Clinton Faces Pakistani Anger At Predator Drone Attacks
ISLAMABAD - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came face-to-face Friday with Pakistani anger over U.S. aerial drone attacks in tribal areas along the Afghan border, a strategy that U.S. officials say has succeeded in killing key terrorist leaders.
In a series of public appearances on the final day of a three-day visit marked by blunt talk, Clinton refused to discuss the subject, which involves highly classified CIA operations. She would say only that "there is a war going on," and the Obama administration is committed to helping Pakistan defeat the insurgents and terrorists who threaten the stability of a nuclear-armed nation.
Clinton said she could not comment on "any particular tactic or technology" used in the war against extremist groups in the area.
The use of Predator drone aircraft, armed with guided missiles, is credited by U.S. officials with eliminating a growing number of senior terrorist group leaders this year who had used the tribal lands of Pakistan as a haven beyond the reach of U.S. ground forces in Afghanistan.
During an interview broadcast live in Pakistan with several prominent female TV anchors, before a predominantly female audience of several hundred, one member of the audience said the Predator attacks amount to "executions without trial" for those killed.
Another asked Clinton how she would define terrorism.
"Is it the killing of people in drone attacks?" she asked. That woman then asked if Clinton considers drone attacks and bombings like the one that killed more than 100 civilians in the city of Peshawar earlier this week to both be acts of terrorism.
"No, I do not," Clinton replied.
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139 Comments so far
Show AllIt's all in the hats.
How can we tell a bad guy? By his black hat. All bad guys must wear black hats. Everyone with a black hat is fair game for the good guys to kill at will. So all we have to do is demand that everyone who's a bad guy wears a black hat.
Drones, cruise missiles, cluster bombs, and uranium-tipped shells are merely the good guys' tools for doing what you're supposed to do in refined societies: kill all the bad guys.
Hillary and Barack cannot be bad guys. Can they? United States soldiers cannot be bad guys. Can they? You're either with us or against us, good or evil. Remember?
It's all in the hats. It's going to take a long while to get past the cowboy approach to revenge.
The U.S. needs to stand up and take responsibility for it's actions. Using a set of rules as to what constitutes terrism is fine I guess, but they need to apply to everyone including ourselves as U.S. citizens. The World Court holds the U.S. as the #1 supporter of terrorism in the world. Torture, funds, and knowledge are filtered into the hands of terroists everyday. It's just a matter of which side you are on when the bomb goes off when you decide which side is the terrorist. As Noam Chomsky says, "the only way to stop terrorism is to stop participating in it". I can't speak for everyone nor would I want to try, but I think it's time "We The People" started taking responsibility for the actions our country takes. It's nice to hide behind your computer and blame those in charge. The only reason they are in charge is because we let them be. The finger points at us. We are to blame.
Every time this bitch opens her piehole, I hate her a little more...
Why can't we just slap a burka on her and drop her in the the tribal areas on Afghanistan in the middle of the night already?
It's Obama's policy. Do you hate him?
Hate is an easy thing to do. He is in the pocket of very powerful people. If anyone is to be hated it is them I suppose. But the real issue is what are we doing about it. Everytime a drone flies it is with our dollars funding it. We let this happen. We as the citizens of the U.S. nedd to take responsibility and act against this.
No response from Trailing Begonia, but apparently sexism is still acceptable to some people.
Bitch? Piehole? Hate? You don't see such terms used to describe Obama, even though the Predator drone attacks are his policy, not hers.
Hard call...
Were the German V-2 rocket attacks on London Terrorism??
Legally, such attacks would be considered terrorism today. I'm not a historian, but I believe that poison gas attacks were outlawed after WWI and attacks on civilians were outlawed after WWII. By any other measure, of course such attacks are terrorism.
It's all in the hats.
How can we tell a bad guy? By his black hat. All bad guys must wear black hats. Everyone with a black hat is fair game for the good guys to kill at will. So all we have to do is demand that everyone who's a bad guy wears a black hat.
Drones, cruise missiles, cluster bombs, and uranium-tipped shells are merely the good guys' tools for doing what you're supposed to do in refined societies: kill all the bad guys.
Hillary and Barack cannot be bad guys. Can they? United States soldiers cannot be bad guys. Can they? You're either with us or against us, good or evil. Remember?
It's all in the hats. It's going to take a long while to get past the cowboy approach to revenge.
(continued from above)
Let's remember that it was candidate Obama who was first out of the gate with the idea of escalating the war in Afghanistan and exporting it to Pakistan. In the first debate in New Hampshire (June 3, 2007) he fired a Dick Cheney-style warning-shot over the other candidates' bows, demagoging that the next president must make "absolutely certain" to "focus on the critical battle that we have in Afghanistan and rout out Al Qaida. If we do not do that, then WE'RE GOING TO POTENTIALLY SEE ANOTHER ATTACK HERE IN THE UNITED STATES."
In that same debate, CNN's oh-so-clever Wolf Blitzer tried to single-handledly knock out Dennis Kucinich with a hypothetical: If Kucinich knew that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan, in a specific location, would he "take him out with a Hellfire missile," even if it would "kill some innocent civilians at the same time?"
Kucinich said, "I don't think that a president of the United States who believes in peace and who wants to create peace in the world is going to be using assassination as a tool. Because when you do that, it comes back at your country. And I think that Osama bin Laden, if he's still alive, ought to be held to account in an international court of law. And so should any other person who's been involved in a violation of international law which has resulted in the deaths of many people."
Obama disagreed (with his trademark double-talk), saying "Well, I think Dennis is right. I don't believe in assassinations, but Osama bin Laden has declared war on us, killed 3,000 people, and under existing law, including international law, when you've got a military target like bin Laden, you take him out."
Hillary was better informed than the others, and took a more measured approach, saying,
"We have been supporting Pakistan through President Musharraf now for a number of years. And it is clear that he has not moved toward democracy, but has solidified his rule and become quite anti-democratic, with his removal of the chief justice and many of the other moves that he's taken.
At the same time, we depend upon him to try to control the tribal areas out of which come the resurgent Taliban and Al Qaida fighters who cross the border into Afghanistan. Again, this is an area where I think the United States needs to be just focused, like the proverbial laser.
When I was in Pakistan and Afghanistan in January, I met with both President Karzai and President Musharraf. And I asked them if it would help to have a high-level presidential envoy working with both of them to try to figure out how we can move toward what are American interests and how we can keep Pakistan from undermining the war against the Taliban and Al Qaida. And unfortunately when I got back and I called the White House and I made this suggestion, it fell on deaf ears."
In a subsequent debate (New Hampshire, January 5, 2008), ABC's Charles Gibson asked Obama "[You] said in your foreign policy speech that you would go into western Pakistan if you had actionable intelligence to go after [bin Laden] whether or not the Pakistani government agreed. Do you stand by that?" When Obama replied "I absolutely do stand by it," Gibson asked "[Isn't that] essentially the Bush doctrine: we can attack if we want to, no matter the sovereignty of the Pakistanis?"
Obama again presented his best Dick Cheney impression, fear-mongering that "No, that -- that is not the same thing because here we have a situation where al Qaeda, a sworn enemy of the United States that killed 3,000 Americans AND IS CURRENTLY PLOTTING TO DO THE SAME, is in the territory of Pakistan. We know that. And you know, THIS IS NOT SPECULATION."
In this debate, Hillary again took a more nuanced approach (but also signed off on using a missile to assassinate bin Laden inside Pakistan), saying, "We need more NATO troops and a faster effort to train the Afghan army so that we do have the personnel and the technology, including the Predators, to be able to be on the spot at the time to try to move as quickly as possible."
She added, "And just finally, I think that what we have to do with Musharraf [Pakistan] and Afghanistan is to repair the failed policies of the Bush administration, and that's going to require intensive effort in the region. And [Governor Richardson] is right that we should be engaged in that diplomacy right away."
Bottom line, it was candidate Obama who demagoged the issue for crass, political purposes, and it's President Obama who has now instituted the policy. By contrast, candidate Clinton emphasized diplomacy, and Secretary of State Clinton serves at the pleasure of the president.
Who are those now calling Hillary "bitch" and "monster?" The same ones who sold us Obama in the first place. The manipulation of public perception continues.
In my opinion, drone attacks constitute terrorism. So do cruise missile attacks, high-altitude bombings, cluster bombs and other military actions which are known to kill large numbers of innocents. Hillary's answer to the woman's question was wrong.
But, notice the AP's emphasis here. The article never mentions that it's President Obama's policy, and not the Secretary of State's policy. The blame goes to Hillary, and the public buys into that. Including here in this forum.
Everyone who has posted has condemned Hillary, while only four posters have noted that it's Obama's policy.
petrkrop and berniewentboom note it's Obama's policy and condemn him for it, and rightly so.
Thoughts_Into_Action notes it's Obama's policy, but condemns Hillary because she "has to stump for" it.
mujeriego incorrectly puts the majority of the blame on Hillary, calling it "Clinton-Obama policy."
WTF suggests the person who created the policy is of little consequence; it's the public perception around the policy that matters. And public perception is that it's Hillary's policy. (So, is Obama the new Teflon president?)
Corporate media (and CD), have a long history of promoting Obama and trashing Hillary. In all of this, the truth is obscured.
(continued below)
peacekeepertwo: This Article leads me to believe that we have one political Party,that Party is The Wall Street Party. And if all Democrats feel the way I do, The Democrats will lose the next Election. Politician's need to Start telling the Truth no matter how difficult that may be.
What would Hillary say if she were standing at the other end of that gun barrel?
Terrorism is what others do to innocent civilians, not what we do to them????
drone: (figurative) a person who does no useful work and lives off others.
Ah, poor Hillary Clinton. We haven't had a public official face a tough question from the press since Madeline Albright declared the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children "worth it" in 2003.
Where are the defenders of Hillary on Common Dreams? They've told us that she's more liberal than Obama. It must be a real slap in their faces that she has to stump for I'll Bomb Ya's murderous policy - in Pakistan, of all places. After all, I'll Bomb Ya's very first act as President was to order ... (you guessed it) Predator drone attacks in Pakistan! It was something he promised to loyal Dem voters on the campaign trail, who lapped it up without a pause. It was change they could believe in, apparently.
Is Hillary just doing a job here for I'll Bomb Ya? I don't think so. She seems quite OK with repressive state violence - even murder - now and then. Abduct the elected leader of Honduras? No problem! President Zelaya was "reckless," she said. She stays silent about the human rights violations in Honduras; doesn't call it a coup.
Where are the liberal Dems? Come on now, defend your monsters! Remember, we're the irresponsible dreamers who vote for third parties and can't win, while you stand for progress and responsibility. Tell us that blowing people to bits with flying weapons of mass destruction is going to make the world safe for democracy, or whatever it is you think. Maybe we can agree that Hillary, being a woman, is held to some outrageous double-standard assumption of having to be a nurturer of life, while Obama is free to express his killer instinct, and that's not fair?
-TIA
According to Gore Vidal, and the various Hillary and Vidal defenders (on CD), she would have been a great president, simply because she's a woman, and history shows that women are good leaders when they get involved.
I remember when I would write about the economic sanctions and continued bombing of Iraq that killed thousands of mostly children every month being terrorism. I was corrected and told that "it was Saddam's fault". I often wondered why Americans did not blame the Bush presidents and Bill Cliton when 9-11 happened? Hillary Clinton did not say that Obama is committed to helping Pakistan defeat the bad guys in the war that is going on. She said "defeat the insurgents and terrorist who threaten the stability of a nuclear armed nation". The troops use the term "bad guys" in the war on terror.Predator drones are used to assassinate the suspected insurgents and terrorists or the bad guys. How does a drown or a human being know who is truly guilty of being a bad guy deserving of being killed without a just trial? And are these so called bad guys worse than the corrupt government officials and even a relative who is paid by the CIA in Afghanistan? Nobody knows where the billions of dollars we have given to Pakistan have gone. Are we paying the government of Pakistan to allow us to fire missiles on the people of Pakistan? who are the bad guys, the insurgents and terrorist or the leaders of all nations involved? The U.S. slaughter of suspected terrorist and collateral damage victims are motivating the increase of insurgents, and the cycle of violence goes on and on. It will be easier for retaliation against the U.S. when the terrorist get their hands on predator drones. They won't need to commit suicide. and the cycle of violence will go on and on.
"How do these "people" live with themselves?" –(Sioux Rose)
–Because we allow them to.
They are as American as the proverbial 'apple pie.'
That is why there are no politics in America.
"The dictatorship is necessary, because it is a case not of partial changes, but of the very EXISTENCE of the bourgeoisie."
–(Leon Trotsky)
Question:
"Madame Clinton - did your husband have an affair with that girl?"
Hillary: "NO, he has always been loyal to me".
"IS your husband's name BILL CLINTON?"
Hillary: "NO, my husband is George Bush".
I agree with Hillary.
As long as you are at "war", you can target enemy high value targets with whatever means are at your disposal, and if civilians get killed in these operations, it is not "terrorism".
9/11 was brilliant tactical counterstrikes against an overwhelmingly militarily superior occupier, not "terrorism".
Herodotus,have you considered a career in politics?
Yes,robotic drones are state sponsored terrorism. peace
Put Hillary at the other end of these drone attacks, and then ask her again, that is, if she's still alive.
Yes. I suspect that most of the world would have cheered had she never left Pakistan alive. I know I would have.
Can one even begin to imagine the security the murderous harpy must have had to protect her from assassination?
Pakistan is now all but another occupied American client state with a paid off oligarchy. It disgraces their sovereignty to even let her into the country.
Hillary Clinton remains an abyss of unconscionably depravity emblematic of America itself. –(Jill Bains)
Is Hillary Clinton drop dead gorgeous and every mans dream?
Yes...according to Hillary Clinton.
A few years ago Alexander Cokburn challenged people to come up with defintions of "terrorism" that would somehow exclude the routine behavior of the US military. Cockburn thought this an impossible task: I think he is right on this score.
Of course the use of drones is terrorism. If a terrorist planted a bomb in a crowded street with the aim of killing an enemy politician who was due to pass by in a motorcade, and the bomb went off killing hundreds of civilians as well as the politician, we would not accept the terrorist's argument that some "collateral damage" is inevitable in pursuit of political/military goals. We would unequivocally say that the terrorist is guilty of murder (or even "crimes against humanity") and ought to be held accountable for his actions. Can any one make a meaningful distinction between the act of planting a bomb and the act of firing a predator drone? For both have the effect of arbitrarily killing innocent bystanders?
Hilary Clinton, like so many servants of the US empire, is a simple moral monster, who ought to be ashamed to come amongst decent people..
Well said, jrp
Hillary Clinton = TERRORIST
How do you think she got to be in the position of running for President and appointed Secretary of State ?
You have a point.
It is categorically impossible for an American President or a Secretary of State to not be a fascist state terrorist; that would be a contradiction in terms and oxymoronic as well.
No one can be elected President in America if they were in adamant opposition to state terror. All that is known implacably in advance, making electing these people a crime –albeit, one step removed– so as to elide complicity. The other guy is always the terrorist, never the American.
Voting for any American President confers the stain of terror on the voter as well as the terrorist war criminal he elects.
Politics is a business as serious as THEIR lives, but never OURS. Perhaps one day it will be.–(Jill Bains)
A few years ago Alexander Cokburn challenged people to come up with defintions of "terrorism" that would somehow exclude the routine behavior of the US military. Cockburn thought this an impossible task: I think he is right on this score.
Of course the use of drones is terrorism. If a terrorist planted a bomb in a crowded street with the aim of killing an enemy politician who was due to pass by in a motorcade, and the bomb went off killing hundreds of civilians as well as the politician, we would not accept the terrorist's argument that some "collateral damage" is inevitable in pursuit of political/military goals. We would unequivocally say that the terrorist is guilty of murder (or even "crimes against humanity") and ought to be held accountable for his actions. Can any one make a meaningful distinction between the act of planting a bomb and the act of firing a predator drone? For both have the effect of arbitrarily killing innocent bystanders?
Hilary Clinton, like so many servants of the US empire, is a simple moral monster, who ought to be ashamed to come amongst decent people..
You can watch the full interview of clinton by Pakistani women journalist with this link. just copy and paste.
http://pkpolitics.com/2009/10/30/hamari-awaz-30-october-2009/
We must never forget it was the Bush Regime who spent 8 years of, Creating, Invading, and Killing, Before the Obama one.
"We must never forget it was the Bush Regime who spent 8 years of, Creating, Invading, and Killing, Before the Obama one."
Yes, and before him there was Clinton; and before him there was GHW Bush; and before him there was Reagan; and before him there was Carter ............. FDR openly declared he'd let loose "Dr Win the War," with the implication that "Dr New Deal" was to be seen no more. And so it has been exactly thus since 1943. Officially, since the 1947 National Security Act created the CIA.
Very true.
But aren't we supposed to be, uh, Looking Forward®? ;)
· Yr Obd't Servant
Most excellent post, especially the ® symbol!
-TIA
What "looking forward" really means - USA version is:
"Looking forward to the NEXT WAR by the USA".
I'm not sure about this, but I assume that the children's game known as "tag" is universal-- at least in Amerika.
So: I wonder if it's the case that not only Obama and Hillary, but virtually ALL Elected Misrepresentatives-- and banksters too, for that matter, had this idiosyncracy in common as children: they were always happy to play "tag", on the condition that they were never required to be "it".
· Yr Obd't Servant
Madeline Albright: "I think, yes, the price was worth it" - on the killing of 500,000 children via the first Gulf "War" and the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the Clinton Administration.
Hilary Clinton: "No, I do not" - on whether killing innocent people via drone attacks, including children's soccer games, funerals, and weddings, is terrorism.
Both names are on the list when we try, convict, and hang, according to the Nuremberg standard, these and other war criminals.
You know, if you take a really close look at Hillary Clinton, she has a striking resemblance to Madeleine Albright. Truth is, they are both ugly war criminals!
please Add CONDOLEEZA RICE...
But they will look better when the beautiful hemp rope is around their neck.
What in the hell has happened to the Great United States? All the elected and selected politicans want to kill people. Our politicans have pissed and moaned for sixty years about Hitlet. Now the bastards here are much worse. They seem to be begging for the rest of the World to solidate and attact us. The U.S. politicans are the terrorist.
I think they do want an attack. Rich people get richer off war spending.
-TIA
I admire your willingness to risk the wrath of "lookists".
I agree.
But they say that beauty, like terrorism, is in the eye of the beholder.
· Yr Obd't Servant
TERRORISTS, YES AND WE ARE ALL COMPLICIT.
Continuing to vote for elitist, imperialist, millionaires like Obama, Hillary included, keeps this world in perpetual war.
PEOPLE, TAKE THE PLEDGE. NO MORE MILLIONAIRES FOR PRESIDENT.
How do you think they got there?
Who do you think they are loyal to?
The U.S. governments' terrorism on other countries and yes, OUR own included, will not stop UNTIL WE STOP IT.
DENNIS KUCINICH 2012:
END TO WAR, END NAFTA, SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE, END TO WELFARE FOR THE RICH, FREE PUBLIC COLLEGE EDUCATION, CORPORATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION.
STOP THE INSANITY NOW.
Sue,
Thanks. Some things are not hard to figure out. The elite media likes to confuse people and distract by their very methods of obfuscation.
It is not hard to figure out that the U.S. is GUILTY of both WAR CRIMES & Acts of TERRORISM!!!!
People need to face reality about the war crimes America commits and all the wasted money used on the military when most other nations no longer are innvolved in the war business.
Bush secretly approved orders in July 2008 to allow special operation forces to carry out attacks without approval of the Pakistani Government, so I suppose Clinton is following in the Bush foot steps. The same wars, the same generals, so it seems the same tactics. We should be paying more to what Israel is planning .
OK, so she's on record, again -- when and if the trials start.
The point is, the US and only the US can say what terrorism is. We have a patent on the word. We own the definition, so that only "what we say, goes," as George H.W. Bush so brilliantly put it after he invaded Iraq in '91. Hillary is just another purveyor of this dogma. It matters not what other countries think of our actions, and certainly not whether they think we're terrorists. Of course we are, or our corporate-dominated government is, but we alone can say who and who is not a "terrorist." Basically, it's just whoever tries to resist us in any way, militarily, politically, economically. If we want to take full control of their country and they resist, they are terrorists. If we send drone missiles to their sovereign lands and blow them up indiscriminately, women and children and anyone else happening to be in the way of our sacred "interests," we can get Hillary or any of her counterparts to say "There's a war going on" and leave it at that. Terrorism is only those actions taken against the US government and its corporate interests to achieve its goals, no matter how illegal or murderous they are. We are by definition incapable of committing terrorism. We're just spreading goodness, freedom and democracy.
acts of terrorism? No.
acts of premeditated murder? Yes.
crimes against humanity? Yes.
Hillary can share the gallows with Condi.
Humbaba,
Acts of Premeditated Murder? Yes.
Crimes Against Humanity? Yes.
Humbaba, then it all adds up to Terrorist Attacks!!!!
Thus, were the Drone Attacks Terrorist Attacks?
YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES!!!!!!
Analyze the difference between America using drone attacks on innocent wedding parties to the attacks on America from September 11, 2001?
Killing innocent civilians for political purposes is Terrorism by defintion.
The United States using drones which kills innocent civilians regardless of how or why, to further American political interests are acts of terrorism.
Were the Attacks on America Terrorist Attacks?
If that ANSWER is the Obvious YES than the question:
Are Drone Attacks Terrorist Attacks?
YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YesYES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES----YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES------YES!!!!!!
I liked the one asked about drone attacks.
If only there were followup questions.
I like these:
Frank1569 October 30th, 2009 3:23 pm
And I suggest these:
How does the fact that your answer is, as we see it, blatant hypocrisy, make you feel?
As the carrier of imperial double-standards of violence, state terrorism and disregard for international law, many of us see you and your country's policies as the cause of the violence in our country. What is your response these realities of how we see you?
How do you look in the mirror without feeling you are a contributer to mass murder?
Here is an Irony:
THE SOVIET UNION under Stalin was so brutal that it is held up BY the USA as an example of what "NOT to DO"..presenting ITSELF - the USA as the paragon of virtue by contrast...while of course GLOSSING over ITS own atrocities throughout history that had touched MORE countries than the USSR ever DID!
and yet the irony is this:
the leadership of the Russians are at least willing to TELL their own PEOPLE:
===================
The New York Times
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information. Order a reprint of this article now.
October 31, 2009
Don’t Gloss Over Stalin’s Crimes, Medvedev Says
By ELLEN BARRY
MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Friday warned that Russians have lost their sense of horror over Stalin’s purges, and called for the construction of museums and memorial centers devoted to the atrocities, as well as further efforts to unearth and identify the dead.
Mr. Medvedev made the comments on his video blog, on the occasion of a holiday devoted to the memory of victims of repression. He warned that revisionist historians risked glossing over the darker passages of the Soviet past, citing a poll that showed that 90 percent of young people can not name victims of the purges.
“Even now we can hear voices saying that these numerous deaths were justified by some supreme goals of the state,” Mr. Medvedev said. “Nothing can be valued above human life, and there is no excuse for repressions.”
Millions of people were killed under Stalin, mostly through forced collectivizations and party purges.
Though he reiterated his worry that Russia is demonized in contemporary histories of World War II, Mr. Medvedev added, “it is just as important to prevent the justification, under the pretext of putting historical records straight, of those who killed their own people.”
His comments are the latest round in a long conversation about how to interpret Russia’s past.
Under Mr. Medvedev’s predecessor, Vladimir V. Putin, Russian opinions of Stalin became far rosier. Government-endorsed textbooks now balance Stalin’s atrocities with praise for his achievements — especially victory over Hitler — and recent polls show that most Russians believe Stalin did more good than bad. Meanwhile, leaders have railed against Eastern European historians who paint Soviet forces as occupiers, and in May Mr. Medvedev created a commission to prevent such attempts to “falsify history.”
Arseny Roginsky, chairman of the human rights organization Memorial, said Mr. Medvedev’s speech struck directly at “the center of the contemporary discussion of Stalin and Stalinism — the question about victory and the price of victory.” Though Vladimir V. Putin spoke with compassion of Stalin’s victims on the same holiday in 2007, Mr. Medvedev went much farther by offering concrete proposals about museums and the search for mass graves, Mr. Roginsky said.
Whether those proposals are realized “depends entirely on Mr. Medvedev and the current authorities,” he added.
“What we are waiting to see is whether he has the power to realize even part of our expectations,” he said. “I have serious doubts about that. But of course, I am waiting.”
The president’s remarks came as good news to Roman V. Romanov, the deputy director of the State Museum of the History of the Gulag, a cluster of five rooms whose entrance is in a courtyard off one of Moscow’s glitziest shopping streets. The signage is so poor, Mr. Romanov complained, “that people walk down Petrovka and don’t even know we’re here,” and he gently criticized the exhibits as “a bit provincial.”
There is, as well, a generational problem. At 27, Mr. Romanov is younger than his co-workers by 30 or 40 years. When he took the job, he said, people his age didn’t understand, and one friend tried to talk him out of it.
“He told me not to do it,” Mr. Romanov said. “He said it was too depressing, and I needed to be more positive. He thought this was all about criminals. I told him, ‘Now I understand I am doing the right thing.’”
=============
BY CONTRAST -= what has America's "leadership and culture" really done about America's OWN history of atrocities IN the USA and OUTSIDE the USA? from Genocide against native indians, enslavement of africans and colored people, its wars of conquest and destabilization causing untold suffering elsewhere?
oh wait -- they are "about freedom and democracy" and NEVER have such a compendium of historic atrocities been SO GLOSSED OVER with such efficient hypocrisy.
case in point:
GEORGE BUSH is STILL "free".
BARACK OBAMA and his Praetorian Guard of War Manufacturers are still "america's leaders" without so much as being asked or connected to the history of american atrocities.
STALIN is long dead - and the Russian leadership at least ADMITS that they - the russians - in celebrating their role in defeating the NAZIS - should remind themselves that STALIN was NO good man at all...
in the meantime -- the USA has PLENTY of LIVING , WALKING WAR CRIMINALS playing their trade of more wars in the name of "democracy"
they are Henry Kissinger, George Bush the first and second, the contingents around Ronald Reagan, their current "chief" interlocutor Obama..etc....
and americans are NOT asked to or do not ask THEMSELVES whether there REALLY is a difference between Kissinger and Bush and Obama with THEIR "american version" of gulags, torture, wars of conquest, economic deprivations from policies, invasions, occupations ....
are REALLY fundamentally different from STALIN just because they can claim "liberty and freeomd and democracy" as their calling cards.
"No, I do not"
Spoken like the true Goldwater girl and Republican conservative that she and her husband have always been.
If the victims are brown-skinned and/or Muslim and/or Arab it's not terrorism.
hahahah of course not!!!
If we do it it's not torture.
It's fighting for liberty and freedom.
If anyone else acts against this thought
and action THAT is terrorism.
Just like our men women and children are fighting to uphold our constitution and our freedoms!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!
We bomb and invade countries to enslave them and remove any idea of freedom. While at home these those who swore to uphold and protect the constitution destroy the Constitution and take away our civil liberties!!!
Are we all clear?
Can we talk less about how shocked we are about all of this now and start talking/planning about how we will take our government back from murderous greedy thugs?
peace thru death - WOW! now that makes sense! Why didn't I think of that?
I can't remember the guys name but a climber was injured in AFPAK somewhere and was brought back to health by the locals.... and in order to repay them he has built schools(especially for women) and medical clinics. Where he has done that the Taliban is being forced out - by peaceful measures!
and the cost?
about 1/100th the cost of a drone missle attack on the latest wedding party.
"picture a bright blue ball just spinning spinnig free....it's dizzying the possibilites"
The writer's name is Greg Mortenson and the book is "Three Cups of Tea," and its subtitle is "One Man's Mission to Promote Peace.....One School at a Time." Greg Mortenson 'gets it.' Hilary never will.
Soon they will have little bee like flying bullets that hover and search for a person through facial recognition, then, it will blow their head off. It will inevitably be tested in America on peace seekers first. Yes peace seekers, the expendable detritus of peaceful values. Is anything other than utter destruction even possible today given the power of the greedy psychopaths? We can only hope that they destroy themselves before us.
America has no political savvy left. None whatsoever. Its now completely all about bravado, violence and war.
Only after Washington's violence is neutralized will the world stand a chance for peace. Even then there are no assurances of what will follow. But at this point, we are clearly the bad guys.
Me thinks 9-11 was just a sneek-peek at what's to come our way.
But, of course, I could be wrong.
"A terrorist is a man with a bomb but without an AirForce."
The basic problem with American people is that they cannot feel the intensity of this ridiculous war. They do not really care what’s going on in Afghanistan or Pakistan. They cannot handle Mexicans who come to America illegally but still they’re very peaceful and hardworking people. If they cannot even handle peaceful Mexicans then why they keep on putting pressure on stopping Afghan militants coming into Pakistan ? Hillary wasn’t expecting hard questions from our anchors and that’s the reaon why she kept on saying that we’re giving Billions of dollars to Pakistan but still her strange answers show her level of incompetence. Moreover America could never ever have attacked if Afghanistan was its neighbouring country.
Being a neighbor of the USA hasn't kept those two countries from being attacked. Mexico lost 1/2 of its territory when Polk unilaterally invaded with an eye to steal that 50% and more (Think of how the map would look if Polk had known where Mexico's oil is), and the "founders" wanted 100% of Canada and tried twice (and planned to do so again on several occasions). Men called "filibusters" by the Yankee press tried to annex Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatamala, Costa Rica, for example, while US president T. Roosevelt stole what is now Panama from Colombia. Then there's the case of Cuba, not to mention Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Haiti. No nation or peoples can consider themselves immune from the predations of an Empire uncontrolled by civilized standards or an opposing bloc. Indeed, Empire by definition is uncivilized as it exists to exploit, which is barbarian, not civil.
The Civil War escalating in Pakistan is a product of US Imperial policies. It would be best for Pakistan to say NO! to US policies, kick its troops and contractors out of the country, stop its war on Pashtuns, stop its support of the Afghan Taliban, stop its support for the Kashmir insurgency, and focus its resources on political reconcciliation with those it's recently assaulted while making real efforts at building and promoting secular institutions--especially schools for all--and small-holder economic development. Yes, such efforts take time--in this case, decades of dedicated effort; the same is true of Afghanistan. The peoples of the region need to be provided with the tools and other resources that will allow them to Self Determine their own governmental forms and institutions--not have them dictated by some Imperial country or similarly overbearing NGO.
Pakistan must formulate its own policies to solve its problems and then tell other countries what level of support is required, if any at all, not have them dictated to them as Clinton and Obama are doing, and as others have done before. I echo Jim Glover's welcome fgkhan14 and welcome your critique.
fgkhan14,
Great comment and please stick around CD... we need input from people who are at home with those we invade.
"Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational Predator Drone!" - Emperor Hillary
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
@ mujeriego
Gulf Wars????
http://www.spectrumz.com/z/images/gulf_wars.jpg
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
The reporters asked the HC the wrong questions.
"Madam Secretary, if the Taliban launched a drone attack on the US Embassy in Kabul, would that be an act of terrorism?"
"If the Pakistan ISI launched a series of drone attacks on suspected 'terrorist financiers' hiding in the Rockies and 'accidentally' killed a wedding party of 40, would America consider that an act of terrorism?"
"Madam Secretary, is the United States of America ever wrong?"
Jeevee
People like Hillary, frankly, want me want to vomit.
Right on, Jeevee - she makes me want to hurl too.
-TIA
"I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to." - Hillary Clinton
I find it hard to believe that Hillary does not know where this well known and convicted US terrorist is hiding in the USA.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/11/18471641.php
Maybe Cuba should send over a terrorist predator drone and take out Miami? They would be justified under the Clinton-Obama policy
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Not only is it terrorism but it's cold blooded murder.
Obama's orders to his tin soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have murdered significantly more human beings than all the mass murderers in American history - Manson, Bundy, Ramirez, McVeigh, and the rest of them.
Forget about Truman, Ike, JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Kissinger, Ford, Carter, Raygun, Bush, Clinton, Bush, etc...
Just another spin job (read: ream job) on the road to kingdom come.
I don't know if y'all have noticed, but Mrs Clinton as SecState has been as useful as tits on a bull. She has done jack. Polls in foreign countries taken before/after visits by Clinton and Obama have consistently shown that after a Clinton visit, well-being towards the US remains constant (or worse), but after an Obama visit, polls show a definite increase in favor towards the US.
And now with this neo-con drumbeating by the witch from Illinois, she has definitely proved to be a boat anchor in the administration.
Actually she helped the coup leaders in Honduras take out democracy. So she's been somewhat successful - too bad it's been for the forces of greed and empirialism.
We are truly living in a "new world order". And witnessing the end of the nation-state. In the past - even the ultra-wealthy viewed themselves as a member of a Nation. For example Ford and Rockerfeller in the past were patriotic but now the wealthy look at themselves as nationless - willing to move to the country that gives them the best "tax" breaks.
So blow up the economy and bankrupt the USA thru endless war- who cares - as Cheney said a few years back " I already moved all my money out of the US dollar"
Hilary must not want Obama to succeed.
I'm 100% sure that the terrorist drone attacks will come back to haunt us in the future, when another more clever generation of Islamist extremists will bring terror attacks back to our own country. We have been living an unreal period here since 2001. That will not go on forever and probably will only continue for a brief time. Every time a drone attack kills women and children and old people along with a handful of real jihadists we stir the pot of animosity against us and recruit more jihadists. The drones represent a temporary military advantage we enjoy. Our adversaries haven't yet figured out a way to counter that advantage, but if the history of military technology tells us anything it is that all such advantagious situations don't last for long. I don't think the American public is at all prepared for truck and car bombs and other types of terror attacks here after nearly a decade has passed since 9/11. I fear that when the revenge attacks do arrive here our relatively free society will come quickly to a close.
Mike Davis' book, "Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb" is an essential read on asymmetrical military technology.
Sioux Rose
BAKUIN: I totally agree with your analysis. And apart from the likely karmic blowback, killing so many civilians to create cover for a war/occupation more honestly based on resource acquistion should NEVER become standard state foreign policy, as it has. The more I read the book, "JFK & The Unspeakable," the more it becomes clear that the Pentagon/CIA operate as their own PRO-war department that is ever in PURSUIT OF war, that's their business. Any president who doesn't go along with "their flow," is apt to face the consequences faced by JFK. The machinery of this dark and deadly apparatus is far better funded today than 40 plus years ago, and much more influential. Of course it's convenient to let the people think they really elect leaders who genuinely care about peace.
As for Hillary, this is her "Madeleine Albright" moment... as in "we think IT (in this case use of drones) is worth it." Nice to play God with the worth of others' lives as if there is no further authority factoring into the ultimate mix. I believe in the LAW of karma, yet I realize it may take generations to unfold.
Hi Sioux,
Ever hear of The Secret Team? Check out what this guy documents, http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ST/
"Pentagon/CIA operate as their own PRO-war department that is ever in PURSUIT OF war, that's their business". I completely agree that they WANT war. I would add the weapons contractors into this group. There are huge profit margins in war materiel. These people are sad when there is peace.
The press and the State and War departments are the fabricators and embroiders of tales about endless string of enemies in order to justify that business. Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, Afghanistan, Panama, Grenada for heaven sake. With the possible exceptions of USSR and China, most of them are / were in no position to threaten the US even if they wanted to. We (the people) are much more "successful" when we borrow money from them and trade with them.
Joe
"I would add the weapons contractors into this group. There are huge profit margins in war materiel. These people are sad when there is peace."
but they're promising not to sell weapons to the bad guys anymore!
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/10/30-9#comment-1330839
Ooh! Thanks, Sioux. Another book to add to my list! : ) Just checked it out on Amazon. Looks interesting.
Yes Sioux Rose, I got the book and saw the writer, James Douglass, speak too... He makes the reasons for the assassination and cover-up impossible to hide any longer.
It's only terror when they do it.
Can't add much to the consensus-- and so far it IS a consensus, although there are one or two Hillary-lovin' die-hards around who claim to find redeeming qualities in her. And I don't mean Bill, of course.
That said, although I've flogged this report previously, I can't let an article referencing Hillary and "terrorism" pass without recommending this insightful report:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/u_s_condemned_for_pre_emptive_use
If you haven't seen it, check it out.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Freakin brilliant. Highly recommended.
Thank you, President Obama, for all you have done to spread bloodshed and hypocrisy abroad, and misery and hypocrisy here at home.
Those of us who still cling to jobs are glad to see our taxes used to reward the Wall Street crowd and enrich the military-industrial complex, and the drone attacks in Afganistan and Pakistan provide us with images of people even worse off than we are, as they try to find all the body parts of their blown-up families in the rubble, and serve to remind us that we're lucky we're on the winning side. We could be bleeding in the dirt, like them.
And thanks for your huge sell-out on health care, and thanks for Pelosi's insurance-care bill, which we can pretend is "reform."
Yes, we can (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)!
Note this is an Associated Press story. They are basically a CIA front. Their editor in chief was a noted far-right editor in Texas before he went to AP. You can't believe anything AP says.
The drone attack has been a favorite Israeli strategy for many years but more importantly so has the concept of "extrajudicial killing" regardless of the collateral damage (women and children and innocent adult males, gulp)