World Watching And Politics

Critical Thinking Takes A Blow

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Greenwald, in Salon.com, describes how the Obama administration has passed the loyalty test when it allowed Charles W. Freeman Jr. to  step away Tuesday from an appointment to chair the National Intelligence Council — which oversees the production of reports that represent the view of the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies.     Grrrrrrr!

Says Greenwald: “In the U.S., you can advocate torture, illegal spying, and completely optional though murderous wars and be appointed to the highest positions.  But you can’t, apparently, criticize Israeli actions too much or question whether America’s blind support for Israel should be re-examined.”

Freeman later said in an email, referring to what he called “the Israel Lobby:” “The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views.” One result of this, he said, is “the inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for US policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics.”

The Enemy That Almost Isn’t

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Iran: The Enemy That Almost Isn’t
Posted: 23 Feb 2009 02:00 PM PST

Crooks And Liars.com

“One of the things that I’ve found most disconcerting about American news coverage of Iran is the complete disconnect between what our own (and international) intelligence reports say and the almost rapturous assurance by the media and public officials that Iran is heading full bore towards our nuclear annihilation. Sean Paul Kelly @ The Agonist:

The Financial Times is reporting today that Iran has enough uranium for a bomb! Oh dear. Except their reporting is very, very lacking in the physics and engineering department.

Here’s what El Baradei recently said about Iran and the bomb:

SZ: In your report it says that Iran is gaining an ever greater mastery of uranium enrichment. Can the USA and Israel accept the fact that Iran is on the threshold of becoming a virtual nuclear power?

ELBARADEI: The question is, what can they do? What are the alternatives to direct negotiations? As long as we are monitoring their facilities, they cannot develop nuclear weapons. And they still do not have the ingredients to make a bomb overnight.

How hard is it to google this sh*t?

Update: As Paul Kerr, from Total WonKerr, just wrote to me in an email: “Here’s the number of weapons you can make with LEU: zero.” Any questions?

Hurts your “Oooh…be scared of the bogeyman” fear-mongering when you inject actual facts and science into it, doesn’t it? Whirled View and my buddy Cernig look further.

Douglas Saunders at The Globe and Mail looks at how the way we view Iran affects our attitude towards them:

What if the world’s biggest threat, instead of growing in size and menace, simply vanished?

Imagine if Iran, after years of extremism, found itself led by a president who had been elected on a platform of women’s rights, a free press, foreign investment and closer relations with the United States and other Western countries.

Imagine if, in response, the U.S. government made a public, formal apology for the 1953 Central Intelligence Agency overthrow of Iran’s elected government, the act that had sent the country on the path to extremism in the first place.

Imagine if the Iranian people then began holding pro-U.S. demonstrations.

And imagine if that moderate Iranian leader offered to accept peace with Israel, to permanently halt funding of Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas and to submit fully to inspections as it abandons any nuclear-weapons programs in exchange for better relations with America.

Ah, imagine. It could never be so easy. But wait. Don’t I recall something from my pile of newspaper clippings? Ah yes, here it is, and not even yellowed. Amazing how fast we forget things.

Mohammad Khatami, the pro-Western reformist, was elected in 1997.

Madeleine Albright, the U.S. secretary of state, issued the big apology to Iran in March of 2000. “Certainly, in our view, there are no obstacles that wise and competent leadership cannot remove,” she said. “As some Iranians have pointed out, the United States has cordial relations with a number of countries that are less democratic than Iran.”

The pro-American demonstrations, by all reports genuine (and unpunished), took place over several days in 2003. In that spring, Mr. Khatami sent a Swiss official to Washington to make the peace offer. In exchange for recognizing Israel, cutting off Hamas and proving it had abolished any nuclear-weapons plans, Iran wanted an end to sanctions, normal diplomatic relations with the U.S. and recognition of its role in the region.

So what happened? Well, nothing. George W. Bush was president, the Iraq war was just approaching the “mission accomplished” phase, and nobody in the White House thought it would look good to make peace with Iran, a country that only the year before had been made a rhetorical component in Mr. Bush’s “axis of evil.”

As one State Department official directly involved with the Iranian offer told me, “It was like we missed the biggest Middle East peace opportunity of the decade, just so we could keep saying ‘axis of evil.’”[..]

It was physicist Werner Heisenberg who found that the act of observing can affect the nature of the thing being observed. It is likely that simply by looking at Iran as a threat, we’ve made it one. Look again, and it might change.

Maybe it’s time to start looking at Iran a different way.”

5 Sectys of State Advise Hillary

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Here are some criteria offered by the LA Times by which to judge how Hillary, under Obama, will be doing in the next 4 years.  After reading “Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins,  however, I can think of a lot of others.

George Shultz, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell offer their views.

Hillary Rodham Clinton will have no shortage of issues to take on as secretary of State. She steps into the job amid a global economic meltdown and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On top of that, she must address the rising tensions between India and Pakistan, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while managing complex relations with Russia and China. And there are the perennial issues of hunger and disease in Africa, drugs in Latin America and the nuclear threat worldwide. How can one person manage it all?

Times editorial writer Marjorie Miller asked five former secretaries of State what advice they had for Clinton in her new job. What follows are edited transcripts of their counsel.

Read More

Nobody In Charge in Thailand

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Protesters have taken over the International airport and a smaller domestic airport in Bangkok and are demanding the Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat, resign, which he has refused to do even after months of demonstrations and violence in Bangkok. Protesters are refusing to negotiate with the government and have promised to stay until the “final battle.”

“A state of emergency has been declared at both Suvarnabhumi and the smaller, domestic Don Mueang airport, which the anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have taken over.”

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7756050.stm

The previous corrupt Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was overthrown in a military coup in 2006 and replaced with a “proxy” government. Thaksin has been indicted for massive corruption and last I heard he was in exile in China because the UK wouldn’t accept him.

What the BBC doesn’t say is that the new PM, Somchai, is Thaksin’s brother-in-law. He is holed up in Chiang Mai which is the Thaksin family home town and where he has a base of support because Thaksin doled out a few baht when he was PM to small farmers who now think he is wonderful.

However, the “elite” in Bangkok, who know what is going on, doesn’t think he is wonderful. The BBC says: “The PAD is a loose grouping of royalists, businessmen and the urban middle class opposed to Mr Thaksin.” Well, this is not a very good description. It also includes respected statesmen, university professors and students. And if the truth were known…probably the revered King who everyone thinks “whispered” his support of the 2006 coup.

“The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Bangkok says that Mr Somchai has already lost the confidence of his army chief, Gen Anupong Paochinda, and rumours of (another) coup are circling in the capital.” The head of Thailand’s powerful army has called for a dissolution of Parliament and new elections.

What the BBC doesn’t say is that the army is refusing to move against the protesters.

The chief of police has been demoted, the BBC says, “to what officials said was an “inactive post” in the prime minister’s office. No official reason was given for Gen Patcharawat Wongsuwanbut’s demotion, but government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar suggested to Thai TV that it was in connection with the protest crisis.”

Come on, I don’t think it would have been difficult to fact check why the police chief was demoted. Everyone knows anyway. So much for the BBC.

My husband, who lives in Thailand says: “Politically hot in Thailand. Nobody in charge. The PM (Thaksin ‘s brother-in-law) attempting to mobilize police and army to open the airport but they refuse to intervene. Can you imagine a head-of-state directing his armies to action and they refuse???? Big comment on the base of power.”

We Thailand watchers (my son and his Thai wife live on Koh Samui in the south) are fervently hoping this doesn’t end in bloodshed like the October 14, 1973 Uprising and the October 6, 1976 Massacre.

The Rest of the Story

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Description of an altercation between a communist group (FPR) and the anarchists after the march commemorating the November 25th 2006 repression by police. When I saw that these groups, among many others, were lining up behind the teachers during the strike of 2006, I knew there was going to be trouble because they all have their own agendas.

from an expat on the Oaxaca Study Action Group Internet Forum:

“I get the sense that no one is happy with what happened at the march. The good things were the turnout and return of Dra. Bertha.  The bad were the disagreements regarding tactics that led to physical encounters and the FPR vs anarchists nonsense in the zocalo.  I firmly believe that based on my experiences here, the vast majority of the libertarian punks are not paid government agents.  I think it’s dangerous to propose that they are, given the seriousness of the charge, because: unless they read NarcoNews or OSAG they’re unaware of the charges being leveled against them, and, how does one disprove the claim that they’re a government agent?  David Venegas, even after spending a year in jail, is still accused of that.  Black blocs, graffiti and property destruction are common features of most mass movements all over the world.  Of course the capitalist press and fascist government are going to raise hackles about it, that’s their job.

This is not, however, to say that there weren’t infiltrators yesterday. Yet, they’re easy to spot based on their dress, the fact that no one knows them, their actions (for example, yesterday they were smoking weed during the march and one of them painted “David is my leader”, which no anarchist would write and plays right into the gov’t’s and press’s line).  As well, the locations targeted – Comex, PRI offices, state gov’t offices, and Chedraui – are all viable targets if one is an anti-capitalist.  Working class people’s homes and business didn’t get messed with.

The scene at [the new] Chedraui Market [during their open house] was particularly disappointing. The teachers’ “protest police” lined up in front of Chedraui, trying to keep it from being damaged. It reminded me of “pacifists” lining up to protect Nike and Starbucks in the US during the WTO protest in Seattle 1999. This led to pushing and shoving between teachers and anarchists, and between anarchist and photographers (who were screaming at the anarkos: “We’re going to find out who you are! We’re going to get you!” One friend was randomly assaulted by a photographer out of nowhere).

As far as I know, the teachers’ leadership and the FPR bilaterally declared there would be no graffiti, masks, or property destruction.  How they feel they have the right to state that and undemocratically determine the tactics of a broad movement, and try to undemocratically enforce them (by guarding Chedraui of all places for crissakes!) is beyond me.  While Chepi may be better than those before, the teachers still don’t seem to me to be doing much, nor do I put much hope in them. They only come out in force when instructed to, probably mainly because they take attendance at these things.  Other teachers not marching with Section 22 got on the sound systems behind Section 22 and denounced them for betraying the movement that arose initially to defend them and for their complacency.

I did not see the fight between the FPR and anarchists in the zocalo.  My understanding as related to me (admittedly by only one side on the issue), was the David was being heckled while he spoke, while others were shouting to let him speak. An FPR man hit an libertarian woman on the head with one of the sticks they have their flags on, then punched her in the face. Then libertarians got hold of an FPR flag and lit it on fire. Then mayhem broke out.  At least one libertarian had to be taken to the hospital after being hit in the head with a flag stick.

All the media and even Radio Planton, blamed it all on David. At least the teachers, though condemning everything that happened, declined to condemn any particular group.  Regardless, as I said, no one is happy with what happened. Well, perhaps the FPR is.  I think it shows that the next APPO congress really needs to happen and really needs to be democratic.  Many of the speakers in the zocalo at least mentioned the former, though groups such as the FPR and some in the teachers leadership are more interested in excluding VOCAL and other libertarian tendencies in the APPO congress than creating a real movement.”

My three cents from my frustrated, biased perspective,

and “Here’s VOCAL’s communique regarding yesterday. In brief, it states that the disunity has been caused by the FPR – primarily for running Zenen Bravo for congress and their meddling in Section 22.  It states they had nothing to do with the property destruction but they understand it. It states that FPR started the fight after David was not permitted to speak and a libertarian woman told an FPR man to be quiet and be respectful. And that Section 22 has the responsibility and duty to convene a democratic assembly to plan for the second APPO congress.”

Letter From An Expat With Another View of Mexico

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My Mexican-American friend moved to Mexico a few years ago while working on her husband’s papers to legalize him to work in the States…which is taking a lot of time.  This was her recent email:

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL, Vol. VII

Now, I know Why They Jump The Wall…I Wanna Jump The Wall
And  –  Yes  –  We  –  Are  –  Still  –  Here

I was just telling a friend, back in the States, how waking up here I will sometimes think to myself, as I take in my surroundings, “shit, I’m still here.”  You know those mornings, where as soon as you open your eyes, you say to yourself, “man, it sucks to be me.”  Well, yesterday was definitely one of those days.  And, unfortunately not just for myself, but also for quite a number of people in my husband’s family, namely my mom-in-law.

My husband’s brother called us about 10 a.m.  He was frantic.  Evidently, Josefina had just gotten a phone call stating that my husband had been kidnapped and they were demanding a ransom of $50,000 Pesos, or they were going to kill him!  They put some guy on the phone who told my mother-in-law he was her son.  She asked him, “son, where are you?”  This same fucking bastard responded, SOBBING, “Mother, I can’t tell you because I’m bound and they have my eyes covered.”  The so-called kidnapper got back on the phone, and she informed him that she didn’t have $50,000 Pesos.  The caller told her that if she didn’t pay the money they would murder her son.  She simply stated that would be on his conscience, and that she didn’t have that kind of money and there was nothing she could do.  He asked her again if she were going to pay the ransom.  She repeated her response to his demand.  He finally yelled at her that she was a fucking bitch and hung up!

In her hysteria she couldn’t recall our phone numbers.  She ended up calling her eldest son.  He spoke with his mother and calmed her down as best he could.

My husband is the youngest of three sons.  He has been back home here in Mexico for almost three years after an absence of almost 11.  When we first got here, in February 2006, the first thing his mother said was that she couldn’t believe her eyes that her baby was home.  She said that she never expected to see him again.  They speak or see one another on a daily basis.

My mother-in-law is 75-years-old, in failing health, and lives alone.  We live minutes from her house, but she had no idea that this was not true at that moment in time.  Put yourself in her place.  Can you even imagine getting such a phone call about a loved one, and all that you would feel, think, experience?  I can’t imagine.  I don’t even want to.

My husband spoke with the police and they say that it is a local and national epidemic: Secuestros Telefonicos.  Translation:  Telephone Kidnappings.  They usually originate in prisons in the neighboring state of Mexico, in and around Mexico City.  Our very own landlord’s mother just two weeks ago received a phone call from someone stating that they had kidnapped one of her sons.  All of her children are adults living on their own.  She deposited $15,000 Pesos in ransom money into a bank account that she was directed to, which of course was under a phony name.  Thankfully all of her children were eventually accounted for and found to be safe, and the kidnapping to be bogus.  We’re told that she and one of her daughters are showing signs of extreme mental trauma. Read More

The World Celebrates!

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I am so relieved! I am in Mexico now and didn’t have TV but I got a text message from Barack at midnight (you could sign up for text messages on his web site) that said “We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion to this campaign. All of this happened because of you. Thanks. Barack.”

Lovely.

“In this election, the Americans not only chose a president, but also their identity,” said Dominique Moïsi, a French political analyst. “And now we have to think, too, about our identity in France — it’s the most challenging election ever. We realize we are late, and America has regained the torch of a moral revolution.”  This from France!

I am active on some couchsurfing.com forums. This morning I was greeted with many happy posts from around the world so I will cross-post some of them here:

From Germany: “I’m happy to see that after being the punching bag of the world for 8 years you’ve now made it so clear that you intent to restore some reputation now. Especially since I don’t have to excuse my liking for you weirdos when I’m with my European friends and you can’t just accuse me of typical European Anti Americanism when I criticize you flaw or make fun of them or you! HA-HAAA;-D
(Can I put back my “Abulf Gayb” picture now???)  Take care! / Maat et joot!

Belgium:  Congrats to all of you!
this is a great way to wake up in Europe and hear this news. I am SO happy!!! Wish I were still there but already here I feel the vibe of this news in my heart and in the air. YAAY!!

Congratulations from France. 😉  I raise my glass of wine to your new president.
I don’t have much more to say, but I think it’s enough.

Belgium:  I can’t believe the news today
I don’t wanna close my eyes
Don’t make it go away!
How long, how long have we sung this song?
CONGRATULATIONS! Still can’t believe it…
This is just wonderful!
Love you all!
Lieke, Peter and kids, Belgium – Europe

Turkey:  Congratulations to all of you.. You are all silent I
guess you are all partying.. we watch all those
celebrations and excitement in America.. and very
happy for you and for the World.. Obama made an
excellent speech after winning, I know everything will
not be perfect just because he won, but at least we
have ‘hope’ that it will..it is amazing that America elected its first black
president, it is amazing that America elected someone
born from a Muslim father as a president, American
people destroyed all taboos and I am very proud of
them and very thankful to them.. I think American
people took a huge step to correct America’s bad image
created by the Bush Administration.
Congratulations again and thank you..
I hope Obama administration will bring peace to the
World and wealth/welfare to the US.
I am happy:) all the best

Belgium:  Well, I am hoping for a bit more sensible US policies. The focus will ofc still be on US interests but maybe the next administration will understand that what the current administration did pretty much went against those interests. We’ll see what he wants to do and what he can do with a massive deficit, recession and the composition of the houses.

France:    SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to share my joy and my hopes about the future of THE WORLD!!!!
OBAMA i’m with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE for every american citizens!!!!!!!!!!
kreen 😉 😉 😉

In the meantime, we can say goodbye to Palin here:

What Is An America Hater?

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Palin and some Republican surrogates are trying to equate liberalism and anti-Americanism. This week, Michelle Bachmann, newly elected Republican in Minnesota, called on the media to investigate the so-called “liberals” in Congress to determine if they were “Pro American” or  “Anti American.”  She “reasons”  that if people have negative views of the U.S. then they are anti-American.  Bachmann says “I’m very concerned that he [Obama] may have anti-American views.” She calls on the media to launch a “penetrating expose and take a look … at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-American or anti-American.”  She adds: “I think people would love to see an expose like that.”

All my life I thought the essence of democracy was the freedom of an informed electorate to demand transparency and accountability of our elected officials and policy makers.  Never once in my life did I ever think I was being an America hater by working for a better America!  Must we turn a blind eye and stay silent if we think our precious country is being led in the wrong direction?  Like the good Germans did? Even McCain is calling for change.  Does that mean he is anti-America?  It seems to me that if I didn’t care for my country I would just sit on my butt and do nothing. For the life of me, I don’t understand where this nonsense is coming from! Some deep-seated visceral fear?  Of what?

Now we have McCain’s surrogates trying to link Obama with William Ayers and the Weathermen, a radical antiwar group during the Viet Nam war. The people who lived during that desperate and bewildering time and understood the anger toward the military industrial complex hell-bent on war are still around…many later voting for Nader which threw the win to Bush…or not voting at all which still helped Bush. Although the end did not justify the means, and the deaths that occurred were tragic, it did help stop the war. (watch “Fog Of War” an award-winning 2004 documentary interview of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.) I pray these folks vote pragmatically this time.

That was 40 years ago. This is now. Ayers, along with many of his generation, has discovered that patiently working within the system is a more efficacious way to encourage change. A person deserves a second chance and recognizing that a democracy depends on an enlightened electorate, he has made the most of it…becoming a respected university professor who happened to sit on the same education reform board chaired by Obama that was funded by the Republican Annenberg Foundation (whose purpose is to advance the public well-being through improved communication)and endorsed by Chicago Mayor Daley. Ayers could have become a depressive drug-addled destitute living on the streets along with the many other dissilusioned Viet Nam war vets. But he didn’t. He had the courage to face society, get off his butt, and become one of it’s good citizens. I for one am happy that he did not succumb to nihilism but instead channeled his passion and intelligence into long term benefit for our country.

Fortunately, Obama has been vetted by earnest peers, politicos, professionals, educators,  middle America and the street alike…and by the super delegates during the primaries. And for all it’s ills, by the media.  If Obama was such a risk, these folks would have stopped him long ago. His endorsement tally was at 55 and McCain’s at 16 as of Saturday with the LA Times endorsement. Other major endorsements for Obama include those of the Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the St Louis Post-Dispatch, the Toledo Blade, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Nashville Tennessean and the Spanish-language dailies La Opinion in Los Angeles and El Diario -La Prensa in New York.

His hometown newspaper the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a democrat for the first time in its 161-year history noting that it was breaking with a long tradition but justified the shift by citing what it called Mr. Obama’s “honor, grace and civility” under pressure and criticizing Mr. McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, which it described as a failure of judgment in which Mr. McCain put his campaign ahead of the country’s needs. “We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions,” the newspaper said of Mr. Obama. “He is ready.”

And I haven’t even mentioned magazines like the New Yorker who has only endorsed one other candidate in it’s 83 year old history or Esquire Magazine that has never endorsed a candidate in it’s 75 year history. Then there are luminaries like Colin Powell who endorsed Obama this morning on Meet The Press saying  that “I think he is a transformational figure. “I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities — and you have to take that into account — as well as his substance — he has both style and substance,” Powell said. “He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president.” Powell noted that McCain has been a good friend for 25 years, but expressed disappointment in the negative tone of the GOP campaign, as well as in McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the vice presidential nominee.  And Christopher Buckley, who, after endorsing Obama, left the conservative “National Review” that William Buckley, the godfather of conservatism, founded saying that were he alive today his father would be dismayed with the Republican party…especially for it’s pick for VP. Even Christopher Hitchens has endorsed Obama.

Please excuse the pun, but they can’t all be “out in left field.”

McCain is desperate and has nothing left in his toolbox but to galvanize the ill-informed voter over ugly sideline distractions. I just hope people read. Our country depends on it.  It was Bernard Baruch, economic advisor to Wilson, who said, “If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don’t get all the facts, it can’t be right.”

How Do We Know The World?

Posted on by Laughingnomad

 March 12 update:  This, of course, was before the crash.

A conversation with Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft
Two former national security advisors look at how the world has changed.

September 28, 2008

This spring, two of the most respected figures in American foreign policy sat down to talk about the United States and its place in the world. Zbigniew Brzezinski served as national security advisor to President Carter. Brent Scowcroft was national security advisor to presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald R. Ford. Their conversation was moderated by David Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post. The following are edited excerpts

* Ignatius: I want you to talk a bit more about the nature of American leadership in this very complicated world. First, is American leadership necessary?

Brzezinski: It can be a catalyst. Not for actions directed by the United States but for actions that the local community — maybe we can call them stakeholders in a global system — is prepared collectively to embrace. That kind of leadership is needed. But for that kind of leadership to emerge in America, we not only need very special people as leaders — and they do come up occasionally — but we need a far more enlightened society than we have.

I think Americans are curiously, paradoxically, simultaneously very well-educated and amazingly ignorant. We are a society that lives within itself. We’re not interested in the history of other countries.

Today we have a problem with Iran. How many Americans know anything about Iranian history? Do they know that it is a bifurcated history? There have been two Irans. And those two different periods, pre-Islamic and post-Islamic, dialectically define the tensions and the realities of Iran today. [Americans] know nothing about it.

Quite a few Americans entering college could not locate Great Britain on the map. They couldn’t locate Iraq on the map after five years of war. Thirty percent couldn’t identify the Pacific Ocean. We don’t teach global history; we don’t teach global geography. I think most Americans don’t have the kind of sophistication that an America that inspires, and thereby leads, will have to have if it is to do what this 21st century really will demand of us.

Scowcroft: I could easily just say amen. But again, this is a part of who we are and from where we have arisen. For most of our history, we’ve been secure behind two oceans, with weak neighbors on each side. Americans don’t have to learn foreign languages. They can travel as widely as most of them want and never leave the United States. So most Americans instinctively just want to be left alone. I don’t think they want to mess with the problems of the world.

Brzezinski: They want to enjoy the good life.

Scowcroft: They want to enjoy the good life.