Posted on 08/02/2003 4:16:01 AM PDT by BigWaveBetty
FORTUNE's Aspen conference has both. Between rides on Segway scooters, attendees listen to luminaries like Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright discuss more serious issues-like the war in Iraq and the role of the world's sole superpower.
It's raining in Aspen, and I'm sitting on the carpeted floor of a tent packed with a couple hundred stars of business, politics, academia, and non-profit-organizationdom (not to mention stage and screen), listening to Bill Clinton be his usual erudite and eloquent—if still ticked off at all those mean Republicans who did him wrong—self. Clinton's remarks are off the record, though, so I can't tell you about them. I think it is safe to tell you that he's wearing a bright pink polo shirt with an alligator on it.
The event that has brought us all here is FORTUNE's third annual Brainstorm conference, which we started in 2001 as a way of filling up an issue of the magazine with some voices and ideas that don't normally make our pages, but has since grown into something altogether more glam and significant and weird.
The weird part first: Just outside the tent, on the grounds of the Aspen Institute—which is co-hosting this year's event—Dean Kamen and a few of his employees are offering rides on Segway scooters. When it isn't raining (which is most of the time), and Bill Clinton isn't speaking, all sorts of important and dignified folks are out there cruising along, looking remarkably like ostriches.
As for glam, the first year we were supposed to get Ben Affleck, but then he had to check into rehab. Last year it was Elizabeth Shue, who bailed out at the last minute for some less dramatic reason. This year we have some slightly less glamorous folk who actually showed: playwright/professor/West Wing star Anna Deavere Smith, Queen Noor of Jordan, and most impressively for me, Hollywood producer Brian Grazer (Ron Howard's filmmaking partner). I can testify that Grazer's hair really does stick straight up, just like in the pictures.
And finally, the significant: There are a lot of weighty matters being discussed here at Brainstorm, but one that everyone keeps coming back to is the Iraq war in particular and U.S. foreign policy in general. That's what Clinton's mostly talking about—but like I said, I can't quote him. It was also the theme of the conference's opening session Monday night, and I can at least quote three of the four panelists from that discussion. (The fourth, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, asked that her comments be kept off the record.) The topic was "Defining the New World Order," and while the panelists didn't succeed in doing so (who could?), I can offer a few choice words from each.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: "Some people in the U.S. don't like the U.N. and will never like the U.N. because it's full of foreigners, which frankly can't be helped."
Former general, possible Democratic presidential candidate, and Segway rider Wesley Clark on why the military usually gets the money it needs while foreign aid, for example, usually loses out: "In the Defense Department, we've got the machinery. When we want something done we just make sure the B-2 Bomber is built in 49 states."
Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore's gloriously outspoken ambassador to the U.N., seemed a little more subdued than usual. Or maybe I just didn't take good enough notes. In any case, the best I have to offer from him is the observation that, while some old U.S. allies might like to see the occupation of Iraq fail, many other countries that aren't usually classed as friends of the U.S. dread the thought, because of the chaos that might ensue if the world's only superpower were unable to enforce its will.
Albright, Clark, and Mahbubani all seemed okay in principle with the idea of getting rid of Saddam Hussein, but weren't thrilled with how the Bush administration had gone about it. Said Albright, "I always understood the why of the war but not the why now." I don't think it's a violation of Dobriansky's off-the-record deal to say that she's okay with both the why and the why now. Initially her defenses of Bush policy seemed formulaic. "As somebody who has had to defend government policy before large groups, I have great sympathy for Paula," said Albright after Dobriansky's first contribution to the discussion. But as the evening wore on, and the audience peppered her with tough questions, Dobriansky got feistier and more interesting.
One of the toughest questioners was Brazilian businessman Ricardo Semler, who said that after the U.S. attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan, "a lot of people are wondering who's next." He added that the U.S. penchant for talking about the "pre 9/11 world" and "post 9/11 world" didn't go over so well in countries where terrorism and turmoil had been facts of life before September 2001.
This suspicion of U.S. plans and motives appears pretty common among non-U.S. attendees at this conference. Their main problem seems to be with the current presumption in Washington that the U.S. can and should act alone on global matters. "With deficits like yours, you couldn't survive without friendly foreigners," said Stefan Aust, editor-in-chief of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, in another session. Ah, but all those foreigners can't survive without Matrix sequels and Baywatch reruns, right?
Uh Stefan, please remember that the Untied States protects your sorry butt. And if it weren't for the U.S. you foreigners would actually have to provide your own (effective) military which would drastically cut into your socialist societies.
We'll find out shortly I suppose. The French dwarf will get the talking points soon.
I'm really looking forward to the answer the dims give when I ask the "why now" crowd,
How else were we supposed to oust Saddam and his Ba'athist buddies?
Granted, we don't demand much from our politicians, but Clinton has proved the point that anyone, absolutely anyone, born in the United States can never grow up yet still be elected President.
Don't miss the original thread on the Aspen conference of luminaries and great thinkers.
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