Condoleezza Rice, Concert Pianist

Sunday's New York Times ran this article about the Secretary of State's music-making. She's partial to Brahms and Shostakovich. She'd rather play in a group than as a soloist (she accompanied Yo-Yo Ma at the National Medal of the Arts award ceremony in Brahms's Violin Sonata in D minor, see photo above). The Secretary of State's favorite opera? Mussorgsky's Khovanschchina.

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

Last night, we attended a screening of Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. It was held at the Canadian Embassy, a wonderful building that sits on land Ronald Reagan gave to Canada as a gift of gratitude for help during the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979--the Canadians sheltered Americans in their embassy and helped them to escape Ayatollah Khomeni's mobs using Canadian passports.

The event was a benefit for The Hospitality and Information Service, a Washington, DC charity. There were diplomats and lobbyists and lots of Washingtonian. We were seated in front of the Ambassador from Lesotho, H.E. Molelekeng Ernestina Rapolaki.

The screenwriter, Ruth Sacks Caplin, was there in person. She was as charming as any of the characters in the film. According to a Washington Post story, Ruth Sacks Caplin spent about a quarter of a century trying to make this film, based on a story by British novelist Elizabeth Taylor. She couldn't get the rights during the novelist's lifetime. Finally, she outlived her and got permission from the estate. Her patience paid off. It is charming, a vision of England as we Americans like to see it, full of colorful eccentrics quoting Blake and Wordsworth--the film is perfect entertainment for anyone who enjoys Masterpiece Theatre. Every actor has a moment to do a star turn. The cast does a magnificent job, especially Joan Plowright.

Conflict Resolution 101

Today I heard an interesting anecdote at a seminar on Russia. I think the story sums up the academic discipline of "conflict resolution."

The hostess and guest speaker had participated together previously at an international seminar on conflict resolution. Among the other participants was a couple haggling over a disputed territory in the former USSR. They brought up 1000 years of historical grievances. Stalemate. Tension. Unhappiness.

Up walks a Harvard University academic expert in peaceful conflict resolution.

"What you need to do," she tells the bickering couple, "is to forget your history and look to what you can do by working together in the future."

Hearing this, the disputants exploded in rage. For the conference luncheon, the organizers seated the two at separarate dining tables at opposite ends of the room.

Weekly Standard: Putin Knew About Saddam -9/11 Connection

Dan Darling's story can be found here:

IN JULY 2004, DURING THE COURSE of a little-publicized event while on a visit to Kazakhstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin made some unusual remarks:

I can confirm that after the events of September 11, 2001, and up to the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services and Russian intelligence several times received . . . information that official organs of Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist acts on the territory of the United States and beyond its borders, at U.S. military and civilian locations.

Putin's remarks were little noticed by the American press, coming as they did so soon after the release of the 9/11 Commission's report. Moreover, despite his strong opposition to the war in Iraq, Putin was unabashedly in favor of Bush's reelection, having earlier criticized Senator Kerry for supporting unilateral action against Serbia while opposing it with regard to Iraq. Putin went so far as to claim in October 2004 that "The goal of international terrorism is to prevent the election of President Bush to a second term."

Mark Steyn on Bombing Iran

He's for it:

Perhaps it’s unduly pessimistic to write the civilized world automatically into what Osama bin Laden called the “weak horse” role (Islam being the “strong horse”). But, if you were an Iranian “moderate” and you’d watched the West’s reaction to the embassy seizure and the Rushdie murders and Hezbollah terrorism, wouldn’t you be thinking along those lines? I don’t suppose Buenos Aires Jews expect to have their institutions nuked any more than 12 years ago they expected to be blown up in their own city by Iranian-backed suicide bombers. Nukes have gone freelance, and there’s nothing much we can do about that, and sooner or later we’ll see the consequences—in Vancouver or Rotterdam, Glasgow or Atlanta. But, that being so, we owe it to ourselves to take the minimal precautionary step of ending the one regime whose political establishment is explicitly pledged to the nuclear annihilation of neighboring states.

Will Bush Bomb Iran?

That question is the talk of Washington right now. I just don't know. It's hard to believe. But someone I know thinks he will. She told me that Bush has no alternative because his credibility is shot, his domestic poll numbers are down, and his international stature is shrinking. It would be a "Hail Mary" pass. (Look at it as a possiblly real "October Surprise").

If such an attack worked, all would be forgiven and the Republicans might keep their majority in Congress. If it didn't--Bush could be impeached if the Democrats sweep 2006 elections...

Still, hard for me to believe he'll go through with it. Though as my friend pointed out, Bush has already invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. He's done it before.

An Overheard Snatch of Conversation...

Today I was in Au Bon Pain near George Washington University, sitting next to two undergrads about six inches away, and overheard a young man telling a young woman something I suppose he thought might impress her that I could not have made up:

HE: Well, my AP ceramics teacher was really great. He brought in some dildoes and we made a teapot.
SHE: That's...interesting.
HE: I'm taking this class now in cultural studies, and it's all about Jennifer Lopez's ass, how it's about identity, how she's not really Puerto Rican, she's a 3rd-generation American, and how her ass and what has happened to it reflects that identity...

"Tuition dollars at work, I guess," someone I know said to me, after we left.

Michelle Malkin on South Park and the Danish Cartoons

Here.

Libby v Bush?

Someone I know suggested that the latest news stories about "Scooter" Libby's legal case may indicate that the former staffer is not willing to fall on his sword for George W. Bush. Which might mean a crack in the famous "loyalty" of the White House staff. Which might lead to more interesting developments. I do remember that President Bush said something like he would investigate who leaked confidential information, and if he found out who, then he would fire the person. Well, if it was Bush--he really ought to resign...

UPDATE: Here are relevant quotes from WarandPiece.com:

Update II: Reader SS sends these quotes along:

"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." [Bush Remarks: Chicago, Illinois, 9/30/03]


"The President has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." [White House Briefing, 9/29/03]
Uh huh.

Zorba's Wisdom

Saw Zorba the Greek with Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates last night. Was struck by the film's seriousness. Sort of grim. Tears under the laughter. Found this quote that sums it up, on an MIT Zorba page:

When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy-some call him God, others the Devil, seems to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.

Bush's "Sleaze Factor"

Bush promised to restore dignity to the Oval Office. Instead, his administration is making Bill Clinton look like Pollyanna. The latest sleazy news is of a Homeland Security p.r. official (I kid you not) arrested in a kiddie-sex internet sting. Before that, it was a domestic policy advisor in a fake-returns scam. Before that, Abramoff & Co. ripping off American Indians. Before that, "Heck of a job, Brownie!" Before that--torture memos. Not to mention Barbara Bush's donation to First Brother Neil's software company in the name of Katrina relief.

The resignation of Tom DeLay, like that of fellow Texan Jim Wright, puts a "Sleaze Factor" on the agenda for 2006 . If Democrats can't follow Newt Gingrich's playbook to retake at least one house of Congress by beating up on Republican arrogance and corruption--well, it doesn't bear thinking about...

Fallaci v. Rumsfeld

While browsing in a local Barnes and Noble bookstore today, I came across a copy of Oriana Fallaci's new book, sitting on a table. The Force of Reason,. I opened a page, began reading, and was struck at once by Fallaci's analysis of the current ideological conflict--one that differs from Donald Rumsfeld's point of view(scroll down):

I do not believe in moderate Islam. What moderate Islam? Is it enough not to cut heads off? Moderate Islam is another invention of ours.

There is not good Islam or bad Islam. There is just Islam. And Islam is the Qur’an. And the Qur’an is the Mein Kampf of this movement. The Qur’an demands the annihilation or subjugation of the other, and wants to substitute totalitarianism for democracy. Read it over, that Mein Kampf. In whatever version, you will find that all the evil that the sons of Allah commit against themselves and against others is in it...

The Paradox of Humanitarian Action

For research on an article about the role of NGOs in international relations, I've just started reading this interesting book by Fiona Terry, from Doctors Without Borders, called Condemned to Repeat: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action. I'll have more to say when I've finished it, but in the meantime, I thought that an interview with the author published on the organization's website gives some idea of the issues the author is wrestling with:

Q: What was your first experience in witnessing the manipulation or abuse of humanitarian operations?

At a political level, it was in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991 when humanitarian action was deployed as the response to the terrible predicament of the Kurds at the hands of Saddam Hussein. The United States and its allies had encouraged the Kurds to rise up during the Gulf War but only offered them wheat flour as compensation for the violent repression that followed. Fearful that a massive influx of Kurds would destabilize Turkey, an important US ally, the would-be refugees were refused asylum and were lured back to their villages with humanitarian aid. Thus humanitarian action served as an alibi, giving governments an image of doing something to address the problem when in reality they did little to help the Kurds.

At a more direct level, it was in Somalia during the 1991-92 famine. While men, women and children starved to death, certain Somalis went to great lengths to steal food for their own use, including registering fictitious villages for distribution. Aid agencies were struggling to find the resources needed to feed hundreds of thousands of starving people, yet had to pay exorbitant fees to armed militias to protect them and their supplies.

But even at its worst, the abuse of humanitarian action in Somalia was not as bad as in the Rwandan refugee camps in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) when it was the aid - and only the aid - that sustained a regime and army responsible for perpetrating genocide.

Q: Would you please define what you describe as the "refugee-warrior" phenomenon in your book?

Refugees are generally fleeing some violence or oppression in their home country and seek asylum in a neighboring country. There some of them take up arms and use the refugee camps as rear-bases for guerrilla incursions against their home government. Although the notion of a refugee-warrior is a contradiction because combatants are not entitled to refugee status unless they put down their arms, in practice the refugee-warrior phenomenon has been widespread during the last 50 years. Refugee camps provide a good pool of potential recruits, many of who are understandably willing to take their future into their hands and try to return to their homeland by any means necessary. The camps provide protection against enemy reprisals as an attack on a refugee camp usually receives condemnation from the UN and its member states, and camps provide a whole host of resources such as food, money and medical supplies. The aid structures in the camps also provide mechanisms through which control can be exerted on the refugee population. And, by acting as interlocutors between the refugees and the aid organizations, combatants can gain legitimacy with the refugees as well as internationally by acting as the supposed representatives of the refugees.

Q: In your book you state that "do no harm," the common dictum among aid organizations, is an illusion. Why?

Because humanitarian assistance will always have some negative consequences even if these are not immediately visible to aid organizations. Aid will always generate some winners and some losers; in order to reach victims it is often necessary to work with and through rebel leaders or government officials who have blood all over their hands. Pretending that aid can actually be given without causing any harm is utopian. Moreover, it is counterproductive if we are to make hard-headed assessments about the relative good and harm of our actions and act accordingly.


Q: The 1990s term "complex emergency" with its implicit notion that humanitarian work is more complicated now than during the Cold War era is something that you discuss at length in your book. You feel that some humanitarian workers use this concept as an excuse for not learning (or wanting to learn) from past experiences, or more specifically, experiences that happened during the Cold War period. Why do you think that this is a mistake?

I think that too much emphasis has been placed on perceived changes in the context to explain the difficulties encountered in assisting victims of conflict, and not enough on the role of aid actors themselves. There are genuine changes in the nature of conflict in the post-Cold War world but these have coincided with the massive growth of the international aid regime, and the expansion of the field of intervention from the periphery of conflicts during the Cold War to the heart of conflicts in the 1990s. Aid is implicated in the dynamics of conflicts in most places but this is not a new phenomenon, and the dilemmas we face today are not more difficult than those of the past. I think that the choices aid organizations faced when trying to assist Cambodians along the Thai-Cambodian border and inside Cambodia in the 1980s were more difficult than most choices we have to make today. I think aid organizations too readily assume that what occurred in the "simple" past is not relevant to today's "complexities," and lament the complexities of contemporary crises as an excuse for their failings.

Q: In your book, you focus on four contexts where aid was manipulated to the benefit of combatants: the Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan (1980s), the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran refugee camps in Honduras, the Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand, and the Rwandan refugee camps in Zaire (DRC). Do you think that there are similar situations happening now?

Absolutely. The Liberian refugee camps in Guinea are used as a base for opponents of Charles Taylor's government in Monrovia, and the Burundian refugee camps in Tanzania have long hosted rebel fighters.

But the worst case of the manipulation of humanitarian assistance in the world today is not taking place in a refugee camp but in a huge open prison that is called North Korea. Refugees who have managed to flee the country and hide in China say that food aid meant for famine victims is not getting to those who need it but is going to citizens deemed to be loyal to Kim Jong-il's regime. Refugee testimonies suggest that three million people died from starvation and related illnesses in 1995-1998 alone, and many continue to die today. I think it is scandalous that aid organizations continue to work in North Korea when the government does not allow them to conduct an independent needs assessment, freely distribute their aid or monitor and evaluate the impact of the aid. These are the minimum conditions necessary to assure that aid is reaching those in need and not those chosen by the regime. To participate in such discrimination opposes the fundamental idea of humanitarian action. It is terrible to think that North Koreans are starving to death while North Korea is the second largest recipient of food aid after Afghanistan. Until last year, it was the largest recipient. Aid organizations have a responsibility to know what is happening to their aid for the sake of the people in whose name they intervene. In North Korea they are collaborating with the regime, channeling aid through the same regime that is responsible for causing and perpetuating the famine.

You can buy a copy of Fiona Terry's book from Amazon.com.

Blogger Wins Blooker

This 'n That has this story about Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen from the London Telegraph:

The organisers of the Blooker Prize, Lulu.com, an American online print-on-demand publishing company, says it wants its prize - which is worth $2,000 (£1,140) to the winner - to become better known than the £50,000 British Booker Prize within five years.

By coincidence, Powell has a connection with the Booker. "The first-ever recipient of the Blooker Prize is the former nanny of the first-ever two-time recipient of the Booker Prize. I think that's kind of neat," she said yesterday

Eight years ago, Powell worked for 12 months as nanny to the family of Peter Carey, the Australian novelist, when they lived in Manhattan.

Carey's Oscar and Lucinda won the Booker in 1988 and he became a double-winner in 2001 with his novel, True History of the Kelly Gang. Powell, whose success has allowed her to buy a better New York apartment, said that the time and cost of her cookery marathon had put great strain on her marriage.

Child's recipes are elaborate, so working outside the house and then cooking often meant that dinner was not ready until after midnight. And the financial strain meant that she was grateful when several fans of her "blog" tracked down her address and sent small sums of money or ingredients through the post.

Powell said: "It was enough to get me through some quite tough times paying the rent. There are 12 recipes requiring a whole leg of lamb. Legs of lamb in New York are not cheap."

America's D/D+ in the Battle of Ideas

The Secretary of Defense graded himself on March 27th. From the transcript:

QUESTION:  Inaudible]. My question has to do with the war on terror as a war of ideology. The National Defense Strategy, QDR (Quadrennial Defense Review), talks about the war on terror having a significant component as a war of ideology. What do you think we're doing well with respect to the war of ideology, and what do you think we could do better?

            SECRETARY RUMSFELD:  If I were rating, I would say we probably deserve a D or D+ as a country as how well we're doing in the battle of ideas that's taking place. I'm not going to suggest that it's easy, but we have not found the formula as a country.

            It's basically a struggle not between the West and Muslims. It's a struggle within the Muslim faith. There are a relatively small number of violent extremists and a very large number of moderates who do not believe in violent extremism in that faith. We're going to have to find ways that we can encourage and support those moderate voices because they're the ones who are in the struggle...

The Art Czar

Just got my review copy of Alice Goldfarb Marquis' new biography of critic Clement Greenberg. Full disclosure: Alice is a friend of mine, thanks to her book on the history of the NEA, Art Lessons. She has visited me in Washington and in Moscow, and I've visited her in San Diego. She mentions of my name in her acknowledgements. So, I'm biased.

That said, I already finished Chapter One. For a scholarly biography published by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, it sure is juicy... Love poetry, broken homes, drinking, Mary McCarthy dancing in a black leotard. Who knew?

I can hardly wait to see the movie. My pick for Greenberg: George Clooney.

Mark Steyn: Learn From the Australians

Mark Steyn explains why he thinks Australia is the country to follow (ht LGF):

If I had to propose a model for Western rhetoric, it would be the Australians. In the days after Sept. 11, the French got all the attention for that Le Monde headline -- "Nous sommes tous Americains" -- "We are all Americans," though they didn't mean it, even then. But John Howard, the Aussie prime minister, put it better and kept his word: "This is no time to be an 80 percent ally."

Marvelous. More recently, the prime minister offered some thoughts on the difference between Muslims and other immigrant groups. "You can't find any equivalent in Italian or Greek or Lebanese or Chinese or Baltic immigration to Australia. There is no equivalent of raving on about jihad," he said, stating the obvious in a way most political leaders can't quite bring themselves to do. "There is really not much point in pretending it doesn't exist."

Unfortunately, too many of his counterparts insist on pretending (at least to their citizenry) that it doesn't exist. What proportion of Western Muslims is hot for jihad? Five percent? Ten, 12 percent? Given that understanding this Pan-Islamist identity is critical to defeating it, why can't we acknowledge it honestly? "Raving on about jihad" is a line that meets what the law used to regard as the reasonable-man test: If you're watching news footage of a Muslim march promising to bring on the new Holocaust, John Howard's line fits.

Is it something in the water down there? Listen to Howard's Cabinet colleagues. Here's the Australian treasurer, Peter Costello, with advice for Western Muslims who want to live under Islamic law: "There are countries that apply religious or sharia law -- Saudi Arabia and Iran come to mind. If a person wants to live under sharia law these are countries where they might feel at ease. But not Australia."

You don't say. Which is the point: Most Western government leaders don't say, and their silence is correctly read by a resurgent Islam as timidity. I also appreciated this pithy summation by my favorite foreigner minister, Alexander Downer: "Multilateralism is a synonym for an ineffective and unfocused policy involving internationalism of the lowest common denominator." See Sudanese slaughter, Iranian nukes, the U.N.'s flop response to the tsunami, etc. It's a good thing being an Aussie Cabinet minister doesn't require confirmation by John Kerry and Joe Biden.

My worry is that the official platitudes in this new war are the equivalent of the Cold War chit-chat in its 1970s detente phase --when Willy Brandt and Pierre Trudeau and Jimmy Carter pretended the enemy was not what it was. Then came Ronald Reagan: It wasn't just the evil-empire stuff, his jokes were on the money, too. In their own depraved way, the Islamists are a lot goofier than the commies and a few gags wouldn't come amiss. If this is a "long war," it needs a rhetoric that can go the distance. And the present line fails that test.

Tom DeLay Resigns

Today's Washington Post has the story:

The decision came three days after Tony C. Rudy, his former deputy chief of staff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities, but by placing the influence-buying efforts of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff directly in DeLay's operation, the former aide may have made an already difficult reelection bid all but out of reach.

The Immigration Crisis

I haven't blogged on this, because I really can see both sides of the dilemma. The issue of immigration has been a perennial source of conflict in American history. Probably whatever compromise is worked out by Congress will need to be revisited in a few years. Both Democrats and Republicans are divided, for good reasons.

There are no easy answers to the immigration problem, only tradeoffs.

Gators 73, Bruins 57

The better team won...