Posts by Simon Grigg
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I guess I've got higher expectations than this, but if this is the least he might achieve as President, that'll do. I've been impressed by his approach to foreign policy; it's less dogmatic, less influenced by Cold War thinking and more pragmatic in its recognition of the role other powers than McCain's
Oh, I agree, it's whether he is allowed the legs he needs to play it through. For all this talk of experience, his understanding of international relationships and the realities of the 21st Century dwarfs McCain's, whose mindset sits in a century passed and not one that even then he really grasped. But he (McCain) also represents a large part of the electorate who are unable to deal with that change.
For me, as I've mentioned before, one of the moments that defined the differences for me were the candidates' thoughts on China, found in Singapore's Straits Times a few months back which had McCain unable to move away from containment and Carriers, whilst Obama recognised the reality of engagement on a rough level of parity.
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Hey, it worked for the USSR so why fix it?
And is roughly equivalent to the way it works in China, or at least is supposed to work in China, albeit with several layers of electors.
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Imperial collision with America is not a new phenomenon either, and the same comment about the power of existing institutions and their plans still holds.
Yes and no. For the past two decades the US has had the world pretty much to itself. It was, more or less the only Imperial power (although it could be argued that both Russia and China are since both occupy a space roughly equivalent to the great empires of Peter The Great (less Ukraine) and the Ch'ing). Before that both the Soviet Union and the US, whilst they may have been at war, made a conscious decision to keep out of each other's back yards which played a huge part in avoiding a hot war (the biggest exception being the Cuba / Turkey standoff and look where that almost went).
In 2008/9 we now have a US increasingly hemmed on several sides..by an empowered China and a re-empowered Russia which has a US on it's doorstep flouting the rule which helped save the world from oblivion in the cold war. All this is accentuated by eight years of foreign policy mis-management and a population freaking out over a perceived energy crisis (which has already engendered an irrational, panicky drill drill drill response).
I don't think Obama is the saviour and I'm not sure we will even see him in the White House but give me him over a cornered, only vaguely internationally literate McCain. Both have to face the institutions and the military complex but one can only hope that Obama will be slightly more willing to confront or at least question them rather than quickly acquiesce.
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They will still have the monopoly on violence and will continue to use that fact to dominate all of their foreign policy. They will still not give a damn what anyone else thinks about it.
But I think you need to add another factor into the mix, that of Imperial collision with both Russia and China. This president is the one who is going to have to come to terms with the USA reaching the limits of it's power and the reaction to that is going to be one of the more worrying things about the next few years. Sitting outside America I'd much rather have a slightly more rational and considered Obama than a hot head like "Bomb-Bomb-Bomb-Iran" McCain.
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Because, frankly, I don't think the USN's actions in the skies of North Vietnam in 1967 were especially honourable.
I don't think you'd find much disagreement here in SEA, and lets not forget that he volunteered twice to drop those bombs on a largely civilian population. It rubs a little of the sheen off the service record.
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Are you saying he'd be a hero only if he had died? I was under the impression that we honoured the veterans too.
Yes and no..I think there is a great tragedy looking at men whose lives were ripped from them (not just the dead but the survivors) and for that we, I'm not sure if salute is the right word, join with them and hopefully reflect. Most, I think would rather not be walking in that dawn parade if given the choice 60 years back. As much as anything we are remembering the tragedy, often unnecessary, sometimes righteous, that befell these people. But I find a gulf between that and the rather mindless honouring the troops simply because they served which is so much a part of the American Imperial psyche.
It's the same thing with McCain. He is trying -- with some success -- to use his forty-year-old experiences to deflect political criticism being aimed at him in the present.
Exactly, and it's a mindset in America, which we thankfully don't really share in NZ...the service in the military card doesn't have the same resonance.
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There's also something else, and that is the service to the country. We recognise it in our fallen soldiers when Anzac day rolls by, even in pacifist ol' New Zealand.
I think there is a gulf between recognising sacrifice which that does and service. We also recognise on 25th of April the fallen of our enemies.
But I agree McCain deserves some level of respect for his ordeal and stand. Whether that in any way qualifies him to lead a nation like the US is another question.
And if service is to be honoured then surely John Kerry deserved the same from the GOP's attack dogs.
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Then again, try not being a US citizen living in the comfort of your own country, and we may feel free to torture you and/or drop bombs on your house.
I'd personally say it's about 50-50 at the moment.
or the 51,000 held in Iraq without trial as of May.
Giovanni, James deals in themes rather than facts and has what is best described as selective morality. When he's questioned he wails 'libs, libs" and then wanders off.
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General Petraeus, is a little at odds with the experienced John McCain over the surge it seems.
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At the end of the first day, with the case unfolding at its usual snail's pace, a juror goes home and googles the defendants' names just to remind him or her self what went on at the time.
It took me about 2 minutes with Google to get the names so I really don't think any juror is going to have a problem