Charles Krauthamer in his Townhall article: "How Yeltsin Brought Down the Soviet Union.
Victor Davis Hanson reminds us why we're at war in his NRO article: "Is There Still a War on Terror?"
A germ, some spent nuclear fuel or a vial of nerve gas could cause as much mayhem and calamity as an armored division in Hitler’s army. The Soviets were considered rational enemies who accepted the bleak laws of nuclear deterrence. But the jihadists claim that they welcome death if their martyrdom results in thousands of dead Americans.
James Taranto reviews the victim mentality of the other side with their latest whine about Giuliani saying "If a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001." The problem is, he never said that. But the whine drives the MSM, and the MSM drives the whine!
This is just the latest example of one of the oddest rituals of American politics: Democrats try to smear Republicans as mean and dirty by falsely accusing them of saying terrible things about Democrats. The classic example, to which we devoted a 2004 essay, is the plaint: Stop questioning my patriotism! As we wrote then:
Democrats themselves raised the issue of patriotism by defensively denying that they lacked it. A cardinal rule of political communication is never to repeat an accusation in the course of denying it ("I am not a crook"). These candidates "repeated" a charge no one had even made.
