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A Hypocrite as Our Diplomat in Chief
But so far, the president-elect's Cabinet choices make a joke of the liberals who backed him in the hope that something fundamental might change in America's belligerent behavior abroad. As the neo-conservative Max Boot approvingly observed, the appointment of Gen. James Jones as head of the National Security Council and the retention of Robert Gates as defense secretary could just as easily have come from a President McCain.
So too, in principle, could that of hawkish Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, which makes Obama's rhetoric of restraint in foreign affairs begin to sound as empty as President Bush's professed skepticism about "nation building" eight years ago during his race against Al Gore.
It's worth recalling that in the second debate with Gore, Bush even smirked at the concept: "I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. . . . I mean, we're going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not. Our military is meant to fight and win wars. . . . And when it gets overextended, morale drops."
He had that right. Indeed, you wouldn't recognize the pre-emptive war fanatic of post 9/11 if it weren't for Bush's earlier statement during the debate in support of the U.S.-led bombing of Yugoslavia/Serbia during the Kosovo crisis of 1999. It was then that the Clinton administration initiated its own pre-emptive war - in response to Serbia President Slobodan Milosevic's alleged "genocide" against the Kosovar Albanians. The two-month bombing campaign was conducted under the auspices of NATO, not the United Nations, and thus was every bit as illegal under international law as the American invasion of Iraq, in 2003. At the time, Kosovo was formally part of a sovereign Yugoslavia and NATO could not argue that the Milosevic regime had threatened or attacked a NATO member.
Hillary Clinton favored both pre-emptive wars, and was particularly aggressive in the case of Serbia, according to Gail Sheehy's book, Hillary's Choice. Sheehy quotes Hillary's recollection of a talk with her husband: "I urged him to bomb." Challenged by the president on the possible consequences - for example, more executions of ethnic Albanians and damaging the NATO alliance - Hillary replied, "You cannot let this go on at the end of a century that has seen the major holocaust of our time. What do we have NATO for if not to defend our way of life?"
At the very least, this was a gross exaggeration. Serb repression of Kosovo's national aspirations, while often brutal, was nothing resembling a "holocaust," and the Kosovo Liberation Army's provocation, including the assassination of Serb policemen, helped worsen the conflict. No doubt Milosevic was a very bad man, but that didn't stop U.S. special envoy Robert Gelbard from calling the KLA, in 1998, a terrorist organization. Civilian casualties on the two sides are impossible to pin down accurately, but they appear to have been comparable, perhaps 2,000 Albanians killed by Serb forces and 1,500 Serbs killed by NATO warplanes in Belgrade and elsewhere.
This all may be blood under the bridge, but it gives us an insight into the shoot-first temperament of the future secretary of state. According to former Clinton adviser Dick Morris, "Hillary has a Manichean view of issues, splitting the political world into dueling forces of good and evil. . . . She sees herself as idealistic, moral, and righteous, and can only conclude that those with opposing views must have opposite motives."
After Bush offered his solidarity with the Clintons over bombing Belgrade, Hillary was happy to return the favor over bombing Baghdad. In her Oct. 10, 2002, Senate speech explaining her vote for war authorization, she declared that "perhaps my decision is influenced by my eight years of experience on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House watching my husband deal with serious challenges to our nation." Like little Serbia's oppression of its Albanian minority and its alleged threat to the American "way of life"?
Politician to the core, Hillary couldn't resist the following hypocrisy: While she wanted "to ensure that Saddam Hussein makes no mistake about our national unity and support for the president's efforts to wage America's war against terrorists and weapons of mass destruction," she insisted that her vote was not "a vote for any new doctrine of pre-emption, or of unilateralism, or for the arrogance of American power or purpose."
Well, they say you can't have it both ways. And trying to may well have cost Hillary the presidency, since Obama's early stance against the war is what gave him a leg up in the primaries.
But it's not Hillary's bellicose positions that are surprising. As a long-standing member of the Washington policy establishment and a "humanitarian interventionist," it's easy to see why she went along with the received political wisdom on Kosovo and Iraq.
What's harder to understand is why Obama - elected on a platform of greater prudence - chose a trigger-happy hypocrite, who once mocked his "lack of experience" in foreign affairs, to be his diplomat-in-chief. I suspect it's because the next president has no intention of genuinely getting out of Iraq - that he will make symbolic withdrawals of combat brigades, but plans to make permanent most of the 14 military bases constructed since the invasion.
Furthermore, I think that his foolish commitment to troop escalations in Afghanistan - much of which will come from troops transferred from Iraq - represents continuity with the Bush Doctrine more than it does rupture.
In the end, maybe Hillary and Barack don't make such an odd couple. We won't know for sure, however, until a Democratic Party-sponsored cluster bomb - dropped in the name of women's rights and democracy - kills a lot of women and children in a village near Kandahar.
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74 Comments so far
Show AllAs one of the potential suckers who held his nose and voted for Obama, let me simply say this . . . and I’m sure I speak for many . . . the United States has not been in this desperate a condition since The Great Depression, followed by World War II. DESPERATE. I use the word advisedly. If you’re really frightened about what’s going to happen in this country then you know that the apparatchiks of the Republican party and all those who vote for them no matter what would have knowingly taken this country over the cliff. Obama will not end the American Empire no matter how hard he and his centurions struggle to keep it going. History and our own misplaced pride, stubbornness and stupidity will eventually do that. He will not wage war against science. But when the shit finally hits the fan next year and the full impact of this economic and political disaster appears over the horizon and starts barreling toward us at breakneck speed, I’ll take the two in a million chance that Obama will show some political creativity that might save a few American families from the gutter. POLITICIANS ARE OPPORTUNISTS and for the simple reasons of reelection in 2012 and how he will seen by history, Obama might, ironically, do some of the right things.
Obama IS doing the right things.
This country belongs to all of us. There are no red states or blue states - only proud Americans. We all need to work together to dig ourselves out of this mess that Bush got us into. We must have faith in the future. Criticizing Obama's cabinet is a waste of time. Maybe you like some of his picks and not others, but everyone deserves a seat at the table. Obama shouldn't shut out conservatives just on the basis of ideological differences. After all, isn't that what Bush did to progressives?
Obama shouldn't shut out those who have demonstrated that they are against the platforms he campaigned on? There is a difference between reaching across the aisle and doing a 180. I voted for Obama and still hope for the best and appreciate any differences from the nightmare of the last 8 years, but I can't believe anyone would say that we shouldn't criticize his choices or actions. Indeed, the best thing about an Obama admin may be that it is to some degree receptive to criticism from the public, as opposed to the brick wall created by the hubris and contempt of the Bush admin. Any change will not come easy nor without a critical public.
I'm sorry, Serena, for killing 20 million of your people.
But let's not forget you killed 16-18 million of my people.
yeah well, I'm still pissed at the damn Normans for what they did to my Saxon ancestors, fuckers still haven't apologized.
Serves 'em right for what they did to my Celtic ancestors.
just be glad they didn't kill them.
serena, angryna, your vilification of nearly everyone and everything makes me question your true motives and intent. You seem to think you are progressive and highly informed about the way of the world, but your attacks, your resentment, and hatred, IS the very problem you seem to be trying to eradicate.
You dropped the machine gun with the rapid fire trigger on and watch as it hits anyone and everyone, a loose canon you are, and you know nothing about me, think whatever you like, serena the meana astrologer.
Sioux Rose
SERENA: I am not going to respond to you again, but I will say you wreak hatred and if you think that is spiritual, while accusing ME of being a fraud, sweetheart it's time for a good long look in the (cosmic or otherwise) mirror. "Judge not, that ye not be judged." You add nothing to this forum!
Did anyone do anything nasty to my Norwegian ancestors? I can never remember if I'm supposed to be pissed off or not.
Who *are* your people, anyway, Joe?
YOU have 20 million people? Your rants are whack and useless.
I've never killed anyone, BUT you ARE an ass.
You have a very small, weak mind. You believe that only you are a straight shooter- whatever that is supposed to mean. Please hurry and straight shoot yourself so that you might find some peace.
Not much, I know, but we could brand the Joes with a smiley face on the forehead and attach a "Kick Me" sign on the back.
...and by the way, why has Obama shut out all "progressives" who actually have been calling for real change??? Stop being a globalist cheerleader!!
...and I meant to add that this is no different from Bush and his hopeful successors to the Republican wing of the Fascist Party ridiculing and shutting out an authentic conservative, Ron Paul, in the last election cycle.
Let's not forget Hillary's statement during the primaries - labeling Hugo Chavez as a South American dictator - she slid his name in with others that have been described as terrorists and the leaders of the Axis of Evil. Think free trade? Think American imperialism? Think further degradation of the indigenous peoples of the South? Think!
As we approach the time for our new president to take office, I grow more and more uneasy. Have we indeed elected a Neocon disguised as a liberal? We appear to be facing, not Change, but More Of The Same.
I'm glad you're finally getting it, too bad it wasn't sooner. Please remember it in 4 years.
Actually it really is about change - for the worse.
Just wait until we build-up our forces in Afghanistan until we think we can take on Pakistan too.
But I could be wrong !
With every passing day I'm more glad that I didn't vote for the 'mutt' O-blah-blah. I tried warning everyone I knew but most of them, like most of you, drank the Kool Aide and fell hook, line, sinker, fishing pole, boots, boat, trailer and even pulled the car in after you for him.
My Democrat friends who think they have a clue, tell me that they know but they held their noses anyway and voted for O-blah-blah so that McCain wouldn't win - he was supposed to be worse but only time will really tell. These are the same friends who held their noses and voted for Clinton - not once but twice. They were also in the ABB crowd and held it and voted for Kerry. Losers!!! That's about the only term I can think of.
I NEVER hold my nose and vote. I vote for the candidate whose views, and more importantly whose ACTIONS are most inline with my political views. That being said, I have NEVER voted for a Republican or a Democrat for president. Of course that means I've never voted for a winning candidate but given the losers that have run and are due to run this country - I'm GLAD!!!
If nothing else, I'm hoping that O-blah-blah will WAKE some of you up to the fact that the R's and the D's are both corporate hacks bought, sold and owned by corporate America - just like he is. I highly doubt it but, unlike the O-blah-blah false corporate 'hope', I have real hope that eventually enough of you will wake up and help the rest of us take back our country.
I would have voted for Ralph Nader but he wasn't on the ballot. I live in TX btw where it's almost impossible for 3rd party candidates to make it to ballot status unless they're running as "libertarians".
Mr. Obama is no different than any other candidate.
Regardless of the philosophy of the "candidate", he or she will be forced to do the bidding of the "money" "and the money people" who put them in the position to be elected. Until the American People separate the "money" from the political process, they will be disappointed in their choices for office, and they will never truly get what they voted for.
It appears that the "change" Mr. Obama has brought is simply the "Melanin" content of the skin of the occupant of the office.
The "last" change (Bush) however, may prove to be the major factor that could motivate the other nations of the world to realize that they have much to fear from the U.S.A. Mr. Obama's election may prove to be the one last chance the U.S.A. had to show the world that they could be "a better nation", when the stakes are so high, patience runs short.
The "Law of self preservation" is cross cultural, and even crosses species, and is immutable, undeniable, and the results are unavoidable, and often deadly.
All of the members of the animal world have defense mechanisms, as well as many in the plant world, and they use them to "preserve themselves" from "those who would harm them". The nations of the world are watching the U.S.A., as much out of fear, as curiosity.
A move by the people, to assure that the last administration answers for its many crimes, in the proper court of authority, will assure that the present administration, and the "money", will be extremely careful, in the coming years.
If you handle a poisonous reptile you will be bitten, and the Lion, will not be toyed with.
nurembergrevisited@gmail.com----the people are begining to organize---join us.
Off with her head!
There are some of us who are not "shoppers and addicts". We live here, too. (Although your point is certainly valid for a large part of the population and that part which is necessary to keep the corporate elite in power.)
I hate shopping malls. They almost make me sick. Whenever I drive by a strip mall I almost want to go ballistic seeing what a tawdry mess has taken over so much of many persons' time and energy (not to mention the landscape.) I hate television and would like to see every set taken out and shot. I shop at local stores. I grow much of my own food. I despise hypocrisy and willful ignorance.
There are many projects of decentralization, relocalization, and citizen empowerment happening in the nation. They may seem small and chimeric, but I am convinced that within a few years they will take on a much greater importance. (They already have in many places in the world.)
Oh, you can keep your head. Best thing to do would be to take some joy in the work that may displace the sad realities you rightly deplore.
Bush, Cheney, Clinton(s), Obama, Biden, Lieberman, Pelosi, Reid...shake 'em all up in a gunny sack, and you couldn't tell what crawled out first.
OK, everyone when you are done bitchin' here call, write, e-mail the transition team and let them know what you really think!
How many ways can you steal an election? Any way you can. Just do it. Its all, all, all smoke and mirrors coming from that quarter -- nothing is to be believed to be as it appears. Question everything. Except your own instincts. What you think is happening is happening.
The rest of the world has a lot to fear for the monster is rearing its head from where it has been hidden from sight, now out of dormancy and flexing its muscles.
We the People will be powerless against Blackwater mercenaries sent to our town, or even recruited from our town, and those of us who speak, imagine, guess, discuss this will be selected and herded first, crying out in warning, you ignoring us.
Its here. The collapse is now. Its like an Alaskan sink hole. Its sucks up everything and lets nothing go. Hold on. When this stops, we'll be out the other side but won't recognize ourselves. This isn't one anyone will be able to sit back and ignore. The blocks are already tumbling if you pay attention, right beside you. Look. Just look. What do you see?
truth. witness truth. it is all we have. perhaps it will be enough.
I agree totally. I didn't really start waking up until several years ago, when I was clued-in to 911 being an inside job, thanks to a friend referring me to Alex Jones and Infowars. That opened up an almost overwhelming number of related issues which gave sense to so many puzzling questions I had been scratching my head about over the years. Why have ordinary people been continually ground under and why do we have this electoral farce which gives us poorer and poorer choices every four years. Contact the "transition team"???
serena , I just came in from shopping at the drug store and took a moment to check world events before I take a chill pill and veg out on the couch and watch some TV - I don't think you love america!!!
Yeah, we get it serena. Maybe you can organize a worldwide movement and wipe us all out. Every American is exactly the same--TV addicts, shopaholics, greedy, obese pigs, dopers and sots--there's not a one of us here that isn't exactly as worthless as you think. Are you in some Mexican Al-Qaeda cell, or what? Get a grip on that stereotyping mania. It isn't real healthy for developing your analytical skills.
Sioux Rose
Thank you Ephraim, Ms. Serena, who I take to be a new incarnation of a certain female phD. who previously posted endless HATE RAP from Mexico, is evidently not aware (or at all respectful towards) the audience (in this forum) she is addressing. Intellect can create a firewall to the higher spiritual processes that include tolerance, forgiveness, and a mystical understanding of the shared fabric of human destiny. Or as the Beatles put it, "We're all ONE."
It's hate rap all right. It covers up the messages that you intend to convey in a cloak of impenetrable smugness and superiority.
Sioux Rose
SERENA is an odd name since all you do is tout blame and lump everyone into a single garment of "American" as if we, in this forum, trying to work towards peace and justice DESERVE all your santimonious recriminations. I can't remember the female's name who I felt this way about months ago but I am sure it is you! Same schtick, new name... at least I USE my name!
What a nut ~ how dare you assume that we are all white. YOU are the racist and your oddball rants strongly suggest a loose screw in your pea sized brain. You need some serious mental help.
I choose to look at serena and her mad rants and call it excrement.
Bitter. Demented. Ignorant. Serena.
John MacArthur said:
It's worth recalling that in the second debate with Gore, Bush even smirked at the concept: "I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. . . . I mean, we're going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not. Our military is meant to fight and win wars. . . . And when it gets overextended, morale drops."
My comment:
And Bush did stay true to his dislike of nation-building. He not only has
destroyed two nations physically, he is also making sure that the inhabitants
cannot rebuild them either. Moreover, he is making sure, to the extent that he
can, that the USA gets hollowed out with warmaking so his have-mores can have
more and more and more.
Are politicians obsolete yet?
Time out for a pause of dissent from all this premature caterwauling. Barack Obama has not even been sworn in yet, and a Greek chorus of disaffected progressives appear lining up to chant "I told you so" in harmony with the cynics and dead enders of the Limbaugh choir.
I say give the man a solid six months. By the end of June, we should all have a pretty good basis for knowing whether Barack intends to govern from the left of center like FDR often did, or whether he will basically piss away his popular mandate by resorting to more triangulation within the prevailing ideological confines of the DC beltway. If (tragically) he does the latter, Obama will almost certainly be a one termer. I believe the man has much better political instincts than that, until proven otherwise.
The only actual decisions of the President-elect to date are selections for some major staff and cabinet posts. On my political spectrum, Eric Holder, Richardson, Daschle, and Janet Napolitano have credible progressive credentials, most of the other choices are open minded, respectable centrists, and the decision to have Robert Gates remain as Secretary of Defense is a clear (and disquieting) signal of reassurance to Pentagon/national security conservatives. It is not really what I'd call a rainbow coalition, but there is a broad ideological range.
As to all the speculation about the Team-of-Rivals model, my take is quite different than the prevailing conventional wisdom. I don't think this approach is so much about formulating policy internally as it is about executing policy decisions once made.
Who better to carry out a fixed time deadline for troop withdrawals from Iraq (or even Afghanistan) than somebody like Robert Gates? Who better to deliver a message to Likudniks about the need for some meaningful steps on Palestine than Rahm Emmanuel and Hillary Clinton?
What are they going to do if they don't like the President's decision, quit in a snit?
Bill from Saginaw
Very balanced opinion. My own personal stretch-of-a-hope is that Obama is attempting to rehabilitate some experienced but wayward Democrats. The Gates pick is a fly in the ointment though. Could it be he is picked as the best man to wisely spend an over-inflated defense budget or like some here believe, because his career is one of a competent bureaucrat who will safely shepherd the troops home?
Sioux Rose
BILL: I don't know, pal... although I much appreciate your calm deliberations in this forum. My boyfriend said that Larry Summers was a good choice, too, as a crook understands the mechanisms that caused the implosion of Wall St taking our economy along for the ride. Maybe there is something to say about using the insiders, or inside operators... (tongue in cheek = my tone here.)
So Bill, do you really think all those hawkish and center-right (mostly right) picks he's already made are going to wake up progressive on January 21? You "believe" Obama has better political instincts than all us critics who aren't "giving him a chance" before he's even sworn in. But why are we so critical? Suppose he appointed McCain to some high post, or Lieberman. Then should we all hold our tongue as well, waiting for a miracle? He's already done as much with those he has chosen to represent his point of view on every issue. But you think we're being premature.
And it's a cheap shot at those of us more on the left than you seem to be, to conflate our criticism of Obama's choices and the direction they indicate he's heading, with "Limbaugh's choir." You seem quite comfortable in your centrist position, so you really shouldn't pretend to be a progressive. You're dreaming, Bill, if you consider Eric Holder, Richardson, Daschle, and Janet Napolitano, and I can only infer Hillary, Salazar, Emanuel, Summers and a few other center-rightists, to be "progressives", then little wonder your mind's in the clouds. And if you can rationalize Gates as blithely as you do, you could make some real dough as an adviser for the DLC.
Bill -- Obama has consistently been an advocate of U.S. "dominance" and the bloated military. He has consistently said the words which conflate U.S. military and imperial hubris with some kind of moral superiority. I have heard nothing from him that would indicate that he considers the MIC to be anything other than something to preserve and promote both in policy and in his position as national spokesman. When we also consider his appointments, I'm not sure where the basis for any kind of optimism toward "policy decisions" lies.
Whatever the case, I believe this "caterwauling" does serve a function in demonstrating that at least a portion of the public will not fall into the wait-and-see-forever attitude. It's not like we don't have a stake in this...everyday.
Not that it matters anymore, but it is ironical that during the primaries my preference for Obama was based on Hillary's hawkishness.
Can we begin a movement now to impeach Obama/Biden - before they are even sworn in? Americans were incredibly gullible to have voted for this team in the first place. Obama is (and always was) a corporate-sponsored, military-controlled stooge. Continuing to hope for change from him is choosing to ignore his across-the-board, business-as-usual appointments. This Great Black Hope will not substantially change anything. When will you understand this?
Someone once said that the lessor of two evils is still evil. Do we have to wait to find out just how evil Obama is? We all saw the results of the long wait to begin talking about impeaching Bush/Cheney.
Anyone putting corporations before we the people (i.e. corporate bailouts); supporting FISA and fauning over AIPAC is not qualified to represent the American people.
Impeach the Obama/Biden team now!
And replace it with what, McCain and the church lady? Yes, every politician except a handful from the last several decades should have been impeached for putting corporations before the public.
Sioux Rose
MAGARULIAN: Your reference to "the great Black hope" is interesting, as lately I have been musing over the Horatio Alger-overcome-enormous-hurdles-to-become-president narrative that characterizes Obama. And Americans love their stories!
How far back does the "grooming" process go? When Obama got up at the Democratic convention and mesmerized crowds, was the die then cast? Or was he auditioning prior because he had the right credentials for the times, in the sense that a marketplace culture relies inordinately on "packaging" over content. I still hope the man will transcend himself. To follow a monster into office, to have the courage to even consider cleaning up the messes probably requires a better than average conscience; lest this individual who clearly loves his wife and children and has learned some things from his background, is as much a sell-out as the Neanderthal we pray will exit on January 19.
Everyone judges reality through their own prism. When I imagine the opportunities and pressures before Obama, I can't understand how he could squander what is before him when not much, but very likely EVERYTHING, inclusive of ecological sustainability for future generations depends upon his making sagacious choices.
It also requires someone who will stand up to Israel. Someone who will back them up if they need it, but hit them where it hurts when necessary, as in, now. He should immediately come out against the siege of Gaza and do something concrete to show his displeasure. But Based on who he's surrounded himself with, there's not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening.
So far, Sioux, he's not made ANY sagacious choices. I think over 70% of his cabinet are Clinton era retreads, and the rest are, like Salazar, happy faces of the center-right, fully vetted by creeps like David Brooks. We have a month more of the Bush plague to endure, but thus far everything is stacking up to be Continuity We Have No Choice but Accept, or fight tirelessly for another four years. And I'm fairly sure most of us are suffering hugely from Rage Fatigue. It's hard to fight with that nagging at you day after day.
Sioux Rose
EPHRAIM: I know. I am spiritually debilitated by the choices made... still hoping that this closing in on the abyss catalyzes a shift in him and/or his operators. It's not like this country has no recent history on view with respect to assassinating those leaders who don't tow the official line, that is to say, the predilections of secreted elites. Obama must know this more than most, as the ghost of Martin Luther King probably whispers in his ears when he is close to falling asleep.