…Clinton, along with Schumer, voted to give the reactionaries running our country the green light to shell Iraq. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan offhandedly admitted the attack was illegal. Sure, they broke the law. With Hillary’s help. It would be very naïve to think that someone as shrewd as she really believed that Iraq was a threat to us, after the debilitating sanctions decade, fairly constant bombings, and satellite and cyber surveillance. The time to challenge war is before it starts. Millions did…
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Tie goes to the runner. One of baseball’s enduring traditions. For some reason (I believe a good one) the decision was made to reward action over inaction, or, to generalize, change over status quo. Not so in politics where incumbents keep a steady eye on their warm seat.
Hillary was in town the other day, first in Schenectady. When asked about accepting a debate offer from primary opponent Jonathan Tasini she said nyet. To be accurate, “We’re just going to see how the campaign develops.I’m just going to wait and see how it unfolds.” The primary is September 12. Mothers are thinking back-to-school clothes. In baseball terms Tasini is already heading for first base but the tie and everything else goes to Hillary.
Later in the afternoon she hit my neighborhood, Chatham. This served as a stump for Kirsten Gillibrand, who is running for John Sweeney’s warm seat. About Gillibrand.you have to be a real fan of Sweeney’s not to favor her over the best company man since Gerry Solomon, and I hope that should she win she resist becoming a company woman.
I heard Hillary say that the Republican Congress has not acted as a check on executive power, that the Republicans control all the space and that the president and vice-president are unwilling to subject themselves to the rule of law. True enough, but phony coming from her. If Clinton really cared about checking power and conceding space to others she would not be hesitating to debate Tasini. Not even the courtesy of a reply.
Clinton, along with Schumer, voted to give the reactionaries running our country the green light to shell Iraq. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan offhandedly admitted the attack was illegal. Sure, they broke the law. With Hillary’s help. It would be very naïve to think that someone as shrewd as she really believed that Iraq was a threat to us, after the debilitating sanctions decade, fairly constant bombings, and satellite and cyber surveillance. The time to challenge war is before it starts. Millions did.
It is easy to think that the common people of our country are little-equipped to judge our leaders – that we should defer to their weighty pronouncements – that they know things we do not. But there is a way to know what they know, and whenever we do know what they know it always comes down to this. They lied to us.
One quick example, easily checked. Operation Northwoods. Do a google search. Our top-secret plan to invade Cuba. After the Day of Pigs! Not anecdotal. One can view the actual type-written, now declassified document from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Defense Secretary. The subject is: Justification For US Military Intervention In Cuba. An annex is: Pretexts To Justify US Military Intervention In Cuba.
This is the way it is always done. Leaders cannot take their country into a war without first establishing pretexts to sell that war to the people. A pretext has worked when a sufficient number of people believe it, but in this day of rapid information exchange it is becoming increasingly difficult to conceal facts. That is why so many people knew Iraq was defenseless, and why so great a public relations effort was necessary to sell the war to the country. With admirable exceptions, our Congress failed its people in not opposing this reactionary leadership when it might have done some good.
Hillary demonstrated her fluency in hemispheric state policy in putting down two of our neighbors to the south. On Mexico: “I never thought I’d live to see the day where we owed money to Mexico.” A remark to please. I didn’t notice migrants in the crowd.probably still working that time of day.
And then on energy independence she would have us not having to rely on such as Venezuela. Yes, defiance of the northern master is a grave offense and nothing, not even selling fuel oil at discount prices to the American needy, can get you off the hook.
There are two general rules that can be useful in dissecting political discourse. First, assume what A is saying is completely phony. Second, assume what A is saying about B actually applies to A.
To illustrate, a Bush quote of the day: “.the United States of America is engaged in a war against an extremist group of folks bound together by an ideology, willing to use terror to achieve their objectives.”
Written by James Rothenberg [send him email], who is an activist and contributing writer at www.populistamerica.com