By CLIFF MAY, Scripps Howard News Service

The anniversary passed with scarcely a mention. Six years ago, on June 24th, 2002, President Bush turned American policy in the Middle East in a new direction. In a groundbreaking speech, he announced that the U.S. would support the creation of a Palestinian state.

Bud McFarlane served in the Marines and, years later, as President Reagan's national security adviser. So I listened up when, at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies workshop on energy security, he said of Saudi Arabia's oil facilities: "Any self-respecting suicide-bomber could take them out. Any artillery man could do it, too."

There's an anniversary this week we might do well to recall. On May 29, 1453 -- just 555 short years ago -- troops led by Mehmed II broke through the walls of the ancient Christian capital of Constantinople.

To celebrate July 4th, Americans shoot off fireworks -- a colorful reminder of the struggle for independence.

Is democracy on the march or is it in retreat?

It's become the conventional wisdom and William Tucker, writing in The Weekly Standard, expressed it most eloquently: "Right now, we're trying to run our cars on corn ethanol instead of gasoline. As a result, we suddenly find ourselves taking food out of the mouths of children in developing nations. That may sound harsh, but it also happens to be true."

There's an old joke about astronomers discovering a giant meteor heading toward the Earth, and the Washington Post running the headline: "World To End; Minorities and Poor To Suffer Most." Well, on Sunday the front page of the Post read: "The New Economics of Hunger." In the subhead: "The world's poor suffer most."

The next time Islamist terrorists attack us it could be with a nuclear weapon. By saying that, am I "fear mongering"?

Let's be fair to Jimmy Carter. Let's suppose he isn't indulging in egotistical grandstanding, that he doesn't harbor a deep-seated bias against Israel, and that the millions of dollars Islamists have provided to his Carter Center haven't influenced him. Let's suppose his freelance diplomacy is sincerely in pursuit of the elusive path to peace in the Middle East.

A growing number of Democrats have falsely accused Sen. John McCain of "promising" 100 years of war in Iraq. In fact, McCain's point was that the presence of American forces promotes stability.