Frank Gaffney column
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., is President of the Center for Security Policy and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is the lead author of War Footing: Ten Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World. He blogs at www.WarFooting.com
Frank Gaffney
August 20, 2007
A likely upshot of President Bush's meetings this week with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts in Montebello, Canada will be a further impetus to the effort . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 14, 2007
The story of the public school in Brooklyn that is poised to become a taxpayer-underwritten, Islamist recruitment and indoctrination center took a dramatic turn . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 6, 2007
Last week, Vladimir Putin's Russia used a bit of undersea derring-do to remind us that chess is its national sport. Two deep-ocean submersibles were dispatched . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 30, 2007
There was some good news and some bad news last week in the struggle to preserve Western civilization from the insidious efforts of Islamofascists to penetrate, . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 2, 2007
In the wake of this weekend's spate of actual and attempted car-bombings in the U.K., I watched the uncut version of "The Path to 9/11" — ABC's dramatic . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 25, 2007
Communist China has done it again. Desperate for new sources of energy, the Chinese are moving into an oil-rich nation eschewed by others. In this case, . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 18, 2007
Back when nuclear weaponry and deterrence strategy still received serious national deliberation, most sensible people recognized a basic reality: Once the . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 4, 2007
There is a growing appreciation of several facts about the war we are in. First, we are most immediately up against an ideology — Islamofascism describes it . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 29, 2007
Last Wednesday, the Oregon Public Broadcasting Service announced that it had reached an agreement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that seemed . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 14, 2007
Any minute now, President Bush is going to make a fateful mistake. He will announce that his administration will make a concerted effort to secure the prompt . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 7, 2007
On the Amtrak train to New York a few minutes ago, the conductor announced, "If you see anything suspicious, please report it to the authorities immediately." . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 30, 2007
Since 9/11, many of us have wondered: Where are the moderate Muslims? If they are out there, why are we not hearing more, and getting more help, from them in . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 23, 2007
This week, the Ohio Legislature will hold its second hearing on legislation designed to help the state make a real contribution to America's triumph in the War . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 16, 2007
It was so, well, Soviet. This weekend's news clips showed Russian goon squads charging courageous opponents of an authoritarian Kremlin, truncheons flailing, . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 11, 2007
For decades, conservatives have been among the taxpayers whose money has been made available in immense quantities to underwrite public broadcasting. Over the . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 9, 2007
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is clearly one of those women who want it all. In her case though, this is not simply a matter of a lady seeking to have both a family and . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 2, 2007
Most thoughtful observers of the contemporary American polity are astonished that the highly partisan fight over the future of Iraq has almost entirely obscured . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 27, 2007
Some people think the reason there have been no successful terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11 is because the threat from Islamofascists and . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 19, 2007
Fifty-one years ago, then-Senator John F. Kennedy published "Profiles in Courage" — a chronicle of political figures whose convictions prompted them to adopt . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 5, 2007
It is becoming increasingly dangerous to be a critic of Vladimir Putin, the elected dictator of Russia. That is, as KGB thugs like Putin used to say during the . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 26, 2007
With Al Gore winning an Oscar for propagandizing about an admittedly somewhat hyped threat of global warming, the convergence of Hollywood with public policy is . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 20, 2007
The casual observer might think nothing of the candidacy of a fellow named Suhail Khan for election to one of two open seats on the Board of Directors of the . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 19, 2007
I began this column last week with a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which harsh treatment was deemed warranted for congressmen who willfully take . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 12, 2007
President Abraham Lincoln took a dim view of those who, during wartime, acted in ways that damaged the morale of the American people and undermined the military . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 5, 2007
The outcome of the present, global conflict may ultimately turn on the implementation of a policy it took President Bush just seven words to declare on November . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 29, 2007
Members of the 110th Congress are behaving like drunken drivers with respect to the conflict in Iraq, veering wildly all over the road, seemingly oblivious to . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 22, 2007
Tuesday's State of the Union address should be unlike any in recent memory. Not because George W. Bush turns it into the expected paean to bipartisanship, or . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 15, 2007
Last week, President Bush addressed the Nation to describe a "way forward" in the War for the Free World and its Battle of Iraq. Next week, he will give . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 8, 2007
Mr. President:
By now you have been getting lots of free advice about what to say — and what not to say — in your remarks Wednesday about a new strategy for . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 2, 2007
This is a tale of three men, all prominent figures on the world stage. Two of them — Saddam Hussein and former President Gerald Ford — have died in recent days . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 18, 2006
Suddenly, "surge" is the talk of the town. Gone, for the moment at least, is "surrender" — the leitmotif, if not the stated purpose, of Jim Baker's Iraq Study . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 11, 2006
It seems as though poison is much in vogue at the moment. For example, Russia's emerging dictator, Vladimir Putin, appears to be offing his enemies left and . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 4, 2006
On Wednesday, an unelected, unaccountable and substantially unqualified commission will formally report what hasn't already been leaked about its . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 27, 2006
We are, as the saying goes, between Iraq and a hard place. Unfortunately, events this week seem likely to drive us inexorably closer to the hard place — one . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 20, 2006
Democratic political strategist Pat Caddell is one angry man. His is not the anger, however, of a typical partisan, seething at his opponents and gloating in . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 13, 2006
The mistakes that led to last week's elections — and the errors that seem likely to flow from them — would be hysterically funny if they weren't so deadly . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 6, 2006
We are, by nature, an optimistic people. That optimism may be much in evidence at the polls across America [today/tomorrow].
Ironically, the current . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 23, 2006
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il has reportedly told Chinese interlocutors that he is "sorry" about testing a nuclear weapon and that he is willing to resume . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 16, 2006
America's preoccupation with the crises du jour — the rising terrorist menace to the liberation of Iraq, the Iranian regime's determination to acquire the means . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 9, 2006
For several years, North Korea has said it had nuclear weapons and the world has generally assumed that it did. With Pyongyang's apparent underground . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 2, 2006
So, Bob Woodward has become the latest journalist to try to influence the upcoming mid-term congressional elections with a new book, State of Denial — a harsh . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 25, 2006
For millions of Americans, the spectacle of buffoonery and bombast served up last week in New York by the UN General Assembly — in particular, the appearances . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 18, 2006
For some politicians, it is tough under the best of circumstances to do the right thing when it comes to national security. Posturing about "peace dividends" . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 5, 2006
There was only one thing truly astonishing about the revelation last week that Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's deputy at the State Department during George W. . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 28, 2006
Urban legend has it that populations of wild rodents known as lemmings periodically commit mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs. In fact, these . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 21, 2006
In recent days, it has become harder than ever to deny the true nature of the conflict in which we find ourselves. As President Bush put it recently, "We are . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 14, 2006
Last week, the Bush Administration sent profoundly mixed signals about its attitude towards the War for the Free World and the enemies who threaten us and other . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 7, 2006
Suddenly, the Democrats have found their voice on Iraq. It is the sound of defeatism.
Would-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 31, 2006
On September 11, 2001, a freedom-loving nation was attacked by a terrorist organization operating from the territory of a sovereign state with the . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 24, 2006
The British wit, Samuel Johnson, once declared that, "The prospect of hanging concentrates the mind wonderfully." The televised images of various missiles . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 17, 2006
Suddenly, the Middle East is embroiled in a war again. No, not the sort of low-level, terrorist attack-and-limited retaliation that has passed for "peace" in . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 10, 2006
When President Bush sits down with his counterparts from the other Group of Eight (G-8) nations this weekend in St. Petersburg, Russia, there will be many . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 27, 2006
When the history of this era is written, it will be clearer than it is now what steps made a difference in the course of the present, global conflict — the War . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 12, 2006
At this point in our history, is what we really need a Treasury Secretary who is a pedigreed "Friend of China"? That is a term the Communist Chinese apply to . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 5, 2006
Recent actions by the U.S. Senate have raised questions about whether a minority of the institution's Republican majority has a political death wish. A number . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 30, 2006
One of the most important public policy fights in years is taking place within the U.S. government. The debate is over how to deal with the growing danger . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 22, 2006
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in town this week on a sales campaign. He hopes to secure the United States' approval and financing (perhaps as much as $ . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 15, 2006
Now we know. The Sunday morning CNN program hosted by Wolf Blitzer provided an explanation for at least some of the bizarre behavior in evidence lately in . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 8, 2006
In courtrooms and movie theaters this spring, Americans are being exposed in an unvarnished way to the true character and evil purposes of our enemies in this . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 1, 2006
Millions of illegal immigrants are marching in America's streets and boycotting jobs, schools and merchants. Their explicit purpose is to blackmail our . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 24, 2006
Anniversaries are opportunities for reflecting on the year just past. For the U.S. intelligence community — and for the Nation it serves — the retrospective . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 17, 2006
Suddenly, a hardy perennial of the Washington political hothouse is once again in full bloom. The usual suspects are clamoring for the sacking of Donald . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 10, 2006
In the aftermath of last week's Senate meltdown over immigration legislation and ongoing mass demonstrations meant to compel more sympathetic treatment for . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 3, 2006
The Congress has received lots of free advice lately from Mexican government officials and illegal aliens waving Mexico's flag in mass demonstrations coast-to . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 27, 2006
Today, even more than is usually the case, Israel is the Free World's "canary in the mine shaft." Its voters are poised to vote for a policy approach their . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 20, 2006
The third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has been marked by anti-war demonstrations, polls suggesting evaporating public support for the effort to . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 13, 2006
Arguably, among the most pressing questions of our time are: Can Islamic nations enjoy the benefits of secular, tolerant and accountable government — and will . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 6, 2006
The deal struck last week by President Bush and his Indian counterpart, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, effectively recognizes reality: The Nuclear Non . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 28, 2006
Recent headlines call to mind a notable Shakespearean turn of phrase: "These are the times that try men's souls." Actually, what today's events are likely to . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 20, 2006
The federal bureaucracy has made a strategic mistake that threatens to cost the President dearly. The question is not whether the ill-advised decision taken . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 13, 2006
How would you feel if, in the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. government had decided to contract out airport security to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the country . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 6, 2006
This column is being written in a bedroom in Los Angeles once occupied by 2nd Lieutenant J.P. Blecksmith, a 2003 Naval Academy graduate and Marine who died for . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 30, 2006
The most consequential part of President Bush's State of the Union address tonight, at least in the near-term, will be the section he devotes to the need to . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 23, 2006
One week from today, President Bush has an opportunity to make a truly historically significant State of the Union address. He can do so by setting forth a . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 16, 2006
Suddenly, the Iranian nuclear program is all the buzz. It appears to be nearing the point at which weapons-grade material, if not actual atomic or nuclear . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 9, 2006
Historians know that it is impossible accurately to assess a departed leader's legacy until after many years have passed, let alone before technically he is . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 3, 2006
At this writing, 13 men are trapped deep underground in a West Virginia coal mine and the prognosis for their safe recovery is uncertain. This event . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 19, 2005
The news from Iraq at this writing features a video of a terrorist murdering a man believed to be a kidnapped American civilian. The victim was trying to help . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 12, 2005
The proverbial rubber is about to meet the road. This week, the U.S. Congress will determine whether the USA Patriot Act — the most important piece of domestic . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 5, 2005
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be spending the week in Europe and apparently the message she will deliver to our so-called allies is as undiplomatic . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 28, 2005
President Bush is a man on a mission this week. He is seeking to reinvigorate his leadership and rehabilitate his public standing by addressing an issue of . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 21, 2005
Call it the Week that Was. In the course of four days, official Washington was wracked by congressional initiatives that threaten immeasurable harm to the war . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 14, 2005
This week, President Bush will be visiting the People's Republic of China. As with all such high-level diplomatic missions, he will doubtless be tempted to . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 8, 2005
Not too long ago, the conventional wisdom was that Europe was going to emerge as a unified and mighty economic and political superpower. We were told it would . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 31, 2005
On October 26th, the new president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made international headlines by declaring that "Israel must be wiped off the map." Leaders from . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 24, 2005
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee was supposed to focus long-overdue attention on the single most important factor in the future course of the War for the . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 18, 2005
Every once in a while an idea so goofy comes along that one is inclined to dismiss it as just absurd rumor. More often than not, it seems, such ideas involve . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 11, 2005
Sen. Jesse Helms once famously complained that the problem with the State Department is simple. With all its "country desks" (whose job usually seems to be to . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 3, 2005
Let's be honest. The so-called "Global War on Terror" is not going brilliantly just now. While our forces on the front lines continue to do their difficult . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 19, 2005
Years ago, the peace movement came up with a catchy rhetorical question: "What if they had a war and nobody came?" Incredible as it may seem, the Pentagon may . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 12, 2005
Since it seems the only news that is fit to print (or air) these days has to do with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, finding a related angle to call needed . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 6, 2005
The U.S. Senate is scheduled on September 6th to decide whether to clear the way for the most odious, anti-American piece of legislation in memory: S.147, the . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 29, 2005
Karen Hughes, confidant to George W. Bush and master political strategist, has recently returned from Texas to take on one of the most important and heretofore . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 22, 2005
Like John Wayne in a classic Hollywood Western, John Bolton has ridden to the rescue at the United Nations with scarcely a moment to spare. As a result, he may . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 8, 2005
In announcing last week a sweeping crackdown in Britain on the "evil ideology" of coming to be known as Islamofascism, Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 1, 2005
Within days of the murderous 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush declared before a joint session of Congress: "Every nation, in every region, now has a . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 25, 2005
In the wake of recent bombings in London and Egypt confirming the vulnerability of even relatively vigilant societies to Islamofascist terrorism, the question . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 18, 2005
Most Americans have come — correctly, if reluctantly — to the conclusion that the United Nations has been a failure. Sixty years ago, the UN's founders . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 11, 2005
Suddenly, the world is seized with the danger of ignoring the Islamofascists in our midst. Lengthy front-page articles in Sunday's New York Times and . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 5, 2005
For many of the families of the 3,000 American citizens who were murdered on September 11, 2001, the worst thing that could happen would be for their loved ones . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 20, 2005
When a United States Senator says something deeply offensive, there are usually but two immediate recourses: Either he or she voluntarily apologizes or the . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 13, 2005
This week, the American people will get a chance to see whether their Senators are prepared finally to go beyond mere rhetoric and actually do something . . .
Frank Gaffney
June 6, 2005
Memorandum to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton:
It is now widely expected that you will run for President in 2008, after successfully standing for reelection . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 31, 2005
Last week, the President of the United States effusively praised Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat's right-hand man for some forty years. In the White House Rose . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 23, 2005
George Voinovich is an honorable man. So, when the junior Senator from Ohio says he has decided to vote against President Bush's nomination of John Bolton to . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 16, 2005
Flash: Newsweek has apologized. The magazine's editor says he is sorry for printing a possibly "mistaken" article that accused U.S. interrogators at . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 9, 2005
So, where are we? After weeks of attacks on John Bolton's character, integrity, temperament and conduct by John Kerry, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and other . . .
Frank Gaffney
May 2, 2005
Starting this week, the United Nations will engage in one of the activities that has caused the organization to fall into disrepute and prompted the Bush . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 25, 2005
They're back. The people who tried to defeat George W. Bush are the same people who are now trying to defeat his nominee for the United Nations, John R. Bolton . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 18, 2005
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is ready to vote on President Bush's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Democrats have lined up to . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 11, 2005
The early returns are in: A number of retired U.S. diplomats, George Soros and the renamed World Federalist Association (now doing business as Citizens for . . .
Frank Gaffney
April 4, 2005
Hundreds of "Minuteman" volunteers are fanning out this week across the Arizona-Mexico border. They hope, by so doing, to help the authorities reduce somewhat . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 28, 2005
Democrats in the House of Representatives and beyond have made no secret of their desire to unseat House Majority Leader Tom Delay — and for good reason. . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 21, 2005
American relations with the world's largest democracy, India, were much in the news last week. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a stop in New Delhi, . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 14, 2005
"The advance of hope in the Middle East...requires new thinking in the capitals of great democracies — including Washington, D.C. By now it should be clear . . .
Frank Gaffney
March 7, 2005
Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister, Ali al-Nuaimi, recently announced that he expected the price of oil to remain at unconscionably high levels of between $40 and $50 . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 28, 2005
With each passing day, evidence grows that two of the world's most dangerous rogue states, North Korea and Iran, will be able to equip their arsenals of . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 15, 2005
Statements out of North Korea and Iran last week confront the United States and other freedom-loving nations with a frightening prospect: Two of the world's . . .
Frank Gaffney
February 7, 2005
If all goes according to plan, the House of Representatives this week will take important, if long overdue, steps towards securing the Nation's borders and . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 31, 2005
"Stop the world, I want to get off" was once the title of a popular theatrical comedy. Today, it seems to be the mantra of Democratic Senator Teddy Kennedy of . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 24, 2005
"There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 17, 2005
Last week, the leadership of the House of Representatives employed the political equivalent of the "nuclear option." It removed a popular legislator, Rep. . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 10, 2005
Even before the Congress formally declared George W. Bush the winner of last November's presidential election, reports began circulating that he would propose a . . .
Frank Gaffney
January 3, 2005
A few weeks ago, two Republican Congressmen — Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin — were widely denounced for defying the . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 20, 2004
Don Rumsfeld is one of the most experienced men in Washington. So he is presumably not surprised at the fickleness of the chattering classes. Not so long ago, . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 13, 2004
The plight of Israelis today calls to mind the tongue-in-cheek prayer of Tevye, the hero of "Fiddler on the Roof" who, in light of his people's suffering, asks . . .
Frank Gaffney
December 6, 2004
The philosopher George Santayana once said that "fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim." By that definition, it appears . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 29, 2004
The heat is on. Advocates of history's most sweeping and least-considered "reform" of the U.S. intelligence community are intent on having their way. In . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 22, 2004
We may have dodged a bullet. In its post-election lame duck session, the 108th Congress continued to resist intense pressure to approve a bill that purported . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 15, 2004
You have to hand it to the Palestinians. They have gotten away with fabricating a nationality where none existed prior to Yasser Arafat's terrorism-backed . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 9, 2004
Throughout history, troops like those brave Americans currently liberating Fallujah have demanded the identity of people approaching their lines with the . . .
Frank Gaffney
November 1, 2004
If the conventional wisdom is correct, today's presidential election will be tightly contested and ultimately decided by the electorate's concerns about winning . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 25, 2004
For most of the 2004 campaign, Senator John Kerry has been trying to obscure the true nature of his proclivities on defense and foreign policy matters. Voters . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 18, 2004
At this writing, there is reason to fear the U.S. Congress will capitulate before the election to the demands of a high-powered and politically connected . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 12, 2004
The fourth and final debate between the Republican and Democratic tickets is supposed to focus exclusively on domestic policy issues. It is in the nature of . . .
Frank Gaffney
October 4, 2004
In last Thursday's debate, the two presidential candidates were asked what represented "the single most serious threat to the national security of the United . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 28, 2004
Suddenly, the hottest phenomenon in presidential politics is the metamorphosis of women from "soccer moms" to "security moms." If this group is as much in play . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 25, 2004
As the polls suggest John Kerry is losing ground against President Bush, he and his new campaign handlers (most of whom are re-treads from the Clinton . . .
Frank Gaffney
September 10, 2004
For weeks now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has carried out in the press a prosecution of individuals and organizations that it has, to date, been unable . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 25, 2004
There is something surreal about the way in which the Vietnam War has become a central preoccupation of a presidential campaign being waged thirty years after . . .
Frank Gaffney
August 2, 2004
On the face of it, last week's Democratic National Convention was a gavel-to-gavel paean to the philosophy of peace through American strength. Speaker after . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 26, 2004
The report issued last week with much fanfare by the congressionally mandated 9/11 Commission is a stunningly comprehensive litany of recommendations aimed at . . .
Frank Gaffney
July 19, 2004
For years, Communist China has insisted that the United States abandon a friendly, democratic and strategically placed ally by embracing what it calls "the . . .
