Sunday, February 10, 2008

Lee for President   [John O'Sullivan]

My old boss, UPI's Arnaud de Borchgrave—still beating the world on scoops—has just published a superb and worrying interview with Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew on Afghanistan, Iraq, the state of the West, the Islamic bomb, the folly of Russia's policy towards Iran, and much else. Lee is arguably the most successful living statesman who has transformed his own island-republic of Singapore from a colonial backwater into a small great power.

He has also consistently got the big issues right from the 1960s onwards. That's why it's worth paying attention to his views. You can read the full piece here.

The headline story in this interview is his view that the U.S. must knock European heads together to win the war in Afghanistan, but also realize that this can be accomplished only by abandoning its attempt to make Afghanistan democratic and instead doing a deal with the warlords. Otherwise Washington risks losing and weakening itself and the West in competition with a rising China and a revived Russia.

You don't agree? That's just one argument in a wide-ranging interview—and not the most sensational. Read in particular his response to the question: Should the U.S. bomb Iran?

Alas, Lee is not eligible for the U.S. presidency. But whoever is elected should listen to him.

02/10 08:57 AMShare