NationStates Jolt Archive

Jeanne Kirkpatrick died today, she penned the pretty famous essay 'Dictatorships and Double Standards' detailing various failures of the Carter administration in dealing with emerging internal communist and islamic fundamentalist threats to friendly governments.

Quoth kirkpatrick:
The failure of the Carter administration's foreign policy is now clear to everyone except its architects, and even they must entertain private doubts, from time to time, about a policy whose crowning achievement has been to lay the groundwork for a transfer of the Panama Canal from the United States to a swaggering Latin dictator of Castroite bent.

Its important to apply her critical analysys to today's situation, where it reads:

The failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy is now clear to everyone except its architects, and even they must entertain private doubts, from time to time, about a policy whose crowning achievement has been to lay the groundwork for a transfer of... Iraq to the influence of Iranian Ayatollahs... the moral high ground in terms of human rights from the United States to others... the idea of spreading democracy from the realm of the positive to a code-word for destruction and disaster.

Requiescat in pace.

Ah, but the problem with these friendly governments is that they were right-wing dictatorships. The US had no right to support these dictatorships, and so I would laud Carter for not intervening in the internal affairs of these tin-pot dictators. That said, RIP.

What I hate about Carter is that his "human rights" applied only to pro-Western, anti-Communist governments and not Communist governments. For example, he would rant endlessly about human rights in countries like Argentina, Nicaragua, Chile, Paraguay, El Salvador, the Republic of China, South Africa, Zaire, Rhodesia, Thailand, Pakistan, Iran, and the Philippines - while human rights in the U.S.S.R., the PRC, Ethiopia, Cuba, Angola, Mozambique, Viet Nam, Cambodia, etc. was met with either silence or only very mild criticism. If you're going to have a "human rights" foreign policy, it should apply to ALL countries, both friendly or otherwise. Instead, we have people who either criticize only our allies' human rights policies (i.e., Carter) and those who criticize only our enemies' human rights policies (i.e., the Shrub). Bottom line: Either criticize human rights abuses everywhere, or don't criticize them at all. Period.

As for Kirkpatrick, though, I hope she passed peacefully, and my condolences to her family. While I'm rarely happy to see someone die (excepting terrorists, dictators, etc.), I can't say I'm too sorry to see her go, either. Her warm embrace of right-wing dictators and her zealous neoconservatism were nauseating.

What I hate about Carter is that his "human rights" applied only to pro-Western, anti-Communist governments and not Communist governments. For example, he would rant endlessly about human rights in countries like Argentina, Nicaragua, Chile, Paraguay, El Salvador, the Republic of China, South Africa, Zaire, Rhodesia, Thailand, Pakistan, Iran, and the Philippines - while human rights in the U.S.S.R., the PRC, Ethiopia, Cuba, Angola, Mozambique, Viet Nam, Cambodia, etc. was met with either silence or only very mild criticism. If you're going to have a "human rights" foreign policy, it should apply to ALL countries, both friendly or otherwise. Instead, we have people who either criticize only our allies' human rights policies (i.e., Carter) and those who criticize only our enemies' human rights policies (i.e., the Shrub). Bottom line: Either criticize human rights abuses everywhere, or don't criticize them at all. Period.

As for Kirkpatrick, though, I hope she passed peacefully, and my condolences to her family. While I'm rarely happy to see someone die (excepting terrorists, dictators, etc.), I can't say I'm too sorry to see her go, either. Her warm embrace of right-wing dictators and her zealous neoconservatism were nauseating.

There's really nothing Carter could do to help the Soviet Bloc human rights situation. Horrible as it was, it would have been wasted breath.

There's really nothing Carter could do to help the Soviet Bloc human rights situation. Horrible as it was, it would have been wasted breath.

At the very least, he could have condemned it. He cold-shouldered friendly countries over human rights abuses, but was warm and welcoming (at least until the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan) of Communist* countries.





I realize they were not really "communist," hence the capital 'c,' denoting they were ruled by Communist Parties.

There's really nothing Carter could do to help the Soviet Bloc human rights situation. Horrible as it was, it would have been wasted breath.

Cut down on grain shipments to the USSR, perhaps?

Cut down on grain shipments to the USSR, perhaps?

He was also working on nuclear arms reduction. That wouldn't have helped. Realpolitik rears its ugly head.

Cut down on grain shipments to the USSR, perhaps?

Or better yet, ended them altogether, cut off all trade with the U.S.S.R., and encouraged other nations to do the same.

Was she the UN Ambassador for the US at one point? If so, then that lady actually graduated from my High School. Go Ram:cool:

Ah, but the problem with these friendly governments is that they were right-wing dictatorships. The US had no right to support these dictatorships, and so I would laud Carter for not intervening in the internal affairs of these tin-pot dictators. That said, RIP.

You know what's a great way to let someone rest in peace?

Not rehashing their rhetoric after they, and everything they stood for, are dead.

Jeanne Kirkpatrick died today, she penned the pretty famous essay 'Dictatorships and Double Standards' detailing various failures of the Carter administration in dealing with emerging internal communist and islamic fundamentalist threats to friendly governments.

Quoth kirkpatrick:
The failure of the Carter administration's foreign policy is now clear to everyone except its architects, and even they must entertain private doubts, from time to time, about a policy whose crowning achievement has been to lay the groundwork for a transfer of the Panama Canal from the United States to a swaggering Latin dictator of Castroite bent.

Its important to apply her critical analysys to today's situation, where it reads:

The failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy is now clear to everyone except its architects, and even they must entertain private doubts, from time to time, about a policy whose crowning achievement has been to lay the groundwork for a transfer of... Iraq to the influence of Iranian Ayatollahs... the moral high ground in terms of human rights from the United States to others... the idea of spreading democracy from the realm of the positive to a code-word for destruction and disaster.

Requiescat in pace.

Um, hate to break up the lovefest, but you could just as easily argue, and in fact I would argue, that her realpolitick policy of focusing only on states, of endorsing any dictator irrespective of their internal politics so long as they are on our side, and her militant anti-communism were a big part of what got us in such deep shit in the Middle East. If it hadn't been for that kind of thinking, we wouldn't have allowed the Sauds to channel internal dissent through Wahhabism, nor would we have armed the bloody Taliban in Afghanistan, nor would we have insisted that Iraq must be involved in 9/11 because, as we all know, only states have the material means to engineer those kind of attacks. . .

Seriously, Kirkpatrick was nothing more or less than an early and militant neo-con, and as such she has a lot to do with laying the groundwork for the geo-strategic considerations of the last 25 years that put us in our current fubar state.

Jeanne Kirkpatrick died today, she penned the pretty famous essay 'Dictatorships and Double Standards' detailing various failures of the Carter administration in dealing with emerging internal communist and islamic fundamentalist threats to friendly governments.

Quoth kirkpatrick:
The failure of the Carter administration's foreign policy is now clear to everyone except its architects, and even they must entertain private doubts, from time to time, about a policy whose crowning achievement has been to lay the groundwork for a transfer of the Panama Canal from the United States to a swaggering Latin dictator of Castroite bent.

Its important to apply her critical analysys to today's situation, where it reads:

The failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy is now clear to everyone except its architects, and even they must entertain private doubts, from time to time, about a policy whose crowning achievement has been to lay the groundwork for a transfer of... Iraq to the influence of Iranian Ayatollahs... the moral high ground in terms of human rights from the United States to others... the idea of spreading democracy from the realm of the positive to a code-word for destruction and disaster.

Requiescat in pace.
I'll raise my wineglass to her, metaphorically speaking. I hardly agreed with everything she said, but she had a good head on her shoulders, which is a hard thing to find...I want to say these days, but fact is, it really applies to "all the fjorking time."

Seriously, Kirkpatrick was nothing more or less than an early and militant neo-con, and as such she has a lot to do with laying the groundwork for the geo-strategic considerations of the last 25 years that put us in our current fubar state. Yes, Thank you EVER so much Kirkpatrick for your blind support of facism what would the world be like today without you.

What I hate about Carter is that his "human rights" applied only to pro-Western, anti-Communist governments

They didn't even apply to those, really. Most of the time his measures were token at best.

They didn't even apply to those, really.

Uh...yes they did. At least three pro-Western governments fell largely due to him.

Bill the cat must be devastated.

Uh...yes they did. At least three pro-Western governments fell largely due to him.

Somoza, maybe. And he might well have fallen even with US support.

What were the other two?

Wasnt Jeanne Kirkpatrick famous for being very bi-partisian or am i thinking of another women politician who died recently?

Bill the cat must be devastated.

Dammit, I was going to say that...

Somoza, maybe. And he might well have fallen even with US support.

What were the other two?

If you havent read Dictatorship and Double Standards, which lays out the answer to this question, you should. It is the best piece of writing produced by conservatives in a long time, and by neoconservatives ever.

The two she treats in detail are Nicaragua (somoza) and Iran (Shah Pahlavi).

Her basic premise is that the Carter admin's double standard of criticizing and acting against right-leaning regimes, on the basis of human rights, directly caused much worse regimes - communist and religious - to overthrow them.

This was both worse for the people of those countries and for the united states. Had her sage advice been followed, the murderous disaster in Iraq would have been avoided and the Taliban never risen to power in Afghanistan.

She pointed out, correctly, that in most cases when radicals take power from authoritarian regimes, things become very significantly worse.

Her understanding of forming democracy and gaining freedom, which is one of a gradual, internal movement, seems to bear itself out in the facts of history.

The countries of europe were not liberated from tyranny by revolutions, but rather by gradual change. Her work is fundamentally against 'democratization.'

Bill the cat must be devastated.
I thought it was so Bill could steal info off of her for the Soviets?

Oh yeah, another thing, one of the reasons why the Falkland war didn't end was because of her insistance that Britain give up.

Somoza, maybe. And he might well have fallen even with US support.

What were the other two?

He would have survived had it not been for the arms embargo. Hell, Carter even pressured other countries not to send Nicaragua arms.

The other two were Iran and Rhodesia. Carter not only forced the Shah to release from prison convicted terrorists and subversives, but saw to it that the Shah's generals took no action during the revolution. In Rhodesia, Carter put extreme pressure on the government to allow ZANU and ZAPU to participate in elections (even though a fair election with them would have been impossible), and refused to recognize the legitimate government of Bishop Muzorewa.