Tag Archives: peace

They Just Don’t Get It

By chris | Published: 22 November 2009
In an interview with the Guardian at the end of a visit to Kabul for the presidential inauguration of Hamid Karzai, the foreign secretary said: “If international forces leave, you can choose a time – five minutes, 24 hours or seven days – but the insurgent forces will overrun those forces that are prepared to [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fisking Sullivan

By chris | Published: 21 November 2009
I have been watching the Palin obsession on Andrew Sullivan’s blog with a kind of fascinated horror. The blog was suspended to digest the almost content-free Palin book, but from the resumption notice it is clear that others have been raising their concerns. No doubt It is part of the theatre, one of the many reasons, [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Realistic Optimists and That David Brooks Column

By chris | Published: 10 November 2009
Tyler Cowen has a great TEDxMidAtlantic talk on the seductive power of stories to distort our view of the world. We compulsive structure our understanding with narratives–there is no point in fighting this–but we can take a light, sceptical approach to these narratives, continually probing them for weaknesses. (Does anyone else see common thread with [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Horror

By chris | Published: 8 November 2009
The opening of the New York Times editorial on Saturday made little sense. It is always a shock — and a cause for deep sadness — when a gunman fires malevolently at crowds of innocent people. We have seen it far too often: at Columbine High School in Colorado a decade ago; on the campus of [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Afghanistan

By chris | Published: 30 October 2009
I have been meaning to write on Afghanistan for a while and today’s column by David Brooks has finally prompted me to write it. Brooks’ argument is simple. All the military experts are sure we can do this, but they are not sure that President Obama has the the resolve to do it. They do not [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Why I am a Zionist

By chris | Published: 19 October 2009
I thoroughly applauded Recip Erdogan in taking to task Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos in January over operation Cast Lead (the Israeli assault on Gaza), so why have I recently started calling myself a Zionist? Let me explain.
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment