Roundup: Media's Take

Ian Buruma: China's much-heralded rise has business in thrall to an enemy of democracy

Much of the reporting in the west about China's extraordinary economic growth - skyscraper cities sprouting like concrete forests, entire industries taken over, massive markets opening up - has a tone of awe, sometimes tempered by environmental worries and the odd caveat about human rights. "Nine per cent growth," said one American observer, "is not a boom, it is a transformation." But there is a strong hint of anxiety, too: will China dominate the world? What can the west do

Christopher Caldwell: Politically correct intolerance in France

[The writer is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard.] In the waning days of the French suburban riots in November, the correspondent of De Volkskrant, the Dutch daily, questioned a French criminologist about the cultural assumptions of French policymakers and the public. "In comparison to the Netherlands," she noted, "France is still a model of political correctness. Might not the extent of its problems be due to an inability to give them a name?"

George Beres: Historic College Names and Mascots Are Changing

[George Beres of Eugene was sports information director at Northwestern University, which plays Illinois every year, before moving to the same position at the University of Oregon.] As a native of Illinois, I'm familiar with the state university's historic sports tradition that revolves around the person of Chief Illiniwek. Today, it is at the center of controversy in efforts of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. (NCAA) to get universities to replace nicknames and mascots that

Harold Pinter: Nobel Prize Speech Blasts America

... the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed. As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a hig

Johann Hari: Which way will David Cameron turn: back towards Salisbury or forward with Disraeli?

Now the real battle for the Tory leadership begins. It is going to be staged in David Cameron's mind, beneath his reassuringly hair-covered scalp " and it is between the visions of two men who have been dead for more than a century: Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury. These 19th century Tory prime ministers represent opposite poles of Conservatism, the Good(ish) Cop and Bad Cop of the blue corner. Benjamin Disraeli was an upbeat Jewish dandy. While most of his colleagues were

Brendan Smith and Jeremy Brecher: Bush's Imperial Presidency

Brendan Smith and Jeremy Brecher are the editors, with Jill Cutler, of In the Name of Democracy, American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (Metropolitan, 2005). Brecher, a historian who has authored more than a dozen books including Strike!, writes for the Nation magazine among other publications. For his documentary film work he has received five regional Emmy Awards. Legal scholar Brendan Smith (blsmith28@g

Matthew Penney: Are the Japanese Still Anti-War?

[Matthew Penney, a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland, is currently conducting research concerning popular representations of war in Japan. This article is adapted for Japan Focus from the forthcoming book Inside-Out Japan: popular culture and globalisation, edited by Matthew Allen and Rumi Sakamoto (Routledge).] Tahara Soichiro’s "Nihon no sengo" (Japan’s postwar), a recent work of Japanese popular history from one of the country’s best-selling and most widely re

Norman Solomon: Rumsfeld’s Handshake Deal With Saddam

[Norman Solomon is the author of the new book “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” For information, go to: www.WarMadeEasy.com.] Christmas came 11 days early for Donald Rumsfeld two years ago when the news broke that American forces had pulled Saddam Hussein from a spidery hole. During interviews about the capture, on CBS and ABC, the Pentagon’s top man was upbeat. And he didn’t have to deal with a question that Lesley Stahl or Peter Jennings could have l

Ryan Lizza: Alito v. Alito on abortion

Poor Sam Alito. The White House seems intent on turning him into a liar. No matter how many of his old memos surface declaring Roe v. Wade a constitutional abomination that should be abandoned, the White House insists on sowing doubt about whether he would really pull the trigger. First, his Reagan administration job application emerged, in which he stated, "I personally believe very strongly" that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion." But Bushies warned

Max Boot: What Leonard Wood can teach today's America about running an empire

The American Empire in the early 20th century produced a cornucopia of striking characters: Marines like Smedley Butler and Dan Daly; soldiers like Frederick Funston and Frank Ross McCoy; colonial administrators like William Cameron Forbes and Charles Magoon. Almost all are forgotten today. That's a shame, because the American Empire has seen a resurgence in recent years. Modern-day proconsuls in Kabul or Baghdad could do a lot worse than to study their predecessors' experiences in Havana or Man

James Ottavio Castagnera: The Lottery of Life and Death in the Criminal Justice System

[Jim Castagnera is a Philadelphia lawyer and journalist, who writes a weekly newspaper column, “Attorney at Large.”] Last week Kenneth Lee Boyd won the lottery of his life and secured himself a footnote in U.S. criminal justice history. At around 2:00 AM on Friday, December 2nd, Boyd became the 1000th prisoner executed since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to reinstate the death penalty in 1977. The high court had declared most state death-penalty laws unconstitutional. Man

Max Boot: Navigating the 'human terrain'

THE U.S. ARMED forces have a problem. They have the technical capability to hit any target on the planet. But which targets should they hit? Unfortunately, our enemies in the war on terrorism don't operate tanks or warships that we could blow up. They lurk in the shadows and emerge only briefly to set off bombs. Rooting them out requires getting inside their minds. But there's no machine that can pull off such a feat, at least not yet. We need smart people, not smart bombs — America

James Pinkerton: Doves could destroy Hillary's '08 hopes

Could Hillary Clinton's presumed presidential aspirations be derailed by dovish fellow Democrats? It's happened before to Democratic hawks. In 1966, during the Vietnam War, a group of Democratic doves, including the economist John Kenneth Galbraith and the historian Arthur Schlesinger, gathered to oppose the hawkishness of their fellow Democrat, President Lyndon B. Johnson. Galbraith, Schlesinger and Co. were not street-protester types out to trash "the establishment." Ins

Christopher Hitchens: Cyprus Betrayed

[Christopher Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and the author of Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger, is most recently the author of Thomas Jefferson: Author of America.] THE COLLAPSE OF THE MORAL authority of the United Nations is partly but not exclusively a matter of dating. The U.N. did lend its flag and insignia to the Anglo-American effort to stop Kim Il Sung's invasion of South Korea, though this official baptism was partly due to the ab

Dean Baker: A Tax Cut Like It's 1986

[Dean Baker is economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.] In the coming two weeks, Republicans in the House and Senate desperate to pass tax cut bills will be repeating their mantra that tax cuts “stimulate growth” in the economy. Before Thanksgiving, Sen. Bill Frist and Treasury Secretary John Snow both pushed that line as they argued for tax cuts on capital gains and dividends for the rich, which would be financed by cuts in Medicaid and other prog

Bill Adair: Landmark In Abortion Law Unlikely With Current Case

The abortion case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday was billed as a possible turning point. Groups on both sides held demonstrations outside the building. The head of NARAL Pro-Choice America called the case "monumental." After all, the court is changing. Chief Justice John Roberts took over in October after the death of William Rehnquist, and federal judge Samuel Alito has been nominated to replace the retiring Sandra Day O'Connor. But an hourlong ar

Frank Devine: God Makes A Comeback After Generation Of Neglect

A distinctive feature of 2005 is that it has been virtually impossible to get away from religion. There's been George W. Bush urging the Chinese to tolerate it, after rather noticeably attending a Sunday service in Beijing; an archbishop delivering the Boyer lecture; and Tony Abbott constantly accused of being a Catholic. It is almost as if God has just noticed Time magazine's April 8, 1966, cover -- big red letters on a black background, asking: Is God Dead? -- and is responding wi

Max Boot: White flag Democrats

AND THE DEMOCRATS wonder why they are considered weak on national security? It's not because anyone doubts their patriotism. It's because a lot of people doubt their judgment and toughness. As if to prove the skeptics right, Democrats have been stepping forth to renounce their previous support for the liberation of Iraq even as Iraqis prepare to vote in a general election. Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry, John Edwards, John Murtha — that's quite a list of heavyweight flip-flopp

Trudy Rubin: White House Must Heed Murtha's Call

When historians look back at the Iraq War, they will divide it into the pre- and post-Murtha eras. Before U.S. Rep. John Murtha called on Nov. 17 for an American troop withdrawal from Iraq within the next six months, the Bush administration turned a deaf ear to all war critics, implying they were traitors. Since the hawkish Democrat from Pennsylvania spoke out, President George W. Bush is extolling the need for "honest, open debate about the way forward in Iraq."

Gail Russell Chaddock: GOP's Ethics Cloud May Lead To Backlash At Polls

Had it been an isolated incident, the resignation from Congress of California Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham after he admitted taking a $2.4 million bribe might have been a blip on the way to a special election. But as yet another corruption case involving prominent members of Congress, mainly Republicans, it's fueling a scandal that is opening a window on big- money politics in Washington and shifting prospects for midterm elections. ... At least seven m