You don’t need to read all of James Kirchick’s latest Commentary article to find his spot-on description of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

Kirchick asks why Kristof continues to defend Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson, despite the overwhelming evidence that much of Mortenson’s story about building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan is false.

If you’ve read Kristof’s work, you’ll appreciate Kirchick’s verdict:

Mortenson and Kristof share not only a worldview, but also a personal style. Both men seem to view themselves as secular saints. They extol their own gallantry and compassion as much as, if not more than, the causes they trumpet. Most of Kristof’s columns involve him traveling to some benighted land, interviewing a native or two, bemoaning Americans’ lack of interest in said benighted land (an ignorance that Kristof, who can travel the world on his seemingly unlimited Times expense account, of course doesn’t share), and then demanding that the United States throw more money at the problem. He wears his compassion on his rolled-up sleeves and wants you to know it.

The downfall of Greg Mortenson — which should in no way discredit the worthy cause of building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly for girls — implicates Kristof not only because he has so often praised this charlatan’s work. It has expose the dangerous naivete and near-childlike ignorance that lies at the heart of Kristof’s fundamental conceit: that it is charity, and charity alone, that will fix all our problems. Why deal with the complexities of the world when you can blame American indifference and greed?