Shamelessly stolen from Infonaut on Slashdot.
The piece betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how foreign policy is shaped. First, the world we live in is not black and white. More often than not, we’re dealing with international problems that have no clean, clear answer.
For example, it’s easy to dismiss American Cold War fears of Castro’s Cuba. But then, he did ask for and receive assistance from the Soviets in the form of missiles, didn’t he?
The Vietnam War was by almost anyone’s estimation, a wasteful, stupid blunder of immense proportions. But let us not forget that a large part of the reason the US got involved in the first place was that the Soviets were making advances of one sort or another on almost every continent. They had what the US perceived to be a client state in North Vietnam.
The Soviet Union espoused a form of government that viewed the destruction of capitalism and the bourgeous democracies as a primary goal.
US foreign policy was dictated by the overarching threat of communism. Sure, now it seems a joke – it collapsed from the inside, from its own weight. But just as sabre-rattling from the West scared the Soviets, the US was scared by Soviet threats as well.
Yes, there are other factors at work. Yes, the Soviet Union is now dead. Yes, mistakes are still being made in US foreign policy.
But the September 11th attacks didn’t happen because Bin Laden was pissed off about the Vietnam War, or about the Bay of Pigs, or our meddling with Iran. Bin Laden was pissed off because we supported Saudi Arabia, a country whose rulers he sees as morally corrupt.
Our reasons for supporting the House of Saud over the years primarily stemmed from our desire to maintain stability in the Middle East. During the Cold War, the Soviets were trying as hard as possible to exert influence there, in hopes that by choking off the supply of oil to the West, Europe and the United States would become vulnerable.
We utilized balance of power politics, the same thing that Metternich used in Europe to avoid a major war for years. It’s not policy driven by right and wrong. It’s policy driven by expediency. It’s not perfect. Hell, it’s barely adequate much of the time.
But I’d much rather trust foreign policy to people who are thinking of overall balances and stability and peace, than people who would rather persue blindly optimistic policy based on idealism.
The track record of idealistic US foreign policy is pretty dismal. Woodrow Wilson got us involved in WWI too late, because he was loathe to go to war. Then his idealism failed at the Treaty of Versailles, because he went along with France’s desire to humiliate and punish Germany.
Jimmy Carter was so infatuated with the idea of working with the Soviets for detente, that when they surprised him by invading Afghanistan, he launched a massive arms buildup (yes, Reagan didn’t start it – Carter did) and sent the CIA in to support the mujahedin.
So while it’s easy to throw rocks, and it’s easy to look at history in retrospect, dealing with the day-to-daymatters of international relations is a mite trickier.
The UN won’t save you from terrorists. Germany won’t work to protect American jobs by keeping the price of oil stable. Japan isn’t going to keep India and Pakistan from nuking each other. It’s a big, complicated, dangerous world out there.
Finally, the argument that Americans are being misled by the government about US foreign policy is a load of crap. American foreign policy aims are well known to anyone who takes the time to read about them.
Foreign policy is a complex topic, and you can’t get a grip on it by watching E! Entertainment News. Less than half the eligible population of the US votes. News shows that stick to news get lower ratings than those that pander to the lowest common denominator.
Americans largely don’t want to think about international affairs. That is a far more serious problem for the US in the long run than any specific policy blunders.
OK, the T Shirt Countdown has reset the counters for the month. Please go ahead and wander over to my store every couple days and ratchet my counter higher. It’s pure meaningless puffery, but entertaining nonetheless.
Hey, while you’re over there, pick up a t-shirt or teddy bear for <insert holiday>!
According to a study of veterans and vet benefits:
Despite the fact that recently discharged service members are trained, skilled, disciplined, dedicated and drug-free, Principi said, almost 20 percent of those aged 20 to 24 are unemployed — a rate higher than their nonveteran counterparts.
The panelists ran into some hard truths when they explored veterans education benefits, he said. Under the current program, service members contribute $1,200 of their first year’s pay to enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill. Principi said about half of those who contribute fail to use their benefits.
While many young people cite education as the reason they join the military, the commission found that increasingly more of them see the military as a detour rather than as a route to college.
The commission recommended Congress pass legislation for the government to pay for honorably discharged members with four years on active duty to attend any school in America for which they qualify. The panelists said the scholarship should cover full tuition, fees and books, and provide a $400 monthly stipend. The four-year service clock would start on the enactment date of the new law; members already on active duty at that time would qualify by re-enlisting or extending to satisfy the four-year requirement.
Meaning, those of us who have previously devoted years of our lives will see no benefit from this overhaul, and will still be out the money (plus the bonuses we gave up for the College Fund for some of us) we donated all those years earlier. Any wonder why the military has a hard time recruiting people, even in the middle of this war? After 6 weeks of the current semester, and having started the VA benefits process in June to get a headstart, I still have seen not a dime of my vaunted entitlement and I’m still trying to prove to the VA that I really am owed the College Fund. I gave up a $5000 bonus in 1989 for that extra cash, I’m damned sure going to fight to get it.
I can really relate to the “detour” remark above, as can most veterans I’ve talked to (and the retirees I work with if they were honest with themselves). At 31 years old, with the array of knowledge I have gained from my own personal quests as well as the 12 years of military intelligence (it’s not an oxymoron) experience, I damned sure should have had more than 2 job offers when I got out of the military. And, more than one of them should have been non-insulting. Instead, I can’t get paid what I’m worth (and what my coworkers and bosses tell me I’m worth), because I haven’t got a piece of paper on the wall that certifies my ability to learn stuff. Actually showing them all the stuff I’ve learned is impossible, and nobody believes anyone without a damned degree anymore. Five years ago, I could have gotten out and had a kickass overpaid job, just because I knew what HTML stood for in 1995. Now? Phbt!
To support me, please go to my site and buy a “Friends don’t let friends reenlist” shirt or sweatshirt. I even have mousepads! The “Battle for Knowledge” design is so far my best seller.
current_music: life
current_mood: aggravated
An Excite@Home shutdown would strand 45 percent of the cable modem users in North America, disrupting small-business owners, telecommuters and even students, since many cable companies have donated high-speed data lines to schools.
current_music: Dandy Warhols – Godless
This was in my email this morning. One way of looking at things, I suppose.
In America, 50% of homeowners have firearms. That means 50% of homeowners have the capability to kill you if you knock on their door late at night. That doesn't mean they're going to. But if they want to, that's absolutely within their capability.
If America really wanted to declare war on Afghanistan, the place would be a radioactive glass parking lot. That doesn't mean we're going to nuke-and-pave the Silk Road.
We haven't firebombed Kabul (we did it to Dresden and Tokyo in WW2), we haven't carpetbombed areas inhabited by civilians (we did it during Vietnam), we haven't turned entire cities into ash (we did it to Japan in WW2), we haven't used chemical weapons on the Taliban (as was widespread all over in WW1), we haven't sprayed carcinogenics over civilian population centers (Vietnam), we haven't fought the decisive battle of the war a week after the peace treaty was signed (War of 1812).
If you think that what we're doing to Afghanistan right now is "waging war on the people of Afghanistan", you need to read a few history books. What you're seeing in Afghanistan is about as gentle a war as the United States has ever fought.
These are the assignments for the previous five weeks of economics. Notice how relatively simple they have been, easily understood etc.
- Discuss the difference between Laissez fair and a Central coomand economy in terms of production and consumption decisions. What is the position of the American economy in a wide spectrum of market structures between Laissez fair and Socialism.
- Discuss the price system and the alternative methods used to ration demand. Relate your answer to the types of economic Systems.
- 1. Define Inflation and Unemployment.
2. Compare Unemployment both under the Classical theory and the Keynsian theory. - Explain how we arrive at Personal Disposable Income from Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
- Please discuss hyperinflation and its consequences.
Now, here is this week’s assignment:
Equilibrium is attained only when Aggregate Expenditures (AE) are equal to Aggregate Income (y), that is AE=Y; and if Consumption is part of both income and expenditure.
Y=AE– C+S=C+I, explain how the economy can be thrown out of equilibrium.
Yeah, that’s a logical progression from known to unknown. Damn, did this guy even take any Instructional Systems Development classes?
current_mood: amused
CIA Factbook entry on Afghanistan
Life Expectancy at birth: 46.24 years
Literacy: 31.5% (47.2% of males, 15% of females)
GDP per capita: $800 (estimated)
Do you think the bombs could make them more miserable?
current_music: – Fat Lip
The Real War
By Thomas L. Friedman
New York Times
November 27, 2001
If 9/11 was indeed the onset of World War III, we have to understand what this war is about. We’re not fighting to eradicate “terrorism.” Terrorism is just a tool. We’re fighting to defeat an ideology: religious totalitarianism. World War II and the cold war were fought to defeat secular totalitarianism – Nazism and Communism – and World War III is a battle against religious totalitarianism, a view of the world that my faith must reign supreme and can be affirmed and held passionately only if all others are negated. That’s bin Ladenism. But unlike Nazism, religious totalitarianism can’t be fought by armies alone. It has to be fought in schools, mosques, churches and synagogues, and can be defeated only with the help of imams, rabbis and priests.
The generals we need to fight this war are people like Rabbi David Hartman, from the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. What first attracted me to Rabbi Hartman when I reported from Jerusalem was his contention that unless Jews reinterpreted their faith in a way that embraced modernity, without weakening religious passion, and in a way that affirmed that God speaks multiple languages and is not exhausted by just one faith, they would have no future in the land of Israel. And what also impressed me was that he knew where the battlefield was. He set up his own schools in Israel to compete with fundamentalist Jews, Muslims and Christians, who used their schools to preach exclusivist religious visions.
After recently visiting the Islamic madrasa in Pakistan where many Taliban leaders were educated, and seeing the fundamentalist religious education the young boys there were being given, I telephoned Rabbi Hartman and asked: How do we battle religious totalitarianism?
He answered: “All faiths that come out of the biblical tradition – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – have the tendency to believe that they have the exclusive truth. When the Taliban wiped out the Buddhist statues, that’s what they were saying. But others have said it too. The opposite of religious totalitarianism is an ideology of pluralism – an ideology that embraces religious diversity and the idea that my faith can be nurtured without claiming exclusive truth. America is the Mecca of that ideology, and that is what bin Laden hates and that is why America had to be destroyed.”
The future of the world may well be decided by how we fight this war. Can Islam, Christianity and Judaism know that God speaks Arabic on Fridays, Hebrew on Saturdays and Latin on Sundays, and that he welcomes different human beings approaching him through their own history, out of their language and cultural heritage? “Is single-minded fanaticism a necessity for passion and religious survival, or can we have a multilingual view of God – a notion that God is not exhausted by just one religious path?” asked Rabbi Hartman.
Many Jews and Christians have already argued that the answer to that question is yes, and some have gone back to their sacred texts to reinterpret their traditions to embrace modernity and pluralism, and to create space for secularism and alternative faiths. Others – Christian and Jewish fundamentalists – have rejected this notion, and that is what the battle is about within their faiths.
What is different about Islam is that while there have been a few attempts at such a reformation, none have flowered or found the support of a Muslim state. We patronize Islam, and mislead ourselves, by repeating the mantra that Islam is a faith with no serious problems accepting the secular West, modernity and pluralism, and the only problem is a few bin Ladens. Although there is a deep moral impulse in Islam for justice, charity and compassion, Islam has not developed a dominant religious philosophy that allows equal recognition of alternative faith communities. Bin Laden reflects the most extreme version of that exclusivity, and he hit us in the face with it on 9/11.
Christianity and Judaism struggled with this issue for centuries, but a similar internal struggle within Islam to re-examine its texts and articulate a path for how one can accept pluralism and modernity – and still be a passionate, devout Muslim – has not surfaced in any serious way. One hopes that now that the world spotlight has been put on this issue, mainstream Muslims too will realize that their future in this integrated, globalized world depends on their ability to reinterpret their past.
Major update to my website’s navigation system. After procrastinating for months (ok, more like a year), I’ve finally gotten around to doing something. Whew! Lots of typing and HTML-tweaking later, Andy Social is all pretty and stuff.
Yea, verily, bow to the CSS-based goodness and the wondrous Javascript menu from Morten.
Except for a couple pages that have a specific need, the background is seamless throughout the site now, thanks to the magic of linked CSS pages. If there’s a navigational or format bug I’ve missed, please let me know.
current_mood: accomplished
Since there is no real “industry organization” for web design, anyone can claim to be a web designer, just by having their own web site. One I came across today has been around a couple years and actually has an order form on the site. This great web designer, fluent in HTML and many many programs, has a website that does not validate as ANY version of HTML or XHTML. There’s not even a head tag or html declaration on the individual web pages. One cannot start an HTML file with the title tag. Yep, really good advertising for your chosen trade…
current_music: Clannad – Na Laethe Bhi
current_mood: amused
Approximately 130 California National Guard soldiers stepped off a commercial airliner into the Arizona desert Oct. 25 to augment Fort Huachuca's force protection mission. The soldiers of Company C, 1st Battalion of the 185th Infantry Regiment of the 40th Infantry Division were mobilized on Oct. 12. The San Jose, Calif. area unit will support local security forces for a period of 365 days with an option for a second 365-day period.
And people asked me why I didn’t join the Reserves or Guard when I got out. “It’s a sham job and helps you get some extra cash,” they would claim. Yeah, right. Imagine being the schmuck who bought that line and now you’re away from your life for one or two years.
How many people put themselves as their own friend, so they can have one page that includes their own posts as well as their online contacts’ postings? And, why? Do you forget what you’d written?
The in-laws keep asking what we want for Christmas. So, why not point them at the Amazon wishlist or my CDnow wishlist? Oh, because they don’t think those things are what I “really” want. So, I put them on there why then?
What kind of bizarre inside jokes do you share with your oldest friends? Here’s a wacky example (remembered because of a particular password that was generated by some site) for me and
So, what kind of inside jokes have persisted for a long time with your friends (or frendz even)? This one has been around since 1985 or so.
Why do so many people have to lord over others their love of obscure art? It’s as if nothing can be good if it’s also popular. Oh, gee, I’m sorry I don’t have time (or the geographic benefit) to seek out that cool new Serbo-Afrikaans TechnoThrash Dubmix that is soooo much better than anything that you might actually be able to find in a damned record store.
No, this is not directed at anyone, just a random rant while waiting for Mr. Sandman to bop me on the head….
Considering that I once considered a 1200 baud modem to be a screaming upgrade to my online experience, it’s amazing that I yearn to get off this butt-slow 33k connection, no? Even worse is that it is supposed to be a 56 k connection, but I’m getting a normal throughput of 3.94kiloBytes/sec (31.5 kbps). Stupid BFE damned town with no broadband options. Grr. mumble mumble bitch complain.
current_music: No Doubt – Platinum Blonde
Don’t suppose anyone has “New Age Girl” by DeadEye Dick available for me to purloin? Not only can’t I find it on Bearshare (dialup may skew my results) but they don’t seem to sell it on CDNow even.
Anyone?
For my Antisocial Store:
For the Origami store, just here for the special offer. Cute little moose, and all you pay is shipping and handling, assuming you buy something else. You know you want to!
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