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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 25, 2008 / 18 Adar II 5768

In search of an American President with brains and guts

By Paul Johnson


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Watching the run-up to the U.S. presidential elections from proud and self-indulgent yet weak and cowardly Europe, I am disturbed that so little attention has been paid to electing a President who will have the courage to provide leadership — and, if need be, resolute action — in an increasingly dangerous world.


I stress the word "dangerous" because for nearly two decades the world has looked relatively safe. Since the collapse of Soviet communism, the disintegration of the Soviet empire and the emergence of the U.S. as victor in the Cold War, the nightmare of nuclear Armageddon has faded. We've been living in a period of comparative calm, under the watchful protection of the democratic and liberty-loving sole superpower.


This conjunction tempted one or two theorists to predict the end of history as an ideological struggle and the start of a future in which liberalism (democratic market economies) would slowly but inexorably become permanent and universal. I never believed this, not even in the first joyful flush of the Soviet collapse. I simply thought that history, far from ending, would become more complicated, bringing with it new dangers and anxieties. From a 2008 perspective, I'd say that was an understatement. We are once more living in a vertiginous world.


I'm not talking about the threat of Muslim fundamentalism. Thanks to some strong leadership from George W. Bush, that danger has been contained. Muslim extremists will not overthrow our societies. Fundamentalism will gradually lose its support and power as the majority of Muslims — who want a better life just as much as most other people do — reject its anarchism.


No, what worries me most are the new moves and strategies being executed by the big players on the world chessboard. First and foremost is the revival of Russia. The huge expansion of China's industrial economy (as well as those of other rapidly expanding former Third World powers) has effectively doubled the demand for energy, sending the price of oil skyrocketing. Of all the oil-producing countries, Russia has benefited the most, politically and psychologically.


The Russian people oscillate between a love of freedom, ending in anarchy, and a profound respect for strong leadership, ending in tyranny. They have recently gone through the anarchic phase and are now enthusiastically embracing Vladimir Putin's brand of ruthless opportunism. Putin is not shackled by an ideology. He believes in nothing except power. He's not a Communist but a former secret policeman. He is constructing an empirical police state, which tightly controls Russia internally in the name of restoring order, and is stretching its insidious reach worldwide through scientific assassination and new forms of sophisticated industrial espionage.


This is a formidable regime to deal with, not least because Putin is popular in Russia. He is restoring his nation's self-respect, which was cruelly damaged by the loss of its European empire and by the independence of the vast and rich Ukraine, as well as other territories in the Caucasus and Asia. Putin is using Russia's new wealth to rebuild its armed forces, sending off its newly efficient navy and its fleet air arm on exploratory missions on the high seas. The increasingly strident tone of Putin's observations about the world also receives positive play at home.


Now, I'm not saying that Russia is — or is likely to become — a rival superpower to the U.S. Russia has many weaknesses — demographic, economic and cultural. But it is again a major factor in world politics. An index of Russia's returning strength is the growing terror of its immediate neighbors and their anxiousness to take shelter under America's nuclear-and-Star-Wars umbrella.


The old 19th-century adage remains true: Russia is never as strong as it looks; Russia is never as weak as it looks. For nearly two decades we foolishly exaggerated its weaknesses, yet now that it appears strong again, we must not overestimate its strength.


Which of the leading U.S. presidential candidates is likely to provide the kind of firm, consistent and cerebral policies that will contain and render safe this newly invigorated Russia? From a European viewpoint this is the key question of the election. It is linked to other factors that have been looming but are now moving to the center on the world chessboard: the burgeoning economies of China and India. What policies should the U.S. adopt regarding them, separately and together?


China has taken the traditional road to economic superpower status by investing heavily in industry. China is also investing much of its new wealth in its armed services. India, on the other hand, is investing mainly in high tech, something at which its people seem to excel and which flourishes in a free society.


I have no doubt that in the long run India will emerge the stronger and richer of the two countries. In the meantime, however, China carries more weight. Rivalries are bound to flare up. During the next presidency the U.S. may have to decide which of the two to back, as well as figure out what repercussions that choice will have on its handling of a newly assertive Russia.


In short, the next American President will be obliged to make some courageous and complex decisions — probably early on in his or her Administration. Courage in complexity is the requirement voters should be looking for now.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


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Previously:

03/18/08: Technological warfare against mice won't work. Try cats
03/11/08: What is a genius? We use the word frequently but surely, to guard its meaning, we should bestow it seldom
03/03/08: Fiction as a crutch to get one through life
02/26/08: Impatience + Greed = Trouble
02/13/08: Shakespeare, Neo-Platonism and Princess Diana
02/07/08: Where Industry Has Failed Us
12/19/07: People who put their trust in human power delude themselves
12/12/07: What is aggression?
12/04/07: Pursuing success is not enough
11/07/07: Are famous writers accident-prone?
10/31/07: Courage needed to disarm Iran
09/20/07: Who Will Say ‘I Promise to Lay Off’?
07/24/07: Greed is safer than power-seeking
04/02/07: Benefactors must be hardheaded
03/07/07: American idealism and realpolitik
11/28/06: Space: Our ticket to survival
10/24/06: Envy is bad economics
10/11/06: Better to Borrow or Lend? Rethinking conventional wisdom
08/22/06: Don't practice legal terrorism
08/08/06: A summer rhapsody for a pedal-bike
08/03/06: Why is there no workable philosophy of music?
07/11/06: Historically speaking, energy crisis is America's opportunity
07/06/06: The misleading dimensions of persons and lives
06/06/06: First editions are not gold
05/23/06: A downright ugly man need never despair of attracting women, even pretty ones
04/25/06: Was Washington right about political parties?
04/12/06: Let's Have More Babies!
04/05/06: For the love of trains
03/29/06: Lincoln and the Compensation Culture
03/22/06: Bottle-beauties and the globalised blond beast
03/15/06: Europe's utopian hangover
03/08/06: Kindly write on only one side of the paper
02/28/06: Creators versus critics
02/21/06: The Rhino Principle

© 2006, Paul Johnson

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