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A Lesson From The Soviet Union
2007-08-13 04:56:00 Delaying the InevitableBy Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesAs we struggle to extricate ourselves from Iraq, it?s useful to look at how the Soviet Union handled a similar position in the 1980s. Then we should do the opposite.The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 based partly on an intelligence failure analogous to our own in Iraq: they believed that their poorly behaved puppet in Kabul was poised to switch loyalties to the United States.By 1986, the Soviets wanted to end the Afghan war, and tried some of the same approaches that we have tried or talked about: a new constitution, a new leader, a policy of ?national reconciliation.?These worked as well for them as they have for us.Many Soviets just wanted to cut their losses and pull out. But other officials raised counterarguments that may sound familiar:If we simply pull out, we?ll destroy our influence around the world for a generation. And if we leave, the country will fall apart, and there?ll be a bloodbath focusing on our f...
Cheney's Long-Lost Twin
2007-07-19 20:08:00 By Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesCould Dick Cheney and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be twins separated at birth?The U.S. vice president and Iranian president, each the No. 2 in his country, certainly seem to be working together to create conflict between the two nations. Theirs may be the oddest and perhaps most dangerous partnership in the world today.Both men are hawks who defy the international community, scorn the U.N. and are unpopular at home because of incompetence and recklessness ? and each finds justification in the extremism of the other.?Iranians refer to their new political radicals as ?neoconservatives,? with multiple layers of deliberate irony,? notes Gary Sick, an Iran specialist at Columbia University, adding: ?The hotheads around President Ahmadinejad?s office and the U.S. foreign policy radicals who cluster around Vice President Cheney?s office, listen to each other, cite each others? statements and goad each other to new excesses on either side.?So one of the peril...
Washington Shrugged
2007-07-17 02:53:00 He Rang the Alarm on DarfurBy Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesSome day an American president will visit a genocide museum in Darfur and repeat the standard refrain: If only we had known ...But that excuse will ring hollow, because there was a whistle-blower in the heart of the Bush administration. Roger Winter, whom President Bush had appointed in 2001 to a senior post in the U.S. Agency for International Development, frantically tried to ring alarm bells ? but instead the administration turned away.If there was a hero within the U.S. government on Darfur, it was Mr. Winter. But it was doubly frustrating for him because in 1994 he had the same experience during the Clinton administration, when he was running a refugee organization and desperately trying to galvanize officials to respond to the Rwandan genocide.In outrage at Bill Clinton?s inaction during the Rwandan slaughter, Mr. Winter abandoned the Democratic Party and became a Republican.Mr. Winter, 65, who also served in t...
'Inspiring Progress' on Iraq?
2007-07-12 05:37:00 By Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesAs we debate what to do in Iraq, here are two facts to bear in mind:First, a poll this spring of Iraqis ? who know their country much better than we do ? shows that only 21 percent think that the U.S. troop presence improves security in Iraq, while 69 percent think it is making security worse.Second, the average cost of posting a single U.S. soldier in Iraq has risen to $390,000 per year, according to a new study by the Congressional Research Service. This fiscal year alone, Iraq will cost us $135 billion, which amounts to a bit more than a quarter-million dollars per minute.We simply can?t want to be in Iraq more than the Iraqis want us to be there. That poll of Iraqis, conducted by the BBC and other news organizations, found that only 22 percent of Iraqis support the presence of coalition troops in Iraq, down from 32 percent in 2005.If Iraqis were pleading with us to stay and quell the violence, maybe we would have a moral responsibility to ...
(Hopelessly) Spineless on Sudan
2007-07-09 05:57:00 It irritates me that Kristof still holds a slim belief that Bush will somehow, someway, miraculously begin to live up to what he says or has said -- past or present. Perhaps Kristof is trying to appear journalistically neutral. Whatever the reason, it should be more than evident to anyone with a shred of functioning brain tissue that The Shrub never has and never will live up to his word. His words are a political convenience and nothing more; any professed commitment to honor them evaporates into the thin air of their utterance. What is more, Bush-words spin the truth, twist the facts, mislead, and misinform -- he can never be "taken at his word." It is time to insist that this incompetent, dangerous, little tyrannical puppet be removed from our government along with his evil puppeteer, the King of VICE (President) Cheney. Sadly, nothing beneficial will be accomplished in Darfur or anywhere else until that happens.Spineless on SudanBy Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesIn M...
Escape From North Korea
2007-06-04 19:16:00 By Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesCHINESE-NORTH KOREAN BORDERIn an archipelago of safe houses here, part of a 21st-century Underground Railroad, I met groups of people who live every moment with sickening fear.These are North Koreans who have escaped to the ?free world? ? China ? and are now at constant risk of being captured by Chinese police. The Chinese government, in a disgraceful breach of its obligations under the 1951 Refugees Convention, hands these escapees back to North Korea, where they face beatings and imprisonment, occasionally even execution.In one shelter is a 14-year-old North Korean girl: shy, sweet and terrified. Her parents led her across the frozen Tumen River from North Korea in the middle of winter, but then they became separated while trying to flee the police. ?I don?t know where my parents are, or if they are even alive,? she said.Now a joint crackdown by the North Koreans and Chinese is greatly increasing the peril for people like her.The North Korea...
China Through Kristof's Looking Glass
2007-05-31 06:14:00 According to Nicholas Kristof in today's Times op ed, "If the Chinese government continues to nurture the rule of law, China could increasingly move toward greater democracy."Maybe. But they have a long way to go. And let's hope they don't model their "rule of law" after ours .... where the heads of government need not obey the laws they are sworn to uphold or answer to the people. From Torture to Plaintiff: a Pilgrim's Progress in ChinaBy Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesWEIHAI, ChinaEvery evening in a little village near this coastal city, peasants gather in a private home and do something that used to be dangerous. They pray.They are Christians gathering in a little ?house church,? reflecting a religious boom across China. But their story also underscores another trend: the way the legal system here offers hope of chipping away at the Communist Party dictatorship.The tale begins a year ago when the authorities here in Shandong Province raided this house church and cart...
The Educated Giant
2007-05-28 06:34:00 By Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesTaishan, ChinaWith China?s trade surplus with the United States soaring, the tendency in the U.S. will be to react with tariffs and other barriers. But instead we should take a page from the Chinese book and respond by boosting education.One reason China is likely to overtake the U.S. as the world?s most important country in this century is that China puts more effort into building human capital than we do.This area in southern Guangdong Province is my wife?s ancestral hometown. Sheryl?s grandparents left villages here because they thought they could find better opportunities for their children in ?Meiguo? ? ?Beautiful Country,? as the U.S. is called in Chinese. And they did. At Sheryl?s family reunions, you feel inadequate without a doctorate.But that educational gap between China and America is shrinking rapidly. I visited several elementary and middle schools accompanied by two of my children. And in general, the level of math taught even i...
Kristof: On China
2007-05-24 06:57:00 Pirates and SanctionsBy Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesDONGGUAN, ChinaThis is a city you?ve probably never heard of, yet it has a population of 10 million people who fill your dressers and closets. By one count, 40 percent of the sports shoes sold in the U.S. come from Dongguan.Just one neighborhood within Dongguan, Dalang, has become the Sweater Capital of the World. Dalang makes more than 300 million sweaters a year, of which 200 million are exported to the U.S.Keep towns like this in mind when American protectionists demand sanctions, after the latest round of talks ending yesterday made little progress. Some irresponsible Democrats in Congress would have you believe that China?s economic success is simply the result of currency manipulation, unfair regulations and pirating American movies.It?s true that China?s currency is seriously undervalued. But places like Dongguan have thrived largely because of values we like to think of as American: ingenuity, diligence, entreprene...
The President and Wolfowitz
2007-05-17 05:12:00 The President and WolfowitzBy Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesAs Paul Wolfowitz is to the World Bank, the U.S. is becoming to the world.We should look at the battle unfolding at the World Bank not as the story of one man falling to earth, but as a moral tale of the risks the U.S. faces unless the Bush administration spends more time rebuilding bridges it has burned all over the world.Mr. Wolfowitz genuinely aspired to help Africa develop, but he ended up isolated, friendless and vulnerable; receiving no credit for his genuine accomplishments; and unable to make progress on the issues he cares about. And the U.S. is in a similar position today.The similarity arises in part because although President Bush?s best-known role has been as a conservative hawk ? and everything he has done in that role has been a disaster ? he has also aspired to fight poverty and help Africa. And Mr. Bush has genuinely scored some major accomplishments as a humanitarian.O.K., pick yourself off the floo...
The Witness Next Door
2007-05-14 07:39:00 By Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesOne of the most unusual people in New Jersey these days is a tall 34-year-old black man named Daoud Hari. Others may lose their tempers at traffic jams on the turnpike, but he?s just glad he?s no longer being tortured.Mr. Hari has just arrived in the U.S. from Chad and Darfur, where he says he was beaten and told repeatedly he was going to be executed. He is one of just a handful of Darfuris ? his lawyer knows of two others ? whom the U.S. has accepted as refugees.I knew Mr. Hari in his previous life, because he interpreted for me early last year. We journeyed together along the Darfur-Chad border through a no man?s land of villages that were being attacked by Sudan?s janjaweed militia.Mr. Hari helped me interview two orphan boys living under a tree, a 13-year-old girl shot in the chest, a 6-year-old boy trying desperately not to cry as doctors treated shrapnel wounds to his leg and a 15-year-old girl gang-raped by the janjaweed.It is a differ...
A Vote Against American Aristocracy
2007-05-07 05:46:00 As Nicholas Kristof states in today's Times op ed, "Maybe we can't make America as egalitarian and fluid as we would like, but we can at least push back against the concentration of power." Electing Hillary Clinton in the coming election would mean -- whether you like her politically or not -- that for seven consecutive presidential terms we would have placed presidential power and trust in the hands of just two families. I believe most Americans are weary of the status quo and would welcome a new vision. But will they vote for the person espousing it? Or will they be swayed by the monied media and corporatocracy that candidates like myself and Dennis Kucinich are not viable? I am hopeful, but not optimistic. How about you?All in the FamiliesBy Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesBefore I get to the ?but,? let me say that Hillary Rodham Clinton would make a terrific president.She has spent decades wrestling with public policy questions about poverty and health care. She is ...
Rethinking Education
2007-05-01 15:54:00 Superb Kristof column this morning on education reform. I've recommended a similar approach for years, only to hit my head against the wall of Democrat supported teacher's unions and Republican apathy. It's about time for politicians to initiate reforms that go beyond ineffective policies based on empty slogans like "Leave no child behind." "Any takers?" Kristof asks. Yup. At least one, right here. Gold Stars and Dunce CapsBy Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesIn this presidential campaign, we need somebody who wants to address the question President Bush once raised: ?Is our children learning??International testing shows that U.S. schools do a lousy job teaching math and science, in particular. And far too many American students aren?t going to college or even completing high school, undermining our competitiveness for decades to come.Moreover, the U.S. education system reinforces the gulfs of poverty and race. Well-off white kids tend to go to good schools that propel them...
Diplomacy at Its Worst
2007-04-29 21:15:00 By Nicholas D. KristofThe New York TimesIn May 2003, Iran sent a secret proposal to the U.S. for settling our mutual disputes in a ?grand bargain.?It is an astonishing document, for it tries to address a range of U.S. concerns about nuclear weapons, terrorism and Iraq. I?ve placed it and related documents (including multiple drafts of it) on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground.Har-d-liners in the Bush administration killed discussions of a deal, and interviews with key players suggest that was an appalling mistake. There was a real hope for peace; now there is a real danger of war.Scattered reports of the Iranian proposal have emerged previously, but if you read the full documentary record you?ll see that what the hard-liners killed wasn?t just one faxed Iranian proposal but an entire peace process. The record indicates that officials from the repressive, duplicitous government of Iran pursued peace more energetically and diplomatically than senior Bush administration officials ? w... |
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