Latest Articles

Afghanistan Deadline Is Not Smart Policy
A Reply to Stephen Schlesinger

March 8, 2010  •  Public Square

Stephen Schlesinger has a remarkably rosy reading of President Obama's speech at West Point. No matter how he reads it, though, the reality is that the U.S. will begin to abandon Afghanistan yet again in July 2011. And it will not bode well for the war on terrorism.

While Schlesinger may not be convinced that the Iraqi surge provided a useful example by which President Obama shaped his Afghanistan surge, both the White House and the Pentagon appear to disagree.

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The Afghanistan Withdrawal
Why Obama Was Wrong to Insist on a Deadline

March 8, 2010  •  Public Square

On December 1, after months of careful deliberation, President Obama announced a surge strategy for Afghanistan. "As Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan," he told an assembled crowd at West Point, and "after 18 months, our troops will begin to come home."

The surge in Afghanistan was modeled after the successful strategy that President Bush implemented in Iraq. Indeed, in the quote offered by Stephen Schlesinger, Obama drew parallels to the Iraq experience. By enunciating a start date for a withdrawal, however, Obama undercut the utility and effectiveness of his surge.

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Can Anything Stop Iran From Getting Bomb?

February 10, 2010  •  AOL News

On Thursday, Iran will mark Revolution Day, its annual commemoration of the monarchy's end. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has promised to use the day to "punch" and "stun" the West, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the Islamic Republic will increase uranium enrichment.

Iranian defiance is not new, but its vitriol after President Barack Obama's attempts to reconcile has forced the White House to reassess its policy. On Tuesday, Obama promised a "significant regime of sanctions" to underline Iran's isolation.

Which raises the question: What will stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons?

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A Watershed Election

February 1, 2010  •  National Review Online

After the Iraqi parliament banned 500 candidates from contesting the March 7 national elections, Vice President Joseph Biden rushed to Baghdad to urge Iraqi political leaders to reconsider. While the ban has fueled U.S. cynicism about Iraqi democracy, such cynicism is unwarranted, especially now.

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Taking Tea with the Taliban

February 2010  •  Commentary

Addressing the nation on December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama laid out the case for an augmented American presence in Afghanistan to battle the Taliban forces seeking to push their way back into power. "Over the last several years, the Taliban has maintained common cause with al-Qaeda, as they both seek an overthrow of the Afghan government," he declared. The president offered a brief account of the Taliban's rise to power before the U.S. tossed them out in November 2001. "Al-Qaeda's base of operations was in Afghanistan," he said, "where they were harbored by the Taliban—a ruthless, repressive, and radical movement that seized control of that country after it was ravaged by years of Soviet occupation and civil war, and after the attention of America and our friends had turned elsewhere."

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Books by Michael Rubin