Morning Brief, Monday, June 19
BREAKING: Robert Zoellick resigns from State Department. As if Condi doesn't have enough on her plate, now her best deputy is departing. And it certainly promises to be a busy week for her: There's the North Koreans' possible missile test, Iran getting support from the neighborhood, Chavez trying to get an open seat on the ...
BREAKING: Robert Zoellick resigns from State Department.
BREAKING: Robert Zoellick resigns from State Department.
As if Condi doesn't have enough on her plate, now her best deputy is departing. And it certainly promises to be a busy week for her: There's the North Koreans' possible missile test, Iran getting support from the neighborhood, Chavez trying to get an open seat on the Security Council, and, well, America's popularity around the world in the gutter. But, Condi, Sebastian Mallaby has heard you and been converted to Team Rice:
If the United States cannot give up its lofty rhetoric yet cannot live up to it either, it is doomed to be accused of double standards. But the right response to this conclusion is to face up to it, rather than wishing it away…
Which brings us to Rice's speech last week. "America will lead the cause of freedom in our world, not because we think ourselves perfect," Rice said. "To the contrary, we cherish democracy and champion its ideals because we know ourselves to be imperfect. . . . My ancestors in Mr. Jefferson's Constitution were three-fifths of a man," she carried on. "But we have made progress and we are striving toward a more perfect union."
Perhaps George Bush expresses the same humility sometimes; his second inaugural address contained faint traces of it. But the words resonate more powerfully coming from a black American. If anyone can win followers for American ideals in a skeptical world, perhaps it is a woman whose ancestors were betrayed by them.
It is still unclear whether moderate or conservative Islamists will ultimately consolidate power in Mogadishu. J. Peter Pham argues in the WSJ that the situation in Somalia is strikingly similar to Afghanistan ten years ago, and that we ignore the militias at our peril.
The leader of Chechnya's separatist rebels was killed over the weekend by Russian forces. CJ Chivers filed a fascinating report on the Beslan school siege for this month's Esquire.
Commerical whaling may make a comeback. State oligarchs close to Putin are creating "directed capitalism" in Russia. Thirty are killed by Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan. Missing US GIs said to be held by insurgent group in Iraq.
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