Churchill at War

I took the liberty of reproducing in entirety this very short op-ed piece in today’s WSJ:

No one knows how Winston Churchill would have fought the war on terror or what he might have thought of the U.S. practice of holding members of al Qaeda at Guantanamo or secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. But in newly declassified records of the British Bulldog’s War Cabinet meetings, Churchill offers some posthumous insights on wartime leadership.

In 1942, the Cabinet discussed the options were Hitler to fall into British hands. “All sorts of complications ensue as soon as you admit a fair trial,” Churchill said, according to notes taken by the deputy cabinet secretary Sir Norman Brook. To avoid such a “farce,” which he thought would distract from the war effort, Churchill favored swifter means of dealing with Hitler. “This man is the mainspring of evil. Instrument — electric chair, for gangsters."

Churchill called other Nazi leaders “outlaws” and argued that those who fell into British hands should be executed rather than put on trial. (There is no record of his views on water-boarding.)

At another Cabinet meeting, he advocated shooting German POWs if the Nazis were to kill British prisoners (the U.K., for the record, never did). After the Germans massacred the people of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, Churchill proposed, perhaps again half seriously, “wiping out German villages by air attack on a three-for-one basis.” The Cabinet overruled him.

Churchill might wonder at today’s attitudes toward fighting terrorists, about American “torture” of prisoners, and about the U.S. President who’s often derided in London as a “cowboy.” The British Prime Minister’s clarity about the Nazi threat in World War II got his nation and the world successfully through that conflict.

The more I learn about Winston Churchill, the more I admire his wartime leadership. I’m largely at least satisfied with President Bush’s leadership in the war on terror, and occasionally inspired. But I’d feel much safer — and more confident of the eventual outcome — if that war was being led by someone with the clarity and … ruthlessness … of Winston Churchill…

Economic Freedom

Estonia, that’s who.

In the 2006 Index of Economic Freedom (click on the thumbnail at right to read the whole chart), Estonia places 7th in the world — and the United States is in a three-way tie for 9th. Estonia’s Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania come in at 39th and 23rd, respectively. Clearly little Estonia is doing something right, as I’ve been personally observing for more than ten years now…

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O’Grady (the co-editor of the 2006 Index) has an op-ed piece ($) specifically lauding Estonia’s economic miracle. Some highlights:

From “Wish They Could All Be Like Estonia ($)":

With the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall the world witnessed a backlash against the overintrusive state. A rallying cry in favor of economic liberalization went up around much of the globe. Some governments — notably in Eastern Europe — used the momentum to push deep, structural reform. Others — notably in Latin America — bungled the opportunity.

Is there any way to explain why it is that some countries have been able to restructure their economies so radically while others have been left in the clutches of special interests?

...

Chile has been in various stages of economic reform since the 1973 coup that ousted Salvador Allende, who was threatening to take the country over the communist cliff. The return to democracy in 1989 brought about a series of left-of-center governments that, while boasting that they had not turned back the economic liberalism of the Pinochet dictatorship, slowed the pace of reform dramatically. The current socialist presidency of Ricardo Lagos even reversed liberalization in labor markets.

Meanwhile in Estonia, as former Prime Minister Mart Laar likes to explain, the post-Soviet period has been marked by rapid, deep reform. Communism was so reviled that policy makers, almost instinctively, chose its direct opposite and promptly enshrined the preference in law.

The results may explain why political support for economic liberalism continues in Estonia, while in Chile free markets are under assault even by center-right politicians. The difference is the rate of change of progress for citizens. In 2004, with reforms kicking in, Estonia’s per capita GDP was almost $7,500, nearly double what it was in 2001 — $3,951, when the country ranked 14th in the Index of Economic Freedom. In Chile, after 30 years of reform, per capita GDP remains below $5,900, edging up only slightly from $4,784 in 2001, when Chile ranked 13th.

The tale of two small nations tells a wider global story. Is it any wonder for example that Brazilians, who after almost two decades of being told they are converting to a market economy, widely reject the notion? Improvements have occurred, for instance in monetary stability, but the country is still ranked “mostly unfree,” with a per capita GDP of $3,500. Maybe Mr. Laar could pay them a visit.

Mart Laar has been getting a lot of good press in the past few months, world-wide. As has Estonia itself. And with good reason — each time I visit, I am impressed afresh with the vibrance of its rollicking economy. And as well with what I read of the process by which the country’s leaders make economic decisions, and by the decisions themselves. The changes in Estonia in just the 10+ years I’ve been visiting it are simply amazing — and contrasts with its neighbors (especially Russia) are especially astonishing.

It’s good to see their accomplishments being recognized…

Morning After

Yesterday morning Debi and I, along with Lea and Mo’i (our two beautiful field spaniels), took our usual walk a mile or so up the hill south of our home. It was special yesterday because this was the “morning after” the first big rain of the season.

Visually, everything was clean and bright and green. Olfactorally (??), the fresh and spicy desert smells were back — and we know from experience that they’ll keep getting better and better from now until early summer.

There were some more changes as well, some a little subtle (such as the more saturated colors of the damp rocks). My favorite: the many expanses of solid rock on the hillsides covered with a thin film of water, flashing and glinting in the morning light. These wet rocks are very common in this area. They’re caused by a seep or a spring that flows onto a sloped area of smooth rock — and the granite that our hills has many such rocks. Some of them are quite large (as much as a few acres), and when one of them has a sheet of water on it, the visual effect can be spectacular. Typically these rocks are curved and have small imperfections in them, which means that the reflective sheet of water is not flat — it’s more like a jumbled pile of broken mirror pieces in its visual effects. It sparkles, in other words. And the effects change as you move, as the wind blows, and as the sun moves through the sky…