Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Why I Dislike Politicians


The Washington Posts reports that the House GOP has released a paper claiming that Secretary Clinton personally rejected a request for more security in Libya. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-gop-report-says-clinton-rejected-plea-for-more-security-in-libya/2013/04/23/d2d03dfa-ac6b-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html  WaPo notes: "The report cites an April 2012 internal State Department message, called a cable, bearing Clinton’s signature. "  

Apparently the Republicans have no idea how the State Department works, have nobody on their staff with any relevant experience, and don't know how to find out how it works. But wait, they had that information provided to them. The Secretary testified that EVERY cable that goes out from State has the name of the Secretary (or Acting Secretary) on it. (I know this to be true, for every Administration at least back to Reagan.) The signature indicates who is in charge of the Department (or overseas, the mission) at the time the message was sent, not who read the message before going it went out, and certainly not who personally wrote it. (I wrote about 200 cables a year; over 25 years, only a handful have "Carlson" at the bottom - as that indicates I was in charge, not that I wrote the cable.)

So, a classic example of "political" speech. 

Monday, April 22, 2013

Politics - Two Statesmen

I noted that I have met hundreds if not thousands of politicians.  Very few holders of political office have earned my respect (and one refuses to be considered a politician, even though he held elected office).  Two politicians that I do respect are my former Congressman, Martin Olav Sabo, and former President Carter.

I've never really met Sabo, but I never had to think who I was going to vote for before he retired in 2006. His politics were liberal - one of the first to use the term progressive in current times, but he also thought that local control was better than Federal.  One accomplishment, and one proposal, stand out. First, the accomplishment: he was the chair of House Budget Committee in 1993 - you know, the last year a genuinely balanced budget plan was enacted. The one that every Republican voted against, oddly enough given their supposed support for a balanced budget. The one that led to the Federal Government running a surplus in 1999.  

The proposal was the Income Equity Act. He introduced it repeatedly, starting in 1997, but it never gained traction. Long before Occupy Wall Street, Sabo identified the problem with the increasing disparity between the income of the 1% and the rest - but he proposed to do something about it - end the taxpayers subsidy of that disparity.  See:   http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRECB-2001-pt11/html/CRECB-2001-pt11-Pg15603-2.htm

I did meet President Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn visited Jamaica when i was the political officer there, in the mid-90s. (They visited in January 1997.) We were asked to give the President a country team brief on the situation. I had been making the point repeatedly to my bosses, including the Ambassador, that Jamaica's elections were completely corrupt. Convinced, they asked me to personally handle the political section of the oral brief to the President.  Yikes. That went something like this:

Me: Mr. President, we'd like your Carter Center to observe Jamaica's next general elections for parliament.

President:  No. We only observe elections in emerging democracies. Jamaica is a stable democracy, and its leaders are my friends. When I see them later today, how can I insult them by saying you need my Center's help to run clean elections.

Me:  We mean no offense. But elections here are dirty, and violent. May I give some examples? (Carter nods.) Jamaica's voters must be registered in advance of election day, so the voting rolls are fixed in number. West Kingston, seat of the former Prime Minister, had a turnout of 120% (percent). 3 votes (not 3%, three votes) were cast for the losing candidate. Across the street, in the other party's stronghold, turnout was 135% (percent). One vote was cast for the losing candidate.  Both parishes are run by posses (criminal gangs) - violent groups allied with political parties. Originally, in the 1960s, they were even armed by the parties - but now they have enough money from running drugs to the States to buy their own.  But they still turn out the votes for their patrons.

President: Ok, Kingston is bad.  But that's not the whole picture.

And so on for 45 minutes. Toughest grilling of my life. Jimmy Carter is one very intelligent and literate man.

Oh. He sent the Center to observe the next TWO general elections.

http://www.cartercenter.org/news/publications/election_reports.html#jamaica

Also see:  Born Fi' Dead

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Diplomacy and History:


Back in 1997-8, I had the privilege of attending the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, VA. Early on, I figured out I could either work out enough to (barely) pass the USMC physical fitness standards, or get my Masters.  The Masters was easier.

For my Masters of Military Studies, I wrote the paper found at the link below, entitled "Diplomatic Crisis Reporting on the Schleswig War of 1864: An Historic Case Study.

Thanks again to my mentors, Dr. Janeen Klinger and Mr. Chris Chatfield.  

As the written copies state, The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the individual student author and do not necessarily represent the view of either the Marine Corps Command and Staff College or any other governmental agency. References to this study should include the foregoing statement.

Quotation from, abstraction from, or reproduction of all or any part of this document is permitted provided proper acknowledgment is made.

To access the paper,

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx-JdoHaZrGfU0ZmODMza0NveVk/preview

Two simple rules (and their antecedents)


In the past couple of years, I started thinking more about how I wanted to live my life. The chronological order in which I adopted these guides is opposed to their importance.

1.   Don't get angry.


2.   Don't get annoyed.

These were the first two, which began as New Year's resolutions a while back.  I decided I didn't like how intemperate, even hot-headed, I could be, and wanted to end that.  Anger hurt me, and hurt those around me, and got me nothing.  I quickly discovered that annoyance almost always preceded anger, so I started to work on that too. 

It's not 100%, nothing is.  But my periods of anger and annoyance are fewer in number, and lesser in scope. 

3.  Don't let others tell me what to do.

Everybody wants to tell you what to do, and often they think they have a "right" to do so - especially politicians (the "nanny state" is not confined to the left), and some employers (although I have been lucky in the latter for some time with respect to individuals).  

Being told what to do is an annoyance (see rule #1).

4.   Don't tell others what to do.

Seems an obvious companion to rule #3, yes?  It didn't occur to me for months after I settled on #3 - and it doesn't appear to be obvious to too many other people either. It made being an American diplomat tough, as the US Government is fond of telling others what to do, and expects the Foreign Service to carry out those directions.  While in harness, I changed my approach, to advise my hosts on what the US wanted to happen,  to counsel them on what actions they could take to improve good governance at home, and what we could do to help them and how. After all, my interchangeable titles while overseas were "counselor" and "adviser" - not Proconsul. Results were actually better; persuasion is more effective than direction.

Welcome

What is Ethical Alchemy?


Welcome to Ethical Alchemy, an exploration of history, diplomacy, law, politics,  philosophy, gaming, and whatever else comes to mind. Why these categories?

History

I have a B.A. in US History from the University of Minnesota, and have voraciously read, and sometimes wrote, history since I was quite young.  My particular interest is military history; I wrote my senior thesis on the deterrent effect of moving the Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor in 1940.

Diplomacy

I was a Foreign Service Officer (diplomat) for twenty-five years, until my retirement in 2012. (Obviously, nothing I post should be seen as reflecting the views of the US Government.)

Law

I have a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota, and I am an inactive member of the Minnesota Bar. (Obviously nothing I post should be considered legal advice.)

Politics

With Damocles' sword (the Hatch Act) gone from over my head, I can more freely engage in political discussion, even advocacy.  Plus, I met hundreds if not thousands of politicians in my career as a political officer, so I do have some opinions on the breed. 

Philosophy

As my wife notes, philosophy means simply a love of wisdom.  It is a truism, but wisdom is a rarer gem than knowledge, and knowledge less common than mere feeling.

Gaming

I started playing commercial wargames in 1972, D&D in 1975, poker in 1977. N.b.: On Boardgamegeek.com I am PScipio.  See, e.g.: http://rpggeek.com/rpgdesigner/26899/alan-j-carlson

Whatever else?

Why not?