| Friday,
March 18, 2005
George F. Kennan, RIP
His February 1946 Long Telegram from Moscow set the stage for the US
policy of Containment as opposed to confrontation, liberation, or rollback,
and greatly influenced Truman, who had grown to despise Stalin and
Stalinism. Although Truman did not hesitate to threaten nuclear war when he
believed vital interests were at stake, Kennan's analysis convinced him that
the USSR would eventually fall of its own weight.
Much of the telegram appeared a year later in Foreign Affairs magazine
under the authorship of "Mister X."
Possony and Strausz-Hupe had worked together in the Pentagon (in 1959
with Wm Kintner they wrote and published The Protracted Conflict, an
intellectual justification of Containment as a strategy and an explication
of some of its implications). In 1945 they had urged Forrestal to seek
advice from those knowledgeable about the USSR. Possony, as an intelligence
specialist, was particularly concerned about the unreliability of
information from the USSR. Forrestal, who was greatly influenced by
Churchill's growing concerns over Stalin and the future expansion of Soviet
Russia, was concerned about the future of Europe, and asked Strausz-Hupe to
look into the matter. When Kennan's telegram outlined a strategy of
containment, as opposed to US full-scale commitment to Europe (which both
Possony and Strausz-Hupe believed would result in American hegemony with
Europe reduced to a province of America), both Forrestal and Truman were
prepared to accept Containment as a welcome alternative to American
Imperialism.
Kennan had a long and varied career. After the Iranian invasion of the US
Embassy he advocated in Congressional testimony that the US response should
have been a Declaration of War. This astonished many, given his opposition
to many US activities that stemmed from adoption of Containment in The
Truman Doctrine. Kennan never formally abandoned containment as a policy,
but his influence waned rapidly after the USSR declared him persona non
grata in 1952. He was Ambassador at the time, and compared life in the US
embassy to a Nazi concentration camp.
Over the years Kennan came to symbolize the liberal "dovish" position to
many, but as his testimony after the Tehran Incident indicates, he could
surprise everyone.
He was easily one of the ten most influential diplomats in US history.
And see mail.
And if you are looking for something to do,
go spy on the wildlife.
Subject: Holy Smokes! The
*Guardian*: reality trembles!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1436052,00.html
Rod
Which demonstrates that the Guardian is more sensible than the Faculty of
Arts and Sciences at Harvard University; which raises the question, why
would one want to attend an institution whose faculty is demonstrably
anti-scientific and possibly feeble-minded, having to hide behind clichés
and denunciations for fear of engaging in rational discourse?
I seem to have a mild infection in my hand,
and I'll be off to the medicos.
Turns out it was nothing, and my doctors are more than satisfied with my
recovery. As well to go have them take a look, though.
=======
If we decided to kill a dog by starving it to death
and giving it no water, the police would come and rescue the dog and jail
the perpetrators.
I am not sure I understand the almighty urge to kill Terri Shaivo, or
torture the husk. Many experts have concluded that she is already dead. So
what? If she is already dead, then keeping her alive does no harm beyond
financial. Why the insistence on killing her? If she is not already dead,
then this is murder. The only party who seems certain that she wants to be
dead is not disinterested, and stands to make some money when she's gone;
certainly there are no documents or third party witnesses.
It is probably not the business of the Congress. Reluctantly I have to
agree that this is a state matter. But the people of Florida have some
decisions to make.
Wouldn't it be more humane to auction off the right to shoot her? That
would get it over quick, provide someone with the satisfaction of committing
legal murder, save a physician the trouble of removing the feeding tube, and
raise enough money to bury her. But as it is, we will get to watch her die
of thirst on television. I hope that she is properly instrumented. We should
not lose this opportunity to gather new data on starvation and thirst.
Perhaps some other experiments could be performed in the two weeks it will
take her to die.
Of course the Grand Jury in the district where this is taking place has
the right to indict those responsible for willful murder by torture. I
wonder if anyone has told the Foreman? Or does the new found regard for
local rights extend that far, or only far enough to kill this woman in the
name of freedom?
And see mail.
===================
If you have not read the account of how spammers use worms,
go look at mail.
======================
I may be missing a point I don't see, but I would have thought that it
was fairly obvious that, absent unambiguous evidence to the contrary,
husbands do not have the right to decide that their wives want to die, and
to cause their deaths; that the presumption is that the state is obliged to
protect people from those seeking to kill them. There can be exceptions to
this, but that is the default.
In the Schiavo case we have two ambiguities: unless I have missed
something, the only evidence of her wishes is the word of her husband; there
are no documents, nor testimony by third parties; and second, whether or not
she is in a "persistent vegetative state" is not entirely clear. Certainly
the probability is that she's gone and will never recover; but she's not
comatose.
He husband makes no sense, as he rails at the people interfering in his
life who know nothing about him. I don't know anything about most murder
victims, or their murderers; I don't know anything about most child abusers,
or their victims; surely that is no reason not to intervene? He resents the
interference, but then most people who are prevented from doing something
they want to do resent the interference. That's not much of an argument.
The principles seem clear to me: in our nation, at least, there is a
presumptive right to the protection of the state against attempts on your
life. You may waive that right, but it is not easily done, and your intent
needs to be clear and unambiguous. You may delegate that right to someone
else, but again that delegation needs to be clear and unambiguous. The
reasons for this should be obvious.
As to the principle of State's Rights, I have not read the decision on
which this judge has overturned the Florida legislature's act granting the
governor the right to determine her fate.
(see mail) If he has done so on some grounds
of US Constitutional rights, then he has, I would think, made it a Federal
case by over-ruling a state legislature. I had not supposed that the
principle of State's Rights was one of establishing the supremacy of the
State Judiciary over its Legislature, nor do I suppose that John Calhoun
would have supposed so. State's Rights, it seems to me, establishes the
supremacy of a State Legislature except when the will of that legislature
conflicts with a properly made Act of Congress. I would not have
thought that Judicial Supremacy was a principle that appeals to very many,
although some political groups have been happy enough to accept gifts from
the courts.
If this judge is upholding some State Constitutional right, then Florida
has an odd state constitution, because most states don't concede the right
of the judiciary to supremacy over the legislature.
Judicial power is Royal Power -- the very word "Court" ought to convey
that -- and the early states of this union were quite reluctant to hand
judges the power to nullify the decisions of legislatures. The Congress of
the United States is the actual sovereign of this nation, and possesses the
power to dismiss every single judge and officer in the land. It is also the
Grand Inquest of the Nation. Sometimes we forget that. It may be that this
case will revive some interest in such matters. Perhaps it would be better
not to have such a revival.
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