Oliver North from Creators Syndicate

A Despot's Distraction for 03/07/2008

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

WASHINGTON — These are tough times for terrorists and the despots who back them. On Jan. 28, Abu Laith al-Libi, No. 3 in al-Qaida, was killed by a missile strike in Pakistan. Two weeks later, Lebanon's Hezbollah terror chieftain, Imad Mughniyah, met his demise in Damascus, Syria, when his car exploded. Then March 1, Raul Reyes, second-ranking commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of ...

Updated: Fri Mar 07, 2008

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Resigned to Reality for 03/14/2008

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

AIKEN, S.C. — The salacious details of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's hypocritical, extramarital love life have captivated the media all week. Had the Empire State's chief executive picked a different day to get caught with his pants down and quit his job, some other prominent resignations might have received more coverage. Apparently, there just aren't enough journalists to stake out the ...

Updated: Fri Mar 14, 2008

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Iraq: The Real Story for 03/21/2008

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — Five years ago this week, 170,000 American and coalition soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. When they commenced their attack, they were outnumbered nearly three to one by Saddam Hussein's military, yet it took U.S. troops just three weeks to liberate Baghdad. No military force in history has accomplished that much so fast with s ...

Updated: Fri Mar 21, 2008

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'Duh!' for 03/28/2008

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

MIAMI — I made a major mistake in a hotel room this week. Not the Eliot Spitzer kind of mistake — but with a television remote. While changing for a late dinner, I tried to tune in to Fox News Channel, but the electronic device took me instead to MTV and some kind of "reality show." For a few minutes as I dressed, I was treated to several attractive young American women di ...

Updated: Fri Mar 28, 2008

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Basra: Fact and Fiction for 04/04/2008

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — In the midst of last week's meaningless Arab League summit in Damascus, Syria, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki boldly launched his government's first major offensive against renegade Shiite militias. Ranging from Baghdad's suburbs south to Basra — the country's oil port and second-most populous city — Saulat al-Fursan (Charge of the Knights) is the largest an ...

Updated: Fri Apr 04, 2008

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Heroes and Horoscopes for 04/11/2008

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — Five years ago this week, American soldiers and Marines liberated Baghdad from Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard and the foreign fedayeen who had flooded into the despot's capital. For those of us who were there, it was an unforgettable event. But as Ambassador Ryan Crocker so cogently noted this week while he and Gen. David Petraeus were testifying before Congress, "The ...

Updated: Fri Apr 11, 2008

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Citizen Carter's Ego Trip for 04/18/2008

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes."

— Jimmy Carter, inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1977

WASHINGTON — More than 31 years after he uttered those words, America still is trying to compensate for and minimize Jimmy Carter's mistakes and weaknesses, the greatest of which appears to be hubris. This ...

Updated: Fri Apr 18, 2008

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Busy Signal for 04/25/2008

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — "The number you have called cannot be connected." Ever heard a recording like that on your telephone? On 9/11, messages like that were commonplace in New York and Washington — and incredibly frustrating for first responders trying to coordinate rescue operations and families attempting to contact loved ones. Now think about that kind of message being heard by ...

Updated: Fri Apr 25, 2008

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All the Wright Stuff for 05/02/2008

Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

FRESNO, Calif. — In the U.S. military, there is a wonderful little expression: "A good plan never survives the first contact with the enemy." The corollary to this rule is: "Expect the unexpected." Then, of course, there is the expanded version of the Boy Scouts motto: "Be prepared — for anything." This week has served to remind me how apt these quaint ...

Updated: Fri May 02, 2008

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Petronomics 101 for 05/09/2008

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

FORT BENNING, Ga. — Here at the U.S. Army's biggest base on the East Coast, soldiers and their dependents are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their "economic stimulus payments." It's a good thing because, like most of us, these American heroes are going to need the extra money just to purchase their next tank of gas.

This week, the Internal Revenue Service begins mailing ...

Updated: Fri May 09, 2008

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Terror Terminology for 05/16/2008

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The term "politically correct" is defined by The American Heritage Dictionary thus: "Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation." Add to that litany of "historical injustices" the title of my New Yor ...

Updated: Fri May 16, 2008

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'Now Hear This' for 05/23/2008

Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

NEW YORK — Aboard ship, every announcement from the bridge is preceded by that phrase. Here in the Big Apple, it's Fleet Week. Set to coincide with Memorial Day weekend, it's an opportunity for the citizens of America's most populous metropolitan area to see and touch the hardware the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps use to defend this land. More importantly, it is a chance for our coun ...

Updated: Fri May 23, 2008

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UN-believable for 05/30/2008

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — When the so-called mainstream media don't want you to know something, they simply spike the story — meaning they just don't cover it. That's what's happened to the good news from Iraq. American heroes are in flak jackets and helmets, and their Iraqi counterparts are asserting rule of law for millions of grateful Iraqi civilians once tyrannized by al-Qaida terrorists and ...

Updated: Fri May 30, 2008

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D-Day in Context for 06/06/2008

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — Sixty-four years ago this week, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came on the radio and implored Americans to "devote themselves in a continuance of prayer … invoking thy help to our efforts." The "effort" of which he spoke was Operation Overlord, the D-Day landing of 150,000 American and Allied troops at Normandy. The risks were so great that Winston Ch ...

Updated: Fri Jun 06, 2008

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Of Fathers and Flags for 06/13/2008

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — Just about everyone in America knows that Sunday, June 15, is Father's Day. The day for dads has been celebrated on the third Sunday of June since 1966, when President Lyndon Johnson decreed it to be so. Those who make and sell power tools and greeting cards have been grateful ever since. Somehow, it just isn't the same for June 14, which is Flag Day and, by no coincidence, t ...

Updated: Fri Jun 13, 2008

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Show and Tell for 06/20/2008

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — Last Sunday, Sen. John McCain met in Washington with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. After their closed-door session, the two men took questions from waiting reporters. The following day, Sen. Barack Obama told reporters that he, too, had found time for a conversation with Zebari. The way in which the two events apparently took place and how they were reported reflect ...

Updated: Fri Jun 20, 2008

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Success Equals Silence for 06/27/2008

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

AUSTIN, Texas — Our Fox News' "War Stories" team came here to the capital of the Lone Star State to work on a documentary about America's 36th president to coincide with the 100th anniversary of his birth Aug. 27. Full disclosure here, Lyndon Baines Johnson was the commander in chief who sent one of my brothers and me to war in Vietnam.

Because of the way he handled the w ...

Updated: Fri Jun 27, 2008

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Honoring Independence at PBS for 07/04/2008

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

NEW YORK — The potentates who run the taxpayer-subsidized Corporation for Public Broadcasting have an exquisite sense of timing. To honor America's 232nd birthday, PBS is bracketing our nation's anniversary with a three-part documentary on the horrors of warfare in the 20th century. Regrettably, nearly two-thirds of the series is a dubious assessment of American motives and methods during ...

Updated: Fri Jul 04, 2008

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Beirut Comes to Washington for 07/11/2008

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON — Twenty-five years ago this week, an intelligence report crossed my desk warning that Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon's Bekka Valley were preparing a major attack. Two months prior — April 18, 1983 — a Hezbollah truck bomb had exploded in front of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 and wounding another 120. With this grim event in mind, we launched an "all ...

Updated: Fri Jul 11, 2008

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Ayatollah Talk for 07/18/2008

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. — Here in the Carolina Lowcountry, there is considerable consternation about this week's meeting in Switzerland between U.S. and Iranian diplomats. Such confusion is understandable, given the longstanding Bush administration policy against such meetings, recent events in that part of the world, and the way in which the State Department and White House announced the Ju ...

Updated: Fri Jul 18, 2008

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