Michael Kinsley

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Trump’s NATO Bombast Gets Us Where Statesmanship Can’t

InternacionalOTAN

“Whither NATO” is probably the greatest snoozer headline of the past half-century. It has been used on editorials, op-ed articles, think-tank reports — anyplace an editor wants to communicate, “I’ve been forced at gunpoint to publish this essay, but for God’s sake don’t read it.” If Donald Trump had done nothing more than to create a legitimate occasion for calling a newspaper article “Whither NATO,” his place in history would be assured. Small, but assured.

But Mr. Trump has gone further. He has actually put the future of NATO on the global agenda by saying, on his European trip in May, that the United States spends far more on the shared defense than our allies do.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, , ,

As demand starts to build for President Obama to "do something" about the situation in Syria, let's review where the United States and its citizens stand on the general question of using military force abroad.

On this issue, Americans are divided in strange ways. There are liberal hawks and conservative doves, and vice versa.

Liberal doves oppose almost any use of U.S. power because their mind-set hardened during Vietnam: War kills children and other living things; we can't be the world's policeman; and so on. This sounds dismissive, but it's not meant to be. In fact, it's more or less where I come out.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

China Daily, the largest English-language newspaper in China, carried a front-page headline last week: "Village Gratitude Shows Integrity of Task."

Not clear what that's about, and the opening sentence isn't much help: "On a hot afternoon, Zhou Yi picked up a bag of freshly boiled eggs that had been left on the doorstep of the committee office in Chaqulak village in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region." I figured this must be some feel-good story about the noble, uncorrupted country folk taking care of the less fortunate in their midst.

But read on. Zhou Yi is not a homeless man dependent on the generosity of his fellow peasants who have little enough for themselves, etc.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

In November 1947, shortly after the United Nations voted for partition of the Holy Land into separate Arab and Jewish states, Chaim Weizmann was cited by the New York Times as saying that "the most important work now was to build Palestine."

What? To build Palestine? Yes, in 1947 the word "Palestinian" — if it meant anything at all — referred to Jews living in Palestine. The Palestine Post (now the Jerusalem Post) was the Jewish English-language newspaper. The Palestine Orchestra (now the Israel Philharmonic) was a Jewish orchestra, filled to overflowing with Holocaust survivors. The United Palestine Appeal, an American charity, raised money to resettle homeless Jews from Europe in Palestine — one of the things Arabs objected to the most.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Wait a minute. How did this happen? A month or so ago, massive bombing of Libya was on no one's agenda. Libya's government was just as tyrannical and its leader was just as loony then as now. Other governments around the world were even worse, and still are. In fact, among the usual enthusiasts for this sort of thing, Libya was considered one of the least urgent cases of awfulocracy because we had supposedly de-fanged Col. Moammar Kadafi in 2003, when he suddenly surprised everyone by promising to dismantle his secret nuclear program, permit inspections and abide by the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalIglesia Católica

The Roman Catholic Church has either a very good or a very bad sense of humor. The Vatican has announced that the late Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1. Beatification, which requires church certification of a miracle by the would-be saint, is sort of a halfway house on the way to full sainthood, which takes two miracles. JP2's beatification, if it proceeds as scheduled, will have been the fastest on record — six years, from death to finish, edging out the previous record holder, Mother Teresa, by just a few days.

When JP2 died in 2005, 3 million people at the funeral chanted "Santo subito!…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , ,

Why are we reading Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights instead of taking him somewhere and forcibly finding out where he got the explosive underwear and whatever else he might know about Al Qaeda? Isn’t this, as well as the forthcoming federal court trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, proof that the Obama administration doesn’t really regard the war on terrorism as a war?

Even worse, isn’t President Obama, despite his statements on terrorism over the weekend, confused and amateurish on this deadly serious issue? At his direction, thousands of American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are doing their best to kill terrorists, would-be terrorists and terrorists in training with no thought whatsoever to the legal niceties.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Many "hard" scientists regard the term "social science" as an oxymoron. Science means hypotheses you can test, and prove or disprove. Social science is little more than observation putting on airs. Among the social sciences, economists are the snobs. Economics, with its numbers and graphs and curves, at least has the coloration and paraphernalia of a hard science. It's not just putting on sandals and trekking out to take notes on some tribe.

Political science, meanwhile, announces its defensiveness in its name. If it really were a science, it wouldn't need to say so quite as adamantly, would it? The difficulty with social science is that it's about people, who tend to be fickle.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

A mere six months ago, it seemed a good bet that Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic presidential nomination. It didn’t turn out that way. The Op-Ed page asked 13 political experts to explain why they thought her campaign didn’t live up to expectations.

1) The Problem Wasn’t the Message — It Was the Money

By Mark J. Penn, an adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton since 1995 and a top adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of losing a close race is thinking about what else you could have done to win. You replay the campaign over and over again in your head.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

In the six decades since the founding of Israel, there have been about one and a half new ideas for solving the most intractable problem on the map of the world. In fact, ever since Britain's Balfour Declaration (1917) made incompatible promises to Jews and Arabs struggling over the same tiny plot of land, most would-be solutions have counted on an outbreak of goodwill among the Middle East's warring parties. This tradition continues in the Iraq Study Group report, which declared: "There must be a renewed and sustained commitment by the United States to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace on all fronts" as a small warm-up for tackling the problem of Iraq.…  Seguir leyendo »

, MundoAmérica

It is not the fault of Jenna or Barbara Bush that their father has gotten us into a war he doesn't know how to get us out of. And, though you can blame parents for almost anything, George and Laura Bush are no longer responsible for the behaviour of twin daughters in their mid-20s. Presidents, like the rest of us, can't choose relatives. Remember Billy Carter?

Anyway, Jenna and Barbara are far from George Bush's biggest familial problem. He has at least one ne'er-do-well brother - Neil - and a father always ready to send out a Brent Scowcroft or James Baker with some patronising and excruciatingly public advice for the young pup.…  Seguir leyendo »

, ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

The first person I knew who had a website of his own was a fellow Washington journalist. This was when many journalists were still just getting into email, but the URL for this site quickly circulated around town and around the world. Why? Well, we were all impressed by the technological savvy. But we were absolutely astounded by the solipsism. What on earth had gotten into Joe? This was a modest, soft-spoken and self-effacing fellow, yet his website portrayed him as an egotistical monster.

Or so it seemed at the time. All the elements that struck us as obnoxious eight years ago no longer seem that way.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalEconomía

The death of Milton Friedman has been an occasion for celebrating the magic of capitalism, and fair enough. Capitalism is pretty great, and Friedman was its feisty defender when that view was far from universally held. But let's not get carried away. There are things capitalism does not do well; and other things that masquerade as capitalism at work, and wrongly claim its virtues.Capitalism is brilliant at setting the price of potatoes. But how good is it at setting the price of a large company? To all appearances, the stock market is capitalism operating under near-laboratory conditions. Yet the prices set are patently wrong.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalEconomía

The death of Milton Friedman has been an occasion for celebrating the magic of capitalism, and fair enough. Capitalism is pretty great, and Friedman was its feisty defender when that was far from a universally held view. But let's not get carried away. There are things capitalism does not do well and other things that masquerade as capitalism at work and claim its virtues, but aren't entitled.

Capitalism is brilliant at setting the price of potatoes. But how good is it at setting the price of a large company? To all appearances, the stock market is capitalism operating under near-laboratory conditions.…  Seguir leyendo »

, MundoOriente Próximo

The Baker commission, aka the Iraq Study Group, is expected to report early next month, and is duly bouncing around, holding hearings and all the things that prestigious US commissions do. Appointed by Congress and co-chaired by James Baker, it's hearing from Tony Blair this week.Ordinarily, a commission like this has two possible purposes: action or inaction. Sometimes a problem is referred to a commission so that it can recommend what everybody knows must be done, but no one has the nerve to propose. The commission can ram this policy down the politicians' allegedly unwilling throats. If it is bipartisan - and what fun is a commission that isn't bipartisan?…  Seguir leyendo »