A policy of patient preparedness—bracing for the worst, getting through another day, another year, another term without another war—is how U.S. presidents have measured success in Korea for 63 years. It’s a low bar, to be sure. But given what Korean War II would look like, it’s a worthy goal.

In a rambling column otherwise focused on the November elections, Thomas Friedman revisited one of his favorite themes: his odd and unsettling affinity for autocracy.

According to Sebastian Gorka, ISIL is simply another form of totalitarianism, a political regime seen under Hitler and Nazi Germany that recognizes no limit to its authority and attempts to permeate every aspect of public and private life. Yet, peace with ISIL and other jihad-driven Muslim groups seems much more difficult to attain.

There is little incentive in this world for a North Korean to choose to follow Jesus. Yet 300,000 of them do so, and every last one lives dangerously close to martyrdom.

The earliest champions of a free press were not Enlightenment philosophes. They were dissenting Christians, most of them Protestants, battling the political and religious authoritarians of the day.

The rueful lessons of the Vietnam War, especially their roots in the hubris of modern liberalism, remain largely forgotten.

Juliana Taimoorazy gave an impromptu speech that painted a human picture of Assyria for those in the audience.

Why do the Taliban believe they can impose their radical, Islamic ideology upon a nation of 182 million people? Because Pakistan, like other Muslim-majority states, enforces a legal regime that criminalizes apostasy.

Christian refugees who have fled persecution in their home countries now face the same fate in Sweden.