We arrived fashionably late, which in this case was halfway through the luncheon salad course and James Woolsey's keynote speech. This meant we missed the panel discussion of the media that John Batchelor moderated. Pundita consoled herself with Chicken Marsala, roasted potatoes, baby carrots and broccoli, and raspberry chocolate torte a la Hyatt Regency.
We munched in silence. The eight other diners at the ten-seat round table, perhaps after seeing our name tag (which screeched "Just a Member of the Public") avoided looking at Pundita until we piped up, "Please pass the butter" and in a childish bid for more attention set about mashing balls of butter into our roast potatoes.
The ballroom was packed. Pundita gave up trying to count the number of ten-seat tables, virtually of all which were filled, but there might have been as many as 400 diners. We divided our attention between eavesdropping on a conversation next to us and mulling over Woolsey's words.
A man who represented a company that produces some kind of gizmo or questionnaire to supplement the lie detector test told a story to illustrate the effectiveness of the product. It was the kind of story Sherlock Holmes would have liked:
Fires broke out in several places in a man's house. The man, who was seen running from the burning house, was suspected of committing arson for the insurance money. The man admitted that he had started the fires but adamantly maintained that this was accidental. Understandably the investigators did not believe his story, even after he passed a lie detector test.
Finally, the storyteller's company was asked to question the man. It turned out he had told the literal truth, which is why he passed the lie detector test. He had not intended to burn down his house. He had intended to kill himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. He thought that if he made enough smoke by starting small fires, that would do the trick. However, as so often happens with suicide attempts, there is nothing like imminent death to put life's blows in context. The survival instinct took over when the fires got out of control; the man fled in panic, leaving the house to burn down.
The story illustrates the very complex nature of police detective work and defense intelligence analysis. Being 'almost' right can mean the difference between solving a case (or extracting reliable intelligence) and chasing red herring.
Admiral Woolsey's speech, the part Pundita caught, was a thumping call to frame the hate-filled Wahabist doctrine as this era's Communist Threat and marshal the West's resources to battling the newest scourge of humankind.
After lunch Pundita wandered into the tender sunshine of a warm day--warm for this time of year in Arlington. We avoided the benches outside the Hyatt Regency entrance. Spying a bench near an alcove at a little distance from the entrance we settled down to peruse the contents of the Intelcon conference binder.
Hearing a sound behind us we turned to see an African man, dressed nearly in rags, carefully arranging a tattered prayer rug on the ground. He knelt on the rug; we politely returned to the conference book, so to allow him to pray in peace. Later we saw the man outside his taxi, talking with other drivers in the taxi line outside the hotel entrance.
Pundita doesn't like conferences. So many "tracks" and seminars to choose from and after making the choices we invariably wonder whether we're missing something more interesting in a concurrent seminar. This leads to room-hopping, which is impolite.
We doggedly set course for the seminar we'd chosen but halted in dread at the sound of the familiar voice, which had grated on Pundita's nerves over the course of many John Batchelor broadcasts. With never an approving word for the Bush doctrine, with not so much as a smidgen of praise for the US military's invasion of Iraq, with nothing but criticisms and complaints about US intelligence efforts in the Middle East, Yossef Bodansky was among Pundita's least-favorite Batchelor show regulars.
The man looked nothing like his voice sounded. The eyes behind the glasses held no fear of what others thought of him, only piercing assessment. He reminded Pundita of the Peregrine falcon member of our foreign policy team. We blurted, "When are you speaking?" He looked at his watch and replied, "Soon."
Thus, after years of wandering in the desert, Pundita arrived at the heart of the problem with US foreign policy--and learned why Dr. Bodansky is so harshly critical of the Bush administration, the Congress, and the US intelligence community.
His criticism is not political or personal, nor is directed exclusively at the United States. His talk at Intelcon addressed a systemic problem--a massive problem, of the kind that leads to bad defense/foreign policy decisions and a nation's blindness to looming enemy attacks.
With the able assistance of John Loftus (Intecon Program Director), and with wry humor and unfusty examples free of jargon, Bodansky summarized decades of "insider" criticism voiced by the wisest and most experienced defense intelligence analysts. How this interfaces with the formulation of US foreign policy requires the understanding of the American public, if our government is to be prodded to embrace the solutions.
To be continued.
Tuesday, February 8
Sunday, February 6
Ambush! World Economic Forum springs nasty surprise on Bush and gets the jump on Richard Gere!
Written in memory of Rick Rescorla's martyrdom on 9/11. The team has asked Pundita to insert a warning: This essay is not for children.
Pundita is still stewing because she is the only American and for all we know the only person on the planet outside banking circles to have noticed that World War V * had broken out. Thus, our spirits lifted at seeing the title of an email sent by one of our favorite war bloggers, Bill Roggio at the fourth rail : "A call to arms."
Upon opening the email Pundita was crestfallen to discover that Bill was only calling for battle against CNN. This is partly over the matter of CNN stonewalling in the face of requests to release a transcript and/or video of a panel discussion at the recent World Economic Forum (WEF). Specifically, the part of the discussion that features a CNN vice president, Eason Jordan, saying that the US military had "targeted" journalists in Iraq; i.e., deliberately killed them.
Mr. Jordan clarified, backtracked or stood by his words, depending on which account you read from those in attendance, but exactly what was said is in dispute and thus, the request for a transcript or video. **
At the end of this post I provide additional links for readers interested in following the controversy about Eason Jordan's remarks. Pundita will not write about the controversy, which is outside our purview. However, we were struck by the venue. How did a panel on news reporting show up at a forum dedicated to economic concerns?
And how did it happen that out of all the news media executives on the planet, the forum invited Eason Jordan, a confessed collaborator with Saddam Hussein's regime and already on record for making inflammatory statements against the US military?
The answer is that the forum organizers were hopping mad because President Bush ignored their meeting. According to the BBC :
Come to think of it, this is a good place to rename Chirac's school to the more descriptive "Mercantile School." Pundita hastens to add that Zawahiri is barking mad; indeed, he's on record as the first person driven certifiably insane by World Bank policies. (Don't reach for your copy of the Guinness Book of World Records; there are so many candidates for the title that Guinness is still reviewing challenges to Z's claim.)
The World Economic Forum is among a group of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that the Globalist movement spawned, and which attached themselves to the United Nations. The WEF's stated goal is "to make the world a better place." Translation:
World Economic Forum Co-chairs
William H. Gates, Co-Founder, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation, USA
N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies
Lubna S. Olayan, Chief Executive Officer, Olayan Financing Company
Charles O. Prince, Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup
John A. Thain, Chief Executive Officer, New York Stock Exchange
Daniel Vasella, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Novartis
In other words, the WEF is a bunch of businessmen who want to make a buck in developing countries and find Chirac's justifications for pandering to tyrannies a convenient gloss. Thus, nobody should be surprised that no ranking member of the Bush administration showed at this year's WEF meeting.
What's surprising is that Richard Gere was in attendance. America's film stars are generally so naive about foreign affairs that one doesn't expect them to understand what the WEF is about. But of all the film stars, Richard Gere should be aware that it's NGOs such as WEF that help Red China maintain Face in the world community, which helps the Chinese maintain a tyranny over the Tibetan people and support the tyrannies in Burma and North Korea.
Charles Krauthammer has observed that one shouldn't expect capitalism to have a conscience and that's why we have the judicial system. He meant that business is not the place to expect support for democracy and the freedoms that go with it, but the businessplace can be kept within ethical bounds by application of laws.
However, the transnationalization of capitalism means that global corporations based in democratic countries are free to ignore the dictates in their own societies when they do business in other lands. They take full advantage of their freedom. They cozy up to tyrants who can give foreign corporations the okay for doing business in their countries. They avert their eyes to barbaric tribal customs and government atrocities carried out in the name of maintaining stability. They use organizations such as the WEF to put a pretty face on their utter lack of conscience.
When called out on their evil, they write million dollar checks to the World Wildlife Fund and NGOs fighting AIDS in Africa, and prattle that good business leads inevitably to humane government.
They are the engine that makes the Axis of Weasels turn, which in turn keeps the Axis of Terror spinning. And when it all falls down, when mad mad men such as Ayman al Zawahiri rage to God to wreak vengeance, when their bodyguards and armed enclaves are no longer sufficient to protect them, they run to their own government--the one that protects their freedoms--and scream, "Do something!"
Then men and women of good conscience and stout character have to shed blood and lose their lives to rescue them from their own doing.
And in the still of the night, when their spouses ask, "What did you do at the office today?" they answer, "I made the world a better place, my dear."
CNN and CNN International rose on the back of the Globalist movement and fed on it. Americans who have never seen CNN International--continue not seeing it, if you're watching your blood pressure. If you think CNN is down on America, you should see the international version. The executives defend the content and slant by saying that they have to appeal to audiences outside the USA. Translation: If you want to sell widgets in Saudi Arabia and China, don't report on anything that makes tyrants and barbarians lose Face.
Eason Jordan is a poster child for the Globalist movement. He admitted his corroboration with Saddam's regime only after the US military invaded Iraq. Jordan's heart-wrenching defense of his actions neglected to explain why he didn't move the CNN bureau to safety behind Kurdish lines. That would have allowed the bureau to report to the world about the atrocities that Jordan and others in his bureau knew about, but chose not to report to the world.
The furor over Jordan's admissions died down, or was lost in the shuffle of news about the post-invasion phase of the Iraq campaign. That left unanswered troubling questions raised by Hugh Hewett ; among them:
The grimmest irony of the war on terror is that if not for the 9/11 attack, the American people would have continued to follow blindfolded the lead set by the Mercantile School. Now it's a new day, but George W. Bush is just one American. Unless the American Establishment media (and the American wing of the blogosphere) work harder to explain the Bush Democracy Doctrine to the rest of the world, Bush will indeed make his upcoming European tour a "listening" one.
Yet if ever there was a time Europe needed to listen to an American president, now is the time.
* World War V
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-2-2/26225.html"
* * Sisyphean Musings reports that WEF is making a copy of the video available. http://sisypheanmusings.blogspot.com/2005/02/eason-jordon-wef-video_110754253214888238.html
Check Hugh Hewett and Captain Ed for latest roundup on the fast-moving Eason Jordan/CNN story.
http://www.hughhewitt.com/
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/003730.php
And see Carol Platt Liebau for a statement by Eason Jordan
http://carolliebau.blogspot.com/2005/02/response-from-
eason-jordan.html
Pundita is still stewing because she is the only American and for all we know the only person on the planet outside banking circles to have noticed that World War V * had broken out. Thus, our spirits lifted at seeing the title of an email sent by one of our favorite war bloggers, Bill Roggio at the fourth rail : "A call to arms."
Upon opening the email Pundita was crestfallen to discover that Bill was only calling for battle against CNN. This is partly over the matter of CNN stonewalling in the face of requests to release a transcript and/or video of a panel discussion at the recent World Economic Forum (WEF). Specifically, the part of the discussion that features a CNN vice president, Eason Jordan, saying that the US military had "targeted" journalists in Iraq; i.e., deliberately killed them.
Mr. Jordan clarified, backtracked or stood by his words, depending on which account you read from those in attendance, but exactly what was said is in dispute and thus, the request for a transcript or video. **
At the end of this post I provide additional links for readers interested in following the controversy about Eason Jordan's remarks. Pundita will not write about the controversy, which is outside our purview. However, we were struck by the venue. How did a panel on news reporting show up at a forum dedicated to economic concerns?
And how did it happen that out of all the news media executives on the planet, the forum invited Eason Jordan, a confessed collaborator with Saddam Hussein's regime and already on record for making inflammatory statements against the US military?
The answer is that the forum organizers were hopping mad because President Bush ignored their meeting. According to the BBC :
As every year, Davos [site of the WEF] was packed with top politicians. Germany, [France,] Britain, Brazil, South Africa, Poland, Pakistan, and many others sent their heads of state or government. But there was one glaring absence: From the US government only the outgoing top trade official (and soon to be deputy foreign minister) Robert Zoellick had made it to the Swiss mountain village. Pity, if you want, Republican Senators Bill Frist and John McCain, who quickly became the designated punch bags for critics of US foreign policy. Mr McCain spelled it out: "There's a lot of Anti-Americanism out there", and promised that President Bush's forthcoming trip to Europe would be a "listening tour".Clearly, the WEF organizers were not content just to kick Republican senators in the shins. Thus, the panel discussion titled, "Will Democracy Survive the Media?"
The concept of truth, fairness, and balance in the news was weighed against corporate profit interest, the need for ratings, and how the media can affect democracy. The discussion was moderated by David R. Gergen, Director for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The panel included Richard Sambrook, the worldwide director of BBC radio, U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, Abdullah Abdullah, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, and Eason Jordan, Chief News Executive of CNN. The audience was a mix of journalists, WEF attendees (many from Arab countries), and a US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Dodd.Pundita hesitates to tell American readers too much about the World Economic Forum, lest they find themselves in the ungainly position of finding a point of agreement with America's Public Enemy #2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the mastermind of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Zawahiri did not pick that target out of a hat; the WTC, along with the World Bank and the IMF, symbolized for him the rampant mercantilism that characterizes the Globalist movement, and which forms the basis of the Chirac School of foreign policy. (See "The Central Debate" Pundita sidebar.)
Come to think of it, this is a good place to rename Chirac's school to the more descriptive "Mercantile School." Pundita hastens to add that Zawahiri is barking mad; indeed, he's on record as the first person driven certifiably insane by World Bank policies. (Don't reach for your copy of the Guinness Book of World Records; there are so many candidates for the title that Guinness is still reviewing challenges to Z's claim.)
The World Economic Forum is among a group of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that the Globalist movement spawned, and which attached themselves to the United Nations. The WEF's stated goal is "to make the world a better place." Translation:
World Economic Forum Co-chairs
William H. Gates, Co-Founder, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation, USA
N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies
Lubna S. Olayan, Chief Executive Officer, Olayan Financing Company
Charles O. Prince, Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup
John A. Thain, Chief Executive Officer, New York Stock Exchange
Daniel Vasella, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Novartis
In other words, the WEF is a bunch of businessmen who want to make a buck in developing countries and find Chirac's justifications for pandering to tyrannies a convenient gloss. Thus, nobody should be surprised that no ranking member of the Bush administration showed at this year's WEF meeting.
What's surprising is that Richard Gere was in attendance. America's film stars are generally so naive about foreign affairs that one doesn't expect them to understand what the WEF is about. But of all the film stars, Richard Gere should be aware that it's NGOs such as WEF that help Red China maintain Face in the world community, which helps the Chinese maintain a tyranny over the Tibetan people and support the tyrannies in Burma and North Korea.
Charles Krauthammer has observed that one shouldn't expect capitalism to have a conscience and that's why we have the judicial system. He meant that business is not the place to expect support for democracy and the freedoms that go with it, but the businessplace can be kept within ethical bounds by application of laws.
However, the transnationalization of capitalism means that global corporations based in democratic countries are free to ignore the dictates in their own societies when they do business in other lands. They take full advantage of their freedom. They cozy up to tyrants who can give foreign corporations the okay for doing business in their countries. They avert their eyes to barbaric tribal customs and government atrocities carried out in the name of maintaining stability. They use organizations such as the WEF to put a pretty face on their utter lack of conscience.
When called out on their evil, they write million dollar checks to the World Wildlife Fund and NGOs fighting AIDS in Africa, and prattle that good business leads inevitably to humane government.
They are the engine that makes the Axis of Weasels turn, which in turn keeps the Axis of Terror spinning. And when it all falls down, when mad mad men such as Ayman al Zawahiri rage to God to wreak vengeance, when their bodyguards and armed enclaves are no longer sufficient to protect them, they run to their own government--the one that protects their freedoms--and scream, "Do something!"
Then men and women of good conscience and stout character have to shed blood and lose their lives to rescue them from their own doing.
And in the still of the night, when their spouses ask, "What did you do at the office today?" they answer, "I made the world a better place, my dear."
CNN and CNN International rose on the back of the Globalist movement and fed on it. Americans who have never seen CNN International--continue not seeing it, if you're watching your blood pressure. If you think CNN is down on America, you should see the international version. The executives defend the content and slant by saying that they have to appeal to audiences outside the USA. Translation: If you want to sell widgets in Saudi Arabia and China, don't report on anything that makes tyrants and barbarians lose Face.
Eason Jordan is a poster child for the Globalist movement. He admitted his corroboration with Saddam's regime only after the US military invaded Iraq. Jordan's heart-wrenching defense of his actions neglected to explain why he didn't move the CNN bureau to safety behind Kurdish lines. That would have allowed the bureau to report to the world about the atrocities that Jordan and others in his bureau knew about, but chose not to report to the world.
The furor over Jordan's admissions died down, or was lost in the shuffle of news about the post-invasion phase of the Iraq campaign. That left unanswered troubling questions raised by Hugh Hewett ; among them:
Has Jordan failed to reveal other non-disclosures [about his knowledge of a murder plot and atrocities] that reasonable people would consider material?Mr. Jordan's actions in Iraq are the best answer to the question raised by the Davos panel. Of course democracy won't survive the media, if the media continues to give tyrants "fair and balanced" coverage.
Did Jordan previously disclose any or all of these revelations to any official from the United States government?
Are there any similar non-disclosure deals at work in Cuba, Syria, the Palestinian territories, Burma, or any other country in which CNN maintains a presence?
The grimmest irony of the war on terror is that if not for the 9/11 attack, the American people would have continued to follow blindfolded the lead set by the Mercantile School. Now it's a new day, but George W. Bush is just one American. Unless the American Establishment media (and the American wing of the blogosphere) work harder to explain the Bush Democracy Doctrine to the rest of the world, Bush will indeed make his upcoming European tour a "listening" one.
Yet if ever there was a time Europe needed to listen to an American president, now is the time.
* World War V
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-2-2/26225.html"
* * Sisyphean Musings reports that WEF is making a copy of the video available. http://sisypheanmusings.blogspot.com/2005/02/eason-jordon-wef-video_110754253214888238.html
Check Hugh Hewett and Captain Ed for latest roundup on the fast-moving Eason Jordan/CNN story.
http://www.hughhewitt.com/
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/003730.php
And see Carol Platt Liebau for a statement by Eason Jordan
http://carolliebau.blogspot.com/2005/02/response-from-
eason-jordan.html
Friday, February 4
Is Banfsheh Zand-Bonazzi actually Michael Graham in drag?
Anyone who has caught Zand-Bonazzi's appearances on the John Batchelor show will sense that a media star is in the making. Ms. Zand-Bonazzi is the editor of Iran Press News , which publishes reports on Iran that the mainstream Western news tend to studiously ignore. But one needs to hear her comments on the old-boy colonialist powers now sucking up to the Tehran tyrants to realize she's missed her calling.
Clearly, Zand-Bonazzi is in possession of a Sahib-0-Meter in excellent working condition. And if she was a Scottish American male working in talk radio she'd be Michael Graham . Graham, a self-described Southern Redneck Conservative Republican, has too much Scottish wit to let any authority off easy, including his own wife ("The Warden"). However, Graham doesn't risk his life every time he speaks on the air, which can't be said for the courageous Ms. Zand-Bonazzi.
Unfortunately, Iran Press News doesn't publish Zand-Bonazzi's very informative "insider gossip" observations about doings in Iran, which she provides for Batchelor's listeners. For those who missed last night's broadcast, she reported that taxi drivers in Iran demand in English to know the nationality of foreigners hailing their cabs. If the answer is "American," the cabbies exclaim, "Welcome! Get in!"
If the answer is any nationality among the Axis of Weasel nations (Germany, Britain, France, Russia, China, etc.) sucking up to the Tehran mullathugs, the cabbies tell them, "Go away!" and refuse to give them a ride.
John Batchelor's advice to Axis of Weasel nationals trying to hail cabs in Iran: Practice an American accent and remember it's no longer the "Brooklyn" Dodgers.
Cut-and-pastes for links in this post:
John Batchelor on WABC Radio (see also Sirius Satellite Radio)
http://www.wabcradio.com/showdj.asp?DJID=9178
Iran Press News
http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/
Michael Graham on WMAL Radio
http://www.wmal.com/showdj.asp?DJID=2514
Clearly, Zand-Bonazzi is in possession of a Sahib-0-Meter in excellent working condition. And if she was a Scottish American male working in talk radio she'd be Michael Graham . Graham, a self-described Southern Redneck Conservative Republican, has too much Scottish wit to let any authority off easy, including his own wife ("The Warden"). However, Graham doesn't risk his life every time he speaks on the air, which can't be said for the courageous Ms. Zand-Bonazzi.
Unfortunately, Iran Press News doesn't publish Zand-Bonazzi's very informative "insider gossip" observations about doings in Iran, which she provides for Batchelor's listeners. For those who missed last night's broadcast, she reported that taxi drivers in Iran demand in English to know the nationality of foreigners hailing their cabs. If the answer is "American," the cabbies exclaim, "Welcome! Get in!"
If the answer is any nationality among the Axis of Weasel nations (Germany, Britain, France, Russia, China, etc.) sucking up to the Tehran mullathugs, the cabbies tell them, "Go away!" and refuse to give them a ride.
John Batchelor's advice to Axis of Weasel nationals trying to hail cabs in Iran: Practice an American accent and remember it's no longer the "Brooklyn" Dodgers.
Cut-and-pastes for links in this post:
John Batchelor on WABC Radio (see also Sirius Satellite Radio)
http://www.wabcradio.com/showdj.asp?DJID=9178
Iran Press News
http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/
Michael Graham on WMAL Radio
http://www.wmal.com/showdj.asp?DJID=2514
We interrupt coverage of jury selection for Michael Jackson's trial with news that World War Five has broken out
"Pundita! China and Russia announced more about their plans for joint military exercises, the President of the United States gave a State of the Union speech, the Secretary of State announced a trip to Europe and the Middle East, and you're tattling on a website in China and getting sarcastic about a marriage proposal from a laboratory rat! Is this your idea of keeping your readers informed about US foreign policy issues?
[Signed] Not Born Yesterday in New York
Dear NBY:
Pundita waited in vain for the American news media to get around to announcing that the first battle in World War Five * had been launched. When these things happen Pundita plunges into a dark mood. We snap at the squirrel for leaping onto the conference table and accuse the raccoon of being a Trotskyist. And we lapse into sarcasm. But after all, allowing a lab rat to vent his spleen is not any less important to the grand scheme than endless nattering over what President Bush said and didn't say in the State of the Union address.
If we study the war plan, Syria is next on the list. What more do you need to know? Bush made a nice pitch to the Yushchenko Ukraine lobby. No news there. Let's see, what else.... Tyranny discussion a rehash of the Inaugural address....It was a great State of the Union speech but provided no news on the foreign policy or war front. Not that we're complaining, mind you; the last thing America needs during a war is a commander-in-chief who's bursting to tell all.
With regard to your worry about China-Russia military exercises, kindly read the report ("China Loans Russia 6 Billion for Yukos Deal") that the Chinese website cribbed from The New York Times . Then fit that report with the news via the link above about "Western" banks calling in a marker on Yukos debt. Take special note that both announcements, along with the announcement on more details of China-Russia military exercises, came at virtually the same time.
Pundita is not one of those punditas who cackle "I told you so" but we have mentioned more than once to our readers that West Europe might be staring at the abyss, if big money stashed from Soviet state companies taken over by the oligarchs is pulled from banks in Europe. But they were foolish to bluff at Russian poker and more foolish to attempt to use Ukraine against the Kremlin.
The biggest fool, however, was the US Department of State. They should have stood back from the battles that Putin and the oligarchs were waging against each other. They should have kept in mind that the country they're supposed to serve first and foremost is currently at war.
* cut-and-paste URL for Epoch Times "Western Banks Press Rosneft to Repay YUKOS Loan"
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-2-2/26225.html
.
[Signed] Not Born Yesterday in New York
Dear NBY:
Pundita waited in vain for the American news media to get around to announcing that the first battle in World War Five * had been launched. When these things happen Pundita plunges into a dark mood. We snap at the squirrel for leaping onto the conference table and accuse the raccoon of being a Trotskyist. And we lapse into sarcasm. But after all, allowing a lab rat to vent his spleen is not any less important to the grand scheme than endless nattering over what President Bush said and didn't say in the State of the Union address.
If we study the war plan, Syria is next on the list. What more do you need to know? Bush made a nice pitch to the Yushchenko Ukraine lobby. No news there. Let's see, what else.... Tyranny discussion a rehash of the Inaugural address....It was a great State of the Union speech but provided no news on the foreign policy or war front. Not that we're complaining, mind you; the last thing America needs during a war is a commander-in-chief who's bursting to tell all.
With regard to your worry about China-Russia military exercises, kindly read the report ("China Loans Russia 6 Billion for Yukos Deal") that the Chinese website cribbed from The New York Times . Then fit that report with the news via the link above about "Western" banks calling in a marker on Yukos debt. Take special note that both announcements, along with the announcement on more details of China-Russia military exercises, came at virtually the same time.
Pundita is not one of those punditas who cackle "I told you so" but we have mentioned more than once to our readers that West Europe might be staring at the abyss, if big money stashed from Soviet state companies taken over by the oligarchs is pulled from banks in Europe. But they were foolish to bluff at Russian poker and more foolish to attempt to use Ukraine against the Kremlin.
The biggest fool, however, was the US Department of State. They should have stood back from the battles that Putin and the oligarchs were waging against each other. They should have kept in mind that the country they're supposed to serve first and foremost is currently at war.
* cut-and-paste URL for Epoch Times "Western Banks Press Rosneft to Repay YUKOS Loan"
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-2-2/26225.html
.
Thursday, February 3
Pundita snitches on China Daily
Even if you paid Pundita to read The New York Times online, we wouldn't do it. What use it to have the little box that says "Remember me" if a website forces you to go through the entire registration process every time you visit? This is no great loss, which doesn't mean we never read anything the Times publishes. If it's up on Drudge, AOL News or another website, sometimes we find our way to a Times report.
That is exactly how Pundita discovered that China Daily stole an article from The New York Times. The China Daily Website was China's first news Website and according to their own blurb, "one of the country's top news portals today." Yes well if they're one of the top news portals, they can credit a source.
The China Daily 02/01/05 report Russia gets US$6b loan for Yukos Deal is a word-for-word republication of the 02/02/05 New York Times report China Loans Russia 6 Billion for Yukos Deal .
Please no letters to Pundita mentioning the time difference between New York and Beijing. The Times story was filed from Moscow. That means the Times paid to have a reporter endure Russian press conferences conducted by Russian oil ministers and whatnot. Or at the least they paid a reporter to sift news wires and write up the story. The China Daily simply clicked and pasted.
There, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with China. The Chinese are the fox in the fable of the Fox and the Grapes. They want to be a world power but they don't want to pay their dues. Chinese counterfeiting, knockoffs, and just plain theft of intellectual property cost Americans untold zillions of US dollars. But if you confront Beijing on the issue, they revert to cute pidgin English, "Oh we just poor developing country. We too poor to observe copyright and patent laws."
But. But! If America protests to Israel about weapons sales to China, General Cao draws himself up to his full height and tells Bush in perfectly grammatical English, "Mind your own business."
Obviously China is no longer a poor developing country, if they can afford to loan Russia 6 billion (that's in dollars, not yuan) to help Moscow with their Yukos problem, and if they are attending the luncheon at the upcoming G7 meeting.
The last time the G7 met it had to be on island in order to keep anti-Globalist mobs from crashing the meeting. Pundita suggests that American corporations spending billions trying to sue Chinese counterfeiters stage their own mobbed protest at the upcoming G7 meeting.
Come to think of it, that's the best idea Pundita's had since we recommended Eliot Spitzer for the job of World Bank president. Law suits are a waste of time but the Chinese government lives in terror of Disorder.
American corporations should contact George Soros for advice on how to stage a Spontaneous Uprising of the People event. But the basic drill is simple: dress up as a Hippie, smear your face with red paint, and hop up and down outside the G7 cordon.
And just think: after The New York Times writes up the story of the spontaneous uprising, China Daily could steal it for their readers. And Wal-Mart could sell the video of the event, which a Taiwan film company throws together from stolen BBC video coverage and titles, "Ninja Revenge: The Next Sequel."
That is exactly how Pundita discovered that China Daily stole an article from The New York Times. The China Daily Website was China's first news Website and according to their own blurb, "one of the country's top news portals today." Yes well if they're one of the top news portals, they can credit a source.
The China Daily 02/01/05 report Russia gets US$6b loan for Yukos Deal is a word-for-word republication of the 02/02/05 New York Times report China Loans Russia 6 Billion for Yukos Deal .
Please no letters to Pundita mentioning the time difference between New York and Beijing. The Times story was filed from Moscow. That means the Times paid to have a reporter endure Russian press conferences conducted by Russian oil ministers and whatnot. Or at the least they paid a reporter to sift news wires and write up the story. The China Daily simply clicked and pasted.
There, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with China. The Chinese are the fox in the fable of the Fox and the Grapes. They want to be a world power but they don't want to pay their dues. Chinese counterfeiting, knockoffs, and just plain theft of intellectual property cost Americans untold zillions of US dollars. But if you confront Beijing on the issue, they revert to cute pidgin English, "Oh we just poor developing country. We too poor to observe copyright and patent laws."
But. But! If America protests to Israel about weapons sales to China, General Cao draws himself up to his full height and tells Bush in perfectly grammatical English, "Mind your own business."
Obviously China is no longer a poor developing country, if they can afford to loan Russia 6 billion (that's in dollars, not yuan) to help Moscow with their Yukos problem, and if they are attending the luncheon at the upcoming G7 meeting.
The last time the G7 met it had to be on island in order to keep anti-Globalist mobs from crashing the meeting. Pundita suggests that American corporations spending billions trying to sue Chinese counterfeiters stage their own mobbed protest at the upcoming G7 meeting.
Come to think of it, that's the best idea Pundita's had since we recommended Eliot Spitzer for the job of World Bank president. Law suits are a waste of time but the Chinese government lives in terror of Disorder.
American corporations should contact George Soros for advice on how to stage a Spontaneous Uprising of the People event. But the basic drill is simple: dress up as a Hippie, smear your face with red paint, and hop up and down outside the G7 cordon.
And just think: after The New York Times writes up the story of the spontaneous uprising, China Daily could steal it for their readers. And Wal-Mart could sell the video of the event, which a Taiwan film company throws together from stolen BBC video coverage and titles, "Ninja Revenge: The Next Sequel."
Wednesday, February 2
Rugby revokes his marriage proposal
"Dear Pundita, I just noticed you removed the Comment section from your posts. Also, the Pundita Prize is now missing from your sidebar. Have you revoked the prize?
Claudia in Taos"
Dear Claudia:
The following deleted comments to earlier Pundita essays help explain why I've suspended the Comment Section and removed mention of the Pundita Prize from the sidebar. Perhaps after he's had time to reflect, or until he finds the Spell Check key, the less said about the prize the better. The Pundita Prize for Excellence in American Journalism is still in effect.
"pundiTa, I, Rugby, figuered out the password in my lab sectons computer so now I can writ you evrey nite if I want except I dont. I am very dissipointed in you. you gived a pundita Prize to belmont club insted of real arthor wretchard the Cat. This is discrimeination. now I see you remove sum mension of your Animal Team from your blog heder and put up puff quote about yourself insted. I thoght you were diferent but you are like all humans, vain, with a puffy head. I would have made you my queen, pondita."[*]
"STOP MAKING LIGHT OF THE ABUSE OF INSECTS. WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE AND WE HAVE SPRAY PAINT."
"Dear Ms. Pundita, We note that you have written essays that are sympathetic to Russia and Vladimir Putin, who as you surely know is an ex-KGB operative. We also note that rearranging sentences in letters that you publish from the "Sleepless in St. Louis" reader reveals a coded message disguised as a recipe for bouillabaisse. Please be advised we are watching your blog closely. Have a nice day!"
* "Dear pondiTa,I I really apressiate this. I will not be a rat forever. In my next lifetime I will be a rich handsom nanotesnonongist and make you my queen."
It's struck me that he always manages to hit the Caps key when typing his name but for no one else. Yet he lectures Pundita about vanity. We're best rid of this suitor in his next lifetime and all subsequent ones.
.
Claudia in Taos"
Dear Claudia:
The following deleted comments to earlier Pundita essays help explain why I've suspended the Comment Section and removed mention of the Pundita Prize from the sidebar. Perhaps after he's had time to reflect, or until he finds the Spell Check key, the less said about the prize the better. The Pundita Prize for Excellence in American Journalism is still in effect.
"pundiTa, I, Rugby, figuered out the password in my lab sectons computer so now I can writ you evrey nite if I want except I dont. I am very dissipointed in you. you gived a pundita Prize to belmont club insted of real arthor wretchard the Cat. This is discrimeination. now I see you remove sum mension of your Animal Team from your blog heder and put up puff quote about yourself insted. I thoght you were diferent but you are like all humans, vain, with a puffy head. I would have made you my queen, pondita."[*]
"STOP MAKING LIGHT OF THE ABUSE OF INSECTS. WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE AND WE HAVE SPRAY PAINT."
"Dear Ms. Pundita, We note that you have written essays that are sympathetic to Russia and Vladimir Putin, who as you surely know is an ex-KGB operative. We also note that rearranging sentences in letters that you publish from the "Sleepless in St. Louis" reader reveals a coded message disguised as a recipe for bouillabaisse. Please be advised we are watching your blog closely. Have a nice day!"
* "Dear pondiTa,I I really apressiate this. I will not be a rat forever. In my next lifetime I will be a rich handsom nanotesnonongist and make you my queen."
It's struck me that he always manages to hit the Caps key when typing his name but for no one else. Yet he lectures Pundita about vanity. We're best rid of this suitor in his next lifetime and all subsequent ones.
.
The Untouchables
"Pundita, I have an idea about how to improve relations between Moscow and Washington. Sure, Bush asked Putin a dumb question but Putin was dumb to answer with a history lesson. I mean, doesn't Putin watch Chris Matthews and Hannity & Colmes? A history lesson is no way to talk to Americans. You have to package your concept. I learned that from selling on eBay. When Bush asked Putin why he was appointing governors instead of allowing elections, he should have just said to Bush, "My team is The Untouchables. The elections for governors are fixed by the mobs. We're going to appoint governors until we clean up City Hall." Bush would have gotten it right away.
[Signed] Better Rested in St. Louis
PS: I received another weird letter from the post office. I understand about the anthrax attack but put four waterbugs in a plastic baggie with air holes and a little bit of shredded newspaper and lettuce. Now ask yourself, could that make any kind of noise remotely sounding like ticking? I give up. Next time I'm sending spaghetti and just hope the possum and rest of the team like it.
PPS: Re your Monday post on OK Corral I don't think our ancestors invented iron and copper. I think they discovered them."
Dear Better Rested:
Pundita was blowing off steam and taking poetic license in the process, but we're never irritated by a statement of facts. We find your suggestion interesting. The Untouchables are an apt analogy, at least with regard to a part of the situation that Putin's government faced when they began reforms.
(For readers outside the US: in North America "Untouchable" is law- enforcement slang for a police officer or prosecutor who can't be bribed or coerced by criminals.)
Corruption was so entrenched in the Russian bureaucracies that the reformers faced essentially the same situation the Chicago Crime Commission faced in the 1920s. Organized crime was running the State of Illinois. But as Diane Alden points out in an essay for NewsMax, mobsters were only one aspect of a much larger story of corruption in America. Corruption was so entrenched at all levels of government, and at all levels of Illinois civic society, that the commission had to create a secret branch to attempt to fight the corruption.
And The Untouchables were not always untouchable. The team originally consisted of 50 agents, which Eliot Ness put together after reviewing the records of every US Treasury Department agent. Because so many on the team eventually became suspect Ness had to cut the 50 down to 15, and finally to 9. That's what he had, to take on the entire Chicago Gangland: Nine men.
So Russians who think that Americans can't possibly understand what they're going through should learn more about American history. When it comes to corruption in government, America has been there, bought the T-shirt and the video game. The corruption in the 1920s and 1930s was not only the work of crime syndicates, "dirty" cops and corrupt judges. The corruption was endemic. It was a cancer that threatened to kill our democracy.
Americans would probably do well to learn more about that chapter in our history, which isn't taught much in public school. And keep the chapter in mind when following news about Vladimir Putin's government and modern Russia. The Russian government is not only dealing with mobsters but also with the oligarchs, whose wealth and power are mind-boggling.
The Chicago Crime Commission couldn't have imagined the power the oligarchs wielded in the world during the past decade. It's not for nothing that the Russians dubbed those people "oligarchs." Putin's government has been accused of relying on a tight inner circle of ex-KGB agents. I imagine the circle has to be very tight and for the same reason Ness had to cut down the size of his team.
As with Ness, Putin is not a perfect person. But in an imperfect world he's the best bet Russia has at this time to clean up City Hall.
[Signed] Better Rested in St. Louis
PS: I received another weird letter from the post office. I understand about the anthrax attack but put four waterbugs in a plastic baggie with air holes and a little bit of shredded newspaper and lettuce. Now ask yourself, could that make any kind of noise remotely sounding like ticking? I give up. Next time I'm sending spaghetti and just hope the possum and rest of the team like it.
PPS: Re your Monday post on OK Corral I don't think our ancestors invented iron and copper. I think they discovered them."
Dear Better Rested:
Pundita was blowing off steam and taking poetic license in the process, but we're never irritated by a statement of facts. We find your suggestion interesting. The Untouchables are an apt analogy, at least with regard to a part of the situation that Putin's government faced when they began reforms.
(For readers outside the US: in North America "Untouchable" is law- enforcement slang for a police officer or prosecutor who can't be bribed or coerced by criminals.)
Corruption was so entrenched in the Russian bureaucracies that the reformers faced essentially the same situation the Chicago Crime Commission faced in the 1920s. Organized crime was running the State of Illinois. But as Diane Alden points out in an essay for NewsMax, mobsters were only one aspect of a much larger story of corruption in America. Corruption was so entrenched at all levels of government, and at all levels of Illinois civic society, that the commission had to create a secret branch to attempt to fight the corruption.
And The Untouchables were not always untouchable. The team originally consisted of 50 agents, which Eliot Ness put together after reviewing the records of every US Treasury Department agent. Because so many on the team eventually became suspect Ness had to cut the 50 down to 15, and finally to 9. That's what he had, to take on the entire Chicago Gangland: Nine men.
So Russians who think that Americans can't possibly understand what they're going through should learn more about American history. When it comes to corruption in government, America has been there, bought the T-shirt and the video game. The corruption in the 1920s and 1930s was not only the work of crime syndicates, "dirty" cops and corrupt judges. The corruption was endemic. It was a cancer that threatened to kill our democracy.
Americans would probably do well to learn more about that chapter in our history, which isn't taught much in public school. And keep the chapter in mind when following news about Vladimir Putin's government and modern Russia. The Russian government is not only dealing with mobsters but also with the oligarchs, whose wealth and power are mind-boggling.
The Chicago Crime Commission couldn't have imagined the power the oligarchs wielded in the world during the past decade. It's not for nothing that the Russians dubbed those people "oligarchs." Putin's government has been accused of relying on a tight inner circle of ex-KGB agents. I imagine the circle has to be very tight and for the same reason Ness had to cut down the size of his team.
As with Ness, Putin is not a perfect person. But in an imperfect world he's the best bet Russia has at this time to clean up City Hall.
Tuesday, February 1
Lost in Translation: President Putin's history lecture to President Bush
Peter Lavelle's latest commentary Putin's "authoritarianism" vs. the 'commentariat' sent Pundita to Wikipedia for a crash history and overview of modern Russian politics. This still left us experiencing cognitive dissonance regarding the word "governor" in point #3 of Lavelle's discussion.
So what kind of democracy did Vladimir Putin inherit from Boris Yeltsin? How could you have a democracy, of the kind America represents, if there was no real sovereign nation? Seeking illumination, Pundita wrote Peter Lavelle. He responded:
Bush is famous for being a fast eater, even at state dinners hosted at the White House, so I suppose if he'd chewed more slowly or dawdled over dessert Putin could have extended the history lesson to include Yeltsin's era. However, I don't think Bush missed too much by leaving off at Stalin's era, at least in terms of governing structure.
As the Soviet Communist party spread from the sophisticated Russian cities, it met with tribal societies and clan governments, which the imperial Russian government had kept at bay with much the same tactics Saddam Hussein deployed in dealing with Iraqi tribes and clans.
Saddam did not remain in power by brute force alone. The Iraqi Baathist knockoff of a centralized western fascist government was window dressing. Behind the trappings was a nomadic tribal society meshed with a traditional decentralized clan society. Thus, Saddam relied on judicious application of bribes and a carefully tended alliances with chieftains.
The Soviet Communist government followed much the same tactic; thus, when the Soviet Union collapsed, so did the window dressing. The aftermath form of government is confusing to an outsider, if you apply the American concepts of nation, governors, democracy, government, etc., to Russia. Yeltsin's "democratic" reforms were more window dressing than democratic government. Another stage show, only this time a democracy stage show. Behind the stage paint was the same old clan system that pre-Revolutionary Russian imperial government had to deal with.
So it's jumping the gun for the Bush administration to launch "a high-level review of relations with Russia in the wake of Kremlin curbs on democracy..." *
First there has to be a sovereign nation, with only one administrative body setting foreign policy. Then there needs to be a national democratic government. Then is the time to start worrying about any perceived curbs on democracy.
All this helps explain an observation under #8 in Lavelle's commentary: "Putin is not a democrat. Putin is a reformer." But still seeking illumination, Pundita asked Lavelle to elaborate. His response:
It's a shame Putin's work to create the foundations for modern government in Russia has been greatly ignored by Washington policymakers. The struggles to reform Russian government from the ground up are very valuable lessons and with application to many societies struggling toward democracy
* From "Bush Reviews Ties to Russia Amid Rising Tensions" 01/26/2005, The Wall Street Journal
Appointment of governors is part of Putin's “vertical power” agenda to strengthen Russian sovereignty and against internal (oligarchs and corruption) and foreign (governors making foreign policy) threats..."I tried and failed to imagine the governors of Rhode Island, Alabama, New York, Iowa and all the other US governors making up their own foreign policy for the United States. In that event, there would be no United States of America, there would be no country.
So what kind of democracy did Vladimir Putin inherit from Boris Yeltsin? How could you have a democracy, of the kind America represents, if there was no real sovereign nation? Seeking illumination, Pundita wrote Peter Lavelle. He responded:
Regional governors experienced enormous independence from the Kremlin for years because there was little the Kremlin could do about it during the Yeltsin years. For a decade Russia's regions were run as private fiefdoms -- with little pretense supporting democracy. Many of Russia's governors ruled poorly with self interest in mind and in the service of oligarchs. This is something that the Kremlin can no longer tolerate. To modernize the economy, strengthen sovereignty, and serve the interests of citizens living in the regions the Kremlin had to do something. While most of the Western world doesn't agree with theLavelle's clarification puts an exchange between Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in a new light. In November 2004, at an economic summit luncheon, Bush questioned Putin's decision to eliminate direct elections for regional governors.
Kremlin's move [to appoint governors], most citizens in Russia's regions accept that they deserve better governance.
"Mr. Putin responded by launching into a 20-minute discourse on the history of Russian federalism from the tsars to Josef Stalin, and Mr. Bush didn't pursue the issue, according to both U.S. and Russian officials." *Now to an American who is not knowledgeable about Russia, Putin's answer showed no understanding of Bush's question. But once you understand the Russian form of government, Bush's question showed no understanding of the situation in Russia.
Bush is famous for being a fast eater, even at state dinners hosted at the White House, so I suppose if he'd chewed more slowly or dawdled over dessert Putin could have extended the history lesson to include Yeltsin's era. However, I don't think Bush missed too much by leaving off at Stalin's era, at least in terms of governing structure.
As the Soviet Communist party spread from the sophisticated Russian cities, it met with tribal societies and clan governments, which the imperial Russian government had kept at bay with much the same tactics Saddam Hussein deployed in dealing with Iraqi tribes and clans.
Saddam did not remain in power by brute force alone. The Iraqi Baathist knockoff of a centralized western fascist government was window dressing. Behind the trappings was a nomadic tribal society meshed with a traditional decentralized clan society. Thus, Saddam relied on judicious application of bribes and a carefully tended alliances with chieftains.
The Soviet Communist government followed much the same tactic; thus, when the Soviet Union collapsed, so did the window dressing. The aftermath form of government is confusing to an outsider, if you apply the American concepts of nation, governors, democracy, government, etc., to Russia. Yeltsin's "democratic" reforms were more window dressing than democratic government. Another stage show, only this time a democracy stage show. Behind the stage paint was the same old clan system that pre-Revolutionary Russian imperial government had to deal with.
So it's jumping the gun for the Bush administration to launch "a high-level review of relations with Russia in the wake of Kremlin curbs on democracy..." *
First there has to be a sovereign nation, with only one administrative body setting foreign policy. Then there needs to be a national democratic government. Then is the time to start worrying about any perceived curbs on democracy.
All this helps explain an observation under #8 in Lavelle's commentary: "Putin is not a democrat. Putin is a reformer." But still seeking illumination, Pundita asked Lavelle to elaborate. His response:
Putin is not a democrat recognizable to the West. He is primarily interested in creating an economy in which the average Russian voter has the means and interest to participate in politics. After a decade of "oligarch" rule and misguided reforms imported from the West, Putin realizes the only way Russia can be a democracy is when living standards increase significantly--and quickly. He also understands that tough and unpopular social reforms face resistance, but must be passed into law to create a modern Russian economy. Putin, incorrectly called a dictator, is using his personal popularity and control of the legislature to create the foundations of a meaningful democracy--and it won't happen tomorrow.I think the key concept is "foundations of a meaningful democracy."
It's a shame Putin's work to create the foundations for modern government in Russia has been greatly ignored by Washington policymakers. The struggles to reform Russian government from the ground up are very valuable lessons and with application to many societies struggling toward democracy
* From "Bush Reviews Ties to Russia Amid Rising Tensions" 01/26/2005, The Wall Street Journal
Monday, January 31
One millimeter at a time
Pundita has been asked to comment on the "win" that the relatively smooth Iraq election represents for Bush policy on Iraq. Any comment we could make is gilding the lily. Of course the election is a milestone for the Bush policy and the war on terror, and it's great triumph for the Coalition of the Willing and the Iraqis who voted. We are somewhat suspicious of the relative calm that marked the balloting day. Yet even if the Iraqi Interim government cut a last-minute deal with the Tehran government to keep terrorist attacks to a dull roar, the biggest loser in Iraq's election was Tehran.
About a million Iranians registered to vote in the Iraq election but porous borders being what they are influence works two ways. The Tehran tyrants will come to rue the day they meddled in post-Saddam Iraq. However, Pundita looks for Tehran to prod Europe to press Bush to quickly define an exit strategy in Iraq, with the American wing of the EU adding to the chorus.
Speaking of Iran, supporters of the Bush Doctrine might wish to look through Eric Miller's Iran Next? . Pundita has faithfully read Miller's weekly essays for more than two years. Miller is skilled at pulling together the prevailing views on an issue and deftly summarizing them. This doesn't mean we agree with his conclusions about foreign policy matters; often we take serious issue. However, Mr. Miller's way of looking at things bears consideration because it reflects the thinking of the Wise Old Men of American Capitalism.
The WOMs don't strive to be terribly right in their views, they seek to avoid being terribly wrong. Thus, they are cautious, suspicious of radical change, full of experience with weathering decades of economic cycles and shakeouts in the financial markets, keenly aware of public perceptions of things, and always looking for The Big Picture.
The views Miller summarizes strike a caution for Americans who support the Pentagon's triumph over DOS-CIA in executing defense policy. From Miller's conclusion, it's clear that the badgering Dr. Rice received during her confirmation hearing is just a taste of things to come. Many factions from within and without this country will escalate their challenge to the US Commander-in-Chief's right to run a war and direct US defense policy.
President Bush's hardest job in his second term, as it has been since he announced the invasion of Iraq, reminds me of a comment Joyce Carol Oates made. She observed that writing a first draft of a novel is akin to pushing a peanut across a sawdust floor with one's nose. By any which way does Bush nudge the American people, and the major governments of the world, into the 21st Century.
About a million Iranians registered to vote in the Iraq election but porous borders being what they are influence works two ways. The Tehran tyrants will come to rue the day they meddled in post-Saddam Iraq. However, Pundita looks for Tehran to prod Europe to press Bush to quickly define an exit strategy in Iraq, with the American wing of the EU adding to the chorus.
Speaking of Iran, supporters of the Bush Doctrine might wish to look through Eric Miller's Iran Next? . Pundita has faithfully read Miller's weekly essays for more than two years. Miller is skilled at pulling together the prevailing views on an issue and deftly summarizing them. This doesn't mean we agree with his conclusions about foreign policy matters; often we take serious issue. However, Mr. Miller's way of looking at things bears consideration because it reflects the thinking of the Wise Old Men of American Capitalism.
The WOMs don't strive to be terribly right in their views, they seek to avoid being terribly wrong. Thus, they are cautious, suspicious of radical change, full of experience with weathering decades of economic cycles and shakeouts in the financial markets, keenly aware of public perceptions of things, and always looking for The Big Picture.
The views Miller summarizes strike a caution for Americans who support the Pentagon's triumph over DOS-CIA in executing defense policy. From Miller's conclusion, it's clear that the badgering Dr. Rice received during her confirmation hearing is just a taste of things to come. Many factions from within and without this country will escalate their challenge to the US Commander-in-Chief's right to run a war and direct US defense policy.
President Bush's hardest job in his second term, as it has been since he announced the invasion of Iraq, reminds me of a comment Joyce Carol Oates made. She observed that writing a first draft of a novel is akin to pushing a peanut across a sawdust floor with one's nose. By any which way does Bush nudge the American people, and the major governments of the world, into the 21st Century.
The OK Corral is thataway
"Thank you for introducing me to Peter Lavelle's writings. It's a lot to absorb. From what I'm learning it's evident the media are doing a really bad job keeping Americans informed about Russia. Lavelle writes for UPI so there is good reporting available but it doesn't seem to get featured in the mainstream media, at least not in this country.
However, America is at war. Russia's recent negotiations with Syria and Iran are potentially damaging to the US war effort. Given Putin's lack of support for the US invasion of Iraq, I think he would have gone ahead with the negotiations no matter how fairly the US media might have treated him, and even if there had been no US involvement in Ukraine. There has been talk of imposing sanctions on Russia, so I think the situation is becoming serious.
[Signed] Jan in Reston"
Dear Jan:
The situation will become serious when there is talk of imposing sanctions on Germany, France, and Britain for their deals with Syria and Iran. Then we'll know the Bush administration is getting down to brass tacks.
Russia is not an ally of the United States; they're a trading partner. It's the NATO countries that are supposed to be our allies. So it's during discussion with our dear allies about their actions in the Middle East that the United States should be making demands. Until we do this, why should Putin or any other non-NATO national leader join the United States in upholding a double standard?
I don't like Putin's negotiations with Syria and Iran but he's following the approach of the EU Three (Germany, France and UK), who dominate the European Union's approach to foreign relations. And if he stops following the E3 and sides with the United States--Bingo! he's made even more enemies in the EU than he did when launching the anti-corruption drive in Russia. Keep in mind Russia has to live on the same continent as the European Union.
If the State Department would not deploy a double standard with regard to NATO allies, if they adopted a position of integrity, as Bush did by refusing to deal with Arafat, then Putin and other non-NATO national leaders would be looking at a different ball game. How they might react, don't know, but integrity is catching--particularly when it's practiced by the world's leading nation.
Now that we have that off our chest, Pundita takes your point. If we study the Bush war plan, we see that Syria is the next weakest spoke in the Axis of Evil. So Putin's negotiations with Assad, and Russian sales of military equipment to Syria, are of grave concern to the US.
But again, the negotiations of our allies with Syria and Iran are of greater concern at this time. They've already told us to go sit on a tack, if we want military help in dealing with Syria and Iran. More than that, they've signaled they will work to marshal world resistance against any US action, including embargo, which the US wants to take against Iran.
This is showdown time with our NATO allies. But instead of showing up at the OK Corral, Washington wants to hang out in the saloon and talk about Russia. Put yourself in Vladimir Putin's place and look at the situation. Why should he listen to what Bush asks him to do with regard to Syria? When he can see with his own eyes that US allies have no intention of listening to Bush with regard to Syria and Iran?
The lame excuse is that they don't like Bush's style. What they don't like is a US policy that places integrity and consistency in foreign relations above expediency. So we are right back to the central debate, which pits the Bush Democracy Doctrine against the Chirac School.
And given that roughly half the US voters side with the Chirac School, those Americans young at heart enough to believe this can be Liberty's Century have a great deal of groundwork to do.
When more Americans get clear on the Democracy Doctrine and how it works in practice, there will be greater force behind the words of the US Secretary of State in negotiations with our allies. As it is now, we're just whistling Dixie. And Putin and a host of other national leaders know this.
This to include our dear ally Israel. What in the Sam Hill were the Israelis doing selling weapons to China? When Pundita last checked, there is only one China. So this would be the same China that helped the Iranians and every other Jew-hating government build nukes. Then Sharon rings up Bush, "Oh they've got the Bomb!"
But if you know that, then why did you sell weapons to China, which makes a career out of counterfeiting weapons and selling knockoffs to the highest bidder? What is this, the Kindergarten Age? Is this what our ancestors invented copper and iron for?
But I see we've descended from polemics to sputters, so this might be the time for a critter story. Most people don't know this but beavers are the best negotiators; they have to be, to avoid being mauled by creatures who don't have the concept of dam building down pat. The beaver has to clamber around the river bank and chew down trees. Imagine yourself a bear listening to that racket. So the beavers have to communicate to the local yokels that they don't plan to stay long and that all they want is some lumber.
One day I asked the beaver member of the team just how does a beaver negotiate logging rights? He replied, "Sincerely."
A reply to remember during our foreign relations dealings, especially during war. If we want Russia to throw up a few less roadblocks to the Bush war plan, the request should come with the sincere assurance that he won't keep pulling knives out of his back.
However, America is at war. Russia's recent negotiations with Syria and Iran are potentially damaging to the US war effort. Given Putin's lack of support for the US invasion of Iraq, I think he would have gone ahead with the negotiations no matter how fairly the US media might have treated him, and even if there had been no US involvement in Ukraine. There has been talk of imposing sanctions on Russia, so I think the situation is becoming serious.
[Signed] Jan in Reston"
Dear Jan:
The situation will become serious when there is talk of imposing sanctions on Germany, France, and Britain for their deals with Syria and Iran. Then we'll know the Bush administration is getting down to brass tacks.
Russia is not an ally of the United States; they're a trading partner. It's the NATO countries that are supposed to be our allies. So it's during discussion with our dear allies about their actions in the Middle East that the United States should be making demands. Until we do this, why should Putin or any other non-NATO national leader join the United States in upholding a double standard?
I don't like Putin's negotiations with Syria and Iran but he's following the approach of the EU Three (Germany, France and UK), who dominate the European Union's approach to foreign relations. And if he stops following the E3 and sides with the United States--Bingo! he's made even more enemies in the EU than he did when launching the anti-corruption drive in Russia. Keep in mind Russia has to live on the same continent as the European Union.
If the State Department would not deploy a double standard with regard to NATO allies, if they adopted a position of integrity, as Bush did by refusing to deal with Arafat, then Putin and other non-NATO national leaders would be looking at a different ball game. How they might react, don't know, but integrity is catching--particularly when it's practiced by the world's leading nation.
Now that we have that off our chest, Pundita takes your point. If we study the Bush war plan, we see that Syria is the next weakest spoke in the Axis of Evil. So Putin's negotiations with Assad, and Russian sales of military equipment to Syria, are of grave concern to the US.
But again, the negotiations of our allies with Syria and Iran are of greater concern at this time. They've already told us to go sit on a tack, if we want military help in dealing with Syria and Iran. More than that, they've signaled they will work to marshal world resistance against any US action, including embargo, which the US wants to take against Iran.
This is showdown time with our NATO allies. But instead of showing up at the OK Corral, Washington wants to hang out in the saloon and talk about Russia. Put yourself in Vladimir Putin's place and look at the situation. Why should he listen to what Bush asks him to do with regard to Syria? When he can see with his own eyes that US allies have no intention of listening to Bush with regard to Syria and Iran?
The lame excuse is that they don't like Bush's style. What they don't like is a US policy that places integrity and consistency in foreign relations above expediency. So we are right back to the central debate, which pits the Bush Democracy Doctrine against the Chirac School.
And given that roughly half the US voters side with the Chirac School, those Americans young at heart enough to believe this can be Liberty's Century have a great deal of groundwork to do.
When more Americans get clear on the Democracy Doctrine and how it works in practice, there will be greater force behind the words of the US Secretary of State in negotiations with our allies. As it is now, we're just whistling Dixie. And Putin and a host of other national leaders know this.
This to include our dear ally Israel. What in the Sam Hill were the Israelis doing selling weapons to China? When Pundita last checked, there is only one China. So this would be the same China that helped the Iranians and every other Jew-hating government build nukes. Then Sharon rings up Bush, "Oh they've got the Bomb!"
But if you know that, then why did you sell weapons to China, which makes a career out of counterfeiting weapons and selling knockoffs to the highest bidder? What is this, the Kindergarten Age? Is this what our ancestors invented copper and iron for?
But I see we've descended from polemics to sputters, so this might be the time for a critter story. Most people don't know this but beavers are the best negotiators; they have to be, to avoid being mauled by creatures who don't have the concept of dam building down pat. The beaver has to clamber around the river bank and chew down trees. Imagine yourself a bear listening to that racket. So the beavers have to communicate to the local yokels that they don't plan to stay long and that all they want is some lumber.
One day I asked the beaver member of the team just how does a beaver negotiate logging rights? He replied, "Sincerely."
A reply to remember during our foreign relations dealings, especially during war. If we want Russia to throw up a few less roadblocks to the Bush war plan, the request should come with the sincere assurance that he won't keep pulling knives out of his back.
Saturday, January 29
Senator Kennedy's Eurocrat Party
"Pundita! Will you get your mind off Russia and Ukraine long enough to comment on the war? Also, are you going to comment about Condi's swearing in?? That has something to do with US foreign policy, you know. Also, what about Ted Kennedy's speech coming on the eve of elections [in Iraq]? Doesn't he realize he's encouraging the terrorists?...
[Signed] Not Born Yesterday in New York"
Dear NBY:
Please put Europe on your map of the world, if you want to follow foreign policy speeches made by the Kennedy faction in the Democrat Party. There are important meetings coming up next month between Bush and European leaders. That's why there was a stalling action on the vote for Rice. Kennedy's faction was trying to consolidate and send a message to EU leaders (the EU Three) ahead of the Bush visit. Also, Secretary Rice will embark soon on meetings with leaders of all the NATO countries. Her goal is to meet with all of them before the Spring.
To understand Senator Kennedy's speech one must cut through the rhetoric, which he used many times earlier, and look for the action plan he proposes on the virtual eve of Bush's trip to Europe:
Anyone with half a brain knows that, so what was Kennedy really saying with his proposal? He was saying to all European opponents of the Bush Doctrine that if they helped his faction of the Democrat Party put pressure on the Bush administration, he could deliver his faction to the Chirac School's view on foreign policy, which gives a central role to the United Nations.
If you're not following, kindly read The Central Debate . Return to the essay every time it seems that a Democrat or a Republican senator is spewing nonsense about foreign policy. It all makes perfect sense, if you understand that Bush's doctrine is a profound challenge to the Chirac School, which gained great power during the decade that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. As long as US foreign policy was run from Brussels, the Europeans were content with any US president. Now they are not content.
Pundita's observations are not meant to slight your comments but to put them in context. Yes, from the view of Americans fighting in Iraq and the Iraqis going into their first democratic election, Kennedy's timing for his statements is irresponsible--although he stands in a long line, in that regard. However, your comments ignore a sea change in American politics, which profoundly impacts the US war on terror. There is a faction in the Democrat party that is reaching more across the Atlantic than across the aisle.
The Democrats aren't the only ones but the Republican involvement with EU interests is of a different order. The Republicans have more power in their relationship with Europe. The Democrats are in a weak position in their outreach to European governments, which makes them attractive to Europeans who are very intent on influencing US foreign policy.
The question is whether the Kennedy faction has enough power to dominate the Democrat Party at this time. In any case, it's anachronistic to think of the faction as leftist. President Bush signaled this during a debate when he told Senator Kerry, "You're on the Left Bank."
I am quite sure Kerry (and Kennedy) caught the play on words. That the European Union is to the left of the Republican party now has more significance than what Democrat leaders say about their party platform. If several Democrats would beg to differ, they'd better start differing at a louder decibel. Else, we can all save ourselves confusion by renaming the Democrats the "Eurocrat Party."
With regard to your request that I turn my mind to the war, Pundita is not an "armed conflict" blog, but there is only one post on this site that is not directly concerned with the war on terror. However, I make a special deal about the Ukraine situation and recent US policy toward Russia. That's because the situations are instructive regarding what the American political process will be facing from here on.
The tactics that Soros, et al. used in the effort to unseat Bush were learned in Serbia and Georgia, and refined in the Ukraine election. They failed in the US because they misread the American culture and the impact of certain media, such as talk radio, on the election campaign. They won't make the same mistakes twice.
The fights between the Republicans and the Democrats are like a magician's stage business, which distracts the audience's attention from the sleight-of-hand. This is a bad time to be distracted. During the 2004 US presidential campaign many Europeans said that given America's superpower status, they had a right to attempt to influence the outcome of the election. Many Americans were shocked by the statement. However, the point of view expressed by the Europeans is not new. It's just that a series of post-World War Two administrations had been compliant with the views of Europeans. All that changed when George W. Bush set US defense policy on a different course. The Europeans knew, better than the American public, that profound changes in US foreign policy would follow.
With regard to Dr. Rice, we greet the arrival of the new Secretary of State with hope and good wishes. We grimly await news of her meetings with European heads of state.
[Signed] Not Born Yesterday in New York"
Dear NBY:
Please put Europe on your map of the world, if you want to follow foreign policy speeches made by the Kennedy faction in the Democrat Party. There are important meetings coming up next month between Bush and European leaders. That's why there was a stalling action on the vote for Rice. Kennedy's faction was trying to consolidate and send a message to EU leaders (the EU Three) ahead of the Bush visit. Also, Secretary Rice will embark soon on meetings with leaders of all the NATO countries. Her goal is to meet with all of them before the Spring.
To understand Senator Kennedy's speech one must cut through the rhetoric, which he used many times earlier, and look for the action plan he proposes on the virtual eve of Bush's trip to Europe:
The first point in a new plan would be for the United Nations, not the United States, to provide assistance and advice on establishing a system of government and drafting a Constitution. An international meeting--led by the United Nations and the new Iraqi Government--should be convened immediately in Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East to begin that process."Now what's wrong with that proposal, besides sending the needle on Pundita's Sahib-0-Meter into the red range? It's hot air because the elected Iraqi parliament can write their constitution and set up their government without the sahibs and the UN crowd showing them how.
Anyone with half a brain knows that, so what was Kennedy really saying with his proposal? He was saying to all European opponents of the Bush Doctrine that if they helped his faction of the Democrat Party put pressure on the Bush administration, he could deliver his faction to the Chirac School's view on foreign policy, which gives a central role to the United Nations.
If you're not following, kindly read The Central Debate . Return to the essay every time it seems that a Democrat or a Republican senator is spewing nonsense about foreign policy. It all makes perfect sense, if you understand that Bush's doctrine is a profound challenge to the Chirac School, which gained great power during the decade that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. As long as US foreign policy was run from Brussels, the Europeans were content with any US president. Now they are not content.
Pundita's observations are not meant to slight your comments but to put them in context. Yes, from the view of Americans fighting in Iraq and the Iraqis going into their first democratic election, Kennedy's timing for his statements is irresponsible--although he stands in a long line, in that regard. However, your comments ignore a sea change in American politics, which profoundly impacts the US war on terror. There is a faction in the Democrat party that is reaching more across the Atlantic than across the aisle.
The Democrats aren't the only ones but the Republican involvement with EU interests is of a different order. The Republicans have more power in their relationship with Europe. The Democrats are in a weak position in their outreach to European governments, which makes them attractive to Europeans who are very intent on influencing US foreign policy.
The question is whether the Kennedy faction has enough power to dominate the Democrat Party at this time. In any case, it's anachronistic to think of the faction as leftist. President Bush signaled this during a debate when he told Senator Kerry, "You're on the Left Bank."
I am quite sure Kerry (and Kennedy) caught the play on words. That the European Union is to the left of the Republican party now has more significance than what Democrat leaders say about their party platform. If several Democrats would beg to differ, they'd better start differing at a louder decibel. Else, we can all save ourselves confusion by renaming the Democrats the "Eurocrat Party."
With regard to your request that I turn my mind to the war, Pundita is not an "armed conflict" blog, but there is only one post on this site that is not directly concerned with the war on terror. However, I make a special deal about the Ukraine situation and recent US policy toward Russia. That's because the situations are instructive regarding what the American political process will be facing from here on.
The tactics that Soros, et al. used in the effort to unseat Bush were learned in Serbia and Georgia, and refined in the Ukraine election. They failed in the US because they misread the American culture and the impact of certain media, such as talk radio, on the election campaign. They won't make the same mistakes twice.
The fights between the Republicans and the Democrats are like a magician's stage business, which distracts the audience's attention from the sleight-of-hand. This is a bad time to be distracted. During the 2004 US presidential campaign many Europeans said that given America's superpower status, they had a right to attempt to influence the outcome of the election. Many Americans were shocked by the statement. However, the point of view expressed by the Europeans is not new. It's just that a series of post-World War Two administrations had been compliant with the views of Europeans. All that changed when George W. Bush set US defense policy on a different course. The Europeans knew, better than the American public, that profound changes in US foreign policy would follow.
With regard to Dr. Rice, we greet the arrival of the new Secretary of State with hope and good wishes. We grimly await news of her meetings with European heads of state.
Strike up the band! Pundita discovers Yukos hired BKSH & Associates
Take a gander at this:
Thanks to Disinfopedia/SourceWatch for turning up the Hill blurb and the quotes below.
No wonder the mainstream media started playing the same fiddle about Vladimir Putin. But of course! As soon as Yukos hired them, the geniuses at BKSH's parent company geared to DEFCON1 force readiness.
For those who live outside the Beltway or don't work for a major US media organization, no it's not really a conspiracy. It's just that much US news reporting boils down to passing along press releases and background briefings from lobbying/public relations firms. But BKSH is not just any old lobbying firm.
BKSH & Associates has been hired by Yukos Oil, the Russian oil giant whose former head, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is awaiting trial for fraud and tax evasion. The firm’s efforts “center around keeping U.S. policymakers and administration officials informed about current issues” facing the company “in Russia and abroad.”--June 28, 2004 The Hill
Yukos announced last month that it would go bankrupt if it were forced to pay $3.4 billion in back taxes, the amount sought by the Russian government.
Thanks to Disinfopedia/SourceWatch for turning up the Hill blurb and the quotes below.
No wonder the mainstream media started playing the same fiddle about Vladimir Putin. But of course! As soon as Yukos hired them, the geniuses at BKSH's parent company geared to DEFCON1 force readiness.
For those who live outside the Beltway or don't work for a major US media organization, no it's not really a conspiracy. It's just that much US news reporting boils down to passing along press releases and background briefings from lobbying/public relations firms. But BKSH is not just any old lobbying firm.
"BKSH is the name of leading-edge government relations consultancy for the 21st century. Created by the world's largest communications agency, Burson-Marsteller, it enables clients to mount US, pan-European and transatlantic campaigns. Wherever in the world BKSH operates, clients can rely on the same commitment: the promise of efficiency, effectiveness and excellence," the company boasts on its website.Putin and his government are up against the 10,000 pound gorilla of public relations firms. This is what's known in the trade as being a captive customer. If BKSH tarnished Putin's image in the course of serving their Yukos client, Putin's solution is simple. Hire BKSH & Associates to buff his image.
BKSH & Associates is "a Washington-based bipartisan firm providing government relations services to a select number of domestic and international clients. The firm, a part of the Burson-Marsteller family, is led by Charles R. Black, Jr., who is best known as one of America's leading Republican political strategists, having served as senior advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and as a spokesman for the Republican Party.
The firm's lobbyists, lawyers, communications professionals, foreign affairs specialists and researchers design and execute programs to help shape public policy. Clients include Fortune 100 companies, multinationals, small and mid-sized companies, trade and industry associations, foreign governments, state governments and municipalities."
Friday, January 28
The Plot Thickens: Putin takes on OPEC
Peter Lavelle's article OPEC Dethroned, Putin's "KremPEC" Arrives was published online in August 2004 but it's not 'dated' reading. His take on the Kremlin's moves regarding Yukos and the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky may throw light on a dark corner of the opposition that's arisen in the US and Europe against Vladimir Putin. Conspiracy theorists and close observers of the Saudi oil ministry, get out your connect-the-dots board and start connecting.
Pundita has added Lavelle's very informative website to the sidebar. Note his recent news/analysis on the Russia-Ukraine situation.
Pundita has added Lavelle's very informative website to the sidebar. Note his recent news/analysis on the Russia-Ukraine situation.
Thursday, January 27
Pundita stumbles across Meddlers, Inc., aka New Atlantic Initiative
Stop the presses! Somebody notify Dr. Cohen! We've found the source of the US position on meddling in Ukraine and 93.5% of the weirdness that descended on US policy toward Russia.
No, the source is not the Washington Post editorial board! Nope it's not George Soros! It's not the post box in Belgium. And--are you sitting down for this?--it's not the State Department. It's....are you sitting down? It's....
That's the board of the New Atlantic Initiative (NAI), which is headquartered at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, DC. Alert readers will ask why there's no asterisk next to Colin Powell's name. We have no idea; perhaps some overworked typist's oversight.
But there you have it: the full explanation why there is a discrepancy between George Bush's democracy doctrine and how US foreign policy functions in Eurasia.
A look at the NAI roster makes it hardly necessary to read the mission statement but here's the objective:
Translation: If you think American foreign policy will ever get out from under Europe's thumb, dream on hayseed.
Well this is one hayseed who has been jerked awake. America will disengage from the NATO-centric view of the world when the cows come home. And if President Bush doesn't tow the "new Atlantic" line, money says he'll run into powerful Senate Republican-Democrat coalitions that block his most important domestic initiatives.
I note in passing that the objectives of NAI throw light on another mystery, which is the limp-wristed support for the Iraq invasion by several Republicans who support the AEI view. But of course! The Iraq invasion (and Bush's Greater Middle Eastern Initiative) runs counter to Europe's views on how best to deal with the Middle East! Silly Pundita to have wondered.
This tirade is nothing against Mrs. Thatcher and other anti-communist stalwarts represented on the NAI board. Yet Americans do need to find their own way; we can't do that if we are perpetually locked into the European geopolitical view.
The AEI-NAI influence in Washington solves the riddle of Kuchma's fall from power, Colin Powell's slap in the face to the Russian people after the Beslan massacre, and many other US steps that don't make a lick of sense, if we want American foreign policy to reflect integrity rather than a double standard.
Integrity is not the only issue. Towing the NATO line during the Cold War meant that the US could call for embargo against certain governments for arms trafficking with despotic regimes but not other governments, such as Germany and France. US adherence to the "new Atlantic" initiative continues the tradition of the American government playing ostrich.
Pundita must cut short this writing to put ice on her ankles, which are black-and-blue from kicking herself for not thinking first of the AEI when she embarked on the wacky quest to make sense of US meddling in Ukraine.
No, the source is not the Washington Post editorial board! Nope it's not George Soros! It's not the post box in Belgium. And--are you sitting down for this?--it's not the State Department. It's....are you sitting down? It's....
Patrons
The Hon. José MarÃa Aznar
The Hon. Leszek Balcerowicz
The Hon. Václav Havel
The Hon. Henry Kissinger
The Hon. Helmut Schmidt
The Hon. George Schultz
The Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher
Executive Director
Radek Sikorski
International Advisory Board
Jan Krzysztof Bielecki
John Bolton*
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Robert Conquest
Paula Dobriansky*
Josef Joffe
Adrian Karatnycky
Mikhael Khodorkovsky
Martin Koffel
William Kristol
Robert Malott
Antonio Martino
Mitch McConnell
Rupert Murdoch
Klaus Naumann
William E. Odom
John O'Sullivan
Marcello Pera
Colin Powell
David Pryce-Jones
Jean-François Revel
Lord Robertson
Peter Rodman*
Donald Rumsfeld*
Antxón Sarasqueta
Roger Scruton
Marilyn Ware
Lord Weidenfeld
W. Bruce Weinrod
Robert Zoellick*
* suspended while on government service
That's the board of the New Atlantic Initiative (NAI), which is headquartered at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, DC. Alert readers will ask why there's no asterisk next to Colin Powell's name. We have no idea; perhaps some overworked typist's oversight.
But there you have it: the full explanation why there is a discrepancy between George Bush's democracy doctrine and how US foreign policy functions in Eurasia.
A look at the NAI roster makes it hardly necessary to read the mission statement but here's the objective:
The New Atlantic Initiative (NAI) is an international nonpartisan organization dedicated to revitalizing and expanding the Atlantic community of democracies.
Objective
The NAI's central objective is to strengthen Atlantic cooperation in the post-cold war world by bringing together Americans and Europeans to work toward common goals, including:
--The reinvigoration of Atlantic institutions of political cooperation and consultation.
--The admission of Europe's fledgling democracies into the institutions of Atlantic defense and European economic cooperation, notably NATO and the European Union.
--The establishment of free trade between an enlarged European Union and the North American Free Trade Area as a complement to strengthening global free trade.
Translation: If you think American foreign policy will ever get out from under Europe's thumb, dream on hayseed.
Well this is one hayseed who has been jerked awake. America will disengage from the NATO-centric view of the world when the cows come home. And if President Bush doesn't tow the "new Atlantic" line, money says he'll run into powerful Senate Republican-Democrat coalitions that block his most important domestic initiatives.
I note in passing that the objectives of NAI throw light on another mystery, which is the limp-wristed support for the Iraq invasion by several Republicans who support the AEI view. But of course! The Iraq invasion (and Bush's Greater Middle Eastern Initiative) runs counter to Europe's views on how best to deal with the Middle East! Silly Pundita to have wondered.
This tirade is nothing against Mrs. Thatcher and other anti-communist stalwarts represented on the NAI board. Yet Americans do need to find their own way; we can't do that if we are perpetually locked into the European geopolitical view.
The AEI-NAI influence in Washington solves the riddle of Kuchma's fall from power, Colin Powell's slap in the face to the Russian people after the Beslan massacre, and many other US steps that don't make a lick of sense, if we want American foreign policy to reflect integrity rather than a double standard.
Integrity is not the only issue. Towing the NATO line during the Cold War meant that the US could call for embargo against certain governments for arms trafficking with despotic regimes but not other governments, such as Germany and France. US adherence to the "new Atlantic" initiative continues the tradition of the American government playing ostrich.
Pundita must cut short this writing to put ice on her ankles, which are black-and-blue from kicking herself for not thinking first of the AEI when she embarked on the wacky quest to make sense of US meddling in Ukraine.
Wednesday, January 26
Is that the end of the world I hear approaching? No, it's only the UN trying to influence the choice for the next World Bank president.
Or more likely China instigating the G77 to set up a howl, as if they need a push. Boiled down, the wailing is a preemptive strike on the next G7 meeting, which will once again be all about the debt burden of the G77 countries.
Gird yourself; the United Nations and G77 are just getting warmed up. It's not every year they hit a trifecta: World Bank president choice, the IMF Spring meeting, and a G7 meeting.
Stock your G7 Survivor's Kit while there's time; it will be too late during Gordon Brown's opening speech.
--Eye drops and oxygen mask (protection against clouds of ashes)
--Industrial ear protectors (muffle sounds of wailing)
--Kleenex box (hearing pleas for debt forgiveness)
Once Brown has finished speaking you can remove the oxygen mask.
To get yourself in the mood and get in some practice with the oxygen mask read Brown's speech to the Council of Foreign Relations.
Etiquette tips if you happen to bump into Gordon Brown in the London Tube:
1. Don't be rude and ask whether the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has ever considered shutting down in a courageous blow against perpetual poor-nation debt.
2. Don't be tacky and inquire whether the next meeting is going to be a G7 or G8 gathering. We'll just have to see how Putin's meeting with Bush goes next month in Europe.
3. Don't be gauche and inquire how filthy-rich OPEC governments in the G77 roster got into the category of world's poorest nations.
Gird yourself; the United Nations and G77 are just getting warmed up. It's not every year they hit a trifecta: World Bank president choice, the IMF Spring meeting, and a G7 meeting.
Stock your G7 Survivor's Kit while there's time; it will be too late during Gordon Brown's opening speech.
--Eye drops and oxygen mask (protection against clouds of ashes)
--Industrial ear protectors (muffle sounds of wailing)
--Kleenex box (hearing pleas for debt forgiveness)
Once Brown has finished speaking you can remove the oxygen mask.
To get yourself in the mood and get in some practice with the oxygen mask read Brown's speech to the Council of Foreign Relations.
Etiquette tips if you happen to bump into Gordon Brown in the London Tube:
1. Don't be rude and ask whether the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has ever considered shutting down in a courageous blow against perpetual poor-nation debt.
2. Don't be tacky and inquire whether the next meeting is going to be a G7 or G8 gathering. We'll just have to see how Putin's meeting with Bush goes next month in Europe.
3. Don't be gauche and inquire how filthy-rich OPEC governments in the G77 roster got into the category of world's poorest nations.
Tuesday, January 25
The Seven O'clock Intelligence Briefing
"Pundita, I don't know which upset me more, the Friday State Department briefing about Ukraine or Jamie Glazov's symposium on Ukraine. I have never read discussion that is so far from the main point, so full of inaccuracies, and which omits so many key facts--and that's just from Rachel Ehrenfeld's side [in the symposium] and she was making an honest attempt at objectivity! As for [John] Radzilowski, who's clearly an agendist, his discussion about Ukraine and Europe's role is so far off base it's frightening. You were right; the United States is left holding the bag for the machinations in Ukraine while Putin lectures us and western Europe shakes its head and says tsk tsk."
[Signed] Ann in Cincinnati"
Dear Ann:
If you really want to get your blood pressure elevated read Jonathan Steele's analysis of the Ukraine situation.
He writes, "The European Union has been weak and divided, missing the chance to exert a strong European line in the face of US strategic meddling."
Weak and divided, huh? Has this man never heard of the EBRD? He's right about the meddling "template" that's been used but not a word about George Soros's role so of course not a word about Soros's connection with State.
Even Stephen Cohen, who is remarkably objective in his analyses of Russia and other FSU countries, tiptoes around the subject of State in his latest writing about Ukraine for The Nation. It's the US media's cold war, not State's, to hear Dr. Cohen tell it. He did briefly mention Soros and the State Department during one discussion with John Batchelor in late November 2004. So, it could be that the editorial board of The Nation, which has received funding from a Soros organization, is reluctant to bring up the S word in a critical light.
However, Soros is not central to the discussion; he became so influential because his money and contacts were useful to the NATO-oriented viewpoint of State and other NATO member governments. And as my last post mentioned the US Establishment media outlets that Cohen complains about in his latest writing are also oriented to the NATO view. That means they cannot automatically be considered reliable sources if you want to know what's going on in Ukraine or any FSU country.
I've mentioned before that to pick up the thread one has to go back carefully over what happened to Kuchma. It might also be illuminating to study how the World Bank's PAL project, which was greatly concerned with assigning title to land in Ukraine, impacted the issue of land ownership in western Ukraine and along the Ukraine-Polish border.
This is a guess, but the property title issue might be a significant part of the story underlying clan wars that broke out and which helped Kuchma's fall from grace in Washington. Keep in mind that under the Soviet system the people did not have their own land. Once the Bank decided to apply De Soto's observations to Ukraine, this might have touched off an uproar.
I repeat, I am guessing. In any case, arguing about what the US and Europe did or didn't do to influence the Ukraine election is arguing after the fact. The ship had left the pier before the time Yushchenko threw his hat in the ring. Again, the real story is found in events leading up to Kuchma's fall from grace.
This said, Rachel Ehrenfeld got in the last word during the symposium and her word is on the money--literally.
Think about the dollar figure Rachel mentions, applied to a country where the monthly income ranges between $30 and $120. For $150 a day those Ukrainian demonstrators would have voted for Donald Duck.
The debate between Radzilowski and Ehrenfeld is instructive reading for Americans trying to get better informed about international affairs. They both get in their licks. Radzilowski has thought-provoking observations about the wisdom of trying to bring several FSU countries into the European Union. However, the omissions and distortions that upset you can be applied to a major flaw in US news reporting.
Rachel is a good analyst but her expertise is money laundering. I am not familiar with Radzilowski and haven't bothered to research him, but he's surely an expert on East Europe/EU politics, from his discussion during the symposium.
If you put those two areas of expertise together and let them debate the Ukraine, well of course there's going to be gaps and distortions in the picture.
If you throw in Stephen Cohen, who is a historian specializing in FSU countries, you'd have illuminating background and analysis but still a narrow, distorted picture of the recent situation.
Add an expert on the lending to Ukraine by West Europe's version of the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and you'd start getting the picture. The EBRD (of which US is a member) is the largest single investor in former Soviet countries.
If you throw in a World Bank director who oversees departments making Bank loan projects for Ukraine and an IMF director specializing in the region, things would start clarifying with amazing speed.
Toss in a summary of the history and makeup of Polish, Russian, Ukrainian clans and the oligarchs/crime bosses with the greatest interest in Ukraine.
Add an "oil patch" expert--someone who knows the oil and gas business.
Add detailed information about the State Department's "America Desk" involvement in the Ukraine during the past decade. [See Pundita posts on the desk.)
Last but not least corral someone who can explain in plain English what the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) has been telling Russia and Ukraine during the past two years about their balance of payments situation.
Then you'd have the picture, after you integrated all those knowledge bases. It might seem that the analysis and data collection (or expert collection) I've listed are daunting; they are, if you have to gather them all within a very short period of time and start analyzing from zero. But heck, this situation with Ukraine had been building for more than a decade.
News producers would argue that I'm talking about intelligence analysis and data collection, which don't constitute news. The argument is sophistry. Innumerable incidents during any 24 period can be called "daily news." Yet people don't turn to the news media to get a hodgepodge of data. They want to be informed about situations as long as they're paying attention to a news show.
Think of the amount of time Americans have wasted reading and watching the skewed news stories about Ukraine since November and the daffy editorials Cohen lambastes in his latest writing. Think of all the time we've wasted listening to American Talking Heads and congressionals argue about Ukraine when their opinions are so poorly informed they're on the moon.
If our news media had done their job during the past decade we could have had the story straight after only a few minutes of taking in the news about the Ukraine election. They didn't do their job. So now any American who wants to know what was really going on in Ukraine has to invest hundreds of hours in research and become an intelligence analyst.
But if the American news Establishment wants to split semantic hairs, okay let's rename the Seven O'clock News. We'll call it, "The Seven O'clock Intelligence Briefing."
That would put the news media on notice that we expect them to do the job they're getting paid for, so the rest of us don't have to add their job to our daily To-do list.
[Signed] Ann in Cincinnati"
Dear Ann:
If you really want to get your blood pressure elevated read Jonathan Steele's analysis of the Ukraine situation.
He writes, "The European Union has been weak and divided, missing the chance to exert a strong European line in the face of US strategic meddling."
Weak and divided, huh? Has this man never heard of the EBRD? He's right about the meddling "template" that's been used but not a word about George Soros's role so of course not a word about Soros's connection with State.
Even Stephen Cohen, who is remarkably objective in his analyses of Russia and other FSU countries, tiptoes around the subject of State in his latest writing about Ukraine for The Nation. It's the US media's cold war, not State's, to hear Dr. Cohen tell it. He did briefly mention Soros and the State Department during one discussion with John Batchelor in late November 2004. So, it could be that the editorial board of The Nation, which has received funding from a Soros organization, is reluctant to bring up the S word in a critical light.
However, Soros is not central to the discussion; he became so influential because his money and contacts were useful to the NATO-oriented viewpoint of State and other NATO member governments. And as my last post mentioned the US Establishment media outlets that Cohen complains about in his latest writing are also oriented to the NATO view. That means they cannot automatically be considered reliable sources if you want to know what's going on in Ukraine or any FSU country.
I've mentioned before that to pick up the thread one has to go back carefully over what happened to Kuchma. It might also be illuminating to study how the World Bank's PAL project, which was greatly concerned with assigning title to land in Ukraine, impacted the issue of land ownership in western Ukraine and along the Ukraine-Polish border.
This is a guess, but the property title issue might be a significant part of the story underlying clan wars that broke out and which helped Kuchma's fall from grace in Washington. Keep in mind that under the Soviet system the people did not have their own land. Once the Bank decided to apply De Soto's observations to Ukraine, this might have touched off an uproar.
I repeat, I am guessing. In any case, arguing about what the US and Europe did or didn't do to influence the Ukraine election is arguing after the fact. The ship had left the pier before the time Yushchenko threw his hat in the ring. Again, the real story is found in events leading up to Kuchma's fall from grace.
This said, Rachel Ehrenfeld got in the last word during the symposium and her word is on the money--literally.
Ehrenfeld: I agree, the people of Ukraine have the right to determine their own future for better or worse. But these elections were anything but fair, and contributing to the fraud were large contributions from the West–according to thousands of “orange demonstrators” who were paid $150 per day (!) for weeks, to stage demonstrations...Thus, the Ukrainian people know, first hand, that democracy can be bought. Is this the lesson the West wanted them to have? These elections left many Ukrainian confused. And rightly so. When mental hospitals are used to falsify election results, what can you expect?
I too, wish the Ukrainians democracy, freedom, and free market economy. However, I think that the way the regime change was enforced, will make their goal more difficult to achieve.
Think about the dollar figure Rachel mentions, applied to a country where the monthly income ranges between $30 and $120. For $150 a day those Ukrainian demonstrators would have voted for Donald Duck.
The debate between Radzilowski and Ehrenfeld is instructive reading for Americans trying to get better informed about international affairs. They both get in their licks. Radzilowski has thought-provoking observations about the wisdom of trying to bring several FSU countries into the European Union. However, the omissions and distortions that upset you can be applied to a major flaw in US news reporting.
Rachel is a good analyst but her expertise is money laundering. I am not familiar with Radzilowski and haven't bothered to research him, but he's surely an expert on East Europe/EU politics, from his discussion during the symposium.
If you put those two areas of expertise together and let them debate the Ukraine, well of course there's going to be gaps and distortions in the picture.
If you throw in Stephen Cohen, who is a historian specializing in FSU countries, you'd have illuminating background and analysis but still a narrow, distorted picture of the recent situation.
Add an expert on the lending to Ukraine by West Europe's version of the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and you'd start getting the picture. The EBRD (of which US is a member) is the largest single investor in former Soviet countries.
If you throw in a World Bank director who oversees departments making Bank loan projects for Ukraine and an IMF director specializing in the region, things would start clarifying with amazing speed.
Toss in a summary of the history and makeup of Polish, Russian, Ukrainian clans and the oligarchs/crime bosses with the greatest interest in Ukraine.
Add an "oil patch" expert--someone who knows the oil and gas business.
Add detailed information about the State Department's "America Desk" involvement in the Ukraine during the past decade. [See Pundita posts on the desk.)
Last but not least corral someone who can explain in plain English what the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) has been telling Russia and Ukraine during the past two years about their balance of payments situation.
Then you'd have the picture, after you integrated all those knowledge bases. It might seem that the analysis and data collection (or expert collection) I've listed are daunting; they are, if you have to gather them all within a very short period of time and start analyzing from zero. But heck, this situation with Ukraine had been building for more than a decade.
News producers would argue that I'm talking about intelligence analysis and data collection, which don't constitute news. The argument is sophistry. Innumerable incidents during any 24 period can be called "daily news." Yet people don't turn to the news media to get a hodgepodge of data. They want to be informed about situations as long as they're paying attention to a news show.
Think of the amount of time Americans have wasted reading and watching the skewed news stories about Ukraine since November and the daffy editorials Cohen lambastes in his latest writing. Think of all the time we've wasted listening to American Talking Heads and congressionals argue about Ukraine when their opinions are so poorly informed they're on the moon.
If our news media had done their job during the past decade we could have had the story straight after only a few minutes of taking in the news about the Ukraine election. They didn't do their job. So now any American who wants to know what was really going on in Ukraine has to invest hundreds of hours in research and become an intelligence analyst.
But if the American news Establishment wants to split semantic hairs, okay let's rename the Seven O'clock News. We'll call it, "The Seven O'clock Intelligence Briefing."
That would put the news media on notice that we expect them to do the job they're getting paid for, so the rest of us don't have to add their job to our daily To-do list.
Monday, January 24
The American Century, at last
"Pundita, Until I read your Saturday post I tried for more than two years to figure out what Bush is talking about. You're right, he's easy to understand if you go to the source. The media think Bush is so stupid they don't really listen to what he says. Now they are dreaming up wild theories about what his democracy speech means. Thank you for demystifying what he said. ...
[Signed] Caesar in San Francisco"
Dear Caesar:
The media don't think Bush is stupid; it's just that they haven't absorbed the extent to which his ideas represent a radical break from US foreign policy thinking.
For more than a half century American foreign policy has been lashed to the mast of NATO thinking. The NATO alliance has been vitally important to the US. The price tag is that there has been no real American foreign policy; there's been NATO policy, which overwhelmingly reflects the European view.
That's why many Americans spent the Cold War tearing their hair out over what they perceived to be incoherent and even insane US foreign/defense policy. However, the war itself--America's struggle against the Soviet Union--and the enemy's nuclear armaments masked the root cause of the incoherence.
An example is the widespread US protest that built against the Vietnam War. Americans slowly realized that Vietnam represented an unwinnable war because we couldn't declare war on the real enemies, which were Red China and the Soviet Union. See USS Clueless for an outline of the situation. Once Americans understood that our soldiers were locked in a proxy war with no end, they branded the Vietnam War as madness. However, the mad part was American foreign policy trying to do an imitation of Europe's. This point drifted untended through the subsequent decades until it met head-on with 9/11.
Proxy war greatly predates the nuclear arms era; it is longtime standard operating procedure for European governments; one look at a map of Europe tells you why. Proxy war, triangulation, detente--all that stuff makes perfect sense for a bunch of small countries jammed next to each other with approximately the same military power and population number. Yet when translated into policy for America, the European viewpoint produces the kind of weirdness that Jefferson Airplane captured in their White Rabbit lyrics.
It's ironic that an American president who is admittedly not comfortable with verbal language has tasked himself with articulating a purely American defense/foreign policy. However, he's doing a better job than is evident from US media analysis of his ideas, which is why Pundita always advises to go to the source first when trying to follow Bush policy.
If you read the description of the Millennium Challenge Account, it jumps out that the concepts of personal responsibility and accountability are cornerstones of Bush foreign policy. The cornerstones are also evident in Bush's views about education. You're not going to create a modern workforce if you keep passing children who can't read and write. The public schools have to be held more accountable.
In the same manner, we've spent a half century learning that if you invite a despot to vote in the United Nations, and in all other manner treat him as a democratically elected leader, this is not going to create a democratic leader out the despot.
The Bush Democracy Doctrine boils down to saying that you cannot keep giving despots a passing grade--not if the despots want something from you, such as big-bucks aid and big trade deals. You must demand accountability and responsibility and for this, clear standards need to be developed and enforced. Otherwise, despots assume they can keep on as they've been doing. Just as a generation of American public high school graduates assumed it was okay to read at the level of a 12 year old and get into college. The school system wasn't set up to provide feedback that it's not okay.
The Bush approach reflects a typically American viewpoint, or rather a reassertion of the American viewpoint. The viewpoint went into decline at the US news media level. The media are not so much anti-Bush as at sea. George W. Bush is laying the groundwork for a foreign policy that is free of NATO-centric and Euro-centric thinking. But that's a paradigm shift for the US news media, which spent more than a half century reporting on and analyzing an American foreign policy view that was dominated by European thinking.
We still have a way to go before an American policy fully emerges but the Bush presidency has made a good start.
Thank you for allowing me use your praise as a quote on the Pundita blogspot header.
[Signed] Caesar in San Francisco"
Dear Caesar:
The media don't think Bush is stupid; it's just that they haven't absorbed the extent to which his ideas represent a radical break from US foreign policy thinking.
For more than a half century American foreign policy has been lashed to the mast of NATO thinking. The NATO alliance has been vitally important to the US. The price tag is that there has been no real American foreign policy; there's been NATO policy, which overwhelmingly reflects the European view.
That's why many Americans spent the Cold War tearing their hair out over what they perceived to be incoherent and even insane US foreign/defense policy. However, the war itself--America's struggle against the Soviet Union--and the enemy's nuclear armaments masked the root cause of the incoherence.
An example is the widespread US protest that built against the Vietnam War. Americans slowly realized that Vietnam represented an unwinnable war because we couldn't declare war on the real enemies, which were Red China and the Soviet Union. See USS Clueless for an outline of the situation. Once Americans understood that our soldiers were locked in a proxy war with no end, they branded the Vietnam War as madness. However, the mad part was American foreign policy trying to do an imitation of Europe's. This point drifted untended through the subsequent decades until it met head-on with 9/11.
Proxy war greatly predates the nuclear arms era; it is longtime standard operating procedure for European governments; one look at a map of Europe tells you why. Proxy war, triangulation, detente--all that stuff makes perfect sense for a bunch of small countries jammed next to each other with approximately the same military power and population number. Yet when translated into policy for America, the European viewpoint produces the kind of weirdness that Jefferson Airplane captured in their White Rabbit lyrics.
It's ironic that an American president who is admittedly not comfortable with verbal language has tasked himself with articulating a purely American defense/foreign policy. However, he's doing a better job than is evident from US media analysis of his ideas, which is why Pundita always advises to go to the source first when trying to follow Bush policy.
If you read the description of the Millennium Challenge Account, it jumps out that the concepts of personal responsibility and accountability are cornerstones of Bush foreign policy. The cornerstones are also evident in Bush's views about education. You're not going to create a modern workforce if you keep passing children who can't read and write. The public schools have to be held more accountable.
In the same manner, we've spent a half century learning that if you invite a despot to vote in the United Nations, and in all other manner treat him as a democratically elected leader, this is not going to create a democratic leader out the despot.
The Bush Democracy Doctrine boils down to saying that you cannot keep giving despots a passing grade--not if the despots want something from you, such as big-bucks aid and big trade deals. You must demand accountability and responsibility and for this, clear standards need to be developed and enforced. Otherwise, despots assume they can keep on as they've been doing. Just as a generation of American public high school graduates assumed it was okay to read at the level of a 12 year old and get into college. The school system wasn't set up to provide feedback that it's not okay.
The Bush approach reflects a typically American viewpoint, or rather a reassertion of the American viewpoint. The viewpoint went into decline at the US news media level. The media are not so much anti-Bush as at sea. George W. Bush is laying the groundwork for a foreign policy that is free of NATO-centric and Euro-centric thinking. But that's a paradigm shift for the US news media, which spent more than a half century reporting on and analyzing an American foreign policy view that was dominated by European thinking.
We still have a way to go before an American policy fully emerges but the Bush presidency has made a good start.
Thank you for allowing me use your praise as a quote on the Pundita blogspot header.
Saturday, January 22
Bush Democracy Doctrine, simply explained
"Dear Pundita, I liked Bush's speech at the inaugural but I'm a little confused by it. I wonder if he's talking in general terms and how he intends to implement the ideas, which are very ambitious. Also, didn't you love the white coat Laura wore for the inaugural?"
[Signed] Claudia in Taos
Dear Claudia:
There is no mystery about the Democracy Doctrine; the ideas Bush sketched in his inaugural speech are already in effect although it's early days. His remarks are confusing only if you depend on secondary sources for understanding. If you go to the White House website and study the Millennium Challenge Account and the No Child Left Behind Act, you won't be confused.
You'll see that the ideas expressed in the inaugural speech reflect a typically Bushian approach to solving a systemic problem. The Democracy Doctrine is strong on accountability, standards setting, achievement tests. and performance review. It's results oriented.
In fact, Bush could make this easy for the commentariat if he directed them to study his No Child Left Behind Act. If you substitute "tyrant" for child and make a few other simple word substitutes, you're an instant expert on the Bush Democracy Doctrine. Let's try it with the first portion of the executive summary, with the substitutions shown in boldface:
At this point the Bush Democracy Doctrine diverges from the No Child Left Behind Act. Lagging tyrants will not be given the same choice that say, sixth graders receive if they don't buckle down to math. But as you can see there is no mystery about how the doctrine is to work out in practice.
Will the No Tyrant Left Behind initiative work? Of course. Mortals can't rid the world of evil but we can rectify mistakes that set the modern world's tyrants in place and keep them in place. Today's batch are not conquerors. And almost none are products of real revolution or internal coup. The majority came to power on the back of skimmed aid/loan money from the big Western nations and/or big-nation machinations.
So today's batch are as much Frankensteins as tyrants. Today's tyrants didn't get to be tyrants without a lot of help from the world's most powerful countries, including the USA. So the Bush doctrine is aimed as much at NATO countries and China and Russia as at Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
I interject that's why I made such a fuss about the US machinations in Ukraine, which began before Bush came to office. If we want other governments to get serious about the Democracy Doctrine, US foreign policy must strive hard to keep its hem clean. Things we could get away with during the Cold War--no more, if we want other governments to raise their bar.
However, if you substitute "developed world governments" for the public school system, you can understand why several countries (and even some representatives of the American government) are putting up so much resistance to Bush's doctrine. They've had pretty much the same reaction as public school administrators on first hearing about the No Child Left Behind Act. These governments aren't used to being held accountable in their dealings with despots.
However, if the NATO "school system" cranked out tinhorn despots who refused to democratize their countries, that's a measure of how much the world's most powerful governments have held themselves to account, in their dealings with despots. So we all need to improve our performance.
Blaming only the tyrants is akin to blaming only the child, if he graduates high school unable to spell cat. The question is how he got that far, after generations of adults poured billions into the school system that was supposed to educate him to deal with the modern world.
Laura's inaugural coat and the matching suit are to die for. Pundita wants the knockoffs as soon as they're available.
[Signed] Claudia in Taos
Dear Claudia:
There is no mystery about the Democracy Doctrine; the ideas Bush sketched in his inaugural speech are already in effect although it's early days. His remarks are confusing only if you depend on secondary sources for understanding. If you go to the White House website and study the Millennium Challenge Account and the No Child Left Behind Act, you won't be confused.
You'll see that the ideas expressed in the inaugural speech reflect a typically Bushian approach to solving a systemic problem. The Democracy Doctrine is strong on accountability, standards setting, achievement tests. and performance review. It's results oriented.
In fact, Bush could make this easy for the commentariat if he directed them to study his No Child Left Behind Act. If you substitute "tyrant" for child and make a few other simple word substitutes, you're an instant expert on the Bush Democracy Doctrine. Let's try it with the first portion of the executive summary, with the substitutions shown in boldface:
As the world enters the 21st Century full of hope and promise, too many of our tyrants are being left behind. Today, nearly 100 percent of the world's tyrants are unable to understand democracy ....
Although education is primarily a state and local responsibility, democratic governments are partly at fault for tolerating these abysmal results. Democratic governments currently do not do enough to reward success and sanction failure in our education system
Over the decades the American government and other governments in developed countries have created thousands of programs intended to address problems in tyrant education without asking whether or not the programs produce results or knowing their impact on local needs.
This "program for every problem" solution has begun to add up -- so much so that there are thousands of aid/low-cost loan programs spread across God Only Knows how many agencies at a cost of billions of US dollars a year.
Yet, after spending trillions and probably even zillions of dollars on tyrant education, we have fallen short in meeting our goals for educational excellence. The academic achievement gap between tyrants and elected leaders is not only wide, but in some cases is growing wider still.
In reaction to these disappointing results, some have decided that there should be no direct involvement in democracy education for tyrants . Others suggest we merely add new programs into the old system. Surely, there must be another way, a way that points to a more effective developed world role.
The priorities that follow are based on the fundamental notion that an enterprise works best when responsibility is placed closest to the most important activity of the enterprise, when those responsible are given greatest latitude and support, and when those responsible are held accountable for producing results. This education blueprint will:
--Increase Accountability for Tyrant Performance:
Tyrants who improve achievement in democracy measures will be rewarded. Failure will be sanctioned. American agencies/foreign policy instruments will know how well the tyrant is learning and that they are held accountable for their effectiveness with annual assessments.
--Focus on What Works:
US tax dollars will be spent on effective, research-based programs and practices. Funds will be targeted to improve tyrant education and enhance teacher quality.
--Reduce Bureaucracy and Increase Flexibility:
Additional flexibility will be provided to American agencies, and flexible funding will be increased at the local level.
--Empower Governments of the Developed World:
Said governments will have more information about the quality of the tyrant's schooling in democracy. Tyrants in persistently low-performing schools will be given choice.
At this point the Bush Democracy Doctrine diverges from the No Child Left Behind Act. Lagging tyrants will not be given the same choice that say, sixth graders receive if they don't buckle down to math. But as you can see there is no mystery about how the doctrine is to work out in practice.
Will the No Tyrant Left Behind initiative work? Of course. Mortals can't rid the world of evil but we can rectify mistakes that set the modern world's tyrants in place and keep them in place. Today's batch are not conquerors. And almost none are products of real revolution or internal coup. The majority came to power on the back of skimmed aid/loan money from the big Western nations and/or big-nation machinations.
So today's batch are as much Frankensteins as tyrants. Today's tyrants didn't get to be tyrants without a lot of help from the world's most powerful countries, including the USA. So the Bush doctrine is aimed as much at NATO countries and China and Russia as at Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
I interject that's why I made such a fuss about the US machinations in Ukraine, which began before Bush came to office. If we want other governments to get serious about the Democracy Doctrine, US foreign policy must strive hard to keep its hem clean. Things we could get away with during the Cold War--no more, if we want other governments to raise their bar.
However, if you substitute "developed world governments" for the public school system, you can understand why several countries (and even some representatives of the American government) are putting up so much resistance to Bush's doctrine. They've had pretty much the same reaction as public school administrators on first hearing about the No Child Left Behind Act. These governments aren't used to being held accountable in their dealings with despots.
However, if the NATO "school system" cranked out tinhorn despots who refused to democratize their countries, that's a measure of how much the world's most powerful governments have held themselves to account, in their dealings with despots. So we all need to improve our performance.
Blaming only the tyrants is akin to blaming only the child, if he graduates high school unable to spell cat. The question is how he got that far, after generations of adults poured billions into the school system that was supposed to educate him to deal with the modern world.
Laura's inaugural coat and the matching suit are to die for. Pundita wants the knockoffs as soon as they're available.
Friday, January 21
Is it do-able?
"What do you mean Americans are practical-minded people? Bush's speech yesterday was more proof that Americans are crazy to listen to him. He is trying to make a religion out of democracy.
[Signed] Pierre in Montreal"
Dear Pierre:
Let us choose not to frame foreign policy discussions as a mental health issue. Practicality is indeed a characteristic of Americans, which plays a significant role in the Bush administration's discussion about the direction of US foreign policy.
In support of this observation, I direct you to the poll conducted by Chris Core during his call-in radio show last night. In case the page link doesn't work after 24 hours, the poll question and two possible answers are:
"Do you believe President Bush's speech today calling for freedom everywhere in the world is an achievable goal?
"Yes, it's not only do-able, it's absolutely necessary.
"No, it's pie in the sky dreaming, not the real world."
When the poll closed, 81% of respondents answered yes with 19% in the nay category.
A close look at the WMAL-AM website tells the sharp observer that Core's audience is probably weighted with Republicans. But Core's show is a Washington institution; he deals nightly with local issues that cut across party politics. So the opinions of Democrat listeners are also strongly represented on Chris's call-in line. And Chris is widely listened to in the Greater Washington, DC region, which includes the District of Columbia and parts of the states of Virginia and Maryland. This means Chris talks nightly with many Real People who live Inside the Beltway or Not Far Outside. ("Real people" as distinguished from the lobbyists and other members of the political industry.)
Thus, Core's initial response to Bush's inaugural speech supports my observation that Americans are practical people. Straight off the bat, Core asked his audience whether they thought aggressively promoting democracy in the world is a realistic policy.
Core's question reflects the initial reaction of many Americans who listened to Bush's inaugural speech. Americans tend to ask, "Is it do-able?" when first considering any idea. Indeed, Core's poll explicitly calls up the question of "do-ability."
Now if you still don't believe that Americans think first and foremost in terms of do-ability--I doubt you get the PBS NewsHour in Canada, but that's America's "high end" mainstream broadcast news show. To analyze Bush's speech, Margaret Warner corralled two of her favorite Washington Wonks, Zbignew Brzezinski (Center for Strategic & International Studies) representing the Democrat camp and Walter Russell Mead (Council on Foreign Relations) for the Republican side.
Brezinski creamed Mead by asking repeatedly, "And just how do you plan on carrying out these ideas?" Mead was reduced to saying that it was still unclear but we'd figure out something. Zbig sat there and literally cackled in triumph.
I am making a point of practicality because I venture that peoples outside America are behind the curve of the discussion that's been building inside Washington since 9/11. Americans have always been big supporters of the ideal of democracy, but it's a leap to argue that democracy is the only practical form of government. (There's that word "practical" again.) You might wish to read The Central Debate , if you want to get oriented to the discussion.
To boil it down, if it is true that democracy is the only practical form of government, then democratic governments need to greatly revise their foreign policy, which includes foreign aid.
During the past century governments in developed nations tended to look the other way when dealing with despots who don't pose a military threat to the developed nations. Thus, expediency ruled much of foreign policy in democratic nations. The 9/11 attack, coming on top of many Cold War situations, eloquently made the argument that such expediency only extends to the shortest run--and only during eras when nukes couldn't be hauled around in a suitcase.
US citizens are now having to spend blood and umpteen billion dollars to clean up a century of expedient Western approaches to dealing with nondemocratic Middle Eastern governments.
The big question is what kind of policy the democratic governments should develop to implement ideas that Bush articulated yesterday. Last night Chris put that question as well to his listeners: If they agreed that Bush's idea is do-able, then--how to do it? Again, this kind of question is characteristically American.
Some do-able strategies have already been implemented. The Bush administration's Millennium Challenge Account initiative is one of them. Yet this is one task Americans can't do alone. It will take a paradigm shift, which is not here yet, before a solid majority of the world's democratic governments "get" Bush's main points. What they need is a crash course in American-style thinking. Pundita will do her best to oblige in her next post, "The Bush Democracy Doctrine, Simply Explained."
For now, I leave you with these thoughts: Once citizens in democratic nations get it--Americans don't have a corner on creative ideas. Humanity needs all the do-able strategies we can muster, if we're to pull off what many think is an impossible dream. As a spur to creative thinking, the dream masks a hard reality, which is that dire consequences attach to pandering to nondemocratic governments.
[Signed] Pierre in Montreal"
Dear Pierre:
Let us choose not to frame foreign policy discussions as a mental health issue. Practicality is indeed a characteristic of Americans, which plays a significant role in the Bush administration's discussion about the direction of US foreign policy.
In support of this observation, I direct you to the poll conducted by Chris Core during his call-in radio show last night. In case the page link doesn't work after 24 hours, the poll question and two possible answers are:
"Do you believe President Bush's speech today calling for freedom everywhere in the world is an achievable goal?
"Yes, it's not only do-able, it's absolutely necessary.
"No, it's pie in the sky dreaming, not the real world."
When the poll closed, 81% of respondents answered yes with 19% in the nay category.
A close look at the WMAL-AM website tells the sharp observer that Core's audience is probably weighted with Republicans. But Core's show is a Washington institution; he deals nightly with local issues that cut across party politics. So the opinions of Democrat listeners are also strongly represented on Chris's call-in line. And Chris is widely listened to in the Greater Washington, DC region, which includes the District of Columbia and parts of the states of Virginia and Maryland. This means Chris talks nightly with many Real People who live Inside the Beltway or Not Far Outside. ("Real people" as distinguished from the lobbyists and other members of the political industry.)
Thus, Core's initial response to Bush's inaugural speech supports my observation that Americans are practical people. Straight off the bat, Core asked his audience whether they thought aggressively promoting democracy in the world is a realistic policy.
Core's question reflects the initial reaction of many Americans who listened to Bush's inaugural speech. Americans tend to ask, "Is it do-able?" when first considering any idea. Indeed, Core's poll explicitly calls up the question of "do-ability."
Now if you still don't believe that Americans think first and foremost in terms of do-ability--I doubt you get the PBS NewsHour in Canada, but that's America's "high end" mainstream broadcast news show. To analyze Bush's speech, Margaret Warner corralled two of her favorite Washington Wonks, Zbignew Brzezinski (Center for Strategic & International Studies) representing the Democrat camp and Walter Russell Mead (Council on Foreign Relations) for the Republican side.
Brezinski creamed Mead by asking repeatedly, "And just how do you plan on carrying out these ideas?" Mead was reduced to saying that it was still unclear but we'd figure out something. Zbig sat there and literally cackled in triumph.
I am making a point of practicality because I venture that peoples outside America are behind the curve of the discussion that's been building inside Washington since 9/11. Americans have always been big supporters of the ideal of democracy, but it's a leap to argue that democracy is the only practical form of government. (There's that word "practical" again.) You might wish to read The Central Debate , if you want to get oriented to the discussion.
To boil it down, if it is true that democracy is the only practical form of government, then democratic governments need to greatly revise their foreign policy, which includes foreign aid.
During the past century governments in developed nations tended to look the other way when dealing with despots who don't pose a military threat to the developed nations. Thus, expediency ruled much of foreign policy in democratic nations. The 9/11 attack, coming on top of many Cold War situations, eloquently made the argument that such expediency only extends to the shortest run--and only during eras when nukes couldn't be hauled around in a suitcase.
US citizens are now having to spend blood and umpteen billion dollars to clean up a century of expedient Western approaches to dealing with nondemocratic Middle Eastern governments.
The big question is what kind of policy the democratic governments should develop to implement ideas that Bush articulated yesterday. Last night Chris put that question as well to his listeners: If they agreed that Bush's idea is do-able, then--how to do it? Again, this kind of question is characteristically American.
Some do-able strategies have already been implemented. The Bush administration's Millennium Challenge Account initiative is one of them. Yet this is one task Americans can't do alone. It will take a paradigm shift, which is not here yet, before a solid majority of the world's democratic governments "get" Bush's main points. What they need is a crash course in American-style thinking. Pundita will do her best to oblige in her next post, "The Bush Democracy Doctrine, Simply Explained."
For now, I leave you with these thoughts: Once citizens in democratic nations get it--Americans don't have a corner on creative ideas. Humanity needs all the do-able strategies we can muster, if we're to pull off what many think is an impossible dream. As a spur to creative thinking, the dream masks a hard reality, which is that dire consequences attach to pandering to nondemocratic governments.
Thursday, January 20
"America, by what right do you lecture us on democracy?"
If you think the American government practices a double standard in dealings with undemocratic governments, that's a situation you can't do much about if you're not an American. What you can do much about is closely examine your own government's dealings with undemocratic governments; when you find instances of a double standard, lodge protest with your government. In this way, many hands make light work of ending oppressive governments.
To say that America's dealings with oppressive governments do not always meet our standard overlooks that with each US administration the standard has been set progressively higher. During his inaugural address today President Bush set the bar so high that even a Texan might ask whether he's committed America to a quixotic path.
Do not think that Americans don't ask such questions for we are a people characterized as much by practicality as by love of freedom. To be an American is to first ask, "Is it do-able?"
The answer is that it's not possible for America alone to run tyrannical governments off this planet. What Americans can do is set a standard for their own government's interactions with oppressive regimes and struggle to insure that their government meets the standard.
As to America's right to exhort other governments to do the same--the United States is a young country but its government represents history's oldest written constitution. The United States is the world's oldest republic and democracy. So if the right to lecture is conferred by age, the American government has the right to lecture on freedom.
To say that America's dealings with oppressive governments do not always meet our standard overlooks that with each US administration the standard has been set progressively higher. During his inaugural address today President Bush set the bar so high that even a Texan might ask whether he's committed America to a quixotic path.
Do not think that Americans don't ask such questions for we are a people characterized as much by practicality as by love of freedom. To be an American is to first ask, "Is it do-able?"
The answer is that it's not possible for America alone to run tyrannical governments off this planet. What Americans can do is set a standard for their own government's interactions with oppressive regimes and struggle to insure that their government meets the standard.
As to America's right to exhort other governments to do the same--the United States is a young country but its government represents history's oldest written constitution. The United States is the world's oldest republic and democracy. So if the right to lecture is conferred by age, the American government has the right to lecture on freedom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)