America is an empire that is fading

More relevant than how the U.S. got into this mess,of course,is the question of what’s next? Can it recover? Or is it doomed to continue its slide? Courchene is gloomy in his analysis,but more optimistic in his forecast _ though he stresses a happy outcome will require big changes. …

The U.S. could also learn from Canadians,who get far better value for their social spending,as it turns to the task of integrating its growing ranks of marginalized workers into the knowledge-intensive economy that,at the moment,provides opportunity only for the elite.

Overall,”My view on what stands in the way of America attempting to regain its global role accords with Nicolai Ourousoff’s observation that ‘America is an empire enthralled with its own power and unaware that it is fading.’ But I am optimistic that this blinkered view of reality is about to be replaced by a determination to restore America to its former leadership.’’ Online: http://www.vancouversun.com ___ May 3 Al-Ahram Weekly,Cairo,on the Arab system: Years ago,the poet Nezar Qabbani said: Is it not time to announce the death of the Arabs? If he were to be alive today,he would perhaps say: Is it not time to announce the death of the official Arab order? The Arabs themselves are no longer dying. They are very much alive and demanding an end to the corruption and the repression they have been suffering for years.

Even the Arab League knows that the sand is shifting. It has issued a statement saying that a new era has begun,and that the Arab nations deserve to have freedom and reform. Any attempt by regimes to resist the popular movement for freedom and change would be a dangerous gamble,a statement by the Arab League said.

The Arab system is dying,and not even the mere ousting of rulers can revive it. …

In Egypt and Tunisia,change has taken place. In Syria and Algeria,the abrogation of the state of emergency fell short of popular demands. In Bahrain,rulers needed help from abroad. And in Yemen,Ali Saleh needed the Gulf Cooperation Council to negotiate his safe exit. In Libya,the regime has declared war on the people. …

The time of corruption and repression is over. Even rulers can see that. Still,they are trying to reverse the movement of history by throwing crumbs of freedom to their people and hoping that the whole thing will blow over. It won’t. …

The Arab system is beyond saving. That is why the Arab League must change as well. Instead of being a club for autocratic rulers,it should become a mouthpiece for Arab people. It should defend the rights and aspirations of the men and women living in this region.

Here is an idea. Why not turn the Arab League into a non-governmental organization,a watchdog for democracy and change across the region? It is time for corrupt regimes to pack up and leave while they can. …

Online: http://www.weekly.ahram.org.eg ___ May 7 The Asahi Shimbun,Tokyo,on proactive nuclear power-plant safety: Prime Minister Naoto Kan has urged Chubu Electric Power Co. to shut down its Hamaoka nuclear power plant,which is located above the assumed epicentral area of the massive Tokai earthquake expected in the near future.

Kan has called on the power company to halt operations of the Nos. 4 and 5 reactors at the plant and refrain from restarting the No. 3 reactor,which is undergoing a regular safety check.

Now that the Great East Japan Earthquake has triggered an unexpected disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant,it is hard to give the international community a convincing explanation for keeping the Hamaoka plant running. …

What should be noted here is that the Fukushima nuclear crisis has shattered the myth of the safety of nuclear power generation. Safety assurances have been replaced by perceptions that the worst nuclear accident in the world could occur in Japan. …

There are high-risk nuclear power plants other than the Hamaoka station,although the levels of risk are different. Some aged facilities are directly above active faults,and others have been hit by many powerful earthquakes. It is crucial to identify high-risk plants by analyzing their locations and past records.

It is certainly difficult to immediately shut down all nuclear power plants. But the suspension of the Hamaoka plant should be a first step toward a new willingness to close down nuclear power plants when there are enough safety concerns.

Online: http://www.asahi.com ___ May 9 The Telegraph,London,on U.S. terrorism focus: One year ago,the Greek economy was bailed out to the tune of 111 billion euros. Now the country is back for more. Jean-Claude Juncker,the chairman of the Eurozone finance ministers,said that ”Greece needs a further adjustment program.’’ What he actually meant was that Greece has not taken the hard decisions necessary to convince the markets that it is serious about restoring the integrity of its public finances. Standard and Poor’s,the credit rating agency,cut the country’s bond grade to junk status.

Any bailout looks certain to require a contribution from the United Kingdom,even though we are not part of the Eurozone. It will not be the first time we have suffered such unfair treatment,thanks to the last government’s decision to sign the U.K. up to the bail-out mechanism. We have already contributed 7 billion euros to Ireland’s rescue and are liable for up to 6 billion euros to shore up Portugal. This exceeds the total savings so far made in our own deficit-cutting program.

There are now fears that the contagion may spread to Spain,the Eurozone’s fourth largest economy. Were that to happen,it is hard to see the euro surviving in its present form. Indeed,there were rumors _ robustly denied _ that Greece was considering withdrawal from the single currency to allow it to devalue its way out of trouble. That this was even mooted is significant; it reveals just how nervous the markets are. In reality,it is Germany that will decide Greece’s fate. Germany announced the best export performance in its history,yet it continues to see its exemplary economic discipline being taken advantage of by an indigent Greece. At what point will the German taxpayer decide enough is enough? Online: http://www.telegraph.co.uk ___ May 6 The Denver Post on the bin Laden photos: There was little to gain and a lot to lose had the Obama administration decided to release photographs of the bullet-scarred body of Osama bin Laden.

We think the president made the right call in withholding them.

In this age of the Internet and WikiLeaks,there are no assurances that the photos will stay under wraps forever. However,a public release of the photos would be out of step with the objective of the mission the U.S. carried out in hunting down the man so closely connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

This was about justice,not revenge. It was about finishing the job,not raising the stakes.

As the president said,such action would be tantamount to an end-zone celebration _ spiking the football,as he put it _ and it would be untoward.

It’s not just the nature of the photos,which are said to be gruesome. Some have argued that release of the photos would quell conspiracy theorists who might otherwise believe bin Laden had been killed long ago,or remains alive.

Let’s face it,skeptics are never going to be satisfied,photos or not. They’d just claim the photos were doctored,as is all too easy to do in the digital age.

Just think of the Obama birth certificate hullabaloo. Though we believe the president was right to release the long-form document _ and what was the harm? _ it did little to appease the hard-core birthers. …

Bin Laden’s elimination will make the world a safer place. And that is not something that has to be documented with photos.

Online: http://www.denverpost.com ___ May 10 The New York Daily News on Mideast politics: Often,the politics of the Mideast are so complicated they make your hair hurt. Not so with the new unity pact between Fatah,which rules the West Bank,and Hamas,which rules Gaza.

It is simple; it is clarifying.

Hamas is a Palestinian terrorist organization that deliberately attacks Israeli civilians. U.S. law explicitly says such a group must be isolated.

So 27 senators have asked President Barack Obama to halt U.S. aid to the Palestinians unless the government now forming renounces violence.

For decades,the nations overseeing peace negotiations have insisted that the Palestinians must meet basic conditions: chiefly,recognizing Israel’s right to exist and forswearing the long struggle to wipe out the Jewish state.

Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Didn’t before the unity agreement,doesn’t now. And it will not promise to stop attacking civilians.

Wouldn’t before,won’t now. …

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas,leader of the more moderate Fatah,has insisted,”I hear rumors that Hamas will be in the West Bank,or that it will share authority here. This will not happen. The new government will comply with my policies,and I am against terror and violence.’’ How can a leader say this in one breath,then affirmatively join with a murderous,anti-Israel organization that praised Osama bin Laden as ”an Arab holy warrior’’ and asked ”God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs’’? This is the definition of two-faced. And there is no reason to believe Abbas has the power to deliver on his anti-terror edict. Not with Hamas in complete control in Gaza and launching rockets into Israel as it sees fit.

What’s clear is that,with Hamas in the picture,Israel’s hopes of finding a reliable peace partner are dimmer than they’ve been for a long time.

Online: http://www.nydailynews.com ___ May 11 The Boston Globe on Canada’s Liberal Party: The vote totals suggest that Michael Ignatieff is a better writer than he is a politician. Under the leadership of the former Kennedy School scholar,Canada’s Liberal Party suffered the worst electoral defeat in its long history. Still,Ignatieff deserves a measure of praise for doing something few commentators on public affairs ever do: subject his ideas to scrutiny in legislative chambers and at the ballot box.

As a commentator on the Balkan Wars of the 1990s,Ignatieff emerged as a leading voice on human rights _ and for the use of outside military intervention to protect vulnerable people from coming to harm. Those deeply felt commitments helped explain his continued support for Canadian participation in NATO efforts against the Taliban. There were many other issues at play in the recent election,but his position on Afghanistan pushed some war-weary voters toward the more left-leaning New Democratic Party. Its surge helped doom Canada’s once-dominant Liberals to a humiliating third-place finish.

Yet despite Ignatieff’s defeat,more public intellectuals should do what he did. Just as the political debate would benefit from more thinkers,writers would benefit from having to solicit support for their own ideas and put them into practice.

Online: http://www.boston.com