the haunting sight of people waiting for help on rooftops in new orleans. hurricane katrina left over 1,800 people dead. it remains the most expensive natural disaster in u.s. history with estimates of nearly $150 billion in damages. it brings me to my question. what was the most expensive natural disaster in the world? a. 1998 yant ze river in china. b 2004 indian ocean tsunami, 2005 hurricane katrina or 2011 earthquake and tsunami in japan. this week s book of the week is eugene rogan s the arabs. a history. i m often asked what is the single best introduction to the arab world. i haven t had a good answer until this book. rogan has a superb job explaining how the past has shaped the modern middle east. a sweeping survey, wonderfully
agree. i think one way to judge it is to ask people around the world. the australians, vietnamese, south koreans, japanese facing china. the israelis and gulf arab facing a rising iran. they feel less safe. they feel an international order is coming apart. if you ask the people who are concerned about human rights in china or iran or cuba, they feel much less support from the united states. if you ask people whose concern is humanitarian affairs they will point to 8 million refugees and 250,000 or 300,000 slaughtered in syria with the united states doing basically nothing. i think as you go around the world and talk to people, they don t think that things are better under president obama, and they think he is the odd man out because he is turning away from america s responsibilities around the world. peter, what do you think of