Morning brief, Tuesday May 16
There's no containing Henry Kissinger. He's gonna write what he thinks in however many words he feels like, in whatever darn newspaper he wants. Hence his 1,843-word "op-ed" in the Washington Post this morning. Message: A failed diplomacy would leave us with a choice between the use of force or a world where restraint has ...
There's no containing Henry Kissinger. He's gonna write what he thinks in however many words he feels like, in whatever darn newspaper he wants. Hence his 1,843-word "op-ed" in the Washington Post this morning. Message:
There's no containing Henry Kissinger. He's gonna write what he thinks in however many words he feels like, in whatever darn newspaper he wants. Hence his 1,843-word "op-ed" in the Washington Post this morning. Message:
A failed diplomacy would leave us with a choice between the use of force or a world where restraint has been eroded by the inability or unwillingness of countries that have the most to lose to restrain defiant fanatics.
More specifically, on Iran:
A more coherent forum for negotiation would combine the three European nations with the United States, China and Russia as the countries most directly affected and in the best position to act jointly in the Security Council. This could be set up after the passage of the Security Council resolution now under discussion. It would permit elaboration of the one hopeful scheme that has emerged in Iranian diplomacy. Put forward by Russia, it is to move certain enrichment operations out of Iran into Russia, thereby preventing clandestine weaponization…
The EU offered Iran technology in exchange for a suspension of uranium enrichment. Iran said no thanks. And from the Whaaa? department, Beijing says Tehran has to stop enriching uranium.
Washington restored diplomatic relations with Libya. The LAT says "Perhaps the most important lesson to be taken from Libya's arc from an instigator to a foe of international terrorism is that sanctions can work if they're carefully crafted."
Bulgaria and Romania have to clear a higher bar if they want to join the European Union.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be leaving politics because she lied on her asylum application.
China re-indicts the menacing NYT researcher.
Depressing column by Simon Tisdall on the humiliation of women in Egypt's renewed crackdown. In the piece, Hugh Roberts says "Western efforts to shape reform in Egypt have been a fiasco."
While we're at it, let's depress ourselves with some Kristof on Sudan:
John Bolton, now the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., once suggested it wouldn't matter if the U.N.'s top 10 floors were lopped off. But let's not do that — the U.N. is far better than the alternative of having no such institution. But take it from this disillusioned fan of the U.N. system: let's also be realistic and drop any fantasy that the U.N. is going to save the day as a genocide unfolds. In that mission, the U.N. is failing about as badly as the League of Nations did.
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