According to a United Nations agency, Venezuela's budding dictator Hugo Chavez is a leader in the "struggle for liberty" in Latin America.

On February 3, UNESCO awarded Chavez its 2005 Jose Marti International Prize. Fittingly, Fidel Castro himself handed the award to Chavez.

This is just another example of the "longstanding lack of moral clarity within the UN on issues of individual freedom and liberty," write Nile Gardiner and Stephen Johnson.

"UNESCO's award to Chavez is an insult to the victims of two of Latin America's most repressive regimes," they conclude. The UN must be held to account.

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Read UNESCO's Chavez Outrage by Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., and Stephen Johnson

All of the press commentary on President George W. Bush’s 2007 budget proposal has paid virtually no attention to one of its most significant initiatives. And it is no wonder: how could a move to improve the way the government analyzes tax policy compete with cutting outdated programs, making the United States more competitive, and winning the global war on terrorism?

Conventional wisdom has long been that without security in Iraq, political and economic progress would be stymied. But a corollary is becoming equally true: Halting advances in reconstruction and economic development are hampering progress on the political and security fronts.