NEW DELHI ― The ongoing disruption of the “monsoon session” of the Indian parliament has showcased both the resilience of India’s democracy and the irresponsibility with which its custodians treat it.Demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the allegedly improper allocation of coal-mining blocks to private companies, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has stalled parliament’s work for three of the session’s four weeks. The repeated paralysis of parliament by slogan-shou

Viewpoints Sept. 17, 2012

PARIS ― With every passing week, the Syrian conflict increasingly resembles the Spanish Civil War. The images of warplanes bombing civilians and destroying cities have turned Aleppo into a latter-day version of Guernica, immortalized in Picasso’s masterpiece. But the real similarities between the two conflicts are to be found in the behavior of the international community’s main actors, which have again taken opposite sides. On one side stand Russia and Iran, cynically determined to buttress Pre

Viewpoints Sept. 16, 2012

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s autobiography “Living to Tell the Tale” (2002) begins with an anecdote from his youth. One day his mother asks him to assist her on a journey back to the world of his grandparents, Aracataca, the place where Garcia Marquez grew up. The grandparents have passed away, and their house is about to be sold. The house, however, turns out to be worthless, too old and damaged.In fact, the whole town has turned into a withering memory of bygone days, a place living in the past ra

Viewpoints Sept. 16, 2012

The question at the core of America’s upcoming presidential election isn’t merely whose story most voting Americans believe to be true ― Mitt Romney’s claim that the economy is in a stall and Obama’s policies haven’t worked, or Barack Obama’s claim that it’s slowly mending and his approach is working.If that were all there was to it, last Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the economy added only 96,000 jobs in August ― below what’s needed merely to keep up with the growt

Viewpoints Sept. 14, 2012

WASHINGTON ― As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his almost daily demands that the U.S. announce its “red line” for going to war with Iran, the question puzzling the White House is what the Israeli leader wants beyond what President Obama has already stated. Obama believes he has drawn the U.S. red line as clearly as a superpower ever should, given that some ambiguity is useful in deterring an adversary. For the record, Obama said in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic

Viewpoints Sept. 13, 2012

PRINCETON ― In contrasting decisions last month, a United States Court of Appeals struck down a U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirement that cigarettes be sold in packs with graphic health warnings, while Australia’s highest court upheld a law that goes much further. The Australian law requires not only health warnings and images of the physical damage that smoking causes, but also that the packs themselves be plain, with brand names in small generic type, no logos, and no color other than

Viewpoints Sept. 12, 2012

NEW DELHI ― America’s strategy in Asia for more than a century has sought a stable balance of power to prevent the rise of any hegemon. Yet the United States, according to its official National Security Strategy, is also committed to accommodating “the emergence of a China that is peaceful and prosperous and that cooperates with us to address common challenges and mutual interests.” So America’s Asia policy has in some ways been at war with itself.In fact, the U.S. has played a key role in China

Viewpoints Sept. 12, 2012

In an effort to appeal to popular public feelings, politicians in South Korea often make asinine proposals. The latest such proposal is the bill submitted to the National Assembly last week providing for court ordered physical castration of convicted sex offenders. Initially this proposal appears to be a focused solution to a previously insolvable problem ― that of recidivism among sex offenders ― however the proposed law not only violates a number of South Korea’s international commitments to h

Viewpoints Sept. 11, 2012

“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” says Neil Newhouse, a Romney pollster.A half-dozen fact-checking organizations and websites have refuted Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s claims that President Obama removed the work requirement from the welfare law and will cut Medicare benefits by $716 billion. The New York Times even reported that Romney has been “falsely charging” President Obama with removing the work requirement.USA Today calls the Romney campaign’s claim that

Viewpoints Sept. 10, 2012

NEWPORT BEACH ― What if members of the United States Congress, now returning from their summer recess, were to receive a “back to school” letter from concerned citizens? Here is what a first draft might look like.Dear Member of Congress:Welcome back to the Capitol. We hope that you had a good summer break, and that you return to Washington not just rested, but also energized to take on our country’s mounting economic challenges.The news has been mixed during your absence. We have seen some impro

Viewpoints Sept. 10, 2012