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Friday, July 11, 2008
Drinking latte with tyrants never works
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer cites the recent rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages in Colombia as an example of how “hard power”- much maligned by critics of President Bush- is often the only effective way to ensure freedom.
He writes, “On the day the Colombian military freed Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other long-held hostages, the Italian Parliament passed yet another resolution demanding her release. Europe had long ago adopted this French-Colombian politician as a cause célèbre. France had made her an honorary citizen of Paris, passed numerous resolutions and held many vigils.”
But it was only skilled military action that saved the hostages, not the soft-power of diplomacy. ” Solemn condemnations have been issued from every forum of soft-power fecklessness — the EU, the U.N., the G-8 foreign ministers — demanding that Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe stop butchering his opponents and step down. Before that, the cause du jour was Burma. And then there is Darfur, a perennial for which myriad diplomats and foreign policy experts have devoted uncountable hours at the finest five-star hotels to deplore the genocide and urgently urge relief.”
Europe, writes Krauthammer, “specializes in providing haven for those fleeing the evil that Europe does nothing about…”
Only the U.S. - in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq has the guts to save innocent people from tyrants - but is severely condemned for it internationally and is thus losing its taste for such actions.
Is the U.S. a force for good and are we retreating from that now?
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Is coal killing us?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Seandra Rawls of the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club writes that coal-powered power plants are the past - they are bad for our air and our health and should not be encouraged. She lauds a recent Fulton County Superior Court ruling in which a judge voided a state permit for a new coal plant in South Georgia.
But J. Allen Wampler, a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, argues that coal is one resources which is abundant in America. Technology can be used to make it burn cleaner- and we should invest heavily in that. Furthermore, he writes, alternative forms of energy like wind and solar will produce enough power to make a difference.
Who is right?
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