Blogworthies IV

Because The Blog from the Core simply can't cover everything.

Noteworthy entries @ Dust in the Light, Discriminations, JunkYardBlog, Midwest Conservative Journal, Turnabout, Catholic and Enjoying It! Hoystory.com, Dust in the Light (again), Recta Ratio, and Bettnet.com.

And then the Wave of Similitude @ Dust in the Light:

Well, Marcus Ross today opened his student paper to discover something that brings back memories of my own time at his university: a unanimous cry that he's wrong. Some letters poorly written. Some hilarious. One from a professor. Marcus ought, of course, to be allowed the learning experience of juggling these various tints of monochrome minds; if he intends to remain in the Northeast and to proudly wear the label of "conservative," he'll need the experience.

But I can't resist dipping in....

Who's Confused? @ Discriminations:

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative would amend the state constitution by commanding that state agencies “shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.”

Some people find this “confusing.” According to Ingrid Scott-Weekly, the Equal Opportunity Director of Grand Rapids, the language “makes suspecting [sic] voters think they are signing a petition that supports civil rights.”

Can you believe it? Those sneaky conservatives, whose “wording of the petition takes advantage of unsuspecting citizens,” are trying to hoodwink good Michiganders into believing they will be supporting civil rights if they ban the state from discriminating against or granting preference to anyone on the basis of race!...

Andrew Sullivan's Obscenity @ JunkYardBlog:

Andrew Sullivan is currently running a smear campaign, running emails from people claiming to be disgusted by President Bush's announced support for the federal marriage amendment. I question the authenticity of some of the letters he is posting, as they seem to share writing styles and form their arguments in nearly identical ways, but that's incidental and may perhaps make an interesting discussion another time. It is the substance of the smear campaign itself, from his own pen, that concerns me more than whether he is running fake emails.

On a deeper level, his smear campaign has been going on since long before President Bush announced support for a Constitutional amendment to uphold the long-standing definition of marriage. I noticed it not long after 9-11, when he began to refer to the war as a struggle not for Old Glory or even for America as such, but against fundamentalism. That word — fundamentalism — is as loaded as it is generic. It means many different things to different people, depending on many factors such as culture, geography and who is using the word. In Sullivan's case, it soon became clear that he meant for the war to be fought not only against the Islamic fundamentalists who perpetrated 9-11. He meant to use that necessary war to fight his own personal battle against fundamentalist Christians and other Christians who disagreed with him about almost anything.

He soon began trying to create epithets for us — "theocons" emerging as his favorite. He has long smeared us as out of the mainstream, when it is Sullivan who is out of the mainstream on so many issues. In using loaded terms — theocons, fundamentalist and the like — he is intentionally painting with a terribly broad brush, and perpetrating the very same kind of thuggery that he often condemns when he sees it in others.

But this week he has reached a new low. He is printing letters that equate mainstream Christianity with anti-Semitism, implicitly placing innocent Christians on the side of the terrorists in our current war. He cites one lone example of utterly immoral stupidity on the part of a small group of Christians to smear America's 30 million evangelicals as one big gang of racists and anti-Semites....

Frank Griswold's Bombastapalooza @ Midwest Conservative Journal (blockquoted quotations here are italicized in original; other emphasis as in original):

Probably because I attended an Episcopal church, I used to dread this time of year. Because I knew that the sermons or writings of Episcopal ministers would become especially difficult to listen to or to read. Frank Griswold illustrates why:

With each season of the church year we are given a particular lens for looking at the patterns of our lives. Wilderness is a theme of the Lenten season, and a symbol of the in-between place in which we find ourselves from time to time: a place between endings and beginnings, between the shift in consciousness which shatters an old pattern and the emergence of a new way of perceiving and being. Lent can take us to the wilderness and remind us that our lives are made up of multiple moments of leaving and arriving, of yearning and fulfillment, of losing and finding, of dying and rising.

If you are fluent in Frankspeak, you already know where the PrezBish is going with this piece. If you're not, the key phrase here is, "the shift in consciousness which shatters an old pattern and the emergence of a new way of perceiving and being." Given the traditional Episcopal homiletical habit of making a point very early and then repeating it over and over, you'll encounter this idea several more times.

Set free from slavery in Egypt, the children of Israel traveled for 40 years through the wilderness in order to be made ready to enter the promised land, which was not only a place but a new way of knowing who they were as the people of God. And Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. After having been pierced with an overwhelming awareness of being the son of God, he has to struggle within himself about the consequences of his belovedness.

WHAT?!! Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness struggling "within himself about the consequences of his belovedness?!!" What on earth does "struggle within himself about the consequences of his belovedness" even mean, Frank? I don't remember ever having any inner struggle over the fact that my mom liked me. I have asked you to please stop writing like that....

Is conservatism just foot-dragging? @ Turnabout:

A wholesale objection to conservatism is that things have always changed, conservatives have always objected to changes, and the way things are now is obviously better — as even conservatives agree.

An obvious rejoinder is that there’s always a lot more stability than change, and a lot of radical initiatives have ended in catastrophe. There’s no conservatism that consists in opposing all change. Everyone has something he wants to change, and everyone’s willing to let some things happen. There’s a generic conservatism, attachment to inherited goods and connections, that’s simply a requirement of sanity. There’s also conservatism as a self-conscious tendency, rejection of the Enlightenment project of remaking the world in accordance with human wishes, technology, and the logic of simple concepts. After the disasters of 20th century radicalism it should be obvious that some degree of philosophical conservatism is necessary for political sanity as well....

Fascinating discussion going on below @ Catholic and Enjoying It!:

One of my gay readers on this thread, trying desperately to say, "Don't stand so close to me" to a pedophilia propagandist who is copying word for word from the Gay Agitprop Playbook, tries the "consent" ploy.

The arguments may sound the same but the pedophilia argument is false. Why? Children and consent. Both homosexuality and pedophilia may be sins, but the former can be legal while the latter can remain illegal.

Children, we are informed, are incapable of "consent". Oh, and besides, it's against the law.

Of course, children are, in fact, capable of all sorts of consent to all sorts of things. And, of course, laws can be changed (sort of like when a court decides by fiat that gay marriage is suddenly "the law")....

Insanity @ Hoystory.com (emphasis in original):

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke to the Union-Tribune editorial board earlier this month, and a Q&A summary of the interview is available here.

There should be no surprise, but the interview contains some whoppers. My favorite (and by that I mean alarming) has to do with North Korea....

Sexual Corruption @ Dust in the Light:

In part because of a blog post by Oswald Sobrino, I've been thinking about the spiritual consequences of sex. Specifically, I mean the mirror attitudes that "it's just sex" and that sex can be spiritually rewarding, from which often follows the conclusion that the Roman Catholic Church (among other prudes) makes way too much of it.

Certainly, one could argue that the Church only seems to elevate it above many other sins because it is an area in which religious tradition jars painfully against modern mores. In our times, particularly, sex happens to be an activity that people seem inclined to defend, even at the expense of faith. It is often clear, at least to me, where those who most strenuously argue that the Church should change its teachings have become perfect examples, themselves, of the reason it should not. Their religion has become more of a New Age naturalism, and when they refer to the spiritual benefits of sex, they're more likely to characterize it as a gift of "our nature" than of God — even if they believe themselves to be devoted Christians.

Explication of this corruption of faith, however, is of limited utility in a world so far gone. Moreover, even I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that the government ought to legislate explicitly so as to diminish neo-paganism. It is a blessing, therefore, that we for whom that actually is a goal find the very same corruption at work in a more social context.

The stages that follow overlap, within an individual and across society. To the extent that they represent a continuous trend, they won't all take the same amount of time to resolve to the next step. But I think the list gives some sort of structure to the logical progression of sexual corruption....

A Lenten Reading/Prayer/Fasting Program @ Recta Ratio:

I've been threatening this one for a while. Well, I've finally put it together. Maybe reading it can be one of your lenten sacrifices this year.

Lent is a time for heightened commitment to doing what we can to resolve our sinfulness and come closer to salvation. It is a time, first to recognize our sinfulness, second to make amends as best we can, and third to confess those sins and be free of them before Easter starts.

We have a dramatic gesture at the start of Lent, the ashes smeared on the forehead with the reminder that we humans are dust, and that we will return to dust. And Lent ends with the death and burial of the Lord and us "creeping to the cross" to venerate it. In that act, we symbolically enter into the Lord's death and burial. And then life begins anew with Easter.

The Church prescribes certain minimalistic gestures of lenten sacrifice to prepare oneself. The current regulations stipulate fasting (defined as a single meal and two small "snacks" during the day) and abstinence (from meat) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The other Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat (as all the Fridays of the year used to be. Once should confess one's sins in order to make a good Communion for Easter. One must attend Mass on all the Sundays of Lent. One should give alms, and Operation Ricebowl is the encouraged medium. And there you have what the Church currently demands of us for Lent. Pretty light. Almost pathetically light and undemanding, isn't it?...

Words mean things @ Bettnet.com:

One of the arguments against the creation of gay marriage is that you can’t just re-define things to suit your preference. Marriage, is by definition, a union between a man and a woman (although historically, it has included one man and multiple women). You cannot call a union between two men or two women a marriage any more than I can validly call a rock a plant.

The problem with this argument is that we’ve already surrendered it on much more fundamental matters. For example, a guy or gal gets a sex change operation and everybody now calls them by the opposite sex. A local firefighter is being hailed as the “first” woman on the force because a guy changed his plumbing. If I were a woman, I’d be offended that he gets to claim being the “first” woman. The problem is that whatever outward changes you make, a guy still has X and Y chromosomes and a woman still has X-X chromosomes. And even if, in the far future, they develop technology to change that, ontologically, in your very being, you are what you are. But that doesn’t matter to our society. Now these guys in women’s clothes — sometimes even without having operations — get to walk into ladies bathrooms and fitting rooms and nobody’s supposed to care. Yet where is the outcry over this?

Shouldn’t we be at least as concerned at the damage done to society by undermining the essence of our being as we are concerned at the damage to be done by same-sex unions?...

P.S. See also Blogworthies III and Blogworthies V.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 02/28/04 05:52:03 PM
Categorized as Blogworthies.

Hillary Clinton Talks Foreign Policy at Brookings Institution

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCX

The junior socialist senator from New York delivered an address, Feb. 25, as part of the Brookings Leadership Forum.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Jim, for that introduction and for our years working together and friendship that goes back a ways. And I also want to thank Strobe Talbott and, of course, he and I and my husband are friends of the longest-standing — and Brooke I thank you for being here this morning, as well. And to all of you, thank you for this opportunity to spend a little bit of time talking about these issues and then having question and answer opportunities, as well.

You know, today, as we gather, we are at a unique moment in the foreign policy of this Administration. In the context of Iraq, we are seeing signs of a shift, even a reversal in the Administration's fundamental attitude toward international allies; toward international institutions; and multilateralism.

When you step back, the changes are striking. As we all know, in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, the Administration chose to ignore many allies and the United Nations before U. S. troops crossed the border into Iraq.

Now, an Administration that has celebrated freedom of action over collective action in Iraq, is scrambling for friends and institutions to bail us out. The go-it- alone instinct of this Administration has now demonstrably failed. Our experience in Iraq demonstrates that power, not harnessed to a sense of international legitimacy is a flawed strategy.

The question is whether the Administration's about-face in Iraq signifies a deeper re-evaluation of their attitudes toward the world. That is, has the Administration come to understand that the 50-year bipartisan consensus supporting multilateralism was not an excuse for weakness, but an exercise of strength?

The answer to this question is critical to understanding whether the Administration's foreign policy is undergoing a shift, brought on by our experience in Iraq that views our allies and the international community as partners in the War on Terror. For a failure to learn the lessons from our policy failure in Iraq will be disastrous in the War on Terror.

So, this morning, I'd like to talk about the dangers of pursuing a policy of unilateralism and the need for allies in every aspect of our security. Critical to fighting this new 21st century war is a fundamental re-orientation away from a unilateral posture to a multilateral strategy that strengthens all who participate.

Such a change would bring us back in line with more than a half-century of bipartisan consensus on foreign policy. But we must do more than return to that sensible, cooperative approach. We must consider reforming some of the institutions and alliances we're now part of; revamping some of the agreements we've reached or are still working on; and examining new ways to work together if we are to be as effective as we possibly can in meeting these new challenges of terror and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

If we do that, I believe we can build a world with more friends and fewer terrorists and create a climate in which we can move from fear to hope. As Jim said, over Thanksgiving, I visited both Iraq and Afghanistan with Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, where I did have the honor of visiting with U. S. troops, including those from the Tenth Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, New York.

In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in December, I laid out many of my concerns about our policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. And great deal has occurred since then that I'd like to take just a moment to address.

If we look about what happened in Iraq, I think we can reach several conclusions: First, I believe our military victory in Iraq was assured. We knew that victory would be inevitable. We may not have been able to put the time line in place. But we not only have an extraordinarily dedicated military, we have the most advanced technology; we have the best trained troops; we have a level of professionalism, skill, and judgment that is incredibly impressive. And I would urge more attention to that.

In fact, our troops are now being called to engage in nation building; something that had been derided by, then Governor Bush, during the 2000 campaign. But from what I saw, the victories that we can look to in the post-conflict period in Iraq, are largely due to the actions of our military. And not just our generals but, literally, all up and down the chain of command. And it has been an extraordinary display of American know-how and willingness to dig in and do some very difficult work, while still trying to engage the Iraqis and create a condition of stability and security.

During the 2000 campaign, I recall Vice President Cheney saying that there is almost nothing you can do to improve the quality of a force created by your predecessors. And then after the Gulf War, he wrote a letter to former President Reagan thanking him for building the military that fought so capably.

Well, I don't know, but I don't think any letters have yet arrived on the desks of anyone associated with the Clinton Administration.

But that military success does not counteract the second point of the war that many of us have discussed. And that is the fact that before the war actually began, many questions were raised about what would happen — what was the post-war Iraq plan? How many troops; for how long; how much; what was the nature of the mission?

Not only were I and other members of Congress raising questions about the plan for a post-Saddam Iraq, but we now know that many within the Administration raised similar questions and cautions.

Indeed, report after report have recently come out, literally, volumes of writing, showing that the CIA, the State Department and think tanks in this town and others predicted all of the problems we are now witnessing in Iraq. They actually predicted the looting; the problems of disbanding the army; and the civil strife that would ensue.

When I was in Iraq, I don't think I met with any Iraqi who did not ask me how could you have let the looting go on? It's a very important question that this Administration has yet to address.

Now, were these people in the State Department and elsewhere in this town lauded for their brilliant insight? No, they were fired, relegated or ignored. According to "The Washington Post" and I quote, "The Bush Administration ignored their planning, fired planners who disagreed with it and in several instances barred Pentagon officials from attending meeting with planners suspected of harboring thoughts not approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld." That is a chilling indictment of this Administration. Only in Washington is the reward for being bright getting fired.

And now where are we? Well, we have a rush to turn over the helm to anyone. As I stated in December, I have serious concerns about the Administration's plan to transfer sovereignty to the Iraqis in a little more than three months. Indeed, the Administration's policy seems in disarray, except for their commitment to the date of July, since it has now announced that it is abandoning its plan for caucuses to choose new leaders.

I have argued for combining a turnover of the political reigns being done in a more timely and thoughtful way. I have expressed concerns about doing a turnover of such significance while we are still in the midst of turning over our own troops. Removing from literally the front lines, people who have created relationships with Iraqis at all levels of the government and the, you know, nascent military and police forces. I believe that we should definitely consider delaying a transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis by a few months, at least so we can be better assured of a safer transition. And then, just recently we have heard that the governing counsel is not even committed to negotiating the terms of a continuing American involvement until that transfer of sovereignty.

There are other problems associated with the Administration's expedited schedule. One is we have no idea who might emerge as the leaders of a new Iraq. We, obviously, cannot and should not expect to hand pick that leader or leaders, but we should have some sense of what will be the frame work for governance.

Will Iraq have a religious secular government? Will it have a federal structure or allow autonomous regions. We have a date, but not a destination. We are at a critical point and it appears to me that, once again, the Administration is in disarray.

We must not let adherence to artificial deadlines create a situation that fosters greater instability from which our efforts to create a free and democratic Iraq may not recover. We should not adhere slavishly to an artificial deadline decided for whatever reason in Washington, if it risks chaos and unraveling in Iraq.

And let me turn now to Afghanistan, because I believe we still have failed to pay adequate attention or have we given the appropriate resources that are necessary to Afghanistan.

This was summarized for me when I was greeted by a soldier, an American soldier in Afghanistan who said welcome to the forgotten front line of the War on Terror. I laid out my concerns about Afghanistan, also, in my December speech. In recent reports that the political transition in Afghanistan may have to be delayed because of problems ensuring security and building political institutions suggests that we are once again on the brink of if not failure, certainly, considerable setbacks because we have not provided the appropriate focus on what Afghanistan needs in order to makes it way through this transition.

Having achieved quick military success, we should not repeat the same mistakes that were made in 1989. Yet, I fear that unless we and our NATO allies ramp up our involvement in this forgotten front line in the War in Terror, we stand in danger of doing so.

Despite the differences in how and why we went into Iraq and Afghanistan, there are lessons to be learned from each as we consider how best to fight the wider War on Terror.

First and foremost, I believe, we've got to, once again, take a hard look at how we treat our allies and how we expect them to work with us in providing security and reconstruction in these two countries.

You know, this is not a new problem, dealing with allies. And it's not a new problem dealing with particular countries with whom we often have prickly relationships. As Churchill once said, the only thing worse than having allies is not having them. And I think this Administration has finally begun to realize that. The irony is that while the Administration was dismissive of broader international support before the war, it is now seeking NATO and U. N. involvement in Iraq. It is attempting to get NATO to fulfill it's pledge to provide more troops and equipment in Afghanistan, yet to be committed to. And it's sending James Baker abroad to build support for debt reduction.

We already have a profound problem with how we are perceived in the world, with many viewing the United States as arrogant and unilateralist. Recent international polls confirm what many of us sense and feel, which is that respect and admiration for the United States has plummeted in many places around the world.

Ironically, this schizophrenic policy that the Administration has put before us is at odds with a growing bipartisan consensus on Capital Hill that recognizes our interests are advanced when we win allies to our causes. Republican Senators Hagel and McCain; Representatives Wolfe and Shays, along with Joe Biden, and a chorus of Democrats, understand that to gain allies we need to share control. That's an important lesson, not just for Iraq and Afghanistan, but for winning the War on Terror. 10

And, yet, how do we operationalize that? How do we have a situation in which even this Administration can begin to move back toward that consensus which has served us so well?

Well, you know, sometimes we need troops; sometimes we need economic assistance; sometimes we need intelligence; sometimes we need nations to use their own police and security forces to crack down on terror cells and money laundering within their own borders. We need all kinds of collaboration. And, unfortunately, our current policy does not focus on such collaboration with the vigor it deserves. Now, America's detachment from the world began well before September 11. Remember how the Administration withdrew from the playing field in the Middle East. Of course it is a difficult and turbulent environment, but our laissez faire approach gave us no advantage in pushing the Palestinians to crack down on the terrorists as they stepped up their attacks on Israelis in 2001 and 2002.

We retreated from the world when we abandoned the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty process, without even attempting to create some kind of consensus that would enable that process to continue.

When we withdrew from the ABM Treaty, buried the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and abandoned the effort to give teeth to the Biological Weapons Treaty.

That sequence of diplomatic retrenchments sent a clear message: We're going it alone, whether you like it or not. In fact, we hope you don't like it, because that will make us feel even stronger as we pursue our objectives around the world. 11

We do not trust international efforts to deal with common problems. We are better served by freedom of action, rather than collective action. And that gets to the heart of such a big difference between this Administration and the bipartisan consensus of the 20th century about foreign policy. Indeed, the benefits of international support has been apparent during the 20th century, most obviously in the defeat of fascism in World War II and the defeat of communism during the Cold War.

In the post-Cold War era, the model can be seen in Kosovo and Bosnia. I believe that we prevailed in Kosovo because 19 democracies of NATO did not break rank. And as a result Milosevic is on trial in the Hague.

NATO and the U. N. remain in the Balkans to this day, nurturing democratic movements, a painstaking and time-taking task, but I think we are viewed there as a liberator, not an occupier. And we at least have a decent chance of seeing a better outcome because of our continuing efforts.

Cooperative international efforts did help prevent terrorist attacks before 9/11; prevented terrorists from blowing up airliners; attacking major targets during the millennium and I think there are many other examples that all of you know we could point to.

Now, I believe, as I think any American believes that we should never put alliances before our own security, but it's my point that abandonment of alliances can harm our security. And I think we're beginning to understand that.

Indeed, in the post-9/11 world, it is, perhaps, even more important that we work with others. We have many threats that transcend states, like health and environmental crises. Others ignore state borders, like terrorist cells and international criminal networks. And, therefore, we have to have international and institutional cooperation to counter these threats.

Alliances can endure, they obviously have to be updated; they have to be understood in the proper context, but they allow a sharing of risks and burdens and, over time, the development of common visions on the threats that we face together. We cannot go it alone and expect to stop terror. And it is clear to me that no one nation in the global climate in which we find ourselves can keep marching to the tune of its own drummer. That's not a parade, it is more like walking a gang plank. Within the frame work of an international approach that supports multilateralism and the rule-of-law, I believe we need to take several steps to fight the War on Terror most effectively.

First, we obviously and clearly have to address our problems with intelligence. In this new high-tech, fast-paced, interdependent and, oft-times dangerous world of ours, existing institutions will have to change. And we should not be shy or defensive about discussing what changes are needed. We have to have more confidence in the intelligence on which we base our decisions.

Much has been said about our intelligence failures and, clearly, those to me should rank at the top of a bipartisan, in fact, nonpartisan effort to get to the bottom of what occurred.

I hope that the various commissions that are in operation today; the commission chaired by former Governor Kean; the commission just appointed by the President will be able to do the job that we, as a nation, need them to do. And it's imperative that we have more understanding of the curve of intelligence; where it comes from; how it is analyzed; what the sources were.

And I hope this Administration will strongly repudiate the statements recently reported by Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, his recent assessment that the faulty intelligence that he helped provide to the United States was, quote, "not important." On the contrary, the extent that our intelligence services depended on unreliable sources of intelligence, such as defectors steered to us by Chalabi is deadly serious.

When the President recently announced the creation of a commission to examine efforts to track the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and examine intelligence failures regarding what we have not found in Iraq, I was pleased that there were many distinguished citizens who agreed to serve. But I think the commission would have had more credibility if the President had not assumed responsibility for appointing all of its members. And, indeed, the appointment of one member, Laurence Silberman, raises serious concerns about the independence and integrity of this commission.

Further, the commission does not include many members who have deep experience in the intelligence community, nor does it address the disparity between what the intelligence community said and what the policy makers claimed. As troubling as the fact that the commission will not report until after the election, which unfortunately, makes it look like an attempt to brush aside troubling questions rather than attempt to fully address the problems — is the fact that Britain is making its report on intelligence failure this summer.

You know, the Administration had a different precedent to look to. If it did not wish to look to our very special ally, Britain, it could have just looked back to the Reagan Administration. Following the disaster in Beirut, President appointed and convened a commission to conduct a broad-ranging inquiry that not only focused on the attack, but, also, on the mission of U. S. forces in Lebanon. Less than two months after that attack, the five-member commission, headed by Retired Admiral Robert Long and, including a high-level official from the Carter Administration, issued its report.

It not only criticized the Administration and the Department of Defense for lack of preparedness in dealing with terrorism, but it also called into question the mission itself; the rules of engagement for the troops; and the effectiveness of the chain of command. These recommendations, honest and unvarnished, led to substantial policy improvements.

Unfortunately, in contrast, the approach chosen by the Bush Administration could lead to the impression that they are less interested in looking for answers and more interested in providing excuses.

I hope my concerns about the commission are not well-founded and that they will produce a report that draws important lessons from our intelligence failures and provides solid recommendations for a road map to ensure that we don't make these same mistakes again.

Fixing the gaps in our intelligence is crucial to our national security and this should be beyond debate and it should be done with a vigorous and intense desire to find the truth wherever it may lead.

We also have to consider creating new institutions and alliances. I really appreciate the proposals by Senator Biden to create an international antiterrorist organization to deal with security threats that we face in common.

Modeled on NATO, such an organization would focus on the unique military and non-military challenges that terrorism poses. We understand that terrorism has a global reach. We need to have a global cooperative approach in order to deal with it.

We also have to examine whether, in the new Global War on Terror, our own military forces are being stretched too thin. We have to move, in my view, from a conception of fighting two wars in two theaters to a mix of troops that is able to fight terror using various combinations of forces as the situation requires, while maintaining sufficient capability to deter nations like North Korea from provoking a crisis. That means, more, not fewer troops.

That's why I've joined Senator Jack Reed and Senator Chuck Hagel and others to push for a larger army. It is just recognizing the reality that we are above authorized levels and there's no real end in sight for the continuing stresses and expectations that our Army, in particular, is going to be expected to meet.

We also have to look at a change in the mix of forces. We need more, so-called, psychological operations, civil affairs officers, military police. And we need to look hard at the burden that we're imposing on our National Guard and Reserves who often fulfill those functions and, as a result, have been called up sometimes for a year or more.

But I also believe that winning the War on Terror will not happen by military strength alone. This is fundamentally about America's values and leadership. President Bush has said that the terrorists hate freedom. And he is absolutely right. And I think we have to take a number of steps in order to demonstrate that what we believe, our values is the right direction for people to be heading and rallying around. First, the idea of winning hearts and minds has been derided by some.

But I don't think that we can overlook it's single importance. And we need to do more to combat the influence of hatred and bias and, for example, I think, with respect to education, we are doing far too little around the world.

I met, coming out of Afghanistan at midnight with President Musharraf and Senator Reed and I discussed a number of issues, one of which was his recently announced effort to deal with the proliferation of the Madrassas, which, obviously, we know is the only alternative for many young boys to attend school because of the poverty of their families and the failure to provide an educational establishment throughout the country.

We need to provide more help than we currently are doing. We spend a pittance on global education, about $200 million a year. I would like to see us focus on creating a global education fund that the United States would lead, but which would use contributions from other countries around the world. I'd like to see us expand that to $500 million and to make a very serious effort to spread real education to provide a replacement for the indoctrination that too often serves as a training ground for future terrorists.

Second, we need to fully fund our development programs and I applaud the Administration for its efforts in the Millennium Challenge Accounts. I'm hopeful that we'll see our way through some of the difficulties that those accounts present. The winners and the losers, if you will. Leaving out countries that I think it's quite risk for us to ignore. But I am supporting the effort to try to create conditions in which at least we can build support within the Congress for more foreign aid to go to many of the most distressed parts of the world.

But I strongly disagree with the Administration's approach towards the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This is the kind of international cooperation that we should be supporting not turning away from.

And the Bush Administration is cutting back on the U. S. contribution to the Global AIDS Fund by about 64 percent in the new budget, despite its pledge to cooperate and collaborate on a strategy to deal with these three killers. Congress allocated $547 million for the Fund in 2004, the Administration's 2005 budget calls for $200 million. This, again, is a perfect example of the go-it-alone approach. And while we are recognizing problems through our new AIDS Initiative that the Administration is announcing, in 14 countries, we're, you know, setting up a parallel program, duplicating efforts, reinventing the wheel, not only with respect to what other governments are doing, but NGOs that have gotten into those countries.

And it is, I think, a lost opportunity that we don't support the Global Fund More and especially that, apparently, our AIDS strategy intends to ignore Asia, when even the CIA's analysis predicts that Asia will become an explosive problem for HIV AIDS, in Russia, China, and India. Countries that, clearly, have long-term, strategic interest to us. And so, I think we are missing the boat not supporting the Global Fund and we're missing another boat by not supporting anti-AIDS efforts in those three nations.

We also have to do more on women's rights and roles. And I have been deeply troubled by what I hear coming out of Iraq. When I was there and met with women members of the governing councils and local — of the national governing councils and local governing councils in Baghdad and Kirkuk, they were starting to express concerns about some of the pullbacks in the rights that they were given under Saddam Hussein. He was an equal opportunity oppressor, but on paper women had rights; they went to school; they participated in the professions; they participated in government; and business and, as long as they stayed out of his way, they had considerable freedom of movement.

Now, what we see happening in Iraq is the governing council attempting to shift large parts of civil law into religious jurisdiction. This would be a horrific mistake and especially for it to happen on our watch. And I have spoken to the White House about this on several occasions. I appreciated Ambassador Bremer speaking out about the need to involve women. But we must go much further. I would like to see a statement from the President. I would like to see a much greater emphasis that we will not have become the vehicle by which women's rights in Iraq are turned back.

And, similarly, in Afghanistan, we know that we got good language in the constitutional process out of the Loya Jirga, but on the ground, the situation is very dangerous for a lot of women.

In both countries, the security issues are foremost. Women tell me they can't leave their homes; they can't go about their daily business. And in Afghanistan, there is a concerted effort to burn schools that are educating girls to intimidate aid workers who are women, both Iraqi and foreign. We've got to do a better job and we need a message from the highest level of our government, particularly since both President and Mrs. Bush played such a central and essential role in talking about women in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, as we go forward, I think that we have to do a better job of meshing our Homeland Security needs with our national security needs. And, unfortunately, I think we are still far behind the curve when it comes to the Department of Homeland Security. And I have see a great deal of obstacles and problems in the way we created the department; how it is functioning; what kind of resources we're providing at the local level. I spoke at length about this earlier in the year at John Jay College in Manhattan. And I still believe that the imperatives of bureaucracy are being put in front of the imperatives for security.

And there are many changes there that need to occur, such as direct funding of local communities, first responders and the like. The money is not getting where it needs to go. And here at the national level, we have to have a much more coherent policy that takes into account what our true and most pressing threats are.

We still have not done enough on our port security; our border security; our infrastructure security. We have basically turned over security to the private sector for chemical plants, nuclear plants and the like. And now we have had this cloak of secrecy thrown over all the information about these plants because they are being told that they can give information that is, in their view proprietary and confidential and I'm sure some of it is and it'll go into the Administration and it will sit there unless something terrible happens and there will be no access to it through the Freedom of Information or any other means.

Now, one example of what needs to be done — the Department of Homeland Security has no single directorate, exclusively focused on weapons of mass destruction. We can't just target the bad guys. We've got to target the most dangerous weapons that will do us the most damage. The chemical, biological and radiological devices. And, yet, the agency charged with protecting our homeland does not have the safeguarding of that homeland from the threat of WMDs as one of it's prime missions. Now, we cannot stop every threat, but we have to do a better job to reduce our vulnerabilities.

In addition to bolstering our weapons of mass destruction defenses within our borders, we have to do much, much more to prevent their creation and proliferation around the world.

Last week, the Bush Administration took a positive step toward strengthening worldwide defenses against nuclear proliferation. The President's proposal to restrict exports of uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing technology, to non-nuclear nations and has called for greater GA involvement in non-proliferation programs are welcomed.

However, by and of itself, his proposal will not do enough to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The rhetoric is still not matched by the resources or the commitment.

By far, the smartest most effective, easiest thing we could do right now is to expand the Nunn-Lugar Act. This bipartisan law signed by the first President Bush and strongly supported by my husband, during his terms, channels money to the former Soviet Union to destroy weapons and to employ the scientists who created the weapons of the WMDs there. And to ensure that plutonium and uranium are rendered useless. We know that, thanks to Nunn-Lugar, enough fissile material to make five thousand nuclear bombs is now out of harm's way. As much good as that law has accomplished already, it could do even more if we expanded it. But efforts to do so have been rebuffed at every turn.

Remarkably, despite the President's recent speech in which he praised Nunn-Lugar, the Administration's budget for the coming fiscal year actually cuts funding for the Nunn-Lugar program by 10 percent. The recent news reports that dozens of missiles equipped with dirty-bomb warheads may be missing in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova only underscores the need to get a handle on the weapons and the scientists we know are out there.

And with the recent disclosures coming out of Pakistan, we're getting more information about the network of transfers that have occurred. Now is the time to move an expand the Nunn-Lugar mandate, even beyond the former Soviet Union. I hope that this will occur, but the signs out of the Administration, thus far, have not been encouraging.

Another step we could take is to bolster funding for counter proliferation in the Department of Defense Budget. We do a good job on developing new weapon systems, and equipping our forces for survival and success. But we don't focus enough people and resources on the actual prevention of WMD proliferation, either through official means or covert action.

I also would hope that we would begin to pursue international agreements to limit the spread of chemical biological and nuclear weapons. I know this Administration disagrees with me on this.

Their attitude toward international arms control agreements is essentially that the good guys don't need agreements and the bad guys won't abide by them anyway. That's a sophistry.

A facile and ultimately feudal point of view because it fails to account for those occasions when international agreements have succeeded, such as the nonproliferation treaty which did help Ukraine and many others move away from nuclear weapons. And it fails to recognize the influence that many nations working together can exert on the few that might choose to go the other way.

The costs of the Administration's policy can be seen in North Korea where we have dithered for two years while we risk that North Korea becomes the first nuclear weapons Wal-Mart for terrorist groups.

Now, not all treaties are created equal and we should sign none that might cause us more harm than good. But we should work to make flawed international agreements better. Not going in with the attitude that we don't need them at all. The NPT, for example, has a loophole that allows countries to keep spent fuel rods and to build a weapons capability under the umbrella of a peaceful program. So, let's work to close those loopholes, not abandon the concept all together. We could work for a protocol to the NPT that imposes sanctions on countries that hide behind the NPT, as they covertly work to develop nuclear weapons.

And it looks as though Iran will give us an opportunity to figure out how to deal with this going forward.

Now, in order to work more cooperatively with other nations to prevent the proliferation, we have to be cautious about our own development and deployment of WMDs so we don't send mixed signals about our intentions and undermine our ability to reach agreements with other nations or unintentionally escalate an arms race with nations that might perceive out actions as provocative.

Specifically, I'm talking about the Administration's new strategic triad. It's potential development of a new nuclear battlefield device and its plan to contract the current testing schedule for nuclear weapons from three years down to 18 months.

You know the Triad, which includes a strategic nuclear offense capability, a missile defense system, and long-range precision conventional capability, blurs the line between nuclear and conventional weapons systems, making others less certain about our intentions and, perhaps, frankly, making it easier for others to cross the line from conventional to nuclear.

A case in point is the so-called robust nuclear earth penetrator, which will use a small nuclear device to blow up bunkers hidden deep underground. Now, when we were briefed on this in the Armed Services Committee, it became clear that the collateral damage of a nuclear bunker buster would be vast. When we asked if such a device had been used to target Saddam Hussein, had he been hiding in some underground bunker, what the collateral damage would be, we were told that it would have, probably taken out most of Baghdad.

And smaller yield nuclear weapons that avoid collateral damage, offer little advantage over strictly conventional weapons. Building and deploying such a nuclear device sends the wrong signal to a world where we are trying to build partnerships to prohibit the spread of weapons of mass destruction. At the very same time that we are trying to stop nuclear proliferation, we are moving forward with our own weapons systems.

As for shorter testing schedules, it makes little sense from the standpoint of military preparedness. But combine that with the new Triad and the development of a new battlefield nuclear device and we create the message that nuclear weaponry is something we are ready, even anxious to use.

Of course, we have to maintain a nuclear deterrent and that includes, tragically, a willingness to use it if circumstances require it. But we cannot be ignorant of the ripple effect of our decisions. We are not free to make them in a vacuum.

So, where does that leave us? Well, I believe that we do need a tough-minded muscular foreign and defense policy. But one that respects our allies and seeks new friends even as we move against known enemies. The consequences of unilateralism, isolationism, overtly express pre-emptive defense are severe. We will have fewer nations helping to protect us against attack and fewer nations willing to counter attack when we are struck. And we will have less leverage in advancing democracy, freedom, open markets, and other values that not only elevate the people of the world, but protect the people of the United States.

Now, I say this not simply to propound some golden rule of international affairs. But because I really do think this is in our national security. You know, throw-weight used to be a term to describe the explosive power of a nuclear missile. In this Administration, throw-weight seems to be how much we can bully other nations to do our way.

The more we throw our weight around, the more we encourage other nations to join with each other as a counterweight. You know the development of the European Union on balance is a very good thing. But it could become too much of a good thing if it grows stronger together and becomes more distant from us.

Encouraging changes have occurred in China in recent times. Yet, if we are seen in Asia as unpredictable and arrogant, then we will spur the development of alliances that could be inimicable to our interests.

That's also an economic consequence to diplomatic follies. We operate in a global marketplace and many businesses are finding that America's loss of prestige and respect around the world is starting that harm their own image and ability to do business.

One more thing, a go-it-alone strategy, necessarily builds domestic support on a bedrock of fear. From a people that normally and historically believed we had nothing to fear but fear itself, we do not want to become a people obsessed with the color of our alerts and talk of chatter and possible imminent attacks on U. S. interests at home and abroad.

Throughout our history, our country has been challenged by forces seemingly out of our control. And, yet, we have met each of these challenges. Not by giving into fear, but by overcoming fear. At the dawn of the 21st century, we do, indeed, face new forces that threaten to undermine our very way of life. But I believe that we can confidently meet these threats and make our country and the world stronger in doing so.

More than 40 years ago, warning against arrogance, President Eisenhower said that the people of the world, and I quote, "must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect" unquote.

We should listen to such wise counsel from our history, if we are to behave in this new century in a way that is in keeping with our values and our interests. We have many reasons to work more closely together with the peoples and nations of this earth. And I believe that if we do so, we help create a more hopeful future for our people and those who look to us for example and support. Thank you very much.

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

(Source, which also includes introductory remarks and a follow-up Q&A session.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 02/28/04 11:57:32 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Speeches and Suchlike.

More Vanishing Paragraphs

Our friends (?) the Saudis rewrite an official webpage to hide their blatant religious and gender discrimination.

The website of Saudi Arabia's Supreme Commission for Tourism listed the following Visa Requirements, Feb. 26:

Everyone who enters the Kingdom should have a valid passport with at least 6 months validity and the appropriate visa.

Unless you are a visitor from a GCC country or in transit, all other nationalities require a visa to enter the Kingdom. Visas can be for business, tourist, transit, residency, family, Hajj, or conference attendance.

Visas can be obtained from the visa department in the Saudi Embassy of the visitor's home country or from Saudi Consulates available in all main cities around the world.

The cost of a visa is generally 200 Saudi Riyals however visitors should ensure that they check with the Saudi Embassy or Consulate.

Visas will not be issued for the following groups of people:

• An Israeli passport holder or a passport that has an Israeli arrival/departure stamp.
• Those who don't abide by the Saudi traditions concerning appearance and behaviors. Those under the influence of alcohol will not be permitted into the Kingdom.
• There are certain regulations for pilgrims and you should contact the consulate for more information.
• Jewish People

Important Instructions:

• If a woman is arriving in the Kingdom alone, the sponsor or her husband must receive her at the airport.
• Every woman must have confirmed accommodation for the duration of her stay in the Kingdom.
• A woman is not allowed to drive a car and can therefore only travel by car if she is accompanied by her husband, a male relative, or a driver.
• All visitors to the Kingdom must have a return ticket.
• Pilgrims must also have all valid documentation and a passport that is valid for 6 months.

That webpage now lists the following Visa Requirements:

Everyone who enters the Kingdom should have a valid passport with at least 6 months validity and the appropriate visa.

Unless you are a visitor from a GCC country or in transit, all other nationalities require a visa to enter the Kingdom. Visas can be for business, tourist, transit, residency, family, Hajj, or conference attendance.

Visas can be obtained from the visa department in the Saudi Embassy of the visitor's home country or from Saudi Consulates available in all main cities around the world.

The cost of a visa is generally 200 Saudi Riyals however visitors should ensure that they check with the Saudi Embassy or Consulate.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's visa regulations are available at the Kingdom's Consulates. When erroneous information was noticed on SCT's website, it was removed. SCT regrets any inconvenience this may have caused

SCT regrets any inconvenience this may have caused? Don't they mean, not inconvenience, but embarrassment?

See also The Case of the Vanishing Paragraphs.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 02/28/04 07:33:42 AM
Categorized as International.