Lee Smith
Lee Smith is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard. A senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, Smith is the also author of The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations (Doubleday 2010).
Stories by Lee Smith
Why Russia May Have Interfered In the Election
Putin could have been looking for revenge against the Obama administration.
5:30 AM, Dec 16, 2016
Is the CIA, or some part of it, angry with Donald Trump? Even before the president-elect perhaps unwisely insulted the agency by citing its failures to assess correctly the status of Saddam Hussein's WMD program, someone high up at the CIA seemed to have it in for the incoming commander-in-chief. First, CIA director John Brennan last month publicly warned Trump not to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran. Crashing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, said Brennan, would be "disastrous"—"the Read more
What Game Is Russia Playing?
The two separate questions about Putin's possible interference.
2:59 PM, Dec 12, 2016
Reports Friday that U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign to tilt the election in favor of Donald Trump have sown precisely the kind of confusion that American adversaries must have hoped for with their actions. In an effort to reach some sort of clarity, let's break the matter down into two separate questions—Was it Russia that hacked the Democratic National Committee's servers? Did the culprits hack the servers in order to secure a Trump victory Read more
Cuban Writer Reinaldo Arenas Deserves the Last Word on Castro
From the December 12, 2016, issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
11:58 AM, Dec 06, 2016
Upon the death of Fidel Castro last month, President Obama remarked, "History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him." The statement was cowardly in striving for judicious balance to describe the legacy of a dictator who jailed and murdered thousands over the course of five decades. It was also wrong: History has already judged Castro, and the verdict is damning. This history is documented not in the cursory statements of presidents Read more
The Verdict on Castro
Reinaldo Arenas deserves the last word.
Dec 12, 2016
Upon the death of Fidel Castro last month, President Obama remarked, “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him." The statement was cowardly in striving for judicious balance to describe the legacy of a dictator who jailed and murdered thousands over the course of five decades. It was also wrong: History has already judged Castro, and the verdict is damning. This history is documented not in the cursory statements of presidents Read more
Phone Home
From the December 5, 2016, issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
7:20 AM, Nov 29, 2016
I called my mother on her 80th birthday last month. My brothers and sister and I were emailing each other as we've done every birthday of hers since she died more than six years ago. One of them remarked, "You know her phone is still working, right? You can hear her voice on her outgoing message." It hadn't occurred to me before. I called immediately. "Hi," my mom said. "I'm not here right now. But you know what to do." Of course, what she meant about knowing what to do was to leave a messag Read more
Phone Home
Lee Smith phones home.
Dec 05, 2016
I called my mother on her 80th birthday last month. My brothers and sister and I were emailing each other as we’ve done every birthday of hers since she died more than six years ago. One of them remarked, "You know her phone is still working, right? You can hear her voice on her outgoing message." It hadn't occurred to me before. I called immediately. "Hi," my mom said. "I'm not here right now. But you know what to do." Of course, what she meant about knowing what to do was to leave a messag Read more
Tevi Troy on Responding to National Disasters, and Preparing for Future Threats
A conversation with the former George W. Bush administration health official.
12:45 PM, Nov 22, 2016
Perhaps the most cheering aspect of our American democracy is the optimism meeting a new president and his administration. In two months, Donald Trump will move into the White House and bring with him a host of ideas and people to implement them in order to advance the interests of American citizens, and ensure the welfare, safety, and liberty of our families, friends, and neighbors. History has left us plenty of evidence, however, that fate has unpleasant surprises in store for new presidents, Read more
The Iran Deal Is Doomed
From the November 28, 2016, issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
10:30 AM, Nov 20, 2016
Will President-elect Donald Trump crash the Iran deal on day one, as he said on the campaign trail? If so, Barack Obama's signature foreign policy initiative, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will melt into air. Obama allies and Iran deal supporters at home and abroad are already showing their anxiety. The president-elect shouldn't tear up the agreement, argues the National Iranian American Council, a key voice in the administration's deal-promoting echo chamber. NIAC's Reza Mar Read more
Doomed Deal
Nov 28, 2016
Will President-elect Donald Trump crash the Iran deal on day one, as he said on the campaign trail? If so, Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will melt into air. Obama allies and Iran deal supporters at home and abroad are already showing their anxiety. The president-elect shouldn't tear up the agreement, argues the National Iranian American Council, a key voice in the administration's deal-promoting echo chamber. NIAC's Reza Mar Read more
Undoing the Iran Deal? Easy.
From the November 21, 2016, issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
7:00 AM, Nov 15, 2016
The election of Donald Trump signals bad news for the Iran nuclear deal, Barack Obama's signature foreign policy initiative. Calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated," the author of The Art of the Deal has threatened to tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on day one of his presidency. Supporters of the agreement and Obama allies warn that shredding the deal will only benefit Iranian hardliners, the very people it was supposed to restrain. "The big winner in the aftermath of a Tr Read more
The Lebanese Army Is Misusing U.S. Aid
And that should come with consequences.
4:27 PM, Nov 14, 2016
Over the weekend, pictures of a Hezbollah parade in the Syrian city of Qusayr showed Hezbollah fighters using American-made M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs). If the vehicles were transferred by the Lebanese Armed Forces, a recipient of U.S. aid and equipment, to Hezbollah, as some analysts have speculated, the consequences could be significant. After all, the purpose of American support for the LAF is to strengthen it to fight terrorism, which includes Hezbollah. However, this recent epi Read more
The Art of Undoing the Iran Deal
It won't be difficult.
Nov 21, 2016
The election of Donald Trump signals bad news for the Iran nuclear deal, Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative. Calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated," the author of The Art of the Deal has threatened to tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on day one of his presidency. Supporters of the agreement and Obama allies warn that shredding the deal will only benefit Iranian hardliners, the very people it was supposed to restrain. "The big winner in the aftermath of a Tr Read more
Setting the Record Straight on Israel
A conversation with Middle East expert Martin Kramer.
5:16 AM, Nov 07, 2016
Martin Kramer is the founding president of Shalem College in Jerusalem, where he also chairs the department of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. He is the author of several books, including Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle East Studies in America , and The War on Error: Israel, Islam, and the Middle East , which has just been released by Transaction Publishers. Kramer is not only a distinguished scholar of the Middle East who writes with an eye to the past as well as the pre Read more
Presiding over Chaos
The meaning of Michel Aoun's election.
Nov 14, 2016
On October 31, the Lebanese parliament elected Michel Aoun president, ending a two-and-a-half-year stalemate during which the country had no head of state. The presidency is reserved for the country’s Maronite Christian sect, so Christians there are celebrating the election of the controversial 81-year-old former general as a gesture of reconciliation for an often divided community. The excitement is unlikely to last. The presidency is one of the last remaining tokens of the Maronites' fading po Read more
Dante and Journo
Exploring the poet's home town, where even some Florentines have become tourists.
3:14 PM, Oct 26, 2016
Florence, Italy "Dante is definitely a typical Florentine guy," says Tommaso Ranfagni, a 33-year-old art historian and consummate Florentine. "Dante is sharp, straightforward, and he thinks his city is the best anywhere. He has opinions about other people, which he expresses clearly and directly. He has opinions about everyone. Dante is a pain in the ass." It never occurred to me to think of one of the pillars of world civilization as a local guy, but it makes sense. He's often speaking abou Read more
The Cubs Swing and Miss
What Chicago is up against after striking out 15 times in the World Series opener.
1:20 PM, Oct 26, 2016
The Cleveland Indians pitching staff was masterful Tuesday night, but they had an awful lot of help from the Cubs, who struck out 15 times . Starter Corey Kluber had nine in six innings, stud reliever Andrew Miller had three over two innings, and closer Cody Allen struck out the side in the ninth. A friend with many years' experience in organized baseball, including at the major league level, called Wednesday morning to say he wasn't surprised the Indians looked good and the Cubs struggled. " Read more
Time for a Face Off Between the Cubs and Indians
This Fall Classic comes in twos.
6:11 PM, Oct 25, 2016
The World Series this year feels a little like Noah's Ark, or John Woo's Face Off —lots of stuff in twos. Like Theo and Terry. The Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein built the long suffering NL franchise into a winner, just like he did with the Boston Red Sox, which won the 2004 and 2007 World Series under Terry Francona, who will be in the opposing dugout Tuesday night filling out the lineup card for the Cleveland Indians. There are two young star infielders, Indians Read more
Washington Post Tells Readers to Ignore the Inconvenient Facts of the Iran Deal
3:00 PM, Oct 24, 2016
Over the weekend the Washington Post published a review of Jay Solomon's book, The Iran Wars , written by New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino. That one of America's top three remaining newspapers assigned a review of a book written by a reporter from another of the big three ( Solomon is a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal ) to a reporter at the third, illustrates how much the media environment has shrunk. Even more telling was the nature of the review, which concludes wit Read more
Terror and a Generation of Nihilists: A Conversation with Olivier Roy
5:00 AM, Oct 19, 2016
Olivier Roy is one of France's most distinguished scholars of Islam, and author of, among many other books, Globalized Islam , Holy Ignorance , and The Failure of Political Islam . Joint-chair of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and Political and Social Sciences department at the European University Institute in Florence, Roy has lately been involved in a lively debate with his colleague Gilles Kepel, another major French scholar, concerning the relationship between Islam Read more
The Nobel Committee Honors a Great American Art Form
Bob Dylan is folk singer, not a poet.
11:03 AM, Oct 13, 2016
The Nobel Prize committee awarded Bob Dylan with the prize for literature Thursday, which will no doubt prove to be a controversial selection. The issue is not that Dylan is yet another obscure figure the committee named apparently to score political points, nor that he writes in a language little known outside a relatively small community of native speakers. The issue rather is that it's not clear that the lyrics that Dylan, aka Minnesota's own Robert Zimmerman, has been writing for more than Read more
What Happened in the Wild Card Games? Baseball
6:19 PM, Oct 06, 2016
The next round of October baseball is underway Thursday afternoon with the Texas Rangers hosting the Toronto Blue Jays (the Boston Red Sox are in Cleveland to play the Indians Thursday), but for some people that's not enough. Instead of enjoying the baseball, some folks are sweating the ballplayers. Take Buster Olney, for instance—he wants to know what Madison Bumgarner wants his legacy as a pitcher to be. "Oh man, why you asking me all these hard questions?" said the 27-year-old southpaw af Read more
Barack Obama's Options
5:00 AM, Oct 03, 2016
Barack Obama wants options on Syria. "The president has asked all of the agencies to put forward options—some familiar, some new—that we are very actively reviewing," said Anthony Blinken, deputy secretary of state. But force is not an option, since according to the White House there is no military solution for Syria. "We're trying to pursue the diplomacy," John Kerry told a group of Syrian opposition activists in a meeting whose proceedings were leaked last week. To that end, Kerry want Read more
In Baseball, It's Time to Go Chase a Ring
Role reversal for the Cubs and Yankees.
5:58 PM, Sep 28, 2016
What a strange season. Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium a man intended to propose marriage to his girlfriend. But he fumbled the ring like a knuckleball, with no one knowing where the thing would end up. The whole section looked for it. Fans used their cell phones as flashlights, parents sent their kids under the seats to search, and all the ballpark was invested in the drama. When the Jumbotron captured the woman's face alight as she found it—for of course it is she who does the finding, which Read more
Farewell to Jose Fernandez, the Kid Who 'Loved the Baseball'
Jose Fernandez, 1992-2016.
12:57 PM, Sep 25, 2016
Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident Sunday morning. The 24-year-old right-hander was 16-8, with an ERA of 2.86, and he had the second-most strikeouts , 253 in 182.1 innings, in the major leagues. On Wednesday, he pitched 8 innings of shutout baseball against the Washington Nationals, which Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds thought was Fernandez's best outing of the year. I watched the game on TV and saw Bonds and Fernandez embrace each other in the dugout Read more
Bibi Takes His Case Against the Palestinians' Demands To the Internet
And to the American people, too.
8:00 PM, Sep 21, 2016
Jerusalem It could have been worse for Israel Tuesday—much worse—with Barack Obama's last speech at the United Nations General Assembly. "Israel," he said , "recognizes that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land." It was a relatively anodyne phrase, given that there has been some concern here that the president might use the occasion to try to push for initiatives to reshape the Palestinian-Israeli issue. It's long been one of Obama's chief concerns, predating his tenure in Read more
A Bad Deal Gets Worse
Dec 01, 2014
As we go to press, the White House has reportedly offered Iran a deal regarding its nuclear program, a framework agreement with details to be worked out in the coming months. However, even as the interim agreement is set to expire November 24, it seems the Iranians have not responded to the Obama administration’s offer. And why would they? The White House has made it clear it wants a deal more than the Islamic Republic does. Under the circumstances, why wouldn’t Tehran wait to see how many more Read more
Headshots
10:55 AM, Sep 09, 2016
"Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth,” said Mike Tyson famously. Many choose to understand the former heavyweight champion's one-liner metaphorically, as an American rendition of the Prussian military strategist Helmuth von Moltke's observation that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. The temptation then is to take the Tyson/Moltke thesis as a figure for preparation, or imagination, and how it is always incommensurate with reality. Thus it's a description of how th Read more
Uri Bar-Joseph on the Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel, Middle East Espionage, and Human Intelligence
A chat with the author of "The Angel."
1:10 PM, Sep 07, 2016
Uri Bar-Joseph is a professor of political science at the University of Haifa and a former intelligence analyst in the Israel Defense Forces. His just published book, The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel , is the remarkable story of how Cairo playboy Ashraf Marwan betrayed his father-in-law, the most famous Arab hero of modern times, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Partly a spy thriller, The Angel is also an invaluable account of major historical figures like Nasser, his succ Read more
Jay Solomon On the Run-Up To the Iran Deal, Nixon and China, and More
A chat with the author of "The Iran Wars."
7:00 AM, Sep 03, 2016
Jay Solomon, one of America's top national security journalists, has covered Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Over the last few years, he has focused especially on Iran, its larger regional project, and U.S.-Iran relations, including the deal over the regime's nuclear program, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Solomon's stories about Iran continue to lead the news. His report last month showing how the Obama White House shipped $400 million to Iran on wooden pallets at th Read more
Winning With Scherzer, Losing Prince Fielder, and the Year That Launched the Babe
This week in baseball.
8:01 AM, Aug 27, 2016
It's always fun when you're winning. It seems like everything is going your way. If you're Nationals ace Max Scherzer going against the local rival Orioles, you get a groundball hit back at you on the mound and you field it between your legs. With your back facing the hitter. Here he is pulling off what's essentially a magic trick Thursday night at Nationals Park. After the play, Scherzer is obviously caught in an emotional struggle—should he really pretend that it's not a big deal, that in fa Read more
