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Here's how some of my
journalistic crusades turned out:
Winner: Baltic freedom. My most
provocative dateline in the 80's put the story ahead
of the lede: "Riga, Soviet-occupied Latvia." Because
the U.S. never recognized the Hitler-Stalin pact, in
1991 we encouraged the Baltic "captive nations" to
become the wedge that began the breakup of the
Soviet Union. Al Gore and Strobe Talbott later
backed up that breakaway by proposing NATO
expansion, despite Moscow's protests - the good deed
of Clinton foreign policy.
Loser: State-sponsored gambling. For
years I railed against the deceptive and regressive
taxation and something-for-nothing morality
perpetrated by state lotteries, as well as the state
deals with sometimes phony Indian tribal leaders to
victimize the gullible in glitzy casinos. But
gambling, euphemized as "gaming," is booming,
enriching the sleazy while preying on the addicted
and corrupting slots-happy governors.
Winner: Israel's security. Some of us
backed Ariel Sharon and Israeli realists for a
generation, while State Department "evenhandedness"
was all thumbs in failing to come to grips with
Arafat's aim of conquest. In the future, if
Palestinians confront their terrorist minority and
get realistic about borders, Israel will relocate
some of its settlers, forcibly if necessary, to
secure the peace settlement.
Loser: Media competition. Merger mania
and antitrust wimps have allowed a dangerous
giantism to bestride the worlds of media, energy and
finance. Our voices calling for competition in the
massive-media wilderness go unheeded; only some
monopoly scandal or derivatives-driven collapse will
awaken the public to the need to "break up the
Yankees."
Winner: Kurdish autonomy. Kurds say
"the Kurds have no friends," but their legendary
chieftain, Mustafa al-Barzani, was my friend. His
oft-betrayed people, who suffered poison-gas attacks
under Saddam, have built a safe, prosperous
democracy in Iraqi Kurdistan, an inspiration to
Iraqis and Muslims around the world. (Shortchanged
Kurds tipped me to the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.)
Although I underestimated the staying power of
terrorists and Baathists, I believe Kurds will be
part of the Iraqi majority that will rule, and
history will judge our blow for freedom to be a
winner.
Loser: Privacy. Civil libertarians
were fighting the good fight against computer
stalkers; insurance, medical and banking intruders;
and government snoops who wanted to merge F.B.I.
files with credit-card tracking. But after 9/11 and
the terrorist threat, plain fear overrode concerns
about freedom from surveillance by ubiquitous
cameras, digital recorders and computer cookies.
Because politicians don't want to appear "soft on
security," personal privacy is on the ropes.
Winner: My good fortune. I was
propelled to this point by three remarkable bosses:
the columnist Tex McCrary, tough but fair taskmaster
("nobody ever drowned in his own sweat"); the
unforgettable Richard Nixon, who gave me the chance
to participate in history, observe great moments and
learn from great mistakes; and the courageous
publisher Arthur "Punch" Sulzberger, who in 1973
said he wanted "another point of view" on this page,
and who stuck loyally with me when he got it.
http://www.nytimes.com
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