RE: [Futurework] Ten simple rules

[Karen Watters Cole]

I think what we want in confusing, changing times is leadership.  The military trains its cadets well, and a uniform is still an inspiring costume for the cast of characters we look to for leadership.   Powell, of course, was seen as a welcome blend of both, the thoughtful military man.  Bush, with his sorry record at Texas Air National Guard (TANG) and later AWOL from the Alabama unit where he wasn’t missed while helping Dad, was portrayed not as a military hero like his father, but rather more a many who “knew the system”. Again, what does the role of literature and science fiction with its fantasy action heroes, have to do with a new generation’s fascination with the young citizen-soldier?  Are we “over” Vietnam?  Kaplan and others seem to think so. As we do from time to time in history we are looking at a culture change.  Which will it be? My hope, as always, is for balance and moderation.  KWC   KWC: Have we undermined public education so much or lost all confidence in it that we only trust the military to train our leaders?  [EW: Interesting question, Karen.  The military does give the appearance of getting the job done, whereas diplomats seem to stumble and bumble from one mess to another.  The military appears to simplify, and that is what we seem to want, no matter how complex the situation.   Ed, when I read this piece earlier it struck me as you mention, that Kaplan was writing about these events as if he had created them into being.  He glorifies the soldier as the epitome of the modern democratic ambassador, a highly trained, deadly working representative of the superpower.  Hemingway had such an effect, did he not, on a generation of men and women and war? Meanwhile, more retired military fill former diplomat-only posts around the globe and increasingly, multinational corporations with ties to the military industrial technology complex.  Have we undermined public education so much or lost all confidence in it that we only trust the military to train our leaders?  KWC   -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 7:08 AM To: futurework Subject: [Futurework] Ten simple rules The current issue of Atlantic contains an article by Robert Kaplan entitled "Supremacy by Stealth". I’ve read most of it, but it's the kind of article that I find difficult to finish. It sets out ten rules that America, as the new Rome, should use to govern the world and make it safe for freedom and democracy, American style. I first encountered Mr. Kaplan a few years ago in an article entitled "The Coming Anarchy", also in Atlantic. The message there, seeming entirely credible at the time, was that the world was going to hell in a handbasket. The message in the current article is anything but credible. It’s that, yes, the world could go to hell in a handbasket, but it won’t because America is there to prevent it from doing so. And it can even be fixed up if America but follows Mr. Kaplan’s ten simple rules. It must, for example, produce more Joppolos, the central figure in John Hersey’s second world war novel "A Bell for Adano". Apparently, Mr. Joppolo knew exactly how to win the trust of the townspeople he had to deal with. As Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated, it would be nice to have people like that, but they don’t come around very often. And, by being "light and lethal", you can accomplish great things, like helping the Bolivian government track down and kill Che Guevara in 1967. (Sorry, Mr. Kaplan, but some of us still remember Che as the eternal revolutionary and a force for liberating the oppressed. I for one do not see tracking him down and killing him as a good thing. It's a bit like the Romans bragging about tracking down and killing Christ!)  Or, like the British, and the Romans before them, by speaking Victorian and thinking pagan you can try to persuade people of the wisdom of your ways, but, if you can’t accomplish that, you do have other means. What Mr. Kaplan suggests is that American forces have already followed his ten simple rules, though perhaps not consistently enough. He says they have done a very good job at times, as when they trained Salvadorian counterinsurgency forces, but he doesn’t then mention is that these forces became government death squads and killing machines that brutalized the countryside and cost thousands of people there lives. The image that Mr. Kaplan presents in his ten points is a clean, tidy and efficient one that, like B52 bombers, flies high above the messy, dirty world of his earlier article. Sorry, Mr. Kaplan, it just doesn’t figure.