Military training does not help fundamentalist countries in the absence of value training, and value training could only work if a large portion of the population became pro-reason and thus pro-individual rights.
Middle East & Israel
What Iranian Protesters Deserve from Us
We vastly underappreciate the power of America’s moral sanction.
Trusting Iran Compromises U.S. National Security
The Biden administration is offering Iran extraordinary incentives to continue its charade of compliance, enabling Iran to have greater means to support its terror proxies across the Middle East.
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Justice Demands
Elan Journo explains the essential nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and what has fueled it for so long. What justice demands, he shows, is that we evaluate both adversaries according to a universal moral ideal: individual liberty.
Middle East Enlightenment
Middle Eastern young people are moving away from fundamentalism.
Iran, Not Iraq, Was and Still Is The Fundamental Issue
Iraq was never the fundamental issue; the Iran-led ascent of the Islamist movement was and still is.
How Can an Atheist Support a “Religious” State Like Israel?
We should recognize Israel’s fundamental nature as a free society, and lend it our moral endorsement so long as that remains a defining feature
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is Not Fundamentally About “Stolen” Arab Land
Collectivist claims to land based on heredity or ancestral links often reflect a xenophobic, or worse, motivation: the desire to exclude “outsiders” precisely because they differ from your racial or tribal group.
The Palestinian Movement vs. Freedom Loving Palestinians
The Palestinian movement is divided between would-be quasi-secular dictators and Islamist theocrats, and it exploits its own people, disposing of their lives as cheap.
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is Solvable
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solvable, and we can secure American interests in the Middle East, but there’s no shortcut.
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is Fundamentally Ideological
To view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as just a quarrel over one piece of land fails to recognize the fundamental nature of this conflict.
Iran vs Trump: How Did Trump Become the Villain?
Iran attacks oil tankers and bombs Saudi Arabian oil facilities and Trump becomes the villain?
America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The actual injustice is that America has sold out the region’s only free society, Israel—along with freedom-seeking people across the Middle East and among the Palestinian community—while empowering jihadist forces.
What Would a Palestinian State Actually Look Like?
The idea of national self-determination cannot be a license to subjugate. No individual, no group of individuals, no self-identified national community has the moral right to create a tyrannical regime.
The Lesson of 25 Years of Israeli-Palestinian “Peacemaking” In The Middle East
We need to take seriously the lesson of the last 25 years. It is because the peace process negated the principle of moral judgment, that it enabled the Palestinian movement to subjugate, indoctrinate, and impoverish its people while continuing to attack Israel.
The Jamal Khashoggi Execution Reveals The Anti-Capitalist Nature of The Saudi Arabia Regime
Any rational view of our interests would recognize that Iran — along with Saudi Arabia — is a wellspring of the jihadist movement.
The Lesson of the Afghanistan War: 17 Years Later
The United States could have defeated the Islamist forces in Afghanistan, but we did not believe we had a moral right to.
Israel’s Chief Enemy Is Also Ours
Israel, the region’s only free society, faces a virulent movement fighting to eradicate individual freedom and to impose totalitarian rule in the name of Islam — the jihadist cause — and Iran is a leader of that cause.
The Trump Tariff is Really a Gigantic Tax on American Consumers
A tariff is essentially a tax that will be paid by domestic consumers.
Global Corruption and the Role of Government
The corruption of government officials seems to be as old as recorded history.
America’s White-Washing of Saudi Arabia Betrays Capitalist Values and Enables a Statist Regime
For years, the U.S. has embraced Saudi Arabia as an ally, but at the deepest level, Saudi Arabia is hostile to our ideal of individual rights.
U.S. Should Not Turn a Blind Eye Toward Egypt’s Statism
The Cairo regime is notorious for flouting individual rights, freedom of speech, and rule of law. If Trump takes those political ideals seriously, he should call out, rather than turn a blind eye to, Egypt’s persistent authoritarianism.
How To Defeat Islamic Totalitarianism
To deter jihadists and would-be recruits, it’s crucial to demonstrate that their totalitarian vision is unrealizable, that their cause is doomed.
The “Great Satan” Bows To Theocracy: On The Nuclear “Deal” with Iran
Iran’s domestic repression and its imperialist march and its nuclear aspiration are inseparable.