<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Commentary</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/asia/opinion?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><description>Commentary</description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com</link><url>http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif</url></image><item><title><![CDATA[Power Plays in Asia]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6177-2005Apr20.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6177-2005Apr20.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  China's violent verbal assault on Japan does not spin out of the past but rather out of the future. Complaints about war crimes and history books are so many fig leaves. The driving force in this dangerous dispute is power politics in Asia.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Our Limited Study of Islam]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3018-2005Apr19.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3018-2005Apr19.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ While I applaud the initiatives laid out by Peter Berkowitz and Michael McFaul in their April 12 op-ed,  "Studying Islam, Strengthening the Nation," I found it curious that they limited their reach to the geographic Middle East with regard to languages  --  Arabic, Persian (or Farsi) and Turkish.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Easy Ways to Aid Africa]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52534-2005Mar20.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52534-2005Mar20.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   People know that Africa is desperate  --  that half the population lives on less than one dollar daily; that life expectancy has fallen to 46 because of the AIDS crisis. But people are mostly resigned to this. They believe, wrongly, that progress is impossible. They suppose, wrongly, that helping Africa would cost impossible amounts.]]></description><author>Sebastian Mallaby</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Those Subtle Chinese]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22110-2005Mar9.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22110-2005Mar9.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   For the past few months I've been hearing from a bevy of China experts about how subtle and brilliant Beijing's diplomacy has become in recent years. Sophisticated and confident, Chinese diplomats have been running rings around the United States, winning friends and influencing people throughout East Asia and the world.  So I can only marvel at China's latest diplomatic gambits, whose brilliance and sophistication must be so subtle as not to be susceptible to normal modes of analysis.]]></description><author> Robert Kagan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[We Must Lead the Way on Free Trade]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42609-2005Feb21.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42609-2005Feb21.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Trade has proved to be an invaluable asset for U.S. foreign policy, fostering more self-sustaining economic growth among key regions of the developing world than any imaginable forms of traditional foreign aid. Free trade is one of the critical components of U.S. efforts to develop enduring, stabilizing influences in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa -- key regions for our work to thwart the rise of terrorism and illiberal government.]]></description><author> Naotaka Matsukata</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Futile Search for a Hard Number]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58322-2005Jan8.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58322-2005Jan8.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  It's the disaster we'll remember for a lifetime. Already, most of us outside Florida have forgotten Hurricane What's-Its-Name and its three followers, which devastated the state late last summer. Until reminded of it recently, how many remembered the deadly earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam just a year ago? But I'll wager that 5, 10, 15 years from now, the single word "tsunami" will trigger in any who hear it a near-total recall of the fearful events of Dec. 26, 2004.]]></description><author> Rocky Lopes</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tsunami of Controversy]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40036-2004Dec31.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40036-2004Dec31.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Normally I reject the idea that The Post is institutionally biased against President Bush, but the Dec. 29 front-page article regarding Bush's "absence" during the tsunami crisis in South Asia is truly inexplicable in any other way.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why the Bicycle Industry Went Flat]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49810-2004Dec8.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49810-2004Dec8.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  The Dec. 3 front-page story "A Rough Ride for Schwinn Bicycle" attributed Schwinn's demise to "global economic forces" and the company's "ultimately flawed" determination to stay American-made. However, low-wage competition alone cannot explain the U.S. bicycle industry's collapse.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Subtle Signs of Change]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45507-2004Dec7.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45507-2004Dec7.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   It is too small and random an event to be described as a turning point, but too significant in context to be ignored: When Saudi security forces shot it out with a small terrorist gang in Jeddah on Monday to protect the lives of U.S. diplomats, they made an important statement about the course of change in the Middle East.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Failure of Nerve in U.N. Reform]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36068-2004Dec4.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36068-2004Dec4.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  NEW YORK -- The global security crisis that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and deepened with the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq now resembles the multi-tentacled villain of that recent Spiderman movie. Nothing seems to escape its grasp.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[From Friends to Framework]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46796-2004Nov12.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46796-2004Nov12.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Bringing stability to Iraq and continuing the fight against al Qaeda's terrorist network top President Bush's second-term agenda in foreign policy. But he will not have the luxury of dealing only with those urgent tasks.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Moral Edge in Prince William?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57585-2004Oct23.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57585-2004Oct23.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  The Oct. 17 Metro article "The Great Divide" fascinated and frustrated me. I live in red Prince William County (in the Gainesville area), and I found some of the opinions expressed small-minded.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[America's Big Challenge: Asia]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43719-2004Oct18.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43719-2004Oct18.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   The presidential debates are lauded for having been substantive and revealing. In particular, people have noted how rare it is to have a serious discussion about foreign policy these days. Except that we did not have a serious discussion about foreign policy. We had one about Iraq. And thousands of miles away, there is a new world coming into being -- one that America is quite unprepared to handle.]]></description><author> Fareed Zakaria</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Asian Enmities]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40260-2004Aug27.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40260-2004Aug27.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  On the rare occasions when Washington policymakers glance at the East Asian radar screen these days, they don't see much beyond two potential flash points -- North Korea and the Taiwan Strait. But by focusing exclusively on these clear and present dangers, they are missing a growing blip that has the potential to be just as great a threat to the region's stability -- the re-emerging nationalist clash between East Asia's two biggest powers, China and Japan.]]></description><author> Ayako Doi</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Power of Vietnam]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34023-2004Aug25.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34023-2004Aug25.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   The fury that the American experience in Vietnam still generates in U.S. politics and thought resembles the war itself. It is out of all proportion to reality. The tawdry campaign-ad battles of 2004 are a costly distraction from the underlying challenges that will change history.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Skirting Racism and Stereotypes]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20320-2004Aug20.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20320-2004Aug20.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   I was disappointed, shocked and outraged after reading "Tempest in a T-Shirt" [Style, Aug. 10].]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Mr. Feith's Surprising Proposal]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3890-2004Aug15.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3890-2004Aug15.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Regarding the Aug. 7 op-ed column "A War  Plan That Cast a Wide Net":]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[By the Seat of His Pants]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32518-2004Jul6.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32518-2004Jul6.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ It's Alan Greenspan's swan song. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates last week, as expected. The overnight Fed funds rate went from 1 percent, the lowest since the late 1950s, to 1.25 percent. Over the next year or two, most economists expect the Fed to continue increasing rates; the idea is to contain inflation without smothering the economic recovery. This seems to be Greenspan's last big move on the nation's money and credit markets. His term at the Fed ends in January 2006, and present law bars reappointment. If this final maneuver succeeds, it could secure a dazzling record.]]></description><author> Robert J. Samuelson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Bare Branches' and Danger in Asia]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24761-2004Jul2.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24761-2004Jul2.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   If tens of millions of your society's young men were unable to find wives, would you be concerned? This is the troubling scenario that China and India must now face.]]></description><author> Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea M. Den Boer</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Montgomery Blair's Distinct Diversity]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9871-2004Apr13.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9871-2004Apr13.html?nav=rss_world/asia/opinion</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:11:22 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Ylan Q. Mui [Magazine, April 4] accurately described the lack of integration in academic classes and programs at Montgomery Blair High School. As the parent of a Latino male who graduated from Blair in 2003, I found this  shocking.]]></description><author></author></item></channel></rss>