January 11, 2008 | By Nathaniel Ward

	Featured video Jim Phillips explains what America must do next to win in Iraq. More videos »

Grading the Iraq surge

A year ago, President Bush announced a new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq that would involve a surge of roughly 30,000 additional troops.

» Take our poll: Was the surge strategy in Iraq a success?

Today, many key indicators suggest that the new strategy has worked. On Tuesday, a panel of military analysts, including Pentagon officials and experts from military academies, came to The Heritage Foundation to discuss the achievements in Iraq and what steps need to be taken in the future.

» Watch the panel’s analysis on MyHeritage.org

For all the latest on Iraq, visit Heritage’s Progress in Iraq website.

Jonah Goldberg on ‘liberal fascism’

Liberals are often quick to label as “fascist” those conservatives they dislike.

But applying that term to conservatives makes little sense historically, author Jonah Goldberg said Wednesday at The Heritage Foundation.

In fact, he explained, fascism and modern liberalism share a common intellectual heritage, since both derive from 19th-century socialism. In addition, many on the American Left, including members of Woodrow Wilson’s and Franklin Roosevelt’s administrations, looked for inspiration to European socialist movements, including Italian fascism and later German national socialism.

“If one scintilla of the charges against George Bush that he’s a fascist are true, then Woodrow Wilson was absolutely a fascist dictator,” said Goldberg, author of the new book Liberal Fascism.

» Read more about this event in The Examiner.

What if Iran escalates in the Gulf?

Earlier this week, several Iranian boats harassed American warships in the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean through which a quarter of the world’s crude oil flows. President Bush warned Iran of “serious consequences” if such a move is repeated.

An Iranian blockade across these waters could have real consequences. In fact, a Heritage war-game found that crude oil prices could double in nine months, dealing a blow to the American economy and costing the nation more than a million jobs.

» See the chart (PDF format)

» Read the full report from Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis.

Heritage gets results on economic freedom

The Heritage Foundation’s impact is not limited to domestic policy. In fact, our message of economic freedom is widely heard around the globe.

Take South Korea. Heritage’s Bruce Klinger wrote that the incoming government there should enact reforms to “allow market forces to replace government and labor intervention.” His recommendations, published in the Korea Times, were so powerful that the U.S. embassy endorsed his article and passed it along to the office of the president-elect, Lee Myung-bak.

The 2008 edition of Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom, which ranks countries by the degree to which they embrace free enterprise, will be released next week.

In other news

• The federal government’s credit rating could be downgraded unless lawmakers act promptly to tackle the long-term entitlement problems, according to credit-rating agency Moody’s. The government currently holds a triple-A rating, the highest possible.
• Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said she may use her executive authority to bypass Congress and enact changes to No Child Left Behind.
• In Israel this week, President Bush met with Israeli leaders and representatives of the Palestinian Authority. “The trip,” writes Heritage’s Jim Phillips, “presents a better opportunity for improving Arab cooperation against Iran than for achieving a diplomatic breakthrough in the complicated Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.”
• The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case challenging Indiana’s voter identification laws. Plaintiffs argue that the common-sense requirement to show photo ID when voting imposes an unconstitutional burden.
• A new study suggests that a widely-reported estimate of 600,000 civilian deaths in Iraq since 2003 overstated the actual toll.
• Heritage’s Foundry weblog rounds up recent reports on the effectiveness of immigration controls at reducing the number of illegal immigrants.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage’s website.  Or you can view these events live online.  All times are Eastern.

• On Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 10:00 a.m., a panel of experts looks at the results of Taiwan’s Jan. 12 elections.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

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