The Twin Pillars of Foreign Policy

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Tuesday April 29, 2014 · 10:31 AM PDT

2014/04/29 · 10:31

Below is the text of an essay I wrote in 1999 while I was working in the State Department, commenting on the events and policies around me.

It was ignored, and I didn't really promote it, because I was a mid-level officer in the Public Diplomacy cone, and how dare I think or write about world events and policy?

But I have been reminded of it by recent events, in many places, so I thought I would post it here, without making and changes or updates from the original, and see what, if any, reaction there would be from the DK community.

Original essay below the fold:

Noziglia

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Wednesday September 12, 2012 · 8:26 AM PDT

2012/09/12 · 08:26

This is in reaction to the tragic events in Benghazi, and the comments on it.

I say this, full disclosure, as a retired career member of the U.S. Foreign Service (diplomatic) Corps.

It is standard in this country to praise the outstanding service and sacrifice of the brave and capable men and women in our military services. It is right and proper to do this, and shameful when their service is exploited for narrow political reasons.

It is, however, standard practice to either ignore or criticize my many brave and capable colleagues and former colleagues in the diplomatic service who have also put themselves in harm's way time after time, as if their service to our country were less noble than that of the military.

Since WWII, more ambassadors have been killed in the line of duty than have flag rank officers in the military. At the time our military was preparing to do battle with the Iraqi military in Desert Storm, several dozen diplomats were under siege in the U.S. embassy in Kuwait, unarmed and surrounded by the same Iraqi military.

We should remember the men and women who were killed by Al-Qa'ida in the 1998 bombings of our embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the bombing of the embassy in Beirut, as well as countless other incidents that the media and politicians ignore. We should remember that diplomats routinely serve under hardship conditions around the world without complaint, as a matter of routine and pride.

And we should honor that service, and recognize that working together with other countries in the service of peace is probably more useful than bombing them. And sometimes just as risky.

Please.

Our Message

Noziglia

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Sunday October 16, 2011 · 10:07 AM PDT

2011/10/16 · 10:07

I know that Democrats and Liberals (or, as we have been taught by those who will deny the value of the term Liberal, Progressives) are not big on a unified message.

Nevertheless, there are some messages we can send, and if we send these messages with consistency, it is possible we can break through the media barriers between voters and the truth.

I've added a few more points on which the standard message is upside-down. Really, one could do this forever, because EVERYTHING in the standard political dialog is backwards today.

So here is my take:

Noziglia

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Wednesday August 10, 2011 · 6:09 AM PDT

2011/08/10 · 06:09

We can understand what happened to the stock market over the last couple of days with a few simple facts. These facts are not brought up by commentators because a) they are not dramatic, and b) they reveal that everything these people DO say is meaningless drivel.

Noziglia

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Tuesday July 05, 2011 · 9:00 AM PDT

2011/07/05 · 09:00

There are those who believe that people can be divided into clear, simple categories, and those who do not. I am one of the latter, and having begun by doing what I do not believe in, will now do so again:

Noziglia

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Tuesday October 19, 2010 · 9:41 AM PDT

2010/10/19 · 09:41

I realize that my impact on the politics of this country is nil. I realize that my influence on the debates we are engaged in, even within the navel-gazing context of those who read the entries on this web site and the Kossak community is similarly nonexistent.

But this site is all about ranting, and I don't want to step back without one final howl at the sad, sad state of our country.

So here goes:

Noziglia

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Friday May 21, 2010 · 7:22 AM PDT

2010/05/21 · 07:22

A bit of needed perspective on the Rand Paul statements about the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The man is seriously dangerous.

Noziglia

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Sunday January 10, 2010 · 9:09 AM PST

2010/01/10 · 09:09

There has been some reporting recently that the name of the Underwear Bomber was missed in the database search because it was misspelled.

That is not possible. Arabic names are meant to be written in the Arabic language using the Arabic phonetic alphabet. When they are transliterated into the Roman/English alphabet, there is often considerable variation in the spelling. The most common name in Arabic and among Muslims is Muhammad, and there are something like twenty different ways to spell that name in the Roman/English script. None of them are "correct" or "wrong."

Noziglia

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Tuesday January 27, 2009 · 7:13 AM PST

2009/01/27 · 07:13

There has been some coverage in the news lately about the NSA/Bush Administration efforts to "wiretap" Americans. I write to clear up some of the mythology surrounding this subject.

Noziglia

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Sunday March 09, 2008 · 10:13 AM PDT

2008/03/09 · 10:13

This is a draft of an essay I'm writing based on reading one of the founding books cited in histories of the neoconservative movement, The Road to Serfdom, by Friederich Hayek. The thesis of the essay is that -- surprise -- modern neoconservatives have misused and lied about this work to justify their antidemocratic and corporatist agenda.

It is something of a follow-on to the book, The Shock Doctrine, showing that there really is no basis in reason for neoconservative policies, which is why the lie about them so often.

This is not, of course, that important in the current, driven political climate. Except that should be some value in demonstrating again and again that conservative claims to any intellectual justifications for their viewpoint are bogus.

Noziglia

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Sunday February 10, 2008 · 3:47 PM PST

2008/02/10 · 15:47

Just finished Jacob Heilbrunn’s book, They Knew They Were Right, a history of neoconservatism, and here is a quick reaction.

These guys were full of shit.

Noziglia

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Thursday November 29, 2007 · 9:13 AM PST

2007/11/29 · 09:13

A small suggestion for the netroots:

We need to start campaigning now to get the candidates of both parties to pledge that they will hold a real debate during the fall campaign next year, not just a glorified news conference.

The debates this year have been ridiculous, even worse that in years before. When will it end?

Even if we only get the Democrat to make this pledge, we can then urge the Democrat to use the Republican candidate's refusal to actually debate issues as a sign of the Republican's cowardice and inability to deal with people and issues honestly.

What say you?

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