War, poverty, and disease in Somalia

An important NY Times article on the need for more aid and international focus on the underreported humanitarian crisis in Somalia.

One thing that I resent in this article, however, is the pitting of one humanitarian crisis (Darfur) against another (Somalia), as if efforts to help the two were mutually exclusive:

“Many of these kids are going to die,” said Eric Laroche, the head of United Nations humanitarian operations in Somalia. “We don’t have the capacity to reach them.”

He added: “If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years.”

The officials working on Somalia are trying to draw more attention to the country’s plight, which they feel has fallen into Darfur’s shadow. They have recently organized several trips, including one on Monday, for journalists to see for themselves.

Both Somalia and Darfur should be priorities for the mainstream media, as well as other areas like Burma, Uganda, Chechnya, etc. We shouldn't pit these crises against each other, but rather cut down on our focus of less pressing news.

For example, these crises should trump the Natalee Holloway death, anything to do with Kanye West's mother and Larry King, Britney Spears, or Dennis Quaid's children--all "top news" items on cnn's website as I glance at it now at 1:05 a.m.

I guess in order to get some more press the Somalis should start taking rapping lessons or become hot blonde chics. Even better, they could develop a drug addiction and then walk off Larry King. Maybe then they'll be deserving of more of our attention.

Why I'm not voting for Rudy Giuliani

This video about sums up why I'm not voting for Rudy Giuliani if he gets the Republican Party nomination for president. In this video Norman Podhoretz, senior foreign policy advisor for Giuliani, "debates" Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek and foreign policy savant, over what the U.S. policy should be towards Iran. Podhoretz's nonsensical answers about bombing Iran and random ravings about Hitler pretty much reaffirm my suspicions about the disaster in foreign policy that would be a Giuliani president:



Still not convinced? Take a look at "Mr. 9/11"'s piece in foreign affairs.

Giuliani displays an utter lack of knowledge about the rest of the world, and a scant grasp on international relations theory, history, and applications. Compound that with a fanatical, misguided, and unrealistic approach to Iran, and you've got a presidential disaster.

For a more sensible and pragmatic approach to Iran, check out Fareed Zakaria's piece in Newsweek from October:

In a speech last week, Rudy Giuliani said that while the Soviet Union and China could be deterred during the cold war, Iran can't be. The Soviet and Chinese regimes had a "residual rationality," he explained. Hmm. Stalin and Mao—who casually ordered the deaths of millions of their own people, fomented insurgencies and revolutions, and starved whole regions that opposed them—were rational folk. But not Ahmadinejad, who has done what that compares? One of the bizarre twists of the current Iran hysteria is that conservatives have become surprisingly charitable about two of history's greatest mass murderers.