A front-page article in today's New York Times runs under the headline, "Bush Steps Up Appeal to Afghans To Rid Their Country of Taliban."
The article reports, "Also today, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan pledged his country's support in the fight against terrorism, in contrast to Japan's neutrality in the Persian Gulf war."
Japan was not neutral in the Persian Gulf War. The government in Japan gave America about $8 billion to help pay for the war. On January 17, 1991, when the war began in earnest, Prime Minister Kaifu expressed Japan's "firm support" for the anti-Iraq coalition forces. There was some grumbling at the time that Japan didn't send troops to fight. But "neutrality" is not an accurate characterization of the posture of a country that spent about $8 billion directly to support the 1991 war against Iraq. It's certainly not accurate to talk about an offer of support being a "contrast" to what happened in 1991. Japan pledged support in 1991, too.
This the second time in the past two weeks that the Times has, in a front-page story, botched a basic fact about who was on which side of the Gulf War. On September 19, 2001, a front-page story reported that "Egypt and Jordan were both crucial allies in the 1991 coalition against President Saddam Hussein of Iraq." In fact, as Smartertimes.com noted back on September 19, Jordan was at most neutral in 1991, a stance that was widely interpreted as sympathetic to Saddam. The Times has yet to run a formal correction of the September 19, 2001, article. So it will be interesting to see if the newspaper bothers to correct today's error.
Capital Gains: Alan Greenspan's advice to Congress that now is not the moment for a capital gains tax cut is the subject of a massive, front-page headline in this morning's New York Times. "Strong Opposition; Fed Chairman Is Among Those Warning About Capital-Gains Cuts," the Times headline says. One has to read way, way down into the article to learn that "Mr. Greenspan restated his support for reducing or eliminating the capital gains tax in the long run."
Note: In observance of Yom Kippur, Smartertimes.com will not appear on Thursday, September 27. The next update will be Friday morning September 28.