Uzbekistan could be the next ground zero for cultural vandalism
Shock waves reverberated around the world last week after fanatics in Syria destroyed ancient ruins at Palmyra and murdered the city’s longtime director of antiquities. Just a few days later, 2,000 miles away in Uzbekistan, world culture came under a different kind of attack. The Uzbek government is taking aim at one of the country’s […]
Blame pepper for imperialism, bananas for misery
History would be very different had Western Europe not developed a taste for spices and exotic fruit. STRONG COUNTRIES ATTACK weaker ones mainly because they want more of whatever is good to have. Over centuries, that has ranged from women to gold to oil — to food. Culinary appetites have played an important role in shaping […]
When US intervention turns from bad to worse
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER a bad regime falls? In the American mindset, which tends toward mindless optimism, bad is logically replaced by good. Reality is different. Deposing oppressive regimes sometimes leads to greater oppression. This is an especially painful lesson for well-meaning Americans who believe they can liberate populations by crashing into or tearing apart foreign countries. […]
We’ll always be the foreigners
EVEN THOUGH THE United States has plenty of good ideas about how to run countries, many countries don’t adopt them. This frustrates Americans. We have learned a difficult truth that makes modern wars so difficult to win: Many people don’t like to side with foreigners, no matter how good their ideas may be. The main reason […]
Iran’s Favorite Midwesterner
How the long-forgotten story of a minister’s son from Nebraska could remind Tehran and Washington of a common heritage. A few weeks ago I led two dozen Americans on a pilgrimage to the Iranian city of Tabriz, where we visited the grave of the only American who gave his life for the cause of democracy […]
