Matthew Duss

Since 9/11, classical historian Victor Davis Hanson has established himself as one of the preeminent apologists for the Bush Doctrine, presenting George W. Bush as a combination of Achilles, Marcus Aurelius, and Jesus Christ, and showing that every aspect of modern life deserves its own analogy to the Peloponnesian War. Hanson has demonstrated that there […]

Via TPM, the Alberto R. Gonzales Legal Expense Trust: “The establishment of a legal defense fund for the nation’s former chief law enforcement officer underscores the potential peril confronting Gonzales, who is one of a handful of attorneys general to face potential criminal charges for actions taken in office. David G. Leitch, a Gonzales friend […]

Last night, NOVA premiered a documentary on the Dover, PA intelligent design trial of 2005. It should be up on the web soon, I’m looking forward to watching it, having played a small part myself in the controversy over ID. Greg Anrig has some comments: “In watching the documentary, I was struck by the parallels […]

Rod Nordland reports that General Petraeus has held meetings with several of Muqtada al-Sadr‘s top deputies. “U.S. commanders say that the Mahdi Army’s quiescence is a significant factor behind the recent drop in attacks in Baghdad—by a third compared with six months ago, according to one estimate. And they say they now share a common […]

I don’t really know how to respond to Holy Dolphin Lady’s paean to Margaret Thatcher except to say that I find Noonan’s contention that there is one appropriate way for a woman to conduct herself in politics (carry a purse, eat beef, and govern like a mean daddy) to be utterly sexist, as well as […]

David Ignatius writes that Israel’s former top spy believes that we need a less apocalypse-baiting approach to Iran: “[Efraim] Halevy suggests that Israel should stop its jeremiads that Iran poses an existential threat to the Jewish state. The rhetoric is wrong, he contends, and it gets in the way of finding a peaceful solution to […]

Over at LGM, D handles this jaw-dropper of a column, in which Alan Dershowitz defends the utility of torture by arguing that it worked for the Nazis. Seriously. Dersh: “There are some who claim that torture is a nonissue because it never works–it only produces false information. This is simply not true, as evidenced by […]

Trita Parsi corrects some of the misconceptions which have muddied the debate over Iran. Here’s a significant one: “What Washington failed to recognize was that the policy of exclusion provided Iran with incentives to undermine US efforts. And the weakest link in the American strategy was the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Without successful peacemaking between the […]

Getting quickly to the task of restoring Commentary‘s intellectual seriousness, newly enthroned editor-in-chief John Podhoretz calls Heather Hurlbert a “poseur” for writing this: “I haven’t posted lately because of a painful nerve problem in one arm. Even with Vicodin, ibuprofen, muscle relaxants and the occasional naughty glass of wine in my system, the Bush national […]