IT:

An emerging alliance with India (Michael Barone, 7/05/05, Jewish World Review)

You didn't see it in the headlines this week, but it's likely to be more important in the long run than many things that received much more notice. The "it" in question is the New Framework for the U.S.-India Defense Relationship signed Monday by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

This agreement provides for increased cooperation on research and development of high-tech weaponry and joint and combined training exercises.

This is big news—a lot bigger news than (to name a couple of items that got more attention recently) German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's expression of hope that things will turn out well in Iraq or Sen. Joseph Biden's call for 1,500 French gendarmes to help us there. A few European troops or trainers more or less are not going to make a difference in the outcome in Iraq. But our emerging alliance with India—and that is what it is, whatever label you put on it—can make an enormous difference over the next long generation in Asia. [...]

There is not likely to be a formal NATO-like alliance among Japan, Australia, India, and the United States. But increasingly there is the functional equivalent of one. There is fierce debate in many quarters whether China will emerge as a military threat. Some, like strategist Thomas Barnett, argue that China is too well integrated into the international economy to allow its gains to be lost by military aggression. Others argue that the Chinese are seeking to project their military strength outward and cannot be counted on to refrain from aggression in Taiwan. Whichever view you take, our emerging alliance with India is good news. Despite official denials, it provides something of a counterweight to China. And it increases the clout of a nation that is showing what representative democracy, the rule of law, and the free marketplace can do.

Funny how the moron president is the only one in Washington who can see past the North Atlantic.

MORE:
Bush, a Friend of Africa (NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, 7/05/05, NY Times)

Those who care about Africa tend to think that the appropriate attitude toward President Bush is a medley of fury and contempt.

But the fact is that Mr. Bush has done much more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever did, increasing the money actually spent for aid there by two-thirds so far, and setting in motion an eventual tripling of aid for Africa. Mr. Bush's crowning achievement was ending one war in Sudan, between north and south. And while Mr. Bush has done shamefully little to stop Sudan's other conflict - the genocide in Darfur - that's more than Mr. Clinton's response to genocide in Rwanda (which was to issue a magnificent apology afterward).

So as the G-8 summit meeting convenes this week, focusing on Africa, it's worth acknowledging that Mr. Bush, and conservatives generally, have in many ways been great for the developing world.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 5, 2005 6:46 AM