Thomas Joscelyn • Stephen F. Hayes
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PRIME-TIME JOHN MCCORMACK CONSPIRACY THEORY JUNE 5, 2017 $5.99 WINNING THE 9/11 WARS THOMAS JOSCELYN • STEPHEN F. HAYES WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM The Weekly Standard 2017 European Charter Cruise Join us September 2-10 for this luxury 8-night private charter cruise—with accommodations for just 212 guests!—departing Dublin, Ireland, with stops in France, Spain, and Portugal. This private charter cruise includes two days along the Normandy coast with the opportunity for private tours of the D-Day beaches and the Normandy American Cemetery. NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY OMAHA BEACH SAINTE-MÈRE-ÉGLISE Exclusive Normandy Experience: Cruise to the frontlines of history with expert insights from featured speakers: ANDREW ROBERTS GEN. JACK KEANE British Historian Retired 4-Star U.S. Army General Bestselling Author Fox News Military Analyst Book Now at WeeklyStandardCruise.com 888-471-3882 Contents June 5, 2017 • Volume 22, Number 37 2 The Scrapbook Social scientists unbound, Prince Charles the non-prophet, & more 5 Casual Lee Smith’s elder abuse 6 Editorials Winning the 9/11 Wars • Generation Trump? • Indefensible Articles 10 The Republican To-Do List BY FRED BARNES Congress may still accomplish big things 11 Prime-Time Conspiracy Theory BY JOHN MCCORMACK The Seth Rich nonsense and how it spread 13 They Deserve Our Gratitude BY JONATHAN V. LAST Serving the country by serving Trump 2 14 Hubris in the U.K. BY ANDREW STUTTAFORD Theresa May’s ‘dementia tax’ misstep 16 Misreporting Iran BY KEllY JANE TORRANCE The ‘moderate’ is also a liar with blood on his hands 17 Japan Returns BY CHRISTOPHER CALDWEll To find China on the doorstep 19 Unprecedented? BY JAY COST Trump is hardly the first president to be surrounded by attackers 20 In Praise of the Aircraft Carrier BY GEOffREY NORMAN Always on the verge of obsolescence, yet always proving its worth Feature 5 22 Unfinished Business BY THOMAS JOSCELYN What it will take to make America safe again Books & Arts 30 Tigers at Bay BY JOHN PSAROPOULOS They’re roaring, but for how long? 32 A Soldier’s Word BY JUDY BACHRACH Harsh truths, and merciful lies, about war 22 33 Magic Lantern BY WIllIAM H. PRITCHARD It’s been a century since we met J. Alfred Prufrock 35 Rested and Ready? BY JONATHAN MARKS The American engine could use a tune-up 37 Object Lessons BY DOMINIC GREEN For Henri Matisse, the outward appearance reflects an inner life 39 Uncompromised BY JOHN PODHORETZ An artist’s vision for ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ 37 40 Parody ‘Snow White’ is problematic COVER: A U.S. ARMY SOLDIER RESTS AFTER NIGHT-LONG FIGHTING IN FALLUJAH, IRAQ, NOVEMBER 9, 2004; SCOTT NELSON / GETTY THE SCRAPBOOK Stanford Prison Experiment, Anyone? or nearly 40 years, the federal nign behavioral interventions” can only because we mistrust anything F government has enforced the exempt themselves from seeking the done in the name of “efficiency.” “Common Rule.” The rule required approval of their IRB, so that once Drunk with the deference journal- researchers in the social and medical they have all their human guinea ists and laypeople show them, social sciences to get the approval of an in- pigs lined up, they can just let ’er rip, scientists of all sorts are throwing off dependent review board, or IRB, for scientifically speaking. the shackles of professional norms. their federally funded experiments. To cite another example: According The purpose of the boards, which to NPR, members of the American are usually set up by the research- Psychiatric Association are hoping to ers’ universities, is to protect human repeal the APA’s “Goldwater Rule,” research subjects—college students, which forbids members from pro- usually—from potentially harmful nouncing on the psychological health experiments. The most infamous ex- of public figures whom they haven’t ample is the Tuskegee syphilis study, examined personally. Its name comes conducted by the U.S. Public Health from the notorious magazine story in Service, which allowed syphilitic pa- 1964 that reported more than a thou- tients to go untreated for decades in sand head-shrinkers had declared the name of medical research. then-candidate Barry Goldwater psy- Nothing like Tuskegee is taking chologically unstable. place today, so far as we know. Even so, Unburdened by the Goldwater the IRBs serve as a useful stay against Rule, APA members will at last be overenthusiastic researchers whose free to pronounce that any public fig- sense of their own virtuous mission ure they disagree with is nuts. You might lead them to disregard the con- don’t suppose they’re thinking of sequences of their research methods. Donald Trump, do you? Whatever After all, scientific researchers—the you think about the various screws producers of all that “data” that big loose in the president’s psyche, the thinkers are forever citing in service The new rule won’t take effect confusion of professional judgment of one special interest or another—sit until next year, and not everyone likes with political belief would be a ter- pretty high in the saddle these days. the change. Tom George, a bioethicist rible development. Now those researchers think they at the University of Texas, told the It pains THE SCRAPBOOK to find it- ought to be policing themselves. And New York Times: “There seems to be self on the side of regulations and federal regulators seem to agree. a major paradigm shift going on away gag rules. But the exalted role social In January the Department of from the original goal of the IRB to scientists have assumed in the public Health and Human Services relaxed protect human subjects and toward conversation requires that we view its regulations governing the use of the convenience of researchers in the them with redoubled scrutiny and the review boards. For example, psy- name of so-called efficiency. I find skepticism. “Trust Us, We Know chological researchers who believe that of deep concern.” What We’re Doing” is a suspicious their experiments entail only “be- THE SCRAPBOOK does too, and not motto for any profession. ♦ this is being reported by Marine Corps Leatherneck Ladies Marine Pfc. Maria Daume Times: “A growing chorus of critics” ith all due respect to the Ma- say that having two-tiered fitness W rine Corps, “The Few, The requirements “creates a double stan- Proud, The Gender-Neutral” just dard and implies that female Marines doesn’t have the same ring to it. are not as physically capable as men.” Yet there is now a movement in the What’s being implied here is a bio- corps—even backed by some female logical reality and one that’s not open jarheads—to require women to meet to debate. With incredibly rare excep- the same physical fitness standards quite a laudable development, though tions, women simply aren’t as physi- as the men. In some respects, this is we have to scratch our heads at how cally capable as men when it comes USMC ABOVE IMAGES, BIGSTOCK; BELOW, 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD JUNE 5, 2017 to the most arduous tasks related to combat. But the standards aren’t just about biology, they are wrapped up in questions of what roles women should have in the Marines. The corps had been the last hold- out among the armed services, resist- ing political demands that women be allowed in combat infantry units. But last year the Marines finally buckled under pressure. So far, they have kept this transition from becoming a com- plete disaster by requiring that any women who serve in key combat po- sitions meet the same physical fitness standards as the men. In the year since the infantry was opened to both sexes, exactly one woman—Marine Pfc. Maria Daume—has joined the infantry via the traditional entry-level training process requiring her to pass the de- manding fitness requirements, such as evacuating a 214-pound body while wearing a fighting load. (Aside from being obviously physically gifted, Pfc. Daume was born in a Siberian prison and was orphaned before being adopted. Everything about her seems exceptional.) Despite the “growing chorus of critics,” the Marine Corps Times re- ports the corps has no plans to cre- ate a single physical fitness standard for all Marines just yet. Even though a lot of female Marines sincerely en- dorse raising standards for women, bureaucratic logic would likely dictate splitting the difference by easing the standards for men. Certainly women Apocalypse Now nonsense about a few inches of sea- can make—and have made!—incred- rise; nothing so trivial as coastal ero- ible contributions to our military, but he Prince of Wales did not mince sion; no focus on the plight of the war is dangerous business and surviv- T words in warning about the rav- polar bear. No, the prince had a loud- al often depends on the strength and ages of global warming. No piddling er alarm he was sounding, one about speed of the soldier next to you. the Future of Mankind: The “threat So we salute Pfc. Daume, but as of catastrophic climate change,” he a general rule, female Marines will said, “calls into question humanity’s never be as physically capable as men, continued survival on the planet.” and the prospect of eroding standards These strong words, THE SCRAP- to place women in combat situations BOOK hastens to point out, come from will disproportionately endanger March 2009, when Prince Charles was them. A generation ago, draft-dodg- visiting Brazil. That date is significant ing hippies asked, “How many men because the prince was convinced that have to die for a lie?” We regret to say time was, even then, running out.