Kerry and Foreign Policy

An article (registration required) in the New York Times Magazine (hat tip: The Agonist/Kerry's Undeclared War), paints a picture of John Kerry's thinking on foreign policy.

Kerry was among the first policy makers in Washington to begin mapping out a strategy to combat an entirely new kind of enemy. Americans were conditioned, by two world wars and a long standoff with a rival superpower, to see foreign policy as a mix of cooperation and tension between civilized states. Kerry came to believe, however, that Americans were in greater danger from the more shadowy groups ... who might detonate suitcase bombs or release lethal chemicals into the subway just to make a point. ...

... Kerry's view ... suggests that it is the very premise of civilized states, rather than any one ideology, that is under attack. And no one state, acting alone, can possibly have much impact on the threat, because terrorists will always be able to move around, shelter their money and connect in cyberspace; there are no capitals for a superpower like the United States to bomb, no ambassadors to recall, no economies to sanction.

So why doesn't Kerry himself say it this clearly?

9:30:09 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Rain Lilies

Where did those come from, those green shoots and that white flower?

Just the other day I looked down on that spot to lament that where there had been green there was now nothing but dead leaves and withered stalks.

But look now: thru the leaves and between the old stalks, a dozen green shoots have shot up. And look: a white flower.

Is this really fall?

12:32:18 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []