Roundup: Historians' Take

Walter Laqueur: It's Time to Stop Looking for the Old "Root Causes" of Terrorism

Walter Laqueur, in Policy Review (Sept. 2004): ... Thirty years ago, when the terrorism debate got underway, it was widely asserted that terrorism was basically a left-wing revolutionary movement caused by oppression and exploitation. Hence the conclusion: Find a political and social solution, remedy the underlying evil — no oppression, no terrorism. The argument about the left-wing character of terrorism is no

Herbert Bix: Can't We Get Over the Millenarian Impulses in Our Traditions?

Herbert Bix, at Japan Focus (Sept. 2004): [Herbert Bix is a professor of history and sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is the author of Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (HarperCollins, 2000), which won the Pulitzer Prize. This is a revised and expanded version of an essay that first appeared in Z-Magazine, Vol. 17, Nos. 7/8 (July-August 2004).]In the second year of the U.S. occupation of I

Larry Schweikart: Bush Has Shifted the National Debate from Equality to Liberty

Larry Schweikart, at freerepublic.com (Sept. 3, 2004): It took a while to sink in, I have to admit. I didn't like the speech much---the content was fine, but Bush came across as flat compared to the Zell Milller/Arnold Schwartzenegger stemwiders. But something gnawed at me. Bush's theme---one that he has allueded to in many contexts---emerged with momentous clarity. Hold on to your hats: Bush has reversed 70

Daniel Pipes: Why the Reluctance to Call Terrorists Terrorists?

Daniel Pipes, in the NY Sun (Sept. 7, 2004): "I know it when I see it" was the famous response by a U.S. Supreme Court justice to the vexed problem of defining pornography. Terrorism may be no less difficult to define, but the wanton killing of schoolchildren, of mourners at a funeral, or workers at their desks in skyscrapers surely fits the know-it-when-I-see-it definition. The press, however, generally shies away from the word terrorist, preferring euphe

David Ekbladh: Nation Building in Korea: Why & How We Did It

David Ekbladh, in the Wilson Quarterly (Winter 2004):[David Ekbladh is a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He is currently completing a history of modernization as an instrument of U.S. foreign relations during the 20th century.] It was a grim autumn. The United States was trapped in an increasingly unpopular confli

John Prados: The Winter Soldier Investigation Was Never Discredited

John Prados, in the New Republic (Aug. 30, 2004): [John Prados is a senior analyst with the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., and editor, with Margaret Pratt-Porter, of the book Inside the Pentagon Papers (University of Kansas Press).]To suggest that John Kerry lied in describing American atrocities when he returned home from Vietnam, a number of conservative commentators have noted that he relied on the

Coalition Forces Not Preventing The Plundering Of Iraq

Zainab Bahrani, The Guardian (London), 31 Aug. 2004 [Zainab Bahrani is professor of ancient near eastern art history and archaeology, Columbia University.] The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban was met with an outcry in the United States, Britain and the countries that form the coalition in Iraq. Yet the coalition forces can now claim, among other things, the destruction of the legendary city of Babylon. Ironically, the bombing campaign of 2003 had not dama

Juan Cole: What Bush Said About the Iraqi Victories at the Olympics ... And Why It Was Misguided

Juan Cole, at his blog (Aug. 24, 2004): From Bush press conference on Tuesday QUESTION: You’re not going to Athens this week, are you? BUSH: Athens, Texas? (LAUGHTER) QUESTION: The Olympics in Greece. BUSH: Oh, the Olympics. No, I&rsquo

Mackubin Thomas Owens: Kerry Operated on the Radical Fringe of the Vietnam Anti-War Movement

Mackubin Thomas Owens, in the Weekly Standard (Sept. 6, 2004): [Mackubin Thomas Owens is professor of national security at the Naval War College. He led a Marine infantry platoon in Vietnam in 1968-69.]We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the"greater glory of the United S

Murray Polner: The USA & Israel: Caught in Two Traps

Murray Polner, in the N.Y. Jewish Week:Did American soldiers killed and maimed in Iraq and Israeli soldiers killed and maimed in Gaza and the West Bank die for nothing? Americans are dying now because of ideologues and zealots. Israeli soldiers are dying for settlements and unattainable goals. Both are trapped. Take the U.S. for example, bogged down in a war and occupation that should never have happened. The Bush administration and its amateurish, rigidly ideological neocons

Stanley Kutler: Why Is Vietnam Back?

Stanley Kutler, in the Chicago Tribune (Aug. 27, 2004):The Vietnam War lies like an angry scar across America. Sen. John Kerry's presidential candidacy provides yet another occasion for renewed skirmishes.The "First Vietnam War" resulted from a futile French attempt to restore their Indochina empire from 1945 until their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The United States then provided substantial economic aid and military guarantees to the newly create

Larry Schweikart: Kerry's Swiftly Being Buried by His Friends

Larry Schweikart, in a communication to HNN (Aug. 27, 2004): The Swiftboat vet story is now in day 23 and counting, with no indication whatsoever of disappearing anytime soon. The fact that Unfit for Command has now reached #1 on the bestseller lists is itself a fact to be reckoned with. But there are larger currents swirling around the swiftboat controversy---currents that go straight to the heart of a liberal---and arrogant---media. Evan Thomas has flatly a

Daniel Pipes: Why We Should Be Thankful the Government Denied a Visa to Tariq Ramadan

Daniel Pipes, in the NY Sun (Aug. 27, 2004)It's not every day that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revokes a visa issued to a Swiss-national scholar scheduled to teach at one of America's premier universities. But this has just happened, and it's a good thing too.The Swiss scholar is Tariq Ramadan. He is Islamist royalty – his maternal grandfather, Hasan al-Banna, founded the

Niall Ferguson: The Republicans Might Be Better Off If Bush Loses

Niall Ferguson, in the WSJ (Aug. 27, 2004)It is doubtless not the most tactful question to ask on the eve of the Republican convention, but might it not be better for American conservatism if George Bush failed to win a second term? Yes, I know, the official GOP line is that nothing could possibly be as bad for the U.S. as a Kerry presidency. According to the Bush campaign,

John Steele Gordon: Tort Reform Is Essential

John Steele Gordon, in the WSJ (Aug. 25, 2004): Tort lawyers and their political minions never tire of lauding the virtues of the American legal system, especially the so-called American rule (where each side of a case pays its own costs regardless of outcome) and the election of judges. Their arguments, and the counterarguments, are well known to the readers of this page. But here's another counterargument, one that might be called the argument of the marketplace. Goo

Daniel Pipes: Beware Allegations of Hate Crimes Before They're Investigated

Daniel Pipes, at frontpagemag.com (Aug. 25, 2004):In the early morning on July 9, 2004, a fire burned much of the Continental Spices Cash & Carry, a grocery store in Everett, Washington, specializing in Pakistani, Indian and Middle Eastern groceries. The fire caused an estimated $50,000 in damages but no injuries. On putting out the fire, police and firefighters found a gasoline can, a spray-painted obscenity against Arabs and a spray-painted white cross. Rupinder Bedi, th

James E. McWilliams: Historians Fail As Public Intellectuals

James E. McWilliams, in the Washington Post (August 25, 2004): [James E. McWilliams is an assistant professor of history at Texas State University at San Marcos.] For better or worse, election years lure many members of my profession out of the ivory tower and into the real world. As political events heat up, historians are summoned to illuminate the political landscape for a wide audience that s

Joshua Brown: The Unpleasant Images in the Shadow of the Republican Convention

Ivan Eland: Being Pro-War Is Not Necessarily Patriotic

Ivan Eland, at the website of the Independent Institute (Aug. 23, 2004): [Ivan Eland is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute in Oakland, CA., and author of the book, Putting “Defense” Back into U.S. Defense Policy. For further articles and studies, see OnPower.org.] As the 21st century dawns, Americans have come to define patriotism as uncriti

Max Boot: Milder Mud-Slinging Today

Max Boot, in the Los Angeles Times (August 19, 2004): Bush supporters are furious that some liberals have the temerity to accuse the president of misusing terrorism alerts for political purposes. Kerry supporters are equally steamed that some conservatives are questioning whether Kerry really performed all those heroic acts in Vietnam. Charges of negati