David Bromwich has a fabulous post on ways that aristocracy perpetuates itself–Larry Summers's payday. And he offers this comment on James North's piece on Mahmood Mamdani's Darfur book, posted here yesterday:
The report confirms a suspicion about the way the legitimate cause of Darfur has sometimes served to distract attention from the catastrophe of Iraq. The distinction between the unpleasantness of responsibility and the pleasantness of philanthropy is exact and pertinent. There are 4,700,000 Iraqi refugees, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. What is the U.S. policy of assistance to Iraqi refugees whose lives were torn apart by the American bombing and occupation? Do we even have such a policy?
