Section: National Post (Canada)
Father Raymond J. de Souza: Russia’s economic collapse offers the West a chance to rein the country in
How will editors in the Russian press craft their year-end stories? Will they lead with a burst of nationalism, celebrating the extravagant Sochi Olympics and the violent annexation of Crimea from Ukraine? Or are they still reeling from Monday’s collapse of the ruble, which has lost 50% of its value this year against the U.S. dollar?...
National Post editorial board: Keep Ukraine warm
This week, just as winter approaches, Russia suspended shipments of coal to Ukraine. Supplies had already been disrupted by Russian-backed insurgent activity in Ukraine’s eastern regions, which have fallen victim to a slow-motion Russian invasion in recent months. But the suspension of coal has taken an already acute problem and made it...
Michael Den Tandt: If the Tories really loved the military so much, it wouldn’t be systematically underfunded
Question: For how much longer can the federal Conservatives shamble along with a national defence and procurement posture that is disjointed, underfunded, poorly understood, chronically secretive and increasingly, obviously unequal to the challenges at hand? This week at the G20 in Brisbane, Australia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will wax...
Putin’s latest moves in Ukraine reveal his belief in West’s inaction
Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a daily round-up of quality punditry from across the globe. Today: With the White House still pretending Crimea wasn’t invaded, Vladmir Putin has correctly assessed the West’s appetite for going to war over eastern Ukraine — zero. As a result, Kyiv will be powerless to prevent the...
Anne Applebaum: Poland and its Jews are intertwined in a fight for survival
There were ministers and presidents, and an audience full of people from around the world. But at the opening of the beautiful Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw last week, there was one speech that stood out from all of the others. In the cold autumn sunlight, Marian Turski got up in front of the crowd and began with the following...
Charles Krauthammer: U.S. midterms represent a referendum on White House competence
WASHINGTON — Are the U.S. mid-term elections really about nothing? Democrats might like to think so, but they’re not. First, like all U.S. elections, this one is about the economy. The effect of the weakest recovery in two generations is reflected in President Obama’s 13-point underwater ratings for his handling of the economy....
Obama’s new agenda: Leave it for Hillary
There is a scenario that one can imagine is unspooling in the mental multiplexes of the president and his top White House advisers. It is Christmas time. Stockings everywhere are filled to overflowing due to a resurgent U.S. economy. In Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State is beginning to wither under the pressure of the American-led coalition. In...
Leonid Bershidsky: Ukraine is toppling Lenins 20 years too late
The Lenin statue in Kharkiv was the biggest in Ukraine. Perhaps that’s why it lasted longer than most, escaping what has been called the Leninfall — the mass teardown of monuments to the Soviet Union’s founder that Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution set off this year. It is now toppled, too, but it’s hard to see what that...
Kelly McParland: Obama’s about-face blows a hole in soft power’s fantasy world
President Barack Obama sudden about-face at last week’s high-profile UN gathering has only exacerbated the difficulty “progressives” have in sorting out how to bring order to the world. Mr. Obama came to office preaching one approach — dialogue, diplomacy, co-operation, brotherhood — and it didn’t work. Now he’s trying bombs....
National Post editorial board: Ukraine steps back from the brink
Ukraine has been giving foreign-policy observers whiplash in 2014. A year ago, the country was set to ratify a groundbreaking pact with the European Union, opening Ukraine up to increased trade and investment with Western business partners, and possibly setting the stage for full-blown EU membership. Then the country’s President, Viktor...
