Когда строку диктует чувство

Bret Stephens перечисляет в телеграфном стиле основные достижения миролюбивой внешней политики президента Барака Х.:

Consider the record. His failed personal effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. His failed personal effort to negotiate a climate-change deal at Copenhagen in 2009. His failed efforts to strike a nuclear deal with Iran that year and this year. His failed effort to improve America's public standing in the Muslim world with the now-forgotten Cairo speech. His failed reset with Russia. His failed effort to strong-arm Israel into a permanent settlement freeze. His failed (if half-hearted) effort to maintain a residual U.S. military force in Iraq. His failed efforts to cut deals with the Taliban and reach out to North Korea. His failed effort to win over China and Russia for even a symbolic U.N. condemnation of Syria's Bashar Assad. His failed efforts to intercede in Europe's economic crisis. ("Herr Obama should above all deal with the reduction of the American deficit" was the free advice German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble offered this year.)

и подытоживает:

I tend to think that the buzz about American decline mistakes the mediocrity of the president for the destiny of the nation. But we have an election on, the outcome of which will decide whether one man's mediocrity becomes a whole nation's destiny. Mr. Obama is now the world's leading has-been, trying to revive a career on the strength of a talent that was greatly exaggerated to begin with. But a country that's willing to reward mediocrity with a second chance risks becoming a has-been itself.

Денис умер и лучше как будто не сказал. Но добавим из объективности и малую дозу критики: а почему нет ни слова про любезный нам Гондурас?

Африканеры всех стран, соединяйтесь!

Современный заместитель Линнея профессор чикагского университета John Mearsheimer (of "The Israel Lobby" fame) совершил настоящий научный подвиг, единолично создав исчерпывающую классификацию американских евреев. Он поделил их на три основные группы: африканеров, праведных и болото. Свои многословные объяснения distinguished professor любезно снабдил наглядными примерами. В ряды африканеров попали

Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, David Harris of the American Jewish Committee, Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Ronald Lauder of the World Jewish Congress, and Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America, just to name some of the more prominent ones. I would also include businessmen like Sheldon Adelson, Lester Crown, and Mortimer Zuckerman as well as media personalities like Fred Hiatt and Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal, and Martin Peretz of the New Republic. It would be easy to add more names to this list.

Звания праведников удостоились такие достойные сыны (и изредка дочери) американско-еврейского народа, как

Noam Chomsky, Roger Cohen, Richard Falk, Norman Finkelstein, Tony Judt, Tony Karon, Naomi Klein, MJ Rosenberg, Sara Roy, and Philip Weiss of Mondoweiss fame, just to name a few. I would also include many of the individuals associated with J Street and everyone associated with Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as distinguished international figures such as Judge Richard Goldstone. Furthermore, I would apply the label to the many American Jews who work for different human rights organizations, such as Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch.

As if on cue, революционная теория профессора Миршеймера была красочно проиллюстрирована диспутом африканера и праведника. На стороне поджигателей войны выступил Bret Stephens, а знамя сил мира и прогресса принял в свои могучие руки наш старый друг Roger "Кролик" Cohen. Продолжительно, но поучительно.

Two Ground Zeroes

Обозреватель Wall Street Journal (и он же - бывший редактор Jerusalem Post) ставит все точки над i в обсуждении мудрого решения о суде над KSM в Нью-Йорке. По своему обыкновению, Bret Stephens обходится без обиняков:

No small number of potential New York City jurors would find KSM a more credible witness than any number of Bush administration officials—think Alberto Gonzales or Dick Cheney—who might be called to the stand.

Заслуживает внимания, с нашей точки зрения, и точность формулировок другого автора, хотя и куда менее нами уважаемого.

Update: как всегда, очень дельно высказывается Краутхаммер.