Roundup: Media's Take

Slavoj Zizek: 20 Years of Collapse

[Slavoj Zizek, the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities in London, is the author, most recently, of “First as Tragedy, Then as Farce.”] TODAY is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During this time of reflection, it is common to emphasize the miraculous nature of the events that began that day: a dream seemed to come true, the Communist regimes collapsed like a house of cards, and the world suddenly changed in ways that had been inconc

Frances Kissling: When Congress sells out women

[For over the thirty five years, Frances Kissling has been the leading international voice on women, religion and reproduction. She is currently working on a book on ethical dilemmas and abortion as a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. A prolific writer and lecturer, Kissling is the co-author of Rosie: The Investigation of a Wrongful Death (The Dial Press, 1978).] It was just a week ago that I sat in Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s office, alo

Michael Lind: The fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11 and the collapse of Lehman Brothers: Each ushered in a new American era

[Michael Lind is the editor of New American Contract at the New America Foundation.] Three calendar dates. Three anniversaries. Three eras in the history of the United States and the world... ... 11/9. 9/11. 9/15. These three dates divide three eras in recent history: the Age of Euphoria, the Age of Paranoia, and the Age of Disillusionment. The Age of Euphoria lasted from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the fall of the twin towers. In Washington, the fall of

Andrew Leonard: Why can't Obama be more like Roosevelt?

[Andrew Leonard has been working at Salon as a technology reporter, editor and blogger for 12 years.] In the wake of 10.2 percent unemployment, the usual suspects are calling for more stimulus and even dreaming of a new Works Progress Administration. The subtext: Why can't Obama be more like Roosevelt? People are out of work, so instead of subsidizing car purchases or home ownership, why not just hire them to build the kinds of parks and schools and bridges that made Roosevelt's W

Bret Stephens: In Defense of Hamid Karzai

[Mr. Stephens writes the Journal's "Global View" column on foreign affairs.] In the matter of Hamid Karzai (this would be the feckless, warlord-backed, corruption-tainted and dubiously re-elected president of Afghanistan), it's wonderful to observe how he has single-handedly created a new designation in the American ideological lexicon: the neo-neocon. Who are the neo-neocons? They're a bipartisan, single-issue group that has recently discovered the virtues—na

Andrew Cline: Twenty Years Ago, America Stood for Freedom

[Andrew Cline is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader.] Among the many thousands who attempted to escape the prison known as East Berlin was a man named Wolfgang Engels, who in 1963 stole a tank and drove it into the wall. Engels' assault on the imposing barrier splitting his city came just two years after the Soviets and their East German allies built it. Among the soldiers who erected the barbed wire fencing was Wolfgang Engels. It didn't take long

Toby Harnden: Not enough about him? Barack Obama skips Berlin Wall ceremonies

[Toby Harnden is the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC.] There was one world leader absent for today’s commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Surprisingly enough, it’s President Barack Obama, who found time last year to give a campaign speech there last year, which Der Spiegel summed up as “People of the World, Look at Me”. The White House has cited a packed schedule, though looking at it he had nothing much on yest

Anne Elizabeth Moore: Commercializing the Fall of the Wall

Modern-day American border guard Shawn Carter works for the Chicago Transit Authority. His first morning of work at the Western Brown Line El station, a few days before the November 9 anniversary of the so-called Western defeat of Communism, he was shocked to find a massive intact section of the Berlin Wall five yards from his post. "I'd never seen it before!" he said, excited. The descriptive literature closest to his seat detailed shootings and escape attempts and Ronald

William Fisher: Is a Redo of Post-9/11 Paranoia the Best We Can Do?

[William Fisher has managed economic development programs in the Middle East and in many other parts of the world for the US State Department and USAID for the past thirty years. He began his work life as a journalist for newspapers and for the Associated Press in Florida. Fisher also served in the international affairs area during the Kennedy administration. Go to The World According to Bill Fisher for more.] The USA Patriot Act, rushed into law by a panicky US Congress in the afte

Nile Gardiner: Berlin: Four Key Reasons why the President stayed away

[Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. He appears frequently on American and British television and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR.] Barack Obama was quick off the mark last year in heading for Berlin during his election campaign, when he was cheered by a crowd of 200,000 adoring Germans. Yet as president of the United States he has decided to stay away from Berlin as the city commemorates the 20th anni

NY Post Editorial: Obama's Berlin Wall blunder

World leaders past and present will be in Berlin today for the 20th an niversary of the fall of communist repression's most visible symbol: the 112-mile concrete wall that split the city for more than a quarter-century. Conspicuously absent: the president of the United States, Barack Obama. Obama's folks say he's too busy to accept German President Angela Merkel's invitation to attend today's festivities It's pathetic that Obama won't be there -- and telli

Michael Crowley: The Reinvention of Robert Gates

[Michael Crowley is Senior Editor for TNR] One afternoon in October, a blue and white jumbo jet flew high above the Pacific Ocean, approaching the international dateline. On board was the secretary of defense, Robert Gates, who was on an around-the-world trip that would end with a summit of NATO defense ministers, where the topic of the day would be Afghanistan. Gates was flying on what is often called “the Doomsday Plane,” a specially outfitted 747 that looks like a bulkier Air For

Joshua A. Tucker: How the EU has inadvertently become the best democracy promotion organization the world has ever known

[Joshua A. Tucker is Associate Professor of Politics at New York University, a National Security Fellow at the Truman National Security Project, and a co-author of the political science and policy blog The Monkey Cage.]Monday marks the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is worth pausing to recall just how momentous, and unanticipated, this event and those that followed were. My students today have no memory of the cold war; to them, Prague and Budapest, j

Paul Krugman: Paranoia Strikes Deep (on the GOP and the 'irrational right')

Last Thursday there was a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to protest pending health care legislation, featuring the kinds of things we’ve grown accustomed to, including large signs showing piles of bodies at Dachau with the caption “National Socialist Healthcare.” It was grotesque — and it was also ominous. For what we may be seeing is America starting to be Californiafied. The key thing to understand about that rally is that it wasn’t a fringe event. It was sponsored by the House Re

Ross Douthat: Life After the End of History

[Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. Previously, he was a senior editor at the Atlantic and a blogger for theatlantic.com. He is the author of "Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class" (Hyperion, 2005) and the co-author, with Reihan Salam, of "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream" (Doubleday, 2008).] For most of the last century, the West faced real enemies:

Brett H. McGurk: A surge to sovereignty in Afghanistan

[Brett H. McGurk, who served on the National Security Council staffs of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, is a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.] THE AIM in any successful counterinsurgency is to support and strengthen a sovereign and friendly government. The inherent paradox is that use of US military power, or even US diplomatic leverage, to achieve that aim undercuts the perceived legitimacy and sovereignty of the government it seeks to support. Enemies e

Marty Peretz: What Obama Doesn't Get About Tyrants

[Marty Peretz is the editor-in-chief of The New Republic.] It is just about 30 years since the wall around Iran went up. And it is a few days away from fully 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down. The Berliner Mauer had been up for more than a quarter century, and its surface facing east, grim gray, was a metaphor for life in the German Democratic Republic. On its western face graffiti evoked the freer spirit of the half-city whose heart had nonetheless been broken

Mary Anastasia O'Grady: Chavez's Next Target: El Salvador

[Mary Anastasia O'Grady is a member of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and editor of the "Americas," a weekly column that appears every Monday in the Journal and deals with politics, economics and business in Latin America and Canada.] Fidel Castro learned a lot from Chilean President Salvador Allende's failed power grab in 1973. And he used the lessons of that bitter defeat to coach Venezuela's Hugo Chávez to dictatorship under the guise of democracy more than 25

Toby Harnden: Bloodless President Barack Obama makes Americans wistful for George W Bush

[Based in Washington DC, Toby has spent more than six years covering US politics, reporting from all 50 states. He was shortlisted for the 2008 UK Press Gazette’s Digital Journalist of the Year Award. During the election campaign, Barack Obama's cool detachment was a winning quality, the "No Drama Obama" a welcome contrast with the "Mr Angry" John McCain, never mind the hot-headed "I'm the decider" President George W Bush. A year into his p

Ari Fleischer: President Bush put a curse on my New York Yankees

[Ari Fleischer was the press secretary to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003.] IT is hard to find a bigger admirer of President George W. Bush than me. I support his policies; I believe in him; he’s a really good guy to be around; and he throws a mean fastball. As his press secretary, I stood by him through thick and thin. But recent events require me to speak out about my former boss: For eight long years, President Bush put a curse on my New York Yankees. It’s