Featured Articles — October 16, 2009

October 16, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles 

Interesting takes from home and abroad:

An Honor Roll of One By Ben Stein, American Spectator
As you are reading this, the high school I attended, Montgomery Blair, in Silver Spring, Maryland, is having its 75th anniversary celebration. We are honoring some famous grads, including Goldie Hawn, the actress, Connie Chung, the TV journalist, Carl Bernstein, famous investigative reporter, Sonny Jackson, ace baseball player, and several others. The one who counts is named Tom Norris.

Debacle in Moscow By Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post
About the only thing more comical than Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize was the reaction of those who deemed the award “premature,” as if the brilliance of Obama’s foreign policy is so self-evident and its success so assured that if only the Norway Five had waited a few years, his Nobel worthiness would have been universally acknowledged.

There Is No New Frontier By Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal
We are a nation fully settled by government. The terrain ahead is both crowded and costly.

America The Rebranded By Bill Schneider, The National Journal
The Peace Prize was awarded for Obama’s ‘values and attitudes.’ Now the president has to show that they work.

New Nato troops will not make up for Karzai II By Max Hastings, Financial Times
Gordon Brown’s announcement of the conditional dispatch of a further 500 British troops to Afghanistan represents a sop to the Atlantic alliance, rather than a change of heart in Downing Street. The prime minister and his advisers are deeply sceptical – as is President Barack Obama – about whether a reinforced combat effort will change much in an increasingly unpopular war.

The Coming Surge in Afghanistan By Bruce Henderson, The New Ledger
Yesterday the Washington Post disclosed that the Obama administration has authorized the deployment of 13,000 military personnel, well beyond the previously forecast numbers in Afghanistan. Based on the time of year, and the nature of the units being deployed, this buildup represents the pre-positioning of support infrastructure, the sort put in place to support a larger number of combat brigades. While additional forces engaged in Afghanistan will be welcome news to most, the tactics they will use and their rules of engagement will ultimately support or inhibit their success.

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