“The bottom line of the testimony this week from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker is that, even after the surge, what gains have been made in Iraq are, as Petraeus put it, ‘fragile and reversible,’” columnist E.J. Dionne wrote. “For the administration’s friends, this can only mean that we need to stay the course. President Bush endorsed that approach yesterday, meaning that 140,000 or so troops are likely to still be in Iraq when he leaves office. But the administration’s critics (and even some sympathizers) see the current policy as the equivalent of constructing an expensive road, under hazardous conditions, without being able to explain where the road will lead. The road becomes an end in itself. The point is to keep building it in the hope that it will eventually arrive at some lovely destination. Such a project can go on only so long before someone points out the obvious, which is what Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., did during the hearings: ‘I think people want a sense of what the end is going to look like.’ ”
The Kansas Health Institute News Service sounded the alarm this week in reporting that the state hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie have had budget problems and operated recently at or over their licensed capacities — 465 and 176 beds, respectively. Osawatomie State Hospital had 32 admissions over the weekend. “We’re just out of money, basically,” Greg Valentine, superintendent at Osawatomie, told the KHI News Service. Full beds also mean 16-hour shifts for workers, who cover them for “comp time” because there is no money for overtime. Larned can’t afford to fill the 100 full-time jobs it has open. As our editorial today argues, before final adjournment, lawmakers need to work with the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services to assess and meet the hospitals’ needs. They also need to factor in the state’s community mental health agencies, which recently have seen their funding cut under a new payment system; the governor’s 2009 budget left the centers $15.8 million short of what they say they need.
It’s great that President Bush will return to Greensburg to deliver the high school commencement address on May 4. The event should be a memorable experience for students and families on the one-year anniversary of the tornado that destroyed their town. Bush’s presence also will put Greensburg back in the national news, which should help its rebuilding efforts.
Hillary Clinton is urging President Bush to boycott the Olympic Games’ opening ceremonies to protest China’s invasion of Tibet and human rights abuses. Bush has left open the possibility that he might not attend. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown already have made that decision (though Brown’s office says he’ll attend the closing ceremony).
Though there’s a significant difference between a president skipping an Olympics ceremony and a country boycotting an entire Games, boycotts should be viewed with skepticism generally. Why make the Games the place to take a stand on human rights?
President Jimmy Carter’s boycott of the 1980 games in the Soviet Union was grossly unfair to the hundreds of U.S. athletes who had trained for years for the event. And it didn’t have much of an impact, beyond punishing our athletes and encouraging a tit-for-tat response (the Soviets boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles games).
There are better ways to call attention to a country’s human rights record and hold its leaders accountable, through economic sanctions and other tools.
The Wichita region has opportunities to participate in all areas of the state’s bioscience effort, Tom Thornton, president and CEO of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, told The Eagle editorial board this week. That’s good to hear, given that the initiative has seemed mostly focused on northeast Kansas. But our region needs to be aggressive in seizing those opportunities.
The authority announced this week that it was helping fund an eminent scholar position at Wichita State University and Via Christi’s Orthopaedic Research Institute. The authority may also choose Wichita this year for a biomaterials center for innovation. And Thornton said Wichita could play a key part in bioenergy development and health care clinical trials. Wichita’s strength, Thornton said, is the collaboration between WSU researchers and “customers” such as aviation companies and the medical community.
“The bottom line of the testimony this week from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker is that, even after the surge, what gains have been made in Iraq are, as Petraeus put it, ‘fragile and reversible,’” columnist E.J. Dionne wrote. “For the administration’s friends, this can only mean that we need to stay the course. President Bush endorsed that approach yesterday, meaning that 140,000 or so troops are likely to still be in Iraq when he leaves office. But the administration’s critics (and even some sympathizers) see the current policy as the equivalent of constructing an expensive road, under hazardous conditions, without being able to explain where the road will lead. The road becomes an end in itself. The point is to keep building it in the hope that it will eventually arrive at some lovely destination. Such a project can go on only so long before someone points out the obvious, which is what Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., did during the hearings: ‘I think people want a sense of what the end is going to look like.’ ”
