Saturday, November 25, 2006

David Sirota: Oh Bobby, Where Art Thou?. I just returned from seeing the new movie Bobby about RFK. It was a very rich, textured movie, and one that left me with an incredibly empty feeling. I wasn't around back then, but from what I can tell as an amateur student of history and political junkie is that, at least at the end of his life, RFK managed to inspire people; to make them feel like the day-to-day issues they faced were finally being confronted by the political Establishment; and to let them know that politics could be an arena where citizens - regular citizens - could be part of something larger than themselves. He did this by using the celebrity power that came with his family name to shine a bright light on the taboos the Establishment back then and now would rather sweep under the rug: war and economic inequality. What brings me down about the movie is not only that RFK was killed, but that there are so few leaders today who aspire to his model. Yes, there have been flashes. Bill Clinton's populist campaign in 1992 was a flash, even if Clinton's behavior in office and historical revisionism in Washington has now converted it into the supposed triumph of microwaved Fortune Magazine talking points. John McCain's race in 2000, too, had Kennedy-ish themes to it, not necessarily because of any of his issue positions, but because it had a genuine anti-Establishment feel. That McCain's subsequently dove right back into the muck that is the Beltway's destructive faux "centrism" does not negate what his momentary flash evoked in many. But when you look around today, at this moment, there are only a very few national political leaders who are willing to spend their political capital even trying to build something larger than themselves. To hear Bobby Kennedy's voice in this movie, you can hear traces of people like Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Brian Schweitzer, Byron Dorgan, Jim Webb, John Edwards and, of course, RFK's brother Ted Kennedy - people who are at least willing to talk about the immorality of economic inequality and of Old Serious Men sending other people's kids to die in a war those Old Serious Men fabricated a motive for. But on the national stage, that's really about it. Most of the other players are concerned about building something for themselves and themselves only. Their celebrity is used in pursuit of their vanity, not a cause. This isn't to say that RFK was some sort of superhuman saint who wasn't ambitious and wasn't interested in building something for himself. He wasn't a saint, he had serious flaws, and he clearly was interested in climbing the political ladder. But it is to say that he found a way to make building something bigger than himself a way to also build something for himself. That's the hardest thing to do in politics, because it takes a courage to say no, I'm not going down the traditional path of least resistance; the path of promotion for promotion's sake; the path dictated to me by conventional wisdom among the so-called Gang of 500 political operatives, self-important journalists and stale politicians in the Beltway who think politics is just another way to stroke one's ego, then sell out to K Street for a pile of cash. Where is the next Bobby Kennedy? Maybe he will emerge from the list I've named. Maybe from somewhere else. But what's clear is this: if we don't find someone or a group of people who are willing to risk their own political capital to reject the Washington conventional wisdom that has so damaged our country; build a movement that really addresses this nation's problems; and inspire the tens of millions of citizens who rightfully feel disconnected from their own democracy, we will tumble down a very dark path indeed. [The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed] 5:13:58 PM    comment []

Brent Budowsky: Sad Sunday: Iraq War Longer Than World War Two. JFK Was Right, George Bush Is Wrong. The tragic milestone has arrived, the Iraq War lasted longer than the Second World War, with the President telling us that many more days are left in his tragedy drenched in blood.. In 1957 Senator John F. Kennedy gave a major address opposing European colonial policies and the French colonial dominance of Algeria. JFK warned that these policies and practices gave aid, comfort and strength to Soviet communists who prayed on misery, exploitation and corruption. Sound familiar? One can reread JFK's speeches between 1957 and Algerian independence after he became President, and substitute "terrorists" for "Soviet communists." It is eerie. It is true. It is a hard lesson for President Bush and the country he so wrongly and disastrously pushed to war, through the politics of fear, and the obsession of ideology. In a just world, President Bush will take this sad Sunday and apologize to the people of America and the people of Iraq, accept his responsibility, discuss what lessons he has learned, and move to set things right. That is what JFK did after the Bay of Pigs; he accepted responsibility, grew from his mistakes, and saved the world from nuclear war when he removed the Soviet missiles from Cuba. That is what the President should do. He will not. George W. Bush is no JFK, nor is he Reagan, nor is he George Herbert Walker Bush, nor is he even Nixon. I have written here and elsewhere recently of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and would simply state again that what America needs, what the world needs, is the kind of aspirational leadership that Jack and Bobby provided. It is a time, on this sad Sunday, to revisit Jack Kennedy's criticism of European colonialism in the Third World during the 1950's. George W. Bush speaks of democracy but his war policy is the lineal descendant of the colonial practices that John Kennedy so wisely spoke against. It was not democracy to seek to install Mr. Chalabi as leader of Iraq after an American invasion. Mr. Chalabi's relationship to freedom and democracy in Iraq was zero. He would have been a leader in Iraq with no support within Iraq, installed by Americans, with the result that would only help the Iranian mullahs. It was not democracy to raise false fears to drive America to war and spy on Americans who opposed those policies. It was not democracy to establish an Iraq Reconstruction Authority that was run by an American with the attitude of a Roman Proconsul. It was not democracy to install political hacks in key reconstruction positions, then allow some of the greatest greed, corruption and incompetence in the history of capitalism. It was not democracy to steal and waste money that was meant to build hospitals and schools, so some made fortunes, while troops gave their lives and Iraqis suffered unendurable misery. It was not democracy to peddle lies to promote fear to push for war that corrupted even the front page of the New York Times. It was not democracy to promote propaganda to peddle war that corrupted the intolerant editorial pages of the Washington Post. Nor was it democracy to accuse newspapers of treason when they belatedly printed truth. It was not democracy to have a Vice President almost universally seen as the free world's leading advocate for torture. It was not democracy to try to keep this torture secret. It was not democracy force out the Chief of Staff of the Army for daring to speak the truth and it was not democracy to force out the Navy lawyer who won a historic case for justice before the United States Supreme Court. It was not democracy to hold secret White House meetings with oil company lobbyists where insiders passed around maps of Iraqi oil fields. This whole project of an invasion, to install an American-imposed shill who only helped Iranians,to install a Proconsul-like American over the people of Iraq, to surround him with corrupt henchmen and cronies who misused money intended for schools and hospitals to help the children and suffering of Iraq was not democracy. It was rooted in the colonial abuses and executed with the same catastrophic results. JFK warned about this in the 1950's; saying correctly such practices only helped communist enemies and George Bush was warned about his policies that would only help our enemies in Iraq, Iran.Al Qaeda and elsewhere. It is time to bring back the American foreign and security policies of John and Robert Kennedy rooted in American purpose and aspirational ideals that offer the hope of a better life, not endless war. It is time for the United States to once again offer comprehensive plans for peace in the Middle East, a subject I will return to soon, while we rebuil the military from the damage that these catastrophic policies caused. It is time to recognize that the Project for the New American Century was deadly wrong, catastrophically wrong, historically wrong. The world does not want endless preemptive wars, occupations, proconsuls, and shills surrounded by crony corruption. Now we know: at this sad time the war in Iraq is longer than the Second World War, so: On the matter of George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, neoconservative fantasists and their partisans and profiteers we should throw out the baby, throw out the bathwater, and throw out whole damn thing. We should say with finality: George W. Bush was wrong, and John F. Kennedy was right, [The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed] 4:30:45 PM    comment []

Steve Young: Rumsfeld's Abuses Must be Investigated: Karpinski's Got The Goods. Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski has told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use torture techniques. This isn't the first time Karpinski, former commandant of Abu Ghraib prison, has brought up abuse allegations against higher-ups. When I spoke with her last year, Karpinski named names and backed up abuse allegations. It was beyond chilling. Among other things... * General Geoffrey Miller developed torture tactics in Guantanamo. * Rumsfeld knew of it. * Miller was told to bring those same tactics to Abu Ghraib. * He was told by Rumsfeld. * Miller brought in outside military contractors, ignored by the Justice Department, who answered to no one and were not held exempt for any crimes they might commit in Iraq ? including murder. * Outside military contractors oversaw and suggested much of the tactics the low level servicemen were charged and found guilty of. * Chief of Staff of the Army, General Cody, the man who actually stopped requests for armored vehicles and protective vests to be prioritized for our soldiers in Iraq. * Rumsfeld knew it. He wanted it just that way. * For that, General Cody picked up an additional star. * Every investigation into the military and Rumsfeld's Defense Department's responsibility for malfeasance was run by people who could have lost their job with Rumsfeld's say so. Making her story more difficult to ignore, this former General has received plenty of backup from others in the military who don't seem to have a reason for a grudge. A report by Human Rights Watch describes an Army captain's 17-month effort to gain a clear understanding for how U.S. soldiers were supposed to treat detainees. He saw a widespread abuse that the military failed to deal with. And just like Karpinski, this Army officer maintains that lower level soldiers have been held responsible for abuse to cover for officers who condoned it. The White House and their noise machine will attempt to discount her as disgruntled, disgraced and demoted. It's their M.O., but remember, this lady spent more time serving her country in a war torn country than her boss did serving a country he's ended up tearing apart. She even had a star on her shoulder Until she displayed the courage that got her the star in the first place. Hopefully, this time, with a Congress more interested in getting to the truth than rubberstamping a runaway presidency, maybe there'll be some serious followup. Steve Young is author of "Great Failures of the Extemely Successful." [The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed] 4:25:36 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2006 Patricia Thurston.