Author: Andrew Sullivan

A reader writes:

That photograph is open to a multitude of interpretations. Time clearly has set this up as: "Look what will happen if we leave."  But I look at that picture and think to myself, "What can we possibly hope to accomplish there?"

This girl's face isn't a warning about the consequences of withdrawal. It's a tragic reminder of the futility of the United States' efforts in Afghanistan. After all, this girl was not maimed before the American occupation. She was assaulted during the occupation, when NATO forces were spread out all over the country fighting pockets of Taliban and al Qaeda dead-enders.

This photograph just reminds me that we can put any number of troops on the ground and we still won't be able to change a thing about the culture of Afghanistan. It's a stark, tribal, medieval place in a lot of ways. We need to have a little bit of humility and realize that the world is a big, complicated place and we can't afford to spend billions of dollars and thousands of lives trying to impose our cultural values and our version of civil society on people who have no history of accepting such an imposition nor any interest of doing so.

Another writes:

The largely South Asian practice of maiming, mutilating and murdering women for not living up to a horribly inhuman and archaic standard of female behaviour is appalling. Not enough can be written against it, not enough scorn can be expressed. However, in light of what has been happening in countries such as Germany and Canada over the past decade, how can anyone argue that American and NATO troops will be able to stop this awful practice?

In Germany alone, at least 55 women were murdered in honour killings between 1996 and 2005, with several more since. In Canada, 12 women have been killed since 2002. In two of the safest countries for women around the world, with police forces, support centres and general societal disgust, we have been unable to stop this practice. It feels awful to say this, but keeping western troops in Afghanistan will have little impact on this. Let's try to find a solution to this in our own back yards, before thinking we can do it elsewhere.

Another:

Do you not find it peculiar that many of the very same people who insist that the U.S. should spend billions of dollars and sacrifice hundreds of lives each year to ensure that Afghan women (and the Afghan people in general) can enjoy a better life are the same people who want to spend millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars to prevent Mexican immigrants from crossing our border in search of work so that they can live a better life?

Why is the sacrifice of American lives and billions of dollars a burden worth shouldering in the case of Afghanistan, whereas a few tens of millions of dollars in social services is an unbearable burden in the case of immigrants who have come to perform productive work and who contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and tax base?

I've seen arguments both ways that seek to show that illegal immigrants are a net asset or a net burden to the treasury. But whatever the truth may be, no one can seriously argue that illegal immigrants are are anywhere near as burdensome to our nation and our treasury as the Afghan war is. Where's the consistency?

Another:

You say, "We were not responsible for these evils when they were perpetrated for years before 9/11."

Remember the high level of support the US offered to the Taliban and its predecessors when they were fighting the Soviet Union. I think a very good case could be made that the women of Afghanistan were better off under Soviet rule than they had been before, or will be again for a long time. To the extent that the US supported the anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan, the US is responsible for the deteriorating situation faced by Afghan women. I still think the US should leave, but let's at least be honest about it. Nobody is fighting this war for the women, or ever has.

Dan Drezner is in Israel:

[Israelis] think containment can work in Gaza, and that engagement can work in the West Bank.  The wishful thinking that regime change will solve Israel's problem runs strong and deep within Israeli security circles (coincidentally, this is the only issue on which Israelis sound more optimistic than their America counterparts).  Mostly, however, Israeli officials are concerned that the attractiveness of the status quo will lull the population into inaction.  At a time when Israel could exploit its temporary advantages into the best deal possible, there isn't a lot of forward progress on any of Israel's security issues.  And normal Israeli citizens just want to go to the beach …

Drezner explains this apathy in a later post:

The problem with Tel Aviv is that it's sucking up all of the young,

secular Israelis from across the country.

As well it should – it offers good jobs and an easygoing lifestyle, like the Bay Area in the U.S. 

This migration within Israel creates a number of long-term policy headaches.  First, residents of Tel Aviv simply don't care that much about making peace with the Palestinian Authority, Syria, or the rest of the Arab world.  Tel Aviv is almost exclusively Jewish, it's too far south for Hezbollah to hit and too far north for Hamas to hit.  You can live in Tel Aviv and not think about long-term security concerns – which is exactly what most Israelis do.  This is the majority of the population, and they're politically apathetic. 

Not so fast:

If one word could be removed from fashion writing, I’d pick the following: “effortless.” It never, ever, ever, ever accurately describes the look in question.

How is a shot of someone who clearly takes care of herself hair- and body-wise and took particular care to dress nicely that day evidence of a lack of effort? It’s nearly impossible to come up with a styling result that couldn’t be labeled “effortless,” so meaningless is this adjective in the fashion context. I’ve contemplated images of “effortless” and tried to figure out what was being referred to about a given shot. Some “effortless” looks include slightly mussed-up hair, but even that isn’t necessary. Never does “effortless” manifest itself as an outfit that’s the obvious result of whatever was lying on the end of the couch.

The implication with “effortless” is that some women are simply born in Chanel suits and with perfect hair. These are the women whose perfection, we’re meant to believe, is on the one hand unattainable in that it’s innate, but on the other slightly attainable, if we’d only spend the money aka make the effort.

Effortless or not? You be the judge.

Provoked by research on the importance of good kindergarten teachers, Greg Mankiw asks about the role of parents. The author of the kindergarten paper replies:

The best evidence I've seen on the long term impacts of parents is this quasi-experimental paper by Bruce Sacerdote published in the QJE. It shows that parental characteristics explain about three times more of the variation in adult outcomes than [kindergarten] classes, consistent with your intuition.

Leonhardt also answers:

As more and more education data is collected and more research is done — both of which are happening, fortunately — we may discover the impact of a good teacher is not as large as some economists now believe. Instead, we may realize that teachers matter, perhaps greatly, but that some of the gains we’re now attributing to them should in fact be attributed to other forces.

As it is, Raj Chetty, one of the economists who did the kindergarten study, notes that the effect that teachers have on their students may be significant, but it’s also small relative to all of the other forces affecting earnings. “A better class leads to higher average earnings, but there’s lots of variation around the mean,” he e-mailed me. “A lot of other things matter.”

Vernou sur Seine, France, 12 pm

A reader writes:

Two months ago, my 88-year-old father-in-law passed away after lung cancer surgery at a Catholic hospital.  The surgery was successful, but after two days his lungs filled with fluid, which caused his heart to stop due to lack of oxygen.  By the time he was breathing and his heart beating again, his brain lacked oxygen for several minutes.  An EEG showed some brain activity but he was effectively in a coma.

My wife had power of attorney and after 10 days of no change decided to remove the breathing machine.  He would not want to live this way and his health care directive stated that.  They removed the breathing machine, put him on a morphine drip and also injected a large dose of morphine at decreasing intervals.  When the breathing machine was removed, his breath rate went from 15 breaths per minute, to 10, then 5, then 3 at each morphine injection until he finally stopped breathing.  The whole process took 7 hours. 

To me, the actions this Catholic hospital took showed true mercy, and put humanity above doctrine.

Another writes:

If you are not already aware of it, you might look into the case of Eluana Englaro, a young Italian woman who found herself the focus of a sort of mirrored version of the Terri Schiavo affair here in Italy not that long ago.

Ms. Englaro had been in a vegetative state for 17 years after a car accident. Whereas the parents wanted to remove the artificial measures that were keeping her that way, entities within the Italian government (heavily influenced by the Vatican) argued that she must be kept "alive" via such measures indefinitely. As did the Bush administration, Mr. Berlusconi scrambled to gain ad personam legislation allowing him to directly intervene, despite the final court's ruling in the parents' favor (too late, however, to influence the outcome).

After many, many years of appeals, the father ultimately prevailed and was granted the 'privilege' of allowing his brain-dead daughter her final release. The news of Ms. Englaro’s death came as the Upper House of parliament began debating emergency legislation rushed out by the centre-right Government of Berlusconi. It would have ordered medical staff to restore all nutrients.

The Italian "caso Welby" is also worth reviewing: a man with ALS who just had had enough, and begged for years to be released from his pointless suffering. The notion of a "living will" is rather new in Italy, and the discussion of it has circulated around these two cases in particular.

Of course, we need to be on guard about euthanasia. But allowing people to die in peace with dignity seems to me one of the core challenges in this technocratic age. And I find it bizarre that contemporary Christians, so unlike their forefathers, seem intent on fetishizing physical life rather than anticipating the glories of what comes after death.

Behold its power:

David Cameron writes an op-ed addressing the gay community. Imagine a Republican leader doing that. Better still, imagine him or her writing this:

I know there is one other subject that the gay community is particularly interested in: marriage. As someone who believes in commitment, in marriage and in civil partnerships, my view is that if religious organisations want to have civil partnerships registered at their places of worship that should be able to happen. Last week the Equalities Minister held listening events with faith groups and representatives of the gay community, as we consider what the next steps are for civil partnerships and how we enable religious organisations to register same-sex relationships on their premises if they wish to do so. I think this is an important step forward and we will help to make it happen. But making this country a more equal, open place isn't just a job for government alone. The truth is we will never really tackle homophobia in schools, the workplace or in sport just by passing laws. We need a culture change as well. 

There's no single lever we can pull or even collection of measures that we can take to make that happen. The wall of prejudice is also chipped away by high-profile role models, by public celebrations, by a positive approach to diversity. That's why I am proud that there are now more openly gay MPs in the Conservative Party than any other party. It's why I wish the upcoming Pride events – today in Leeds, all week in Brighton and on Saturday in Liverpool – every success. And it's why I congratulate everyone on this list for doing their bit to inspire and change attitudes. This is a country where people can be proud of who they are – and quite right too.