Recent Deaths

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caltrek
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More on remembering Colin Powell

Even Colin Powell Ignored the Powell Doctrine. Now, America Is Starting to Listen.
by Emma Ashford
October 23, 2021

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... ice-516795

Introduction:
(Politico) Colin Powell was a paradox: He was a key enabler of perhaps the most tragic example of U.S. foreign policy overreach in recent memory. Yet for most of his career, he struggled mightily — and frequently in vain — against precisely that kind of overreach.

Powell’s career was bookended by two wars in Iraq, a parallel repeatedly highlighted in last week’s obituaries. The 1991 Gulf War was a textbook example of his view that military force should be used sparingly but decisively to safeguard the national interest, while the 2003 Iraq war was the polar opposite: A war fought for murky reasons with no clear end state in mind. But what many obituaries didn’t note is that during the years in between, arguably the apex of Powell’s influence, U.S. foreign policy departed dramatically from — even outright rejected — his restrained theory of American military power.

Powell, who passed away this week, will be forever associated with two things. The first and likely more historically significant is his ill-fated Iraq War advocacy in front of the U.N. Security Council, which paved the way for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and directed the course of U.S. foreign policy for two decades. For those interested in the future of America’s role in the world, however, the second legacy may be as important: His advocacy, particularly during the 1990s, for a set of principles limiting the use of military force that became known as the Powell Doctrine.

The mismatch between these two legacies is the ultimate irony of Colin Powell’s career. His compelling vision of constrained U.S. military power, forged during the Vietnam War, was out of step with a post-Cold War zeitgeist that saw America as the “indispensable nation.” Powell failed to sell the foreign policy establishment on the idea that the military should be used sparingly and prudently. Worse still, after a decade of resisting the missionary impulse in U.S. foreign policy in the Balkans and elsewhere, he himself would fall victim to the zeitgeist, accepting the need for a foreign policy more assertive than his instincts suggested and acting as a trusted proponent of the Bush administration’s flawed case for war in Iraq. Still, Powell may yet have the last laugh: Today, with 20 years of post-9/11 wars evoking the same feelings of regret that inspired the original doctrine, the arc of American foreign policy seems finally to be bending back in the direction of his prudent guidance.
The remainder of the article further discusses the Powell Doctrine.
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caltrek
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Democracy Now! also did a story remembering Colin Powell.

An Examination of General Colin Powell’s Bloody Legacy from Iraq to Latin America
Amy Goodman Interviews Roberto Lovato and Clarence Lusane.
October 19, 2021

https://www.democracynow.org/2021/10/19 ... in_america

Extract:
ROBERTO LOVATO: The story of Colin Powell in Central America and other parts of the world is what I would call a tragic tale of militarism in the service of declining empire….Panama comes about, remember, right after the Central America engagements in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and that was preceded by the Vietnam War, when you have a decline in the morale and the sensibilities of the U.S. military, having suffered a defeat…in Vietnam. And so, Powell was part of a cadre of leaders trying to figure out how to create a post-Vietnam animus for the U.S. military machine.

But one thing I want to make clear is that the Powell doctrine of overwhelming force, bringing in the public into supporting U.S. war, clearly defined national security objectives and other things that define what they call the Powell-Weinberger doctrine, are still war policies… In El Chorrillo neighborhood, which taxi drivers in Panama still call the “little Hiroshima,” …hundreds of people were killed. They’re still excavating mass grave sites of the invasion of Panama. And…prior to that, remember, Powell was an assistant to then-secretary of defense, under the Reagan administration, Caspar Weinberger, who was charged with…overseeing military policy in Central America, which, instead of going into what they called asymmetrical warfare, like they did in Vietnam and got beat up, the militarists, like Colin Powell, decided to stray away from those kinds of war and fight them through proxies, and instead focus on building up to get big…state-to-state military wars. And so, the fight against Manuel Noriega, also on false pretenses, was a preview and a preparation for the state-to-state war that followed in Kuwait and Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: And in that U.S. invasion of Panama that he spearheaded, can you talk about who died…in Panama? We’re not just talking about abstract, intellectual…policy issues.

CLARENCE LUSANE: No, that’s exactly right...I actually went to Panama. I went …down after the invasion, and it was horrific… there were mass graves. There were the total destruction of neighborhoods…these were poor neighborhoods, we should be clear. So, there were wealthy neighborhoods that were surgically missed... So, it was a horrific invasion. And Powell said nothing about it.
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Glen de Vries: William Shatner's spacecraft partner dies in plane crash

1 hour ago

A US businessman who blasted into space with Star Trek actor William Shatner has died in a plane crash less than a month later.

Glen de Vries, 49, was aboard a single-engine aircraft which crashed in woodland in the US state of New Jersey on Thursday.

The other person on the flight, Thomas Fischer, 54, was also killed.

Mr De Vries, who joined Mr Shatner on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's New Shepard spacecraft, was a tech entrepreneur.

The Cessna 172 plane crashed in a wooded area of a state park near Lake Kemah, about 40 minutes before sunset, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the crash.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59274685


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FW de Klerk
by Robin Ephraim Möser
November 12, 2021

https://thebulletin.org/2021/11/fw-de-k ... sarmament/

Intrtoduction:
(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) Almost nothing suggested that former South African president Frederik Willem de Klerk would be the one to dismantle apartheid. He was born into a family of politicians of the nascent apartheid state, became a member of Parliament in 1972, and was complicit in—even supportive of—all the evil committed under apartheid during numerous ministerial posts. But while serving as president, de Klerk stunned the world in February 1990 when he removed the ban on opposition political movements, including the African National Congress, and released political prisoners, including the individual with whom he would later share the Nobel Peace Prize—Nelson Mandela.

De Klerk’s death at the age of 85 this week has been widely reported in the New York Times, the BBC, der Spiegel, the Daily Maverick, and other international media. Yet none mention that, under his leadership in 1991, South Africa joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and fully dismantled the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

De Klerk believed that nuclear weapons, having lost their deterrence value following the end of the regional conflicts, would subsequently burden his government. Two weeks after assuming the presidency, he held a top-secret meeting of advisors in which he requested a plan to rid the country of nuclear weapons. Those who attended agreed, though some rather grudgingly, as he recounted in my 2017 interview with him.

A president in favor of nuclear disarmament. Though de Klerk apologized for his complicity and support for the evil committed under apartheid in his last public message, he will never be acquitted. He benefitted from the racially discriminating structures, while serving as an instrument that perpetuated the system—at least until he negotiated the Afrikaners out of power. But when he had the chance to terminate the nuclear program, he did so with expediency and conviction.

Was de Klerk’s anti-nuclear stance born from strategic foresight, distaste for the nuclear warheads, or opportunistic awareness of the necessity? The world may never know. Still, unlike his predecessor, PW Botha, he had the courage to act on a nuclear disarmament opportunity when he saw it.
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Bob Dole Endorsed Trump. But Would Today’s Party Even Consider Him a Republican?
by Jeff Greenfield
December 5, 2021

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... eld-523774

Introduction:
(Politico) He was a Republican whose party loyalty was immutable; so much so that in 2016, he was the only one of the five living previous GOP presidential nominees to endorse Donald Trump.

In the 1976 vice presidential debate, he referred twice to “four Democrat wars” in the 20th century, provoking Walter Mondale to say that he “has richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man.”

Bob Dole, who died in his sleep overnight Sunday at age 98, had a career often seen as a testament to absolute fidelity to the Republican Party. But it was also a testament to just how large the distance has grown between the Republican Party of his heyday and now.

The moment that crystallized this most perfectly might be his farewell to the Senate he led and loved. On June 11, 1996, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee announced he was leaving the Congress in which he had served for more then 35 years, a move designed to demonstrate his total commitment to his presidential run. (Today, of course, candidates run without ever giving up their safety net in the Capitol.) In an address that lasted more than 40 minutes, Dole celebrated a type of collaboration and get-things-done spirit that now would mark him as a “RINO,” or worse.

He talked of his partnership with Sen. George McGovern, the famously liberal Democrat: “We worked together on food stamps. And I'll confess, when we first — when I made my first tour with George McGovern, I said, this guy's running for president. I wasn't convinced. There are a lot of skeptics in this chamber, probably some on each side. But you can't have pure motives, it's always something political. But after being on that trip about two or three days, I changed my mind.”
caltrek's comment: In some ways, I think that this article is on to something. I think that the political center of the Republican party has shifted from one of more or less sincere philosophical differences with progressive minded Democrats toward a party of the Big Lie, with definite inclinations toward anti-democratic fascism. A very troubling trend. Of course, the Republican party attachment to the truth was never (at least in the twentieth century) a strong suit. In that regard, the difference is more a matter of degree.
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Richard Rogers: Pompidou and Millennium Dome architect dies aged 88

Sun 19 Dec 2021 04.07 GMT

British architect Richard Rogers, known for designing some of the world’s most famous buildings including Paris’ Pompidou Centre, has died aged 88.

Rogers, who changed the London skyline with distinctive creations such as the Millennium Dome and the ‘Cheesegrater’, “passed away quietly” Saturday night, Freud communications agency’s Matthew Freud told the Press Association.

His son Roo Rogers also confirmed his death to the New York Times, but did not give the cause.

The Italian-born architect won a series of awards for his designs, including the 2007 Pritzker Prize, and is one of the pioneers of the “high-tech” architecture movement, distinguished by structures incorporating industrial materials such as glass and steel.

He is the co-creator of France’s Pompidou Centre – opened in 1977 and famed for its multi-coloured, pipe-covered facade – which he designed with Italian architect Renzo Piano.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... es-aged-88


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E.O. Wilson, Famed Entomologist and Pioneer in the Field of Sociobiology, Dies at 92
by Scott Neuman
December 28, 2021

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/27/10682383 ... gy-ant-man

Introduction:
(NPR) Pioneering biologist, environmental activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward O. Wilson has died. He was 92.

The influential and sometimes controversial Harvard professor first made his name studying ants — he was often known as "the ant man." But he later broadened his scope to the intersection between human behavior and genetics, creating the field of sociobiology in the process. He died on Sunday in Burlington, Mass., the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation said in an announcement on its website.

"His impact extends to every facet of society," the foundation's chairman, David J. Prend, said in a statement. "He was a true visionary with a unique ability to inspire and galvanize. He articulated, perhaps better than anyone, what it means to be human."

Paula J. Ehrlich, the foundation's CEO and president, described Wilson as a "relentless synthesizer of ideas" whose "courageous scientific focus and poetic voice transformed our way of understanding ourselves and our planet."

As an entomologist whose early career came at a time when scientists were gaining a deeper understanding of genetic mechanisms, such as DNA, Wilson studied how ant behavior evolved through natural selection.
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Harry Reid, longtime US senator from Nevada and former Democratic leader, dies at 82

December 29, 2021

Harry Reid, the scrappy former Democratic Senate leader who spearheaded epic legislative battles through three decades in Congress, has died at the age of 82, according to a statement from his wife, Landra Reid.

"I am heartbroken to announce the passing of my husband, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He died peacefully this afternoon, surrounded by our family, following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer," she said in a statement Tuesday.

Reid rose from humble beginnings in Searchlight, Nevada, to become the most powerful politician in Nevada history, capping off his political career as the Democratic leader in the Senate, including eight years in the majority.

President Joe Biden, who served with Reid in the Senate, called him one of "the all-time great Senate Majority Leaders in our history" in a statement Tuesday.

"He was my leader, my mentor, one of my dearest friends," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday evening. "He's gone but he will walk by the sides of many of us in the Senate every single day."

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/28/poli ... index.html
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Father of South Africa’s ‘Rainbow Nation’
by P. Pratap Kumar

https://theconversation.com/archbishop- ... tion-97619

Introduction:
(The Conversation) Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu has died at the age of 90.

Archbishop Tutu earned the respect and love of millions of South Africans and the world. He carved out a permanent place in their hearts and minds, becoming known affectionately as “The Arch”.
Conclusion:
South Africa is blessed to have had such a brave and courageous man as The Arch, who truly symbolised the idea of the country as a “rainbow nation” . South Africa will feel the loss of the moral direction of this brave soldier of God for generations to come. Hamba kahle (go well) Arch.
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Notable deaths 2021

The man who served stoically behind the British crown and a trailblazing female singer from Motown’s biggest group.
The heartbeat of the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band and Worzel Gummidge’s “incomparable” Aunt Sally.
Plus the astronaut who went to the Moon - but never set foot on it.
Take a look at some of the well-known faces no longer with us.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/21d8ik ... eaths-2021
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