David Brooks
9/10/2010

Brooks says the notion that America is in decline is debatable, but it is undergoing changes that are structural, not cyclical. Our best talent is entering the helping or consulting fields, which are less prosperous. Yet there is also a shortage of mechanics and other skilled workers because the middle class saw their way into affluence by leaving the working class trades. And the lower classes are plagued with social breakdown, which results in wasted human capital. Brooks says short-term stimulus is a distraction. The real issue is gentility shift and whether we can address it.

Brooks is a New York Times columnist.

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Nicholas D. Kristof
9/9/2010

A Jewish woman who lost her husband in the September 11 attacks is planning to speak at mosques in order to recruit members to join her in her battle against poverty and illiteracy in Afghanistan. Kristof looks at how Susan Retik and her partner, another widow from September 11, started a nonprofit called Beyond the 11th to do so, and he reviews many of the organization’s initiatives. Although education and employment are not panaceas, they do chip away at fundamentalism over time, and the work offers an antidote to anti-Islamic hysteria on this anniversary of 9/11.

Kristof is a New York Times columnist.

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William B. Caldwell
9/9/2010

As thousands of Afghans train, fight, and die for their nation, working and fighting to make a better future, we should give them the tools, hope, and respect to chart a new and better path for their people. Toward that end, the NATO training mission has about 27,000 recruits from the Afghan army and police in mandatory literacy programs at any given time. That number will grow to 50,000 by this December and to about 100,000 by June of next year. Afghan soldiers and police are plenty intelligent, and literacy will help them become a modern force.

Lt. Gen. Caldwell is commander of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan.

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Bret Stephens
8/17/2010

In the controversy over the Ground Zero mosque, opponents of which are being widely branded as

bigots, Stephens says the Ground Zero mosque imam has earned wide congratulations while true reformers have gone ignored. The fundamental problem with too many self-described moderate Muslims is that moderate Muslims denounce

terror that’s committed in the name of Islam but deny that such terror has anything to do with their religion. By contrast, reform-minded Muslims denounce terror that’s committed in the name of Islam while acknowledging the role of their religion in inspiring it. He concludes by urging caution, stating that when it comes to heralding the arrival of Islamic moderates, there’s nothing more embarrassing than a case of premature congratulation.

Stephens writes ‘Global View’ for the Journal.

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David Brooks
5/25/2010

There were two periods of enlightenment, Brooks says, which include the French and British Enlightenments. Americans have never figured out which they are children of. Brooks looks at each vision of change and compares them. He says the core question in American politics is whether our nation’s founding was a radical departure or an act of preservation. Brooks adds that this was a source of dispute between Jefferson and Hamilton and between and within political parties today.

Brooks is a New York Times columnist.

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