The war in Libya has gone poorly since Mr. Obama turned its conduct over to NATO, an alliance headed by the United States.  One of the president's aides told Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker Mr. Obama was "leading from behind." A strategy more politically correct than militarily sound is chiefly to blame.  But absent the active participation of the United States, NATO has been nearly punchless.  Our European partners lack both the combat power and the logistics base to fight by themselves even this minor war.  To say nothing of the political will, which clearly has begun to flag. A ceasefire which leaves Mr. Ghadafy in power would be a humiliation for NATO, for the UN (at whose behest NATO claims to be acting), and for the United States. A larger question is why is NATO, an alliance whose purpose is to protect Western Europe from invasion, intervening in a civil war in North Africa?  Mr. Ghadafy is an evil mean nasty rotten guy, but he isn't a threat to Europe. There was a good reason why the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in 1949.  The Soviet Union and her satellites were threatening to invade Western Europe. NATO did its job.  There was no war in Europe.  That job is long since over.

Last month, in Food Crisis and Opportunity,  we talked about the coming global crisis in food production.  Next month as promised, I, along with my wife Rebel, Alex Alexiev, and Joel Wade, are going lead 20 TTPers to Bulgaria to learn how to profit from the crisis. I fell in love with Bulgaria when I was first there as the Soviet empire was collapsing in early 1990.  There's thousands of years of history - Bronze Age tribes, the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, medieval Christian kingdoms, hidden monasteries protecting Christianity from centuries of Moslem oppression by the Ottoman Turks, finally gaining independence in 1908 only to lose it to the Soviet Union during World War II, and now free at last. And all through this, Bulgarians forged and kept a Christian culture and heritage.  People come from all over the world to visit the extraordinary monasteries such as Rila or Ivanovo (World Heritage Sites, we'll visit both) the Bulgarians built to preserve their culture from Moslem imperialism. Even more visitors - hordes in the height of the summer - come to vacation on the gorgeous beaches of Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.  In the winter, skiers flock to ski resorts high in the Balkan mountains. It's a country of such profusion of flowers everywhere there's an entire valley called the Valley of Roses.  You couldn't ask for a more hospitable warm-hearted people - or ask for a better way to be shown hospitality, for Bulgarians really know how to make good wine and are more than happy to share a glass with you at every opportunity. And speaking of opportunity... Bulgaria is so fertile it's known as The Land Without Famine, and the agricultural opportunities are truly extraordinary.  That's what we'll be focusing on - while taking time for adventure, exploration and fun.  Here's the itinerary:

The Main Enemy: Islamism Chapter VI: Islamism in Europe The rise of Radical Islam in Europe, and especially Western Europe, is closely tied to the explosive growth of the Moslem immigrant populations in the continent. While the efforts to establish Islamist organizations and networks, such as those of the Moslem Brotherhood under Said Ramadan (1926-1995), predated the waves of Moslem immigration in the 1960s and 1970s, it was the massive numbers of new immigrants, more often than not concentrated in compact Moslem ghettoes, that created the ideal conditions for spreading Islamist ideology. An understanding of the radicalization problem therefore necessitates a brief discussion of the Moslem immigration and consequent population explosion phenomenon in Europe.

In one of those oops moments, the Associated Press sent out a story last Sunday (5/15) with the headline: "Minnesota congressman Paul Ryan mulling Senate bid." Rep. Ryan is from Wisconsin. To the AP, those states in flyover country are pretty much the same. If you're like whoever was on the AP's news desk last Sunday, you may not know much about Paul Ryan, and would therefore be puzzled why some prominent conservatives think he should run not for the Senate, but for president.  One reason is that Mr. Ryan ate Mr. Obama's lunch in their interchange during the White House summit on the deficit a year ago February.  That got under the president's thin skin, as he demonstrated with his churlish behavior toward Mr. Ryan during his speech at George Washington University last month. And now Mr. Obama likely is splenetic again after Mr. Ryan's masterful address to the Economic Club of Chicago yesterday (5/16).  "Class warfare may be clever politics, but it's terrible economics," Mr. Ryan said.  "Redistributing wealth never creates more of it."

Due to his extraordinarily heavy travel schedule, Jack Wheeler asked me to do the HFR this week.  Here goes: In the presidential campaign political news, it looks as if the party’s over for Donald Trump.  You’ll remember that last month, Public Policy Polling (a Democrat firm), had The Donald out in front, with 26 percent of Republicans supporting him.  But in a poll released Tuesday (5/10), the first since President Obama released his long form birth certificate, Trump has fallen into a 5th place tie with Rep. Ron Paul. Meanwhile, the Permanent Campaigner was in Texas Tuesday.  The primary purpose for his visit was to attend a $1,000 a plate fund-raiser in the liberal enclave of Austin, which had been scheduled for at least a month.  But last week Thursday (5/05), the White House announced there would also be an “unspecified” official event in El Paso.  Mack Mackowiak of the Daily Caller explained why.f In a column this week, I assert the double game Pakistan has been playing is over.  Americans won’t stand for it in the wake of evidence the Paks sheltered Osama bin Laden all these years.The Paks don’t grasp this.  They seem to think they can still smack us around and, like a battered spouse in a dysfunctional marriage, we’ll keep giving them money. Sometimes even some of his supporters think our scofflaw president has gone too far.

Mark Siegel is scrambling to keep the dysfunctional couple together, but the shotgun marriage of a decade ago is doomed. Mr. Siegel parlayed service with President Jimmy Carter and several Democrats in Congress into a partnership at Lord Locke Strategies, the lobbying firm the government of Pakistan pays $75,000 a month. That's been a bargain for Pakistan, which since 9/11 has received more than $20 billion in U.S. aid.  President Obama plans to send them another $3 billion next year. Pakistan needs the money desperately.  But foreign aid for Pakistan has become a harder sell since the world has learned Osama's hideout was a safehouse provided by Pakistani intelligence.  Without that aid both Al Qaeda and the Taliban would die.