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<title><![CDATA[washingtonpost.com - Anne Applebaum Archive]]></title>
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<title><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum on the U.S. as a superpower without a partner]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/23/AR2009112302899.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/23/AR2009112302899.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Like comets hurtling at one another from opposite points in outer space, two different phenomena in different parts of the world soared into public awareness last week. Separately, they might not have had cosmic importance. Put together, however, they could prove an interesting harbinger of things to come. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Anne]]></category><category><![CDATA[Applebaum]]></category><category><![CDATA[on]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category><category><![CDATA[as]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[superpower]]></category><category><![CDATA[without]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[partner]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum on the political response to swine flu]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111602631.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat, and mentioned this to a friend. "Swine flu?" he asked, oinking a few times for emphasis. No, as far as I can tell I do not have swine flu, the virus more formally known as H1N1. But even if I did, I'm not sure that anyone around me would take it very seriously. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Anne]]></category><category><![CDATA[Applebaum]]></category><category><![CDATA[on]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[political]]></category><category><![CDATA[response]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[swine]]></category><category><![CDATA[flu]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum on after the Berlin Wall fell]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/08/AR2009110817809.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ BERLIN -- For some time now, I've been trying to put my finger on what has been bothering me about the exhaustive and perfectly blameless celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is nothing wrong with holding dozens of conferences, after all, and I'm all in favor of the many new books. In Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed a joint meeting of Congress. In Los Angeles, a fabulously kitschy "Wall" was constructed and then knocked down by "invited dignitaries" (although, in deference to the habits of the natives, the timing of that event had to be changed from afternoon to midnight, so as not to disrupt L.A. traffic). ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Anne]]></category><category><![CDATA[Applebaum]]></category><category><![CDATA[on]]></category><category><![CDATA[after]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wall]]></category><category><![CDATA[fell]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Merkel's quiet ascension in Germany could envelope Europe]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110202449.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Did you know that there were elections in Germany a month ago? Were you aware that the German Socialists were soundly defeated? Had you realized that there was now a new government in Germany? No? Then give credit -- both for the victory and the fact that you haven't heard about it -- to Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115328596" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115328596" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Merkel's]]></category><category><![CDATA[quiet]]></category><category><![CDATA[ascension]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[could]]></category><category><![CDATA[envelope]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Where's the alliance in Afghanistan?]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/19/AR2009101902510.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ "This is a solemn moment for this House and our country," Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, said while addressing the House of Commons last week. A hush fell over the room and, according to a parliamentary sketch writer, the members "ceased to fidget, a truly rare thing in the Commons." Brown then began to read a list of names: the 37 British soldiers who died in Afghanistan over the summer. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Where's]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[alliance]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan?]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Scandals Don't Dampen Berlusconi's Appeal in Italy]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/12/AR2009101202390.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of bribery, tax evasion, corruption and subversion of the press. His wife has left him on the grounds that he consorts with prostitutes and holds orgies at his villa in Sardinia. He makes embarrassing jokes (and then repeats them, as he did with the one about President Obama's "suntan") and periodically disappears to undergo more plastic surgery. He is at war with the Italian legal establishment, with almost all of the journalists who don't work for him, and with the Catholic Church. Last week the Italian constitutional court lifted his immunity from prosecution, which means Italians can look forward to a whole new series of lawsuits and scandals. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Scandals]]></category><category><![CDATA[Don't]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dampen]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlusconi's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Appeal]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[Italy]]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/10/12/PH2009101202757.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[Europe's Chance to Be Heard]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/05/AR2009100502785.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ "I'm here because I have a vote and, basically, I've been told what to do with it," one Irishman told a London reporter. "Thank God they will all shut up now," a Dublin pensioner told a German newspaper. Both had just voted yes in this past weekend's Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, whose passage removes one of the last remaining obstacles to ratification of a document that will, among other things, create a president and a foreign minister of Europe. Both had voted no during the first referendum last year, when the treaty failed to pass. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Europe's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chance]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Be]]></category><category><![CDATA[Heard]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[A Human Rights Campaign That Battles Iran From Within]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/28/AR2009092802483.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ It's an odd thing, but sometimes I could swear that there are two Irans. On the one hand, there is the Iran of the nuclear issue, the Iran analyzed by security experts, the Iran covered by the White House press corps. This is the Iran that made the news last week when President Obama revealed the existence of yet another hidden Iranian nuclear reactor, the Iran that will be judged by the U.N. Security Council this Thursday.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115333885" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115333885" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Human]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rights]]></category><category><![CDATA[Campaign]]></category><category><![CDATA[That]]></category><category><![CDATA[Battles]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category><category><![CDATA[From]]></category><category><![CDATA[Within]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Will Obama Harness His Potential in Europe?]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092103112.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Let's be brutally frank: The 60th anniversary of the NATO alliance, celebrated in April, was a bore. The American president was visibly uninterested. His European counterparts, though more accustomed to "celebrations" consisting of somnolent speeches delivered in multilingual bureaucratese, were no more enthusiastic. The affair closed with a limp American request for more troops in Afghanistan that had almost no echo. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Will]]></category><category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Harness]]></category><category><![CDATA[His]]></category><category><![CDATA[Potential]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe?]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Chipping Away at Free Speech]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/14/AR2009091402705.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/14/AR2009091402705.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Item One: When it comes out in print soon, look carefully through Yale University Press's book "The Cartoons That Shook the World." The book is a scholarly account of the controversy that surrounded a Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. The author Jytte Klausen argues, among other things, that the controversy was manipulated by Danish imams who showed their followers false, sexually offensive depictions of Muhammad alongside the real images, which she says were not inherently offensive. She consulted with several Muslim scholars, who agreed. Nevertheless, you will not find the cartoons in the finished manuscript. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Chipping]]></category><category><![CDATA[Away]]></category><category><![CDATA[at]]></category><category><![CDATA[Free]]></category><category><![CDATA[Speech]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Campaigning for Afghanistan]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/07/AR2009090702071.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/07/AR2009090702071.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Perhaps this summer's record bloodshed did it, or perhaps it was the disappointment of the election, with its low turnout, accompanying violence and allegations of fraud. Whatever the reason, the Afghan war is suddenly at the center of political debate in several Western countries. At stake are not merely tactics and strategy but a far more fundamental question: Should we still be in Afghanistan at all? ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Campaigning]]></category><category><![CDATA[for]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/09/07/PH2009090702078.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[The 1939 Invasion of Poland Still Echoes in European Politics]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR2009082802601.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR2009082802601.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Seventy years ago next week -- at 4:45 a.m. Sept. 1, 1939, to be precise -- the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein began to shell the Polish military base near Gdansk. For Germans, for Poles, and for the British and French, who immediately declared war on Germany, that was the beginning of World War II. The Soviet Union, having signed a secret agreement with Nazi Germany, did not declare war but was itself preparing to invade Poland and the Baltic states. Which it did, two weeks later, on Sept. 17.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115337839" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115337839" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[1939]]></category><category><![CDATA[Invasion]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Still]]></category><category><![CDATA[Echoes]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[European]]></category><category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[In Afghanistan, Real Test Comes After the Election]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/18/AR2009081802848.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/18/AR2009081802848.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ It minced no words, the Taliban, in the leaflets that it scattered across southern Afghanistan last weekend. In one of the missives, the Taliban threatened to cut off the noses and ears of anyone who dared to vote in Thursday's presidential election. Another leaflet said that anyone whose fingers were stained with ink -- a sign that someone has voted -- risked losing those, too. A third said "respected residents" should think twice about entering polling booths because they would risk becoming "a victim of our operations." Don't vote, in other words, or we'll blow you up. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[In]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Real]]></category><category><![CDATA[Test]]></category><category><![CDATA[Comes]]></category><category><![CDATA[After]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Election]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Watching for August's Alarms]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002453.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002453.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ It's a fact: Nothing happens in August. A curtain of heat descends across the Northern Hemisphere. Shops close. Congress goes home. Washington fills up with interns, Paris swarms with tourists. Even the Russians are out in the woods, picking mushrooms. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Watching]]></category><category><![CDATA[for]]></category><category><![CDATA[August's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Alarms]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[At Walter Reed, 'The Healing Power of Death Metal']]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/03/AR2009080302258.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Two years ago, someone called up Arthur Bloom with an unusual request: A badly wounded soldier, a former drummer, wanted to start playing music again. Trouble was, he'd lost a leg in Iraq and couldn't use his old drum kit. Did Bloom have any ideas? ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[At]]></category><category><![CDATA[Walter]]></category><category><![CDATA[Reed,]]></category><category><![CDATA['The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Healing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Power]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Death]]></category><category><![CDATA[Metal']]></category>
<media:content url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/08/03/PH2009080302774.jpg" type="image/jpeg" height="80" width="72"/>
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<title><![CDATA[Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton's Job to Define]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072701903.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072701903.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ "It's time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa." It's a line that brilliantly managed to belittle our female secretary of state under the guise of supporting her, to offend her and "defend" her at the same time: No wonder the insult that Tina Brown lobbed at the White House two weeks ago continues to echo around Washington. Since Brown wrote her article (snidely entitled "Obama's Other Wife"), even Clinton has been forced to respond.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115342750" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115342750" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Secretary]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[State:]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary]]></category><category><![CDATA[Clinton's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Job]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Define]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[What Will Drive Clean Energy Inc.]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/13/AR2009071302587.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/13/AR2009071302587.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Two headlines caught my eye last week. "Summit Leaders in Climate Deal" read the one on the front page of the Wall Street Journal Europe. Above it was a picture of 10 smiling heads of state -- the leaders of the Group of Eight, plus China and India. Below was an article that, in contradiction to the cheerful photograph, described how the world's political leaders had failed, once again, to halt climate change by decree. The group could not agree on short-term emissions targets, could not agree on how developing countries would be compensated for meeting the targets and, indeed, could not even decide from what baseline any targets would be calculated. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[What]]></category><category><![CDATA[Will]]></category><category><![CDATA[Drive]]></category><category><![CDATA[Clean]]></category><category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Inc.]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Obama Puts Medvedev Ahead of Putin]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070803064.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Forget the nuke deal, forget the speech, forget even the Russians' lack of interest in Michelle: The real surprise of President Obama's trip to Moscow this week was that he spent most of his time talking to the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, and took only a couple of hours to pay a courtesy call on the Russian prime minister and former president, Vladimir Putin. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Puts]]></category><category><![CDATA[Medvedev]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ahead]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Putin]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Sarah Palin, the Mainstream Media, Patriotism and Hypocrisy]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/05/AR2009070501783.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Even though I live in an obscure corner of Eastern Europe, I recognize that it is impossible to escape the assumption that, by writing in this space, I belong to the "mainstream media." I therefore feel it incumbent upon me to respond to Sarah Palin's Fourth of July Facebook message, in which, among other things, she attacked the "main stream [sic] media" for their reaction to her surprise announcement that she would resign as governor of Alaska -- a reaction that, she wrote, "has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the 'politics of personal destruction.' " How "sad," she continued, "that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country." ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Sarah]]></category><category><![CDATA[Palin,]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mainstream]]></category><category><![CDATA[Media,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Patriotism]]></category><category><![CDATA[and]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hypocrisy]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Morocco Shows What's Possible]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/29/AR2009062903455.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ RABAT -- If you want an antidote to the photographs of police officers beating demonstrators and girls dying on the streets of the Iranian capital, take a drive through the streets of the Moroccan capital. You might see demonstrators, but not under attack: On the day I visited, a group of people politely waving signs stood outside the parliament. You might see girls, but they will not be sniper targets, and they will not all look like their Iranian counterparts: Though there is clearly a fashion for long, flowing headscarves and blue jeans, many women would not look out of place in New York or Paris.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115347184" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115347184" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Morocco]]></category><category><![CDATA[Shows]]></category><category><![CDATA[What's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Possible]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Women May Pose the Deepest Threat to Iran's Regime]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/22/AR2009062202387.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Women in sunglasses and headscarves, speaking through megaphones, brandishing cameras, carrying signs: When they first appeared, the photographs of the 2005 Tehran University women's rights protests were a powerful reminder of the true potential of Iranian women. The images were uplifting; they featured women of many ages; and they went on circulating long after the protests themselves died down. Now they have been replaced by a far more brutal and already infamous set of images: The photographs and video taken this past weekend of a young Iranian woman, allegedly shot by a government sniper, dying on the streets of Tehran. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Women]]></category><category><![CDATA[May]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pose]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Deepest]]></category><category><![CDATA[Threat]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Regime]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Some Good in Iran's Bad Election]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061401990.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Once upon a time, "democracy" was a synonym for motherhood and apple pie, a thing of unchallengeable value. More recently, the word has lost its luster. The Bush administration spoke a lot about democracy in principle but found democratic ideas, not to mention democratic institutions, hard to promote in practice. Worse, some of its efforts had unsatisfactory results. Elections the United States wanted in Palestine led to the victory of Hamas. In Iraq, elections organized with U.S. assistance produced a weak and divided government at a time when strength and unity were required. Meanwhile, authoritarian regimes in Russia, Central Asia and elsewhere spent the past decade learning to manipulate elections, giving themselves bogus legitimacy and producing a new form of "managed democracy": Authoritarianism camouflaged in democratic rhetoric. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Some]]></category><category><![CDATA[Good]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bad]]></category><category><![CDATA[Election]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Europe's Center-Right Parties Are Rewarded for Fiscal Restraint]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/08/AR2009060803495.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ We've been waiting and waiting, but the widely predicted European backlash -- against capitalism, against free markets, against the right -- has not come. There are no demands for Marxist revolution, no calls for nationalization of industry, not even a European campaign for what the Obama administration calls "stimulus" -- a policy more colloquially known as "massive government spending." ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Europe's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Center-Right]]></category><category><![CDATA[Parties]]></category><category><![CDATA[Are]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rewarded]]></category><category><![CDATA[for]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fiscal]]></category><category><![CDATA[Restraint]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[The North Korean Threat That China Fosters]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/01/AR2009060102480.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Let's face it: We don't really know why North Korea decided to test a nuclear weapon last week, why it has suddenly declared the Korean War armistice of 1953 null and void, why it has launched several test missiles and is preparing to launch others. It could be because the North Koreans are dissatisfied with the state of negotiations with Washington and want more concessions or more attention. It could be that the regime -- which is no longer capable of delivering regular food supplies, or even reliable electricity, to its people -- wanted to strengthen its grip on power. It could be something else altogether. Personally, I favor another scenario, equally speculative: Perhaps the North Koreans have stepped up their war rhetoric, and their war preparations, because China wants them to do so. I cannot prove that this is the case -- just as no one else can prove any of their theories about North Korea -- but I can look at the evidence, which is as follows:<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115350609" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115350609" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[North]]></category><category><![CDATA[Korean]]></category><category><![CDATA[Threat]]></category><category><![CDATA[That]]></category><category><![CDATA[China]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fosters]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Scandal in the British Parliament]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/25/AR2009052502118.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ LONDON --  Drip, drip, drip: The neverending stream of revelations has been compared by one British member of Parliament to "torture" -- waterboarding? -- and rightly so. One day, it emerges that a senior MP has charged British taxpayers Â£2,000 (about $3,200 as of yesterday) for the cleaning of the moat on his 13th-century estate. A few days later, another MP is revealed to have charged 1,645 pounds for a floating duck house. Almost every day for the past two weeks, in fact, the British press has published accounts of the ginger crinkle cookies, stainless steel dog bowls, swimming pool heaters, spousal iPhones and the trouser press (119 pounds) that British legislators charged to the British government. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Scandal]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[British]]></category><category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Swine Flu: A Panic to Be Thankful For]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR2009051102667.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Apparently, President Obama told some good jokes at a dinner. The British Parliament is mired in an expenses scandal (one politician charged the government more than $3,000 to repair a leaking pipe under his tennis court). In China, they're marking the anniversary of the earthquake that left some 80,000 people dead or missing a year ago, and in France, a young tennis star has tested positive for cocaine. But swine flu? The world's media have moved on. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Swine]]></category><category><![CDATA[Flu:]]></category><category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Panic]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Be]]></category><category><![CDATA[Thankful]]></category><category><![CDATA[For]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[A Starbucks State of Mind]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050402941.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ WARSAW --  After the new Starbucks opened, I walked by the place a couple of times, just to see the crowds. Strategically located midway between the university and the stock exchange, the world's best-known coffee franchise immediately attracted a well-heeled clientele. Lines twisted around inside the shop and out the door. Up and down the street, blue-jeaned students and dark-suited stockbrokers carried their white paper cups with pride, the famous green label facing outward. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Starbucks]]></category><category><![CDATA[State]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mind]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Swine Flu: The WHO's Moment]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR2009042701732.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Yesterday, the front page of my morning newspaper featured a photograph of uniformed Mexican police officers, machine guns at the ready, surgical masks strapped to their faces, seemingly prepared to defend their compatriots against the sudden outbreak of swine flu. I live in Warsaw, which is pretty far from Mexico City. But even if I lived in Paris, my morning paper would have contained similar pictures; so would it have done if I lived in Sydney or Kuala Lumpur.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115354030" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=4823115354030" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Swine]]></category><category><![CDATA[Flu:]]></category><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[WHO's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moment]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[In Moldova, the Twitter Revolution That Wasn't]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042002817.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ We've been waiting a long time for political upheaval to follow in the wake of technological change, and on April 7, it seemed to have arrived. From Moldova, of all places, came news of the Twitter Revolution: In one of the poorest backwaters in Europe -- a place that frequently features in global surveys as the world's unhappiest country -- a group of fresh-faced young people reportedly used Twitter tweets, text messages and Facebook postings to organize a demonstration in favor of democracy and against rigged elections. New technology confronted old autocracy in an almost made-for-the-front-pages storyline: On one side, the Moldovan communist president, Vladimir Voronin, a man who is not only a former Soviet secret police boss but -- amazing coincidence! -- also the father of the country's richest man; on the other side, the forces of modernity, youth and social networking. The young democrats expected 1,000 demonstrators. Thanks to technology, more than 10,000 arrived. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[In]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moldova,]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category><category><![CDATA[Revolution]]></category><category><![CDATA[That]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wasn't]]></category>
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<title><![CDATA[Monticello's Makeover]]></title>
<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/13/AR2009041301950.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Odd though it sounds, there is deep satisfaction to be had in watching one's child clutch the pen of Thomas Jefferson's "polygraph" machine, steady it with his grubby hands and carefully draw two identically wobbly circles. The machine in question wasn't Jefferson's own, of course: It was a copy, part of the children's exhibit at the new Monticello visitors center that officially opens this week. ]]></description>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator>
<category domain="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinion/index.html">Opinions</category>
<category><![CDATA[Monticello's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Makeover]]></category>
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