Pickering goes down; Rosie comes out; Powell puts the boot in; Russia backs Bush.
CAN THERE BE A DECENT LEFT?: Michael Walzer asks some truly hard and penetrating questions in an essay in the upcoming Dissent. The essay reminds me of Hannah Arendt’s contributions to that journal many moons ago. If you do nothing else today, read this piece. It has an honesty and seriousness that could make it a pivotal argument in the future of American liberalism with regard to international politics and the burdens and challenges of living in a super-power. He concludes:
The world (and this includes the third world) is too full of hatred, cruelty, and corruption for any left, even the American left, to suspend its judgement about what’s going on. It’s not the case that because we are privileged, we should turn inward and focus our criticism only on ourselves. In fact, inwardness is one of our privileges; it is often a form of political self-indulgence. Yes, we are entitled to blame the others whenever they are blameworthy; in fact, it is only when we do that, when we denounce, say, the authoritarianism of third world governments, that we will find our true comrades–the local opponents of the maximal leaders and military juntas, who are often waiting for our recognition and support. If we value democracy, we have to be prepared to defend it, at home, of course, but not only there. I would once have said that we were well along: the American left has an honorable history, and we have certainly gotten some things right, above all, our opposition to domestic and global inequalities. But what the aftermath of September 11 suggests is that we have not advanced very far–and not always in the right direction. The left needs to begin again.
The times they are a’ changing.
WHAT THE SAUDIS REALLY BELIEVE: I wonder if Tom Friedman could ask his Saudi friends why their government publishes the following column in its official newspaper, al Riyadh:
I chose to [speak] about the Jewish holiday of Purim, because it is connected to the month of March. This holiday has some dangerous customs that will, no doubt, horrify you, and I apologize if any reader is harmed because of this. During this holiday, the Jew must prepare very special pastries, the filling of which is not only costly and rare – it cannot be found at all on the local and international markets. Unfortunately, this filling cannot be left out, or substituted with any alternative serving the same purpose. For this holiday, the Jewish people must obtain human blood so that their clerics can prepare the holiday pastries. In other words, the practice cannot be carried out as required if human blood is not spilled!!
You can read the full horrifying text at MEMRI.org, Number 354. And we think these people want to make peace with Israel? I think it’s about as likely as Hitler doing so.
THE ‘BORN-FREES’ REVOLT: The best analysis of the recent Zimbabwean election is this piece by Sasha Polakow-Suransky in the American Prospect. Robert Mugabe is clearly one of the most ruthless tyrants on the blighted continent of Africa. And the travesty of this election – and its precursors – proves it.
YOUR TURN: Dissent flourishes on this site at least. On the letters page, orthodox Catholics back Rod Dreher, straight soldiers back gay soldiers and the current policy, and other readers defend the Bush administration’s new pressure on Israel. Just don’t say we don’t air the issues here.
THE PRO-AMERICAN BRITISH LEFT: Well, there are three of them at least. And what they lack in numbers, they make up for in quality. Funny that Hitchens, Amis and Rushdie all now live here. That might account for their lacking the ignorance and prejudice of some of their confreres back home in the Guardian’s editorial offices.
The Dish 