Word: views
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...Elephant and Dragon I read with interest your essay on Sino-Indian tensions [Aug. 31]. It is clear that a major conflict between India and communist China would pose a very serious global threat. Yet I share the view that the long-term survival of India as a multicultural nation is more securely assured than that of communist China. Like all totalitarian states, China has decided to ensure the power of the central state by subduing all local cultures and languages. A vast country like India, with ancient traditions, many languages and several religions, has to tread a narrow path...
...election, there has been no grand new mission, no ambitious vision of remaking Germany - or Europe, or the world - on view. As the continent's largest economy, Germany could have taken a lead to ensure that the European Union came together to weather the worst economic downturn in 70 years; it did not. Germany, to be sure, has contributed 4,000 troops to the NATO mission in Afghanistan. And yet there is deepening unease in Germany about the nation's involvement in the war there. That is partly because German troops are killing and being killed in greater numbers...
...history to visitors in meaningless lumps, like the wall peckers hawking pieces of the Wall. Yet just as you despair that Germany will ever escape its conflicted sense of the past, the Wall trail crosses the River Spree, and symbols of the nation's astounding resilience come into view. The Reichstag, opened in 1894 when Germany was a young nation-state, and later burned as the Nazis took power, is now the home to a thriving democracy. The Chancellery is currently occupied by Angela Merkel, the first woman and first Ossi to become Chancellor. Barring any great upsets she will...
...reinstatement of the deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court. More troubling for Washington is that Zardari's approval ratings have plummeted over the past year, to just 32%, according to the most charitable poll, matching President Pervez Musharraf's levels in his final months. "The general view is that the government is not batting for the country," says Aasiya Riaz, a political analyst. As his own aides admit, Zardari suffers an "image problem" because of the stains of old corruption allegations - which he denies. By contrast, the army's much damaged public image under Musharraf has improved since...
...such circumstances, the army is scarcely likely to cede what it has traditionally seen as its prerogatives, namely, directing foreign and defense policy. Already moves by Zardari to draw closer to Kabul and New Delhi have encountered resistance. For the Pakistan Army, India remains the principal enemy. That view is likely to remain unshaken as long as it perceives threats from the eastern border and Indian influence in Afghanistan...