Opinion: In today’s pages: Sons of Iraq, Joe Biden and gay Republicans
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Coming back from a recent visit to Iraq, scholars Shawn Brimley and Colin Kahl warn that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is endangering the recent progress made by cracking down on the U.S.-financed Sunni forces called the Sons of Iraq:
During our trip, a common theme among U.S. military commanders, intelligence officers, diplomats and Iraqi political leaders we spoke with was the growing hubris of Maliki and his closest advisors. Recent government successes in Basra, Sadr City and Mosul seem to have convinced Maliki’s inner circle that Iraq’s army does not need American help as much as it used to. A newly emboldened prime minister is now moving out aggressively against his adversaries, including the Sons of Iraq.
Columnist Jonah Goldberg takes a break from his weekly critiques of Barack Obama’s fitness for the presidency, opining instead on how the choice of Joe Biden reveals the emptiness of Obama’s ‘new politics.’ And James Kirchick, an assistant editor of the New Republic, laments how Jonathan Crutchley, the openly gay founder of a dating site for gay men, was hounded by his customers for having donated to John McCain’s campaign.
Over on the left-hand page, the editorial board implored the Hollywood studios to resume negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild, and it called on state lawmakers to pass a bill clarifying workers’ rights under state law to bring gender-discrimination claims against their employers. Finally, it reflected on the return China earned from its $41 billion investment in the Olympics. For starters, there was a bounty of gold medals.
Yet what planners in Beijing miscalculated is that no matter how well you teach performers to smile, the strain behind the lips is still detectable. The near-hysterical drive by Chinese leaders to put on the biggest, most spectacular sporting event ever, and to engineer a generation of Chinese medalists regardless of the financial or human costs, is rather more disconcerting to the outside world than convincing.
Anxious cartoon by Scott Stantis, USA Today.