Analysts agree that the erosion of the Syrian regime's capabilities is accelerating, that it continues to retreat, making a rebel breakthrough and an Islamist victory increasingly likely. In response, I am changing my policy recommendation from neutrality to something that causes me, as a humanitarian and decades-long foe of the Assad dynasty, to pause before writing: Western governments should support the malign dictatorship of Bashar Assad.
The events unfolding in Cyprus are examples of deja vu happening all over again ("Bank of Cyprus depositors get costly 'haircut'; Bailout could shave off 60 percent," Web, Sunday).
One widespread notion about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—known as Obamacare—is that the law, which turns three years old on March 23, creates a radical health system.
Robert Gellately's incisive work could well be titled, "Stalin's Worst Blunder." It is the story of how his rejection of Marshall Plan aid in 1947, both for the Soviet Union and the Eastern European nations falling under its domination, precipitated the Cold War and eventually led to the economic collapse of the Soviet bloc.
President Barack Obama is facing a political situation this year not unlike the one President Franklin D. Roosevelt faced in 1937. Both men had come off sterling re-election victories for their second term, both economies were still plagued with problems of unemployment and slow growth, and both administrations had seen significant victories in Congress. The Democrats in 1937 controlled both houses; in 2012 they increased their majority in the Senate and decreased the Republican margin in the House. Both presidents had major foreign policy issues that remained unresolved.
Conservatives usually have a few bones to pick with Hollywood over the Academy Awards. Not content with merely opening it, Hollywood pushes the envelope, often with questionable taste and mockery of common values.
Once upon a time, a State of the Union speech occasionally produced something memorable. James Monroe, in his seventh try, came up with the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which would be the cornerstone of American foreign policy for decades.
Former Sen. Chuck Hagel is a suave, energetic, spirited fellow. He is intelligent and, from his early youth, apparently patriotic and undoubtedly courageous.
Although he never held elective office, Harry Hopkins was arguably the most important figure in President Franklin Roosevelt's administration. As a federal relief administrator, he dispensed billions of dollars to the relief programs that were a hallmark of the New Deal. Then, even though he had absolutely no foreign policy experience, he became the wheelchair-bound Roosevelt's personal envoy to Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in forging a joint war policy.
