Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The other eleventh day revisited

Here's an interesting article by Richard Rubin about America's last surviving Great War veterans (requires registration). What was it all about?

Just rediscovered: Michael Totten's prescient essay on Turkey, from several years ago. His point about the differences between Europe and America is well-taken: America has a big hammer and tends to think of everything as a nail. Europe ignores nails, even when staring at them. Europeans (not their governments, but their populations) overwhelmingly oppose Turkey's entrance into the EU, because it puts the border of Europe, not at the old Cold War line, but well into the Middle East. As Totten puts it, Turkey is a nail. And, as Yugoslavia proved, Europe lacks hammers.

Don't miss out on Totten's recent, superb reportage-essays from Kurdistan and Iran. His policy advice is deeply informed and worth more than most of the chatter in Western capitals. And I wish I could write like that.

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