The Economic Nationalist

This article follows the last two on Iran (here and especially here).

Like many readers, this writer grew up during the Cold War. It is hard to convey to the younger generation the deep, implicit sense Americans shared in those days, especially white, conservative Americans, that our country was a great force for good in the world, opposing the Soviets (which was true), having stopped the Nazis (not really true, since the Soviets did that, but we remembered it through the lens of D-Day), serving as a bright beacon of freedom and democracy to a world threatened by tides of darkness. Of course, in the later years of the Cold War Cultural Marxism was on the march here. Cultural Marxism did much domestic harm but, on some level at least, we simply knew that those among us that sought to tear down our patriotism were liars and bad people. America was good; America’s foes were wicked. We all understood this for, despite persistent, draft-dodging, leftist propaganda to the contrary, it had the advantage of being largely true.

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Would someone like to explain to me what, exactly, is supposed to be so wrong with Iran’s form of government? The more I learn about Iran’s constitution in the context of the present crisis, the more that constitution makes sense to me.

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Peter Hichens writes,

And then there is the general problem with despots, created by our pious insistence on frogmarching them, in chains, in front of righteous tribunals. What tyrant, seeing the imprisonment of Milosevic, the hanging of Saddam, and the harassment of Pinochet and Honecker, would be stupid enough to abandon his sovereign immunity and volunteer for the cells?… [North Korean dictator] Kim Jong Il, now 65 and in poor health, has no incentive to dismantle his kingdom of lies and repression….

Precisely.

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The Economic Nationalist suddenly seems to be publishing several articles weekly, after whole months of one article or none. Such are the times. Anyway, an interesting paleoconservative discussion over the rectitude and origins of the Iraq War is brewing over at Eunomia. Click and read comments at least by Daniel Larison, “Adam01″ and this writer if the topic interests you. —Howard J. Harrison

“Brilliant” has become overused as an adjective, so let me just characterize Srdja Trifkovic as insightful and very, very smart. (more…)

Venezuela is the new Cuba, they say. Her president Hugo Chavez is the new Castro. So we are told.

I wonder. Fidel Castro is a bad man, a brutal totalitarian dictator, a thug and a murderer. Mr. Chavez misses no opportunity to remind anyone who will listen how wonderful he thinks Castro is—which is alarming—or to refer to the United States as “the Empire.” However, words are not deeds.

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From today’s Washington Times:

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine—Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised the Bush administration today by offering to allow a U.S. missile defense shield to be installed in southern Russia instead of Eastern Europe.

Assuming that the Russians are serious, this is potentially a major development. (more…)

Mitt Romney outlines his foreign policy recently for the Council on Foreign Relations:

[E]ven the most committed neoconservative recognizes that any successful policy must be grounded in reality and even the most hardened realist admits that much of the United States’ power and influence stems from its values and ideals.

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