Roundup: Media's Take

David Cole: What to Do About the Torturers?

The story of America's descent into torture in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has been told now by many writers. Mark Danner, Jane Mayer, and Ron Suskind have written brilliant expositions of the facts, showing how the drive to prevent the next attack led the administration's highest officials to seek ways around the legal restrictions on coercive interrogation of suspects.[1] After the abuses at Abu Ghraib came to light, the military itself commissioned three detailed

Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Burris Flap Tosses Glare on Virtual Lily White Senate

[Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is How Obama Won (Middle Passage Press, January 2009).] Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush took much heat for saying this, "don't hang and lynch" him. The "him" is Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's hotly disputed Illinois senate appointee Roland Burris. Rush deliberately spoke in racially charged terms. His point was that if the Senate tried to kick Burris out it would be a political a

William Rees-Mogg: For Britain in 1847, read America in 2009

[William Rees-Mogg has had a distinguished career with The Times.] There is no doubt that we are a bookish family, and never more so than at Christmas. If I had been present at the first Christmas, presumably in the role of one of the three wise men, I would have forsaken frankincense and myrrh, if not gold, and presented the infant Jesus with a copy of the works of Shakespeare, or, failing that, with Boswell's Life of Johnson. Books comprise at least half of our intra-family presen

Fareed Zakaria: Writing the Rules for a New World

If you want to know what the post-American world will look like, just reread the coverage of the November G20 summit in Washington, D.C. First, there was the event itself. Every prior financial crisis had been handled by the IMF, the World Bank or the G7 (and, later, the G8). But this time, the big boys realized they couldn't tackle the problems alone and had to bring in world's top emerging markets too. For an effective response in a highly connected global economy, all the world's major pla

Larry Diamond: Bush gave democracy promotion a bad name. The next administration has to get it right.

[Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. His latest book is "The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World."] ... In the past decade, the breathtaking democratic wave that swept the world during the final quarter of the 20th century reversed course. Making democracy work proved harder than bringing down authoritarian rule. And receptive peoples everywhere were alienat

Rob Riemen: An Open Letter to President-Elect Obama

[Rob Riemen is the founder, president, and CEO of the Nexus Institute, a Netherlands-based leading international center for intellectual and philosophical debate and reflection on European culture.] Dear Mr. President-elect, Your interest in the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt demonstrates an admirable historic consciousness, an awareness that wisdom can be found among those who, like yourself at this moment, are confronted with an immense challenge and responsibili

Yassin Musharbash: Is Israel Repeating Mistakes of the Past?

Israel has promised a "war to the bitter end." Yet history is full of examples showing that battling an organization like Hamas is almost futile. It is a lesson Israel learned just two short years ago. It was almost a century ago when the British soldier T.E. Lawrence described for posterity the World War I revolt of the Arabs against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. Lawrence helped organize the revolt, and he famously said that combating such an uprising was "l

David Stokes: The Barack Ballad of Abraham, Franklin, and John

With apologies to Dion and his now 40-year-old song - Abraham, Martin, and John - I see the ghosts of three past presidents standing slightly off stage as the nation watches the approach of inauguration day. The ancient Israelites tended to name-drop a patriarchal hat trick when they wanted their rhetoric to stick. Crying out about, “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” was enough to speak with authority. For a politician these days, especially the highly succe

Tom Petruno : If this isn't 1929-'32 again, history sees a market rebound

[Tom Petruno has been chronicling financial markets' highs and lows since 1979, and has been the Times' financial columnist since 1990. He writes on markets, corporate finance and the economy, and how it all ties in to individual investors' portfolios.] Finally, it’s over. Wall Street closed out a horrendous year on a positive note today, with stocks rallying broadly. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 108 points, or 1.3% to finish the session at 8,776.39.

Nir Rosen: Gaza ... the logic of colonial power

[Nir Rosen is a journalist.] ... I have often been asked by policy analysts, policy-makers and those stuck with implementing those policies for my advice on what I think America should do to promote peace or win hearts and minds in the Muslim world. It too often feels futile, because such a revolution in American policy would be required that only a true revolution in the American government could bring about the needed changes. An American journal once asked me to contribute an ess

Richard Cohen: Reading Into Bush's Book List

In what without a doubt is the most astounding op-ed piece of the year, Karl Rove reveals that his friend and former boss, George W. Bush, has read probably hundreds of books over the course of his presidency. One of them was Albert Camus' "The Stranger," with its unforgettable opening lines: "Mother died today. Or perhaps it was yesterday, I don't know." After reading Rove's Wall Street Journal column, it's clear there's much we all don't know. Bush's choice of

Fran Yeoman and Kaya Burgess: Looks familiar ... how Labour Prime Minister put off election just before real crisis set in

[Fran Yeoman and Kaya Burgess have both written articles published in The Times.] As Gordon Brown is again urged by some to call a general election in the face of a worsening economy, records released today offer an insight into the mind of a previous Labour prime minister faced with the same decision. Official papers made public today under the 30-year rule disclose how James Callaghan decided against a poll in the autumn of 1978 because of a “malicious delight” in co

Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignored (Middle East crisis)

We've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more – providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only und

A nation in turmoil looks to a new leader for help — but it’s FDR

[Edward Cuddihy is a retired Buffalo News managing editor.] History does not repeat itself, at least not in the popular sense of a giant carousel with a hundred or so figures bobbing up and down and coming around once each generation with a fresh coat of paint. There never has been another Julius Caesar or Napoleon Bonaparte. Never have the likes the Hitler and Mussolini teamed up to murder and terrorize the Western World. The human spirit is too complex to

Matt Miller: Nixon’s the One — to Imitate on Education

[Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is the author of the forthcoming book “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas.”] ... In the early 19th century, the property tax was considered the fairest way to pay for schooling. Property was the main form of wealth, and rich and poor people didn’t live in separate taxing communities. The wealthy paid more than the middle class and the poor paid nothing, yet all enjoyed access to the same public schools. Since Wor

Robert McHenry: The Junior Senator from New York (Caroline Kennedy?)

It can make no possible difference to anyone, and no one has inquired into the matter, but I happen to have an opinion on the candidacy of Caroline Kennedy for the soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat representing the sovereign State of New York.First, it is important to clear up an unfortunate confusion. It is said, by way of criticizing Ms. Kennedy and those who support her, that she lacks rel

Nile Gardiner: George W Bush ... winning the war on terror

[Nile Gardiner is Director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.] On much of the world stage, President Bush has been widely reviled as one of the worst U.S. leaders of modern times, and it is hard to think of an American president who has received a worse press since Richard Nixon. To his critics, who are legion on both sides of the Atlantic, the war in Iraq has been a monumental disaster, at a cost of more than 4,0

Rebecca Solnit: The Homicides You Didn't Hear About in Hurricane Katrina

What do you do when you notice that there seems to have been a killing spree? While the national and international media were working themselves and much of the public into a frenzy about imaginary hordes of murderers, rapists, snipers, marauders, and general rampagers among the stranded crowds of mostly poor, mostly black people in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, a group of white men went on a shooting spree across the river. Their criminal acts were no secret but they never

Joe Conason: What Nixon Admitted (and Cheney Won't)

...Asked by Frost to explain how he could justify illegal wiretapping, black-bag jobs and other gross violations of law in collecting intelligence on the movement against the Vietnam War, he replies in a blandly sinister tone: "Well, when the president does it, that means it is not illegal." "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace put a similar question to Cheney concerning the dubious conduct of the Bush administration: "If the president, during war, decides t

David Sirota: Fox News claims "Historians Pretty Much Agree" FDR Hurt the Economy

[David Sirota is a political journalist, best-selling author and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist living in Denver, Colorado.]I appeared on Fox News yesterday to discuss both the Blagojevich flap and the imminent economic recovery package from the Obama administration. You can watch the clip here. As you'll see, on that latter issue, Fox News is starting its campaign to stop Obama's big spending plan by stating - as assumed fac