[Li Qinggong] Politics behind attacks on Libya

U.S., British and French forces began their military strikes against Libya on Saturday (March 19) in an operation the United States has codenamed Operation Odyssey Dawn.The military action followed a West-engineered United Nations Security Council resolution on the establishment of a “no-fly” zone in Libya and started with an hours-long bombardment of the North African country.Western countries ha

March 25, 2011

Put an end to the absurd budget farce

Last week, Congress passed yet another stopgap measure funding the U.S. government through April 8, but lawmakers still can’t decide on a final budget for the current fiscal year. It was the sixth such temporary extension since the budget year began. “It’s a terrible way to do business,” said Rep. James P. Moran, D-Va. Apparently, lots of frustrated Americans agree with him.A new Pew Research Cent

March 24, 2011

[Margaret Carlson] Girl power tests history’s great-man theory

There’s no better way to make the point that President Barack Obama is indecisive, dithering and prone to bow (literally) and scrape (figuratively) to foreigners than with a flood of reports claiming it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, watching Colonel Moammar Gadhafi turn back the rebels and strafe his own citizens, who declared war on Libya.Not by herself, of course, and not “war,” which

March 24, 2011

[Roger Bilham] Japan’s megaquake is template for U.S. west coast

As the world’s attention remains fixed on Japan’s crippled nuclear reactors, scientists are beginning to understand the details of the megaquake that brought so much ruin to Japan, saying it’s probably the largest temblor to hit the nation in 1,000 years.Seismologists have known for some time that over periods of millennia such megaquakes occur. They pack the punch of three or more major earthquak

March 24, 2011

[William Pesek] Buffett ‘buying opportunity’ meets next big one

The Z/Yen Group just published its annual Global Financial Centers Index and Tokyo is tied with Shanghai for fifth place. If the survey were retaken today, what might happen to Tokyo’s standing?What a difference 12 days make: a massive earthquake, deadly tsunamis, radiation panic that only now is coming under control and blackouts that halted production at the likes of Toyota Motor Corp. Japan’s w

March 24, 2011

Convey a positive vision for Latin America

President Obama’s first extended tour through Latin America comes not a moment too soon. There’s nothing like a personal visit by the president to showcase U.S.-Latin American relations and disarm critics who feel the president has neglected the region. To make this visit count, the president must speak to the region’s concerns and anxieties.Brazil, his first stop, has been labeled “the country of

March 23, 2011

‘Arab spring’ spreads from county to country

Far from the perils of Japan, the world’s attention also focuses on Libya. There U.S. and allied warplanes and cruise missiles aim to force dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power, or at least help antigovernment rebels keep fighting.That’s the riveting Main Event at the moment in the greater Middle East. But peel away from that military spectacle for a moment. Take a glance across the rest of the Mid

March 23, 2011

[Edward N. Luttwak] Libya: It’s not our fight

Once again the United States is bombing a Muslim country to liberate its people from their own sanguinary rulers. Once again we are told that innocent civilians are being massacred and that the United States must intervene as a matter of moral duty, in its capacity as a great and good nation. But in this case ― even as part of a broader, U.N.-sanctioned coalition to enforce a no-fly zone ― the U.S

March 23, 2011

[Mycle Schneider] Nuclear fallout comes with aura of arrogance

Some people just shouldn’t be in charge of high-risk nuclear facilities.As far back as 2005, I warned Eisaku Sato, governor of Fukushima at the time, about the dangers of letting spent fuel accumulate in cooling ponds at the prefecture’s nuclear plants and the need to put it into much safer dry stores as soon as possible. He seemed to be the only one who listened. But clearly there were people who

March 23, 2011

[Amity Shlaes] Harvard is just worth mom’s party chatter

Anxious families awaiting April college admission news are living their own March Madness.Their insanity is captured in Andrew Ferguson’s new book, “Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College” (Simon & Schuster). He describes the vanity of a desperate mother at a cocktail party who is dying to announce her daughter’s perfect SAT scores:“‘We were really surprised at how well sh

March 23, 2011

Reasons why some things are best left unsaid

In our past editorials, we have touched on the topic of political correctness (PC), concluding that Taiwan as a nation could use a good dose of PC. However, it appears that the United States, the “Land of the Free” and arguably one of the most PC-striving countries in the world to which we look up, has shown some deeply abhorrent behavior, from high-profile radio personalities to university studen

March 22, 2011

[Richard Parker] Libya: An end game enveloped by deception

If, as Sun Tzu wrote, “all warfare is based upon deception,” then the war now unfolding in the Libyan desert is one towering with deception. And it appears that the Obama administration is skillfully wielding at least this one deadly principle of conflict.Operation Odyssey Dawn is no no-fly zone; it is most likely the first, opening gambit of a potentially larger military operation. By expanding t

March 22, 2011

Bias against catastrophic nuclear tail events

The worst case. These three words have been at the back of everyone’s mind ever since the Fukushima reactors began malfunctioning after being swamped by a tsunami. Remarkably, these reactors have been at the front of few experts’ mouths.Many experts have shied away from describing worst-case outcomes, which are terrifying to contemplate and risky to mention. The risk isn’t just panicking the publi

March 22, 2011