A Chinese immigrant from Mao's China sees some similarities with his current country,
Dissing Dissent.

So why are these 40-year-old stories of political rigidity in a faraway land relevant in America today? I'm certainly not suggesting an equivalence between the political climate in America now and China then. But I am getting a whiff of the Leninism with which I grew up in the air of today's America, and it makes me feel increasingly uneasy.

I could not help but think about China recently during the flap over former State Department envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, who angered the White House with his finding that documents suggesting Iraq had tried to acquire nuclear material from Niger were in all likelihood forged. The administration went ahead anyway in citing the documents as part of its justification for invading Iraq. After Wilson wrote an article for the New York Times calling attention to the deception, someone in the administration allegedly leaked information to the press that Wilson's wife was an undercover CIA agent. In China, it was not just one official like Wilson who was targeted for retribution but countless individuals, many of whom spoke unwelcome truths about their country, only to be rewarded with public shaming or prison sentences.

This story is two weeks old but it is an important one. With unemployment running 60-70% in Iraq why is this going on? Isn't it "curious" that KBR, Halliburton and Bechtel are all mentioned in the article? Contractors in Iraq Accused of Importing Labor and Exporting Profit. Something like this can only hurt the reconstruction effort.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 7:39 AM