...be a shame to give up what has already been achieved. And the soldiers in the field deserve support, their losses should not have been in vain. Immediately after the death of the sergeant major last week, the commander of the Dutch forces, Peter van Uhm (who himself lost a son in Afghanistan) made a for the Netherlands unusual direct appeal to the public: “I once again express the hope that the population of the Netherlands will remain standing as one block behind our soldiers and their home front, and will support them in their difficult work.” This startling appeal to the patriotism of a nation that normally is averse to expressions of patriotism offered a glimpse of the tormented state of mind among those responsible for Afghanistan policy. Uhm’s appeal reflects the official story: the Dutch do not wage war, but accomplish work, difficult work to be sure. The soldiers repeat this message to the reporters embedded with them, and so it gets multiplied in the Dutch media. In one place a school has been built or patched up, in another the road has been lined with streetlights. The Dutch mission is supposed to be one of reconstruction, a...

...of Ministry of Finance officials through a myriad of largely unaccountable administrative entities. Among many other functions, it is crucial in sustaining the Japanese Government Bond system – which should not be called a market because it is deliberately insulated from market forces. The national financing function of the postal savings system dates from the later war years when, along with the supposedly commercial banks, it helped ensure an unimpeded flow of funds to the munitions industry. That arrangement formed the basis of an intricate system of financing that served postwar Japan’s legendary rapid reconstruction. Once that was accomplished, the huge amounts that were allocated through the “second budget” found new purposes under the control of Japan’s postwar political genius Kakuei Tanaka – the most influential politician of two generations, who was most powerful when working behind the scenes. Tanaka ran an “army” of parliamentarians and political operatives that excelled in guaranteeing electoral success through public spending on infrastructure. In its post-Tanaka development this tradition has bestowed upon Japan numerous unnecessary tunnels, bridges and three-lane highways leading to nowhere or into unmovable mountain-sides. These porkbarrel benefits are still significant for many campaigning politicians, especially LDP candidates. Hence the “background story”...

...emergency powers, to uncover and destroy any network of the guilty, primarily to prevent a recurrence, would be a rational and responsible strategy. A war, on the other hand, requires an enemy that can roll over, declare it is ready to surrender and sign a peace treaty. Victory over “terrorism” is not possible in the absence of such an enemy, and the alternative: extermination of always changing and always new groups using violence to attain their ends can never be achieved. A political program that nevertheless attempts this can only destroy the remaining reasons for believing in what the United States has long stood for. If no more terrorist attacks occur, something to be fervently hoped for the sake of all our future, the American public will probably wake up to the fact that their country is not at war. All those who still applaud new steps in the “war strategy” will have to come to terms with the fact that, while the regimes of Iraq and North Korea are truly evil, any comparison to the threat of the axis powers who menaced the civilized world during World War II is the product of minds that have lost themselves in...

...meet some of the roughly 400 people who had come from literally all corners of the world and who – certainly the ones I met – clearly had their hearts in the right place. I do not want to detract from their seriousness and hard work as they try to help alleviate dire conditions of poverty, ecological crisis, and other fairly concrete ills of the world in connection to which human action might make a difference. But would their causes not be better served if at least some of this energy was channelled into efforts to revive countervailing power against the forces that cause the problems of their concern to begin with? One of the biggest central notions of the forum is ‘sustainable development’. When listening to the earnest accounts presented at one of the preliminary sessions I suddenly felt a compulsion to comment on it all as an outsider, thinking myself to be eminently qualified by the fact that the term sustainable development had, until then, giving me the jitters. Practically all attention has gone to sustainable methods, while the very things to be developed tend to get a cursory glance and appear to be mostly taken for granted....

...inaction concerning these new enemies is compared to the inaction that preceded the expansion of the Nazi empire; and how a reigning school of International Relations studies encourages the notion of permanent vigilance being required to add weight on “our” side in a grand balancing act with potential enemies on the other side. The focus of these theorists of a supposed threat to the West is not on the actual threats, like the insufficiently controlled nuclear arsenals in former USSR states that might actually fall into the hands of the very wrong people, but simply on defeating enemies, period. Does that sound overwrought? Read the report written by venerable retired NATO generals, prepared for a “whither Nato?” conference. They essentially reject the very concept of international law. And what they write reflects rather well the apparent state of mind of top officials who served in the outgoing administration. The post-Cold-War situation is characterized by uncertainties they do not know how to deal with, and what better response is there than restoring Cold War like certainties? One outgrowth of the taken for granted US vs THEM mindset has gained considerable respectability and is insidious enough to have elicited a strong warning...

...unofficial two-speed Europe used to work relatively well because of informal but intensive deliberations between German and French officials prior to whatever important moves were on the agenda. That crucial institution resting on a generation of diplomats appears to have disappeared, with its specialists either dismissed, retired, or out in the cold. Instead, Sarkozy gives the impression through his nonchalance and media leaks to be disdainful of Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Having emerged from the political world of Eastern Germany, she is not the product of an environment in which most things could be taken for granted. She is sensitive to the idea that the European Union needs to develop a recognizable political stance in the world, especially vis-à-vis Russia. But she apparently does not dare to adopt the leadership role that current circumstances, combined with Germany’s weight and credibility in the European Union, would seem to be an obvious choice. In this week’s Der Spiegel is an article, Bundeskanzlerin Königing des Ungewollten, which almost scathingly critical about her wait-and-see approach that makes her the unintentional plaything of others. As for the third major European government leader, Gordon Brown, since the technical role he performed last autumn in connection with...