWJCD, or What Would Jimmy Carter Do?

An Understated Stoning

The reviews of “The Stoning of Soraya M.", a movie that tells the true story of a woman being stoned to death in fundamentalist Iran, are in... and the critics seem to have a common complaint, that the movie is just too outraged by the whole stoning business

The Two State Solution is a Victory for the Proxy War against Israel

When Hitler wanted to carve up Czechoslovakia he began by demanding the Sudetenland, inhabited by the Volksdeutsche, ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia. The world thought this was entirely reasonable and Czechoslovakia was forced to give in. Of course Hitler did not simply want the Sudetenland, anymore than he simply wanted the Rhineland. He was after a much vaster program of conquest.

Why Iran’s June Revolt Emphasizes Obama’s Absence of Leadership

The Bush Administration's guiding policy on the Middle East was that stability comes from aiding and promoting the spread of Democracy. The Obama Administration's guiding policy on the Middle East is that stability comes from discarding or even outright suppressing Middle Eastern democracies, particularly if they are not run by Arab Muslims, as sources of instability in the region.

Should We Support or Oppose Iran’s June Revolution

Various anti-Jihad bloggers and columnists are going head to head on the issue. As some have pointed out, the leading Iranian opposition figures such as Rafsanjani and Mousavi are not significantly better than Ahmadinejad himself, being involved in terrorism abroad and the development of nuclear technology.

Obama’s Post-Capitalist America

We don't have to work too hard to envision what Obama's Post-Capitalist America will look like, because it's here already. The basic ingredients bureaucratization and overregulation have already destroyed sizable chunks of American industry and business over a number of decades. Now with nationalization on the table, we're getting the first glimpses of what the American auto industry and medicine will look like, nationalized.

A Nation of Independent Voters

Lately the percentage of independent voters has been growing, at the expense of the Republican voter. And it might be worth taking the time to ask why. Voters identify with a party because they feel that it does or does not represent them. But whose interests does the Republican party actually represent? In the aftermath of the 2008 election, the Democratic party has quite clearly demonstrated who they represent. Unions, radical socialists, people who expected the government to pay for everything and environmentalists who want to use global warming as a pretext for controlling people's daily lives.

Iran Takes a Step Forward, America Takes a Step Back

The Iranian election dominated this week's news, with large numbers of student and youth demonstrators refusing to accept the rigged election results. While the outcome of the current Iranian crisis will have a limited impact outside Iran in the short term, it may have a far larger one in the long run. While the protests began as something more akin to the Venezuelan protests over Chavez's media hijacking last year, they have already passed the point of Tienanmen Square. And while we are not quite at the Tehran version of the Berlin Wall, whether or not they get there will depend on the actions of the Iranian regime.

Only Challenging Islamic Supremacism can Reform Islam

In Cairo, Obama masterfully laid out the Islamist narrative, evoking a world in which Muslim cultural superiority to Europe and America gave way to European and American physical supremacy over the Muslim world. Like all forms of flattery aimed at Islamic supremacists, this was naturally the worst possible approach to reform Islam.

There Is No “Reset Button” for History

A fundamental tenet of the liberal approach to foreign policy has been that the attitudes of other countries are not shaped by their own beliefs and motivations, but rather purely as reactions to good or bad diplomacy.

The Obama vs Netanyahu Opening Match

Watching Obama and Netanyahu deliver their speeches is a good deal like watching two poker players underplay their hand. The game has just begun and both are being very careful in what they do.

Tehran’s Answer to Obama

When Obama went to Cairo, it was to signal a new era in America's relationship with the Muslim world. No longer would the United States deal from a position of strength, but from a position of weakness. His speech, filled with unctuous flattery toward the mythology of Islamic Supremacism was only the icing on the cake that had begun with Obama's post inauguration prioritization of Islamic affairs and media outlets, the bailout of Sharia finance banks, the diplomatic track toward Iran and the intimidation of former allies such as Denmark and Israel into kissing the ring of Islam.

Von Brunn and Who are the Terrorists Anyway

The media and assorted left wings groups are doing their cynical best to somehow place the blame for the Holocaust museum attack at the doorstep of conservative talk show hosts, despite the fact that the shooter hated FOX News and conservative talk show hosts just as much as the left wing does.

Obama’s White House is Falling Down

In the sixth month of his presidency, Obama has turned an economic downturn into an economic disaster, taking over and trashing entire companies, and driving the nation deep into deficit spending expected to pass 10 trillion dollars. Abroad, Obama seems to have no other mode except to continue on with his endless campaign, confusing speechmaking with diplomacy. It is natural enough that Obama, who built his entire campaign on high profile public speeches reported on by an adoring press, understands how to do nothing else but that.

Obama, Israel and the Settlements

Since Obama has made Settlements the central issue in his attack campaign against Israel, let us take a look at what they are, and what they are there for.

In Liberal Eyes Who Are the Victims?

One of the most important things to understand about the liberal approach to crime and terrorism is that when liberals use the word "Victim", they are referring to a victimized class, rather than an individual victim.