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<channel><title><![CDATA[washingtonpost.com - Anne Applebaum (washingtonpost.com)]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/03/24/LI2005032401432.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><description><![CDATA[]]></description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com?nav=rss</link><url>http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif </url></image>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Saudi Guide To Piety ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/21/AR2008072102357.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/21/AR2008072102357.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Because they are so clearly designed for the convenience of large testing companies, I had always assumed that multiple-choice exams, the bane of any fourth-grader's existence, were a quintessentially American phenomenon. But apparently I was wrong. According to a report last week by the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, it seems that the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education finds them useful, too. Here, for example, is a multiple-choice question from a recent edition of a Saudi fourth-grade textbook, "Monotheism and Jurisprudence," in a section that attempts to teach children to distinguish between "true" and "false" belief in God: ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saudi]]></category><category><![CDATA[Guide]]></category><category><![CDATA[To]]></category><category><![CDATA[Piety]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Buenos Aires]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lagos]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spain]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Armed Forces]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ An Election Goes Abroad ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/14/AR2008071401844.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/14/AR2008071401844.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ "Odd." That's what German Chancellor Angela Merkel said when told of Barack Obama's plan to deliver a major campaign speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, right where the Berlin Wall used to be, where Ronald Reagan once famously called upon Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," and not far from where John F. Kennedy declared, "Ich bin ein Berliner" -- "I am a Berliner" -- to show his solidarity with the inhabitants of what used to be a divided city. One can see her point: We, too, would find it odd if foreign politicians made campaign speeches in front of the Lincoln Memorial or asked to use the Washington Monument as a political backdrop. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[An]]></category><category><![CDATA[Election]]></category><category><![CDATA[Goes]]></category><category><![CDATA[Abroad]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Klaus Wowereit]]></category><category><![CDATA[Brandenburg Gate]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Elvis Presley]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Colombia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lincoln Memorial]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moldova]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington Monument]]></category><category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category><category><![CDATA[New Hampshire]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Nationalism Gets Its Kicks ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063001906.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063001906.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Myself, I was rooting for Spain in the finals: The Spanish economy is in the doldrums at the moment, and I thought a win might cheer up the Spaniards -- which it did, judging by Sunday's post-victory all-night street party. My son, however, was rooting for Germany: This, paradoxically, is because he is half-Polish, and two of the German players are actually Poles, born in Poland, who speak Polish to one another on the field. One of them -- Lukas Podolski -- scored both of the goals during the Poland-Germany game three weeks ago. Germany won that game, 2-0. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Nationalism]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gets]]></category><category><![CDATA[Its]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kicks]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lukas Podolski]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Angela Merkel]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ivica Vastic]]></category><category><![CDATA[Roger Guerreiro]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berliner Morgenpost GmbH]]></category><category><![CDATA[Brazil]]></category><category><![CDATA[Croatia]]></category><category><![CDATA[France]]></category><category><![CDATA[Portugal]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ No Job for Mr. Nice Guy ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301827.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301827.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but in the past few days, I've felt overwhelmed by a tsunami of commentary, all of which purports to prove the fundamental nastiness of Barack Obama or, alternatively, the deep unlikability of John McCain. You thought our presidential candidates were nice guys, regular guys, guys with whom you'd like to sit down and have a beer? Guess what, lots of people are now telling me: They aren't.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325845378" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325845378" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[No]]></category><category><![CDATA[Job]]></category><category><![CDATA[for]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mr.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nice]]></category><category><![CDATA[Guy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cindy McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[David Brooks]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[London]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ronald Reagan]]></category><category><![CDATA[The New York Times Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Pity the Poor Eurocrats ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602040.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602040.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Pretty much for as long as I've been paying attention to these things, Europe has been "in crisis" or "in chaos" or "in despair" because one or another European country failed to ratify yet another European treaty. Invariably, something cataclysmically important was at stake, such as the creation of a European currency. Often the difficult country was a small one -- Denmark, say, whose voters rejected the treaty that helped create the European currency in 1992. At that time, France and Germany bemoaned the fact that some tiny number of Danes were "holding up Europe." The Danes were duly sat upon, negotiated with and granted "opt-outs" until they voted the right way a year later. Order was restored -- until the French themselves voted against the European constitution in a referendum in 2005. Whoops! ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Pity]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poor]]></category><category><![CDATA[Eurocrats]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ireland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[France]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[Denmark]]></category><category><![CDATA[Brussels]]></category><category><![CDATA[County Clare]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dublin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fintan O'Toole]]></category><category><![CDATA[Galway (County Galway)]]></category><category><![CDATA[London]]></category><category><![CDATA[Aer Lingus Group plc]]></category><category><![CDATA[European Union]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lisbon Treaty]]></category><category><![CDATA[London Heathrow Airport]]></category><category><![CDATA[Shannon Airport]]></category><category><![CDATA[The Irish Times Ltd.]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Whose Race Problem? ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/09/AR2008060902239.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/09/AR2008060902239.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ "Will Americans vote for a black man?" I've been asked this question by foreigners of various origins a dozen -- or maybe three dozen -- times since the U.S. presidential campaign began for real in January. Now we have the answer: Yes, Americans will vote for a black man. Which means that it is time to turn this rather offensive question around: Will foreigners accept a black American president? ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Whose]]></category><category><![CDATA[Race]]></category><category><![CDATA[Problem?]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></category><category><![CDATA[John F. Kennedy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Martin Luther King Jr.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow]]></category><category><![CDATA[Prague]]></category><category><![CDATA[Warsaw]]></category><category><![CDATA[Der Spiegel]]></category><category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sudan]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category><category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Mugabe's Roman Holiday ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060202589.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060202589.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ With an unerring sense of timing, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe arrived in Rome yesterday, thereby demonstrating the profound limitations of international diplomacy. Indeed, it's hard to think of any other single gesture that would so effectively reveal the ineffectiveness of international institutions in the conduct of human rights and food aid policy. Even someone standing atop the dome of St. Peter's, megaphone in hand, shouting, "The U.N. is useless! The E.U. is useless!" couldn't have clarified the matter more plainly. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Mugabe's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Roman]]></category><category><![CDATA[Holiday]]></category><category><![CDATA[Robert Mugabe]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rome]]></category><category><![CDATA[Zimbabwe]]></category><category><![CDATA[European Union]]></category><category><![CDATA[Myanmar]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ban Ki-moon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Stephen F. Smith (Executive)]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cyclone Nargis]]></category><category><![CDATA[Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]]></category><category><![CDATA[Oxfam International]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Busiest Generation ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/26/AR2008052601742.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/26/AR2008052601742.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Ah, the rituals of American spring: the unpacking of the flip-flops, the exchanging of the snowblowers for the lawn mowers, the first traffic jams on the highway to the beach -- and the annual spate of reports on the stressful lives of high school seniors. Last year, in the months between winter college application deadlines and spring college acceptance letters, the New York Times infamously ran what amounted to a multi-part series on the subject, printing columns and letters with headlines such as "Young, Gifted, and Not Getting into Harvard" as well as meditations including one on the Massachusetts high school that requires its overworked students to do yoga.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325846659" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325846659" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Busiest]]></category><category><![CDATA[Generation]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tom Sawyer]]></category><category><![CDATA[Westchester]]></category><category><![CDATA[Harvard University]]></category><category><![CDATA[Newsweek Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category><category><![CDATA[The New York Times Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[USA TODAY]]></category><category><![CDATA[Maryland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Massachusetts]]></category><category><![CDATA[New York]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Hitler Analogy ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051902234.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051902234.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals. . . . We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' " ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hitler]]></category><category><![CDATA[Analogy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Adolf Hitler]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vladimir Putin]]></category><category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tony Blair]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nazi Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poland]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Al Gore]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-il]]></category><category><![CDATA[Madeleine Albright]]></category><category><![CDATA[Munich]]></category><category><![CDATA[Naomi Wolf]]></category><category><![CDATA[Neville Chamberlain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saddam Hussein]]></category><category><![CDATA[Winston Churchill]]></category><category><![CDATA[China]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hezbollah]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category><category><![CDATA[Serbia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Florida]]></category><category><![CDATA[Korean Peninsula]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kosovo]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Go Around the Generals ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051202329.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051202329.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ They are "cruel, power-hungry and dangerously irrational," in the words of one British journalist. They are " violent and irrational," according to a journalist in neighboring Thailand. Our own State Department leadership has condemned their "xenophobic, ever more irrational policies." ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Go]]></category><category><![CDATA[Around]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Generals]]></category><category><![CDATA[Myanmar]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Medecins Sans Frontieres International]]></category><category><![CDATA[Thailand]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Armed Forces]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bernard Kouchner]]></category><category><![CDATA[China]]></category><category><![CDATA[Oxfam International]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Department of State]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S.S.R.]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Nations Security Council]]></category><category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ A Warning Shot From Moscow? ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502067.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502067.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Before it happened, nobody imagined that the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo would set off World War I. Before the "shot heard round the world" was fired, I doubt that 18th-century Concord expected to go down in history as the place where the American Revolution began. Before last weekend, when the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS declared that the government of Georgia was about to invade Abkhazia, nobody had really thought about Abkhazia at all. As a public service to readers who need a break from the American presidential campaign, this column is therefore devoted to considering the possibility that Abkhazia could become the starting point of a larger war. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Warning]]></category><category><![CDATA[Shot]]></category><category><![CDATA[From]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow?]]></category><category><![CDATA[Abkhazia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Republic of Georgia]]></category><category><![CDATA[NATO]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dmitry Medvedev]]></category><category><![CDATA[Archduke Franz Ferdinand]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sarajevo]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Brussels]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[ITAR-TASS News Agency]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dagestan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Guam]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kosovo]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nagorno-Karabakh]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Ossetia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ London's Personality Contest ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/28/AR2008042802101.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/28/AR2008042802101.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ First, a disclaimer: I have known Boris Johnson, the Tory candidate for mayor of London, for 15-odd years. During that time, I've met his first wife, his second wife and his mistress, though I don't think the latter merited that title when we were introduced. I worked for some of the same editors as he during his earlier career as a journalist, and I can remember many of his columns. One -- concerning the dubious legal status of one of his children ("Congratulations, it's a Belgian") -- still makes me laugh when I think about it.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325850082" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325850082" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[London's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Personality]]></category><category><![CDATA[Contest]]></category><category><![CDATA[London]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ken Livingstone]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fidel Castro]]></category><category><![CDATA[Portsmouth]]></category><category><![CDATA[BMW M Series]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pennsylvania]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Radio To Stay Tuned To ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/21/AR2008042102551.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/21/AR2008042102551.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ "Radio Free Europe? Does that still exist?" ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Radio]]></category><category><![CDATA[To]]></category><category><![CDATA[Stay]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tuned]]></category><category><![CDATA[To]]></category><category><![CDATA[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Prague]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jeff Gedmin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vaclav Havel]]></category><category><![CDATA[AH-64 Apache Helicopter]]></category><category><![CDATA[Belarus]]></category><category><![CDATA[Norway]]></category><category><![CDATA[Radio Free Afghanistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Slovenia]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[Turkmenistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Eastern Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ 'Journey of Harmony' ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402452.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402452.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ WARSAW -- In London, a man with a fire extinguisher hurled himself at a torch bearer using what one onlooker gleefully described as a "rugby tackle." In Paris, the torch's omnipresent security guards -- members of the Sacred Flame Protection Unit of the Chinese People's Armed Police, the same paramilitary force that put down riots in Tibet -- had to extinguish the flame themselves to prevent protesters from doing so first. In San Francisco, the torch disappeared, reappeared, changed routes and then vanished altogether: City officials explained that they had moved their "farewell to the torch" ceremony to a "private" location to avoid demonstrations. In other words, the ceremony was canceled. Score one for the protesters! ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA['Journey]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Harmony']]></category><category><![CDATA[China]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tibet]]></category><category><![CDATA[London]]></category><category><![CDATA[Paris]]></category><category><![CDATA[Beijing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Adolf Hitler]]></category><category><![CDATA[Athens]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gordon Brown]]></category><category><![CDATA[Leni Riefenstahl]]></category><category><![CDATA[San Francisco]]></category><category><![CDATA[Warsaw]]></category><category><![CDATA[China Daily Information Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[Communist Party of China]]></category><category><![CDATA[Die Welt]]></category><category><![CDATA[Downing Street]]></category><category><![CDATA[France]]></category><category><![CDATA[Golden Gate Bridge]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ What a Headscarf Can Mean ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102150.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102150.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ It can be a little wisp of fabric, nothing more. It comes in longer versions, shorter versions, versions that cover the hair, others that cover the face. According to Le Monde, you can even get a Viennese stylist to design one in the manner of "Catherine Zeta-Jones and Naomi Campbell," with a whiff of supermodel glamour. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[What]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[Headscarf]]></category><category><![CDATA[Can]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mean]]></category><category><![CDATA[Turkey]]></category><category><![CDATA[International Herald Tribune SAS]]></category><category><![CDATA[Journal Le Monde]]></category><category><![CDATA[Catherine Zeta-Jones]]></category><category><![CDATA[Naomi Campbell]]></category><category><![CDATA[Zeyno Baran]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Olympic Fallacies ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402297.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402297.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ "We believe the Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations, and we hope that all people attending the games recognize the importance of this." Thus spoke Samsung Electronics, one of 12 major corporate sponsors of the Olympics, when asked last week whether recent events in Tibet were causing it any concern. Coca-Cola, another Olympics sponsor, has stated that while it would be inappropriate "to comment on the political situation of individual nations," the company firmly believes "that the Olympics are a force for good." The chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, was also quick to declare that "a boycott doesn't solve anything" -- just as he was quick to dismiss the demonstrators who waved a black banner showing interlocked handcuffs, in mockery of the Olympic symbol, at yesterday's lighting of the Olympic torch in Greece. "It is always sad to see such a ceremony disrupted," he declared, rather pompously.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325851786" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325851786" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Olympic]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fallacies]]></category><category><![CDATA[Beijing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Adolf Hitler]]></category><category><![CDATA[China]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tibet]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Darfur]]></category><category><![CDATA[The New York Times Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dachau]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jesse Owens]]></category><category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mexico City]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nuremberg]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rhineland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Greece]]></category><category><![CDATA[International Olympic Committee]]></category><category><![CDATA[Myanmar]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nazi Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S.S.R.]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ My So-Called Life Story ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031002244.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031002244.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Thanks to chance and circumstance -- because people left them, sent them, lent them -- a trio of autobiographies landed on my desk last weekend: Valerie Plame's "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House," George Tenet's "At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA" and Peter Gay's "My German Question: Growing Up in Nazi Berlin." Though Plame and Tenet were published in 2007 and Gay in 1998, I hadn't read any of them. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[My]]></category><category><![CDATA[So-Called]]></category><category><![CDATA[Life]]></category><category><![CDATA[Story]]></category><category><![CDATA[George Tenet]]></category><category><![CDATA[Margaret B. Jones]]></category><category><![CDATA[Peter Gay]]></category><category><![CDATA[Valerie Plame]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Misha Defonseca]]></category><category><![CDATA[Northern Ireland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Berlin Wall]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Binjamin Wilkomirski]]></category><category><![CDATA[Brussels]]></category><category><![CDATA[James Frey]]></category><category><![CDATA[Joseph McCarthy]]></category><category><![CDATA[JT LeRoy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Margaret Seltzer]]></category><category><![CDATA[Monique De Wael]]></category><category><![CDATA[New York City]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ronald Reagan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rudolph Giuliani]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tom DeLay]]></category><category><![CDATA[Central Intelligence Agency]]></category><category><![CDATA[Crips Street Gang]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Why Russia Holds 'Elections' ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR2008030201896.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR2008030201896.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Last Wednesday, Dmitry Medvedev took a break from his job as deputy prime minister of Russia and held a public meeting. Dressed in shirtsleeves, he talked about pension reform, promised to improve education, shook a few hands. As public meetings go, it was an ordinary one -- except for the fact that it was the first and last public meeting of Medvedev's presidential campaign. If you wanted to see the candidate before yesterday's vote, that was your one and only chance. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, spending millions and wearing themselves thin, must be green with envy. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Why]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Holds]]></category><category><![CDATA['Elections']]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow Kremlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vladimir Putin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ukraine]]></category><category><![CDATA[Georgia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S.S.R.]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mikhail Kasyanov]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vladimir Zhirinovsky]]></category><category><![CDATA[NATO]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nazi Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Consequences of Kosovo ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021801545.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021801545.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ As not everybody now remembers, the wars of Yugoslavia began not in Bosnia, not in Croatia, but in Kosovo. The chain of events that led to the Srebrenica massacre and the bombing of Belgrade started there, in the late 1980s, when Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic launched a series of repressive measures against this mostly Albanian, semi-independent, "autonomous province" within Serbia. These culminated in 1990, when Milosevic ended the semi-independence, revoked Kosovo's autonomy, installed a new police force, shut down Albanian newspapers, fired university professors, and generally inflicted economic and political chaos. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Consequences]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kosovo]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kosovo]]></category><category><![CDATA[Slobodan Milosevic]]></category><category><![CDATA[Serbia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Georgia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Yugoslavia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Abkhazia]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Ossetia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Belgrade]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]></category><category><![CDATA[Croatia]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Srebrenica]]></category><category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow Kremlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pristina]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cyprus]]></category><category><![CDATA[NATO]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ottoman Empire]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spain]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ A Craven Canterbury Tale ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/11/AR2008021102270.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/11/AR2008021102270.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Is this a storm in a teacup, as the archbishop now claims? Was the "feeding frenzy" biased and unfair? Certainly it is true that, since Thursday, when Rowan Williams -- the archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Church of England, symbolic leader of the international Anglican Communion -- called for "constructive accommodation" with some aspects of sharia law, and declared the incorporation of Muslim religious law into the British legal system "unavoidable," practically no insult has been left unsaid.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325852516" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325852516" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Craven]]></category><category><![CDATA[Canterbury]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tale]]></category><category><![CDATA[Church of England]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wales]]></category><category><![CDATA[David Hume]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bangladesh]]></category><category><![CDATA[The Anglican Communion]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Love Gained, Love Lost ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402424.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402424.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Enfin, the rumors confirmed! Last weekend, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France married his singer-supermodel sweetheart, Carla Bruni, in a 20-minute civil ceremony at the Elysees Palace, the French White House. A city official performed the service. The bridal party consisted of family members plus one or two fashionable friends. Apparently the bride wore white. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Love]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gained,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Love]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lost]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nicolas Sarkozy]]></category><category><![CDATA[France]]></category><category><![CDATA[Turkey]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bernadette Chirac]]></category><category><![CDATA[Carla Bruni]]></category><category><![CDATA[European Union]]></category><category><![CDATA[Amartya Sen]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Edgar Morin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jacques Attali]]></category><category><![CDATA[King Abdullah]]></category><category><![CDATA[Marshall]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moammar Gadhafi]]></category><category><![CDATA[Monica Lewinsky]]></category><category><![CDATA[Paris]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Arab Emirates]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lebanon]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Beauty and the East ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/28/AR2008012802327.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/28/AR2008012802327.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ There was a particular historical moment, round about 1995 or so, when anyone entering a well-appointed drawing room, dining room or restaurant in London was sure to encounter a beautiful Russian woman. Though the word "beautiful" doesn't really capture the phenomenon: The women I'm remembering were extraordinarily, unbelievably stunning. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Beauty]]></category><category><![CDATA[and]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[East]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S.S.R.]]></category><category><![CDATA[London]]></category><category><![CDATA[Natalia Vodianova]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nizhny Novgorod]]></category><category><![CDATA[Maria Sharapova]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Florida]]></category><category><![CDATA[Almaty]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ana Ivanovic]]></category><category><![CDATA[Calvin Klein]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jelena Jankovic]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lyubov Orlova]]></category><category><![CDATA[Martina Navratilova]]></category><category><![CDATA[Minsk]]></category><category><![CDATA[Paris]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hungary]]></category><category><![CDATA[Omsk]]></category><category><![CDATA[Switzerland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Uzbekistan]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Rot In Kenya's Politics ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR2008012101741.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR2008012101741.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Blurry video of a policeman beating a demonstrator; a photograph of angry slum-dwellers storming a food depot; headlines featuring the word "violence." That, more or less, sums up the news from Kenya, or at least the news that has filtered into the general consciousness over the past few weeks. Unless you were paying very close attention, you were probably tempted, as I was at first, to dismiss these events as yet more evidence of Africa's ungovernability. Uganda, Rwanda, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Sierra Leone; tribal enmity plus poverty equals violence; another country evolving into a "failed state." Doesn't it prove, once again, that Africa is an exception to all of the rules about global development, democratization, "progress"? ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rot]]></category><category><![CDATA[In]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kenya's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kenya]]></category><category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mwai Kibaki]]></category><category><![CDATA[Liberia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rwanda]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sierra Leone]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ukraine]]></category><category><![CDATA[Great Rift Valley]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nairobi]]></category><category><![CDATA[Raila Odinga]]></category><category><![CDATA[Somalia]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sudan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Transparency International]]></category><category><![CDATA[Uganda]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Tiny Car, Tough Questions  ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402080.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402080.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ If you haven't done so already, meet the Nano, possibly the most significant new car of the decade: Small, cute and snub-nosed, it fits four people and a duffel bag, has a single windshield wiper, travels at 65 mph -- and it's all yours for the princely sum of $2,500, roughly the same price as the DVD system in your neighbor's Lexus and about half the price of the cheapest cars on the market.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325853177" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325853177" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Tiny]]></category><category><![CDATA[Car,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tough]]></category><category><![CDATA[Questions]]></category><category><![CDATA[]]></category><category><![CDATA[India]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category><category><![CDATA[Honda FCX]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bali]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lexus Motor Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category><category><![CDATA[Al Gore]]></category><category><![CDATA[Beijing]]></category><category><![CDATA[New Delhi]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rajendra Pachauri]]></category><category><![CDATA[South America]]></category><category><![CDATA[Southeast Asia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hershey Company]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Color of an Advantage ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010702260.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010702260.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ WARSAW -- "Will Americans vote for a black man for president?" ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Color]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[an]]></category><category><![CDATA[Advantage]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iowa]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[India]]></category><category><![CDATA[New Hampshire]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Carolina]]></category><category><![CDATA[Longs Drug Stores Corporation]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jakarta]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mahatma Gandhi]]></category><category><![CDATA[Argentina]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Two Benazir Bhuttos ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123101663.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123101663.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ What with the president of France jetting off to Luxor to spend Christmas with a supermodel and things looking up in Iraq, 2008 seemed set to be more cheerful than 2007. But the assassination of Benazir Bhutto-- possibly marking the beginning of an Islamic nuclear power's descent into chaos -- has already put a sober cast on the normally frivolous end-of-the-year news. It would have been hard to invent a better reminder of how events in faraway countries, of which we once knew little, now affect us directly. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Two]]></category><category><![CDATA[Benazir]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bhuttos]]></category><category><![CDATA[]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ A Stanton For the Saudis ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/17/AR2007121701598.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/17/AR2007121701598.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:04:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ "A court in country X sentenced a black man who had been severely beaten by white men to six months in jail and 200 lashes." ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Stanton]]></category><category><![CDATA[For]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saudis]]></category><category><![CDATA[]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ A Vanishing Fantasy ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/10/AR2007121001557.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/10/AR2007121001557.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ If for nothing else, we should be grateful to John and Anne Darwin for bringing the excellent word "pseudocide" back into wider public use. For those who don't follow the British press as closely as they should, John Darwin is a canoeist who paddled off into the North Sea in 2002 and was presumed dead after the remains of his canoe washed ashore. Last week, he walked into a police station in Hartlepool and announced he had amnesia. "I think I am a missing person," he declared.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325854799" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=302325854799" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vanishing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fantasy]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Darwin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Panama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Google Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Anne Darwin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Golden Gate Bridge]]></category><category><![CDATA[Huckleberry Finn]]></category><category><![CDATA[James Bond]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kate Winslet]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ken Kesey]]></category><category><![CDATA[North Sea]]></category><category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hartlepool]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Teddy Bear Tyranny ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120301621.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120301621.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ What do a British novel, a papal speech, some Danish cartoons and a Dutch movie have in common with . . . a teddy bear? If that sounds like the beginning of an elaborate after-dinner-speech joke, it isn't. All of the above have at one time or another sparked serious confrontations between the Islamic world and the West, causing major riots (Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses"); attacks on churches ( Pope Benedict's foray into Byzantine history); mass boycotts (Danish cartoon depictions of Mohammed); even murder (the death of Theo Van Gogh, director of "Submission," a film about Muslim women). ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Teddy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bear]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tyranny]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gillian Gibbons]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sudan]]></category><category><![CDATA[FOX News Network LLC]]></category><category><![CDATA[Khartoum]]></category><category><![CDATA[Darfur]]></category><category><![CDATA[The Times of London]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pope Benedict XVI]]></category><category><![CDATA[Salman Rushdie]]></category><category><![CDATA[Theo van Gogh]]></category><category><![CDATA[National Organization for Women]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Russia's New Old Dissidents ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/26/AR2007112601850.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/26/AR2007112601850.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ In the photographs of his arrest, Garry Kasparov -- former world chess champion, current Russian opposition leader -- is wearing a nondescript gray jacket and a somewhat retro wool cap. He is gloveless. By contrast, the Russian militiamen doing the arresting are kitted out in full regalia: tall fur hats with metal insignia in the center, camouflage coats, walkie-talkies, black leather gloves. Squint hard, and the pictures -- taken at the "Other Russia" protest rally in Moscow on Saturday -- could come from the 1960s or the 1980s, when Soviet police arrested dissidents with some regularity. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Applebaum]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Russia's]]></category><category><![CDATA[New]]></category><category><![CDATA[Old]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dissidents]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vladimir Putin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow Kremlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow Helsinki Group]]></category><category><![CDATA[The Washington Post Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[Anna Politkovskaya]]></category><category><![CDATA[Boris Nemtsov]]></category><category><![CDATA[Eduard Limonov]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Peter Reddaway]]></category><category><![CDATA[St. Petersburg]]></category><category><![CDATA[Warsaw]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bolshevik Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[G-8]]></category></item>
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