Opinion
Lawrence Journal-World l LJWorld.com l Friday, October 2, 2015
Dreams run into reality in Syria
EDITORIALS
Efficiency? It will be interesting to see what consultants come up with to improve government “efficiency” in Kansas.
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s they struggled to close a state budget gap earlier this year, frustrated Kansas legislators approved spending up to $3 million on a government efficiency study that they hoped would make their job easier next year. Although many legislators questioned the need to spend so much money on such a study, the measure eventually passed, and last month, the New Yorkbased consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal was selected to perform the efficiency study and make recommendations to the 2016 Legislature. Advocates of smaller government often talk about increasing efficiency as a way to cut expenses. Ideally, increased efficiency should allow government to perform the same duties but in a streamlined or smarter way that is less expensive. Sometimes, however, being more “efficient” actually amounts to government shirking duties, dropping services or pushing responsibilities onto local units of government. Such measures reduce spending but perhaps not in an acceptable or desirable way. Alvarez & Marsal was hired in 2013 to do an efficiency study for the state of Louisiana. The recommendations that resulted from that study may be interesting to Kansas residents. The Louisiana report included a list of suggestions that supposedly would save the state $2.7 billion over several years. That’s a significant amount, but the report drew criticism because many of its cost-cutting recommendations already had been considered by the state, and many of its estimated cost savings lacked supporting documentation. Among “efficiencies” recommended in the report was the sale of more than a hundred pieces of Louisiana state property. The sale would raise an estimated $28 million, which would help the state in the short term, but it doesn’t do much to cut expenses over the long haul. A few other recommendations in the report got considerable attention in news reports. The consultants recommended increasing Louisiana transportation revenue by selling more advertising on state roads, bridges and rest stops. To reduce expenses, they called for reducing the highway construction fleet and reducing the thickness of asphalt road overlays to one inch. To cut health care expenses, the consultants suggested requiring more pregnant Medicaid recipients to use midwives or doulas rather than delivering their babies in a hospital. The study also recommended that administrative management for uninsured residents be shifted from the state to local government entities. Are these the kinds of suggestions Kansas legislators are looking for? Maybe the New York consultants got different marching orders in Kansas than in Louisiana, but the conclusions of the Louisiana study certainly raise some questions about just what these consultants will come up with for Kansas. LAWRENCE
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In 1992, not long after the Soviet Union collapsed, I wandered through the massive Russian Embassy compound in Damascus. As a center of Soviet power off limits to Westerners, it had been a beehive of activity, with about 5,000 civilian and military advisers. Now it was virtually deserted. As news flows in about the new Russian military buildup in Syria, I can’t help thinking how delicious this reversal must be to Vladimir Putin, who has openly rued the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin’s yearning to
Trudy Rubin
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trubin@phillynews.com
What’s astonishing is how the administration has failed to read Putin.” reexert Soviet — whoops, I mean Russian — global influence is no secret. So why is it so hard for President Obama to understand the Russian leader’s intentions in the Middle East? Having blindsided U.S. officials with his sudden infusion of tanks, planes, and missiles into Syria, Putin urged the world this week to rally behind the vicious regime of Bashar al-Assad. In a U.N. speech, Putin proposed a “broad international coalition” (no doubt led by Moscow) that would fight terrorism — like “the anti-Hitler coalition” in World War II. There’s only one problem with this formula: Neither Putin nor Assad is interested in taking on ISIS. Indeed, the Russian president knows well but cares not that Assad’s war crimes against civilians have fueled Sunni support for ISIS. Rather, Moscow seeks to firm up Assad’s wobbly hold on power while building an unprecedented air and naval presence on the Mediterranean and projecting himself as a world leader. He also hopes to corral Obama into
helping him achieve that goal. What’s astonishing is how the administration has failed to read Putin. Despite frequent meetings between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, U.S. officials were caught by surprise by Moscow’s military actions in Syria. They were equally startled by Russian air strikes there on Wednesday — aimed not at ISIS but at anti-Assad militias, including some backed by Washington and its allies. The administration’s somnolence can only be explained by its wishful-thinking policy toward Moscow. In 2013, Putin saved Obama from having to act on his own red line and bomb Syrian military sites after Assad killed more than 1,000 civilians with chemical weapons. Seeing Obama waffle and turn to a reluctant Congress to green-light the strikes, Putin offered him a face-saver by pressing Assad to give up (most of) his chemical weapons. Never mind that Assad continues to kill tens of thousands of civilians with barrel bombs dropped on hospitals and markets, and still uses chlorine gas shells that aren’t covered by the chemical weapons accord. Despite administration denials, some officials still seem to nurture false hopes that Russia can rescue Obama’s failed Syria policy. They dream that Moscow will squeeze Assad to negotiate a peace deal in which the Syrian leader agrees to
exit after a transition and be replaced by a government of regime and opposition figures. With an inclusive government, so the thinking goes, Sunni support for ISIS would fade. Putin’s U.N. speech and Moscow’s military actions in Syria make clear that this hope is a pipe dream. Like Assad, the Russian leader considers any opposition to the Syrian regime to be the work of terrorists. To him, the 2011 peaceful uprising of middleclass Syrians who sought a better government was nothing but a Western plot. So, as Wednesday’s bombing made clear, Putin will help Assad’s efforts to push back against non-ISIS militias, while protecting his hold on Damascus and the Syrian coast. Russian air support will make it hard for Arab states to supply anti-Assad militias. As for ISIS, the Syrian military hasn’t fought it in the past and won’t in the future. Assad needs ISIS to survive so he can claim that the world needs him. As for the Russians, they won’t commit ground troops to fight ISIS jihadis. In the words of Andrei Kolesnikov, of the Carnegie Endowment’s Moscow Center: “I think Russia is not ready to fight a thousand kilometers from its borders. It would be a repetition of the Afghanistan story.” Instead, Putin has made his demands clear: The West and Sunni Arab states must cease their opposition to Assad, and press their Syrian militia allies to ac-
Mower rescue
To the editor: The increase in fall enrollment at KU is excellent news (“For second year in a row, KU sees enrollment rise,” Sept. 26, and “Enrollment boost,” Sept. 29). Yet, the drop in the number of black students in this fall’s freshmen class should temper any celebration. Further, the rise in the number of international students is not a suitable basis for measuring the status of “minority students” or campus “diversity,” and it distorts the context in which we should understand both concepts. Specifically, internationalizing the discussion of racial/ethnic diversity obscures an ongoing problem, at KU and elsewhere, of recruiting and retaining African Americans and other historically underrepresented domestic racial groups, all of whom have had unique experiences of political, social and economic subordination in the United States. Any democratic society worthy of the description should be judged by how discontented its members remain with the work of extending access and participation to all. We should do no less in judging “progress” at our institutions of higher learning. Clarence Lang, Lawrence
To the editor: I recently was transporting my just-repaired mower from northeast Lawrence to my northwest residence. Arriving at home — no mower! I immediately backtracked twice and no sign of the mower or tiedowns that had broken loose. I was resting in my recliner, saddened by the event when my brain kicked in with, “Call the police and report it!” The very nice dispatch lady said “We may have it. … I’ll call you back.” Within three minutes the call came. The mower was found in the Sixth and Wakarusa area and taken to the nearby fire station where a police officer picked it up. It was at 111 E. 11th St. Arrangements were made and I picked it up within an hour. Case closed. Thanks to all involved! Eugene Reding, Lawrence
Housing need To the editor: The Sept. 28 JournalWorld includes two pieces that some might not realize are related: the front page article on the sales tax break for the Eldridge Hotel expansion project and David Smith’s letter discussing homelessness and affordable housing.
— Trudy Rubin is a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
OLD HOME TOWN
PUBLIC FORUM
Diversity gap
cept the status quo ante at peace talks. But this scenario, too, is a pipe dream. Syria’s Sunnis will never again accept a regime that has committed staggering atrocities against tens of thousands of civilians. Nor can Syria’s myriad non-ISIS militias easily be shut down. The fighting could continue for a long time, with ISIS being the main beneficiary. Putin probably knows his Plan A can’t work, so I suspect that (unlike Obama) he has a Plan B: Forget diplomacy. Solidify Assad’s hold on Damascus and the coast by force. Create an Assadstan on the Mediterranean, which will become a territorial base from which Russia can exert powerful new regional influence. Let Sunnis kill each other, let the refugees keep flowing. Wait for the West and Arab states to come begging for intelligence and cooperation against ISIS. The only slim hope for surcease is that all sides might agree to a temporary ceasefire in place — but the Russians’ arrival may rule out this option. In Syria, Obama based his hopes on diplomacy without providing any military support to moderates, which might have made a difference three years ago. Now Putin claims to be interested in diplomacy while backing his Syrian ally with force. He is too cynical for dreams.
The poverty rate in Lawrence is 24.8 percent. Our severely underfunded Section 8 program, which subsidizes housing for low-wage earners, can only provide help for one in four qualifying people. Searching the regular market, a current guest at the shelter with a $9/hour job could only find a $600 one-bedroom apartment or a $500 room in a private home, neither feasible on her income. Adding water, trash and utility fees and $25 to $35 nonrefundable application fees results in yet another stressed, unhoused working Lawrencian. When Boulder, Colo., officials noticed effects of economic development decisions on the poor and working class in their community, they made affordable housing a priority with funding sources for permanent affordable housing located throughout their city. Our mayor and three commissioners take seriously the needed balance of economic development and affordable housing. Support them and groups like Justice Matters in protecting and expanding affordable housing for all income levels, including those who work in our local industries and who serve our visitors. Sara L. Taliaferro, Lawrence
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From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Oct. 2, 1915: years “The day was ideago al for the Vinland IN 1915 fair. Long before noon the groves were well filled with people and the roadway and side lots were filled with vehicles. At noon baskets were opened and the good dinners were enjoyed by everyone. Prof. Crabtree of Manhattan was the judge and he did not lose a minute from morning till night. In the agricultural exhibit he said the showing of corn was the best he had seen in the state.... The household department was full of interest for the ladies and even the men liked to hang around a bit. There were exhibits of cut flowers that would back California off the stage, the canned fruit would make the famous fifty-seven varieties look cheap and tawdry…” — Compiled by Sarah St. John
Read more Old Home Town at LJWorld.com/news/lawrence/ history/old_home_town.
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