Hi. Bile aside, there's always some substance in Cockburn's essays, often
otherwise-unspoken. And we all need that, IMO. Separate wheat from
chaff.
Ed
Sapping the Empire: The Poisoned Chalice
by Alexander Cockburn, CounterPunch
21 Nov 2004
At least when Duffy's Circus left Youghal there'd be piles of dung from
the horses and the elephant. The Kerry campaign leaves nothing of fertilizing
potential, not a single creative idea, only grim advisories like not running
any nominee from the north-east in 2008, and we all know the probable life-span
of that particular piece of useful advice.
How quickly the caravan moves on! The Brookings crowd sadly pull their
resumes from the fax machines. John Kerry resumes his ghost-like sojourn in the
US Senate, where perhaps he might apply himself to improving his attendance
record, the worst in the upper chamber. He missed no less than 76 per cent of
the Senate Intelligence Committee's public hearings over the course of his
8-year tenure on that committee. Teresa returns to full-time work at the Heinz
Foundation, dispensing money to neoliberal environmental groups, though alas
she has had to dispense with the wise counsel of Ken Lay, formerly of Enron,
who adorned her board of advisors until last year.
Pockets of Kerrycrats fight on, like Japanese soldiers on atolls in the
Pacific. No doubt there are 527s still nourishing themselves on the money of
men like Soros. There's even been some talk about Kerry keeping his hat in the
presidential ring, but we shouldn't take that too seriously. Over the next few
months his horse-like visage will fade in the murk of memory, amid
kiss-and-tell memoirs about his indecision and arrogance plus the ultra-high
maintenance required for his consort.
The political consultants pocket their retainer fees, their 10 or 15 per
cent commissions on hundreds of millions worth of campaign ads and march on to
the next electoral rendez-vous . Before the election a Washington Post profile
of Kerry's manager, Bob Shrum, disclosed that he stood to make $5 million out
of the 2004 presidential campaign, win or lose.
The truly bad news is the 9/11 nuts have relocated to Stolen Election. My
inbox is awash with their ravings. People who have spent the last three years
sending me screeds establishing to their own satisfaction that George Bush
personally ordered the attacks on the towers and that Dick Cheney vectored the
planes in are now pummeling me with data on the time people spent on line
waiting to vote in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and how the Diebold machines are all
jimmied. As usual, the conspiracy nuts think that plans of inconceivable
complexity worked at 100 per cent efficiency, that Murphy's law was once again
in suspense, and that 10,000 co-conspirators are all going to keep their mouths
shut.
Do I think the election was stolen? No more than usual. The Democrats are
getting worse at it and the Republicans better. Back in 1960 it was the other
way round. The best documented stolen election in history is probably the one
that put Lyndon Johnson in the US Senate. Next came the one that gave JFK the
White House. So, for sure there's vote suppression in Ohio and Florida. I don't
think it made the crucial difference.
"Stolen election" is one way to divert attention from the fact that the
Democrats had a lousy candidate and gave up on most of the country, investing
everything in two or three states. Small wonder they lost the popular vote, not
to mention other minor details ,like the US senate.
The months will pass and then, most hideous of hideous thoughts, we'll
have to put up with three solid years of talk about Hillary Clinton. Her in the
White House, Bill running the UN. There'll be nowhere left to run.
Those who argued Bush's reelection would, by and large, do more to sap
the American Empire already detect pleasing omens of enhanced discord among the
Allies. Out goes the oiler of troubled waters, Colin Powell. In comes fractious
Condoleezza. Would you really have preferred Richard Holbrooke, shuttling
between Paris, Bonn, and Madrid amid relieved shouts that here after four dark
years was a man who respected Euro-feelings?
And talking of the Euro, down down down goes the US dollar against all
the major world currencies. Soon we'll be getting news footage of US tourists
pushing airport trolleys piled high with worthless greenbacks along the rue St
Honore and into the Ritz to settle their bills before camping out under the
bridges. In the last two years the US dollar has declined 52 per cent against
the Euro, which many people used to think had about the same substantive brawn
as a UN blue helmet.
Here's a sign of how bad things are. Speaking honestly, can you remember
the name of the Treasury Secretary? Aha! And no, it's not Evans, who's quitting
the Department of Commerce. It's John Snow. Now, in the old days everyone knew
the name of the Treasury Secretary, the guy who protected the money and
strutted the ramparts of Fort Knox. Not any more. These days he's a harrowed
mendicant who spends most of his day on the line to Beijing imploring the
Chinese not to join up with the Japanese to ditch the dollar as a global unit
of account, heeding Jude Wanniski's thought that they could join up to fix the
yuan and yen to gold in an Asian Bretton Woods.
The neocons? They're are holding on, probably aware that if they quit
government they'll live like hunted things, fleeing lawsuits down the years.
They'll cling on and then hope Bush will pardon them on his way out of Dodge in
2008, same as his dad did Weinberger and his CIA buddies.
Fallujah has now supposedly been "won". For how long? Sometimes the
parallels drawn between Iraq and Vietnam have seemed a bit theatrical. Not any
more. No hearts and minds have been won in Fallujah any more than they were won
in the Vietnamese countryside around My Lai. The city has been destroyed in
order to save it for democracy. The language of the US military commanders, and
of the journalists who relay their press releases echoes with eerie and
horrible fidelity those press releases from US military hq in Saigon 35 years
ago. LBJ handed the quagmire on to Nixon. It's Bush's poisoned chalice bestowed
by his first to his second term, the cup he'll be hoisting on Inauguration Day.
See also:
http://www.counterpunch.org/
***
This isn't a report from some maverick left winger, but from the Defence
Minister of Australia, who found he was unable to visit his own Embassy.
Peace,
David McReynolds
NYC
Baghdad Worse Than Ever, Says Hill
////////////////////////////////
by Patrick Walters
Herald Sun
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11597627%5E401,00.
html
December 6, 2004
Robert Hill has learnt first-hand the new perils involved in visiting
strife-torn Baghdad.
Such has been the escalation of violence in the run-up to the January 30
elections that for the first time in four visits, the Defence Minister
could
not make it to the centre of the Iraqi capital last Friday.
So dangerous has the main highway to and from the airport become, with
daily suicide bomb attacks, he did not visit the Australian embassy or the
Green Zone that comprises the headquarters of the US-led coalition forces
in Iraq.
"This is the first time I've been unable to do that. It's very dangerous-
a
number of countries are no longer travelling along it," Senator Hill told
The Australian yesterday.
"I would have (travelled into central Baghdad) if we'd had a helicopter,
but they were being used for more important tasks."
Senator Hill's visit coincided with a surge of violence in Iraq that
killed
more than 60 people over the weekend and led senior UN official Lakhdar
Brahimi to warn that holding elections would be "impossible" in the
current security environment.
Senator Hill acknowledged Iraq's central area, including Baghdad, was
going through a "very difficult phase".
"I would say it's more violent than on any of my previous visits," he
said.
"It's a more dangerous place than it's been since the downfall of
Saddam's regime. The insurgency is really quite intensive and extensive."
Instead of making the hazardous run into the city, Senator Hill travelled
in
an armoured convoy to the US-run Camp Victory, a short distance from
Baghdad airport.
In a day-long visit, he discussed security in Iraq and counter-insurgency
operations with General George Casey, the overall commander of the
US-led multinational forces in Iraq, and the deputy chief of staff for
strategic operations, Major General Jim Molan.
The two officers canvassed possible future roles for Australia's military
in
training Iraq's security forces in the areas of logistics support and
senior
officer training. A 50-strong Australian army advisory team will complete
its training of three Iraqi battalions early in the new year.
Accompanied by Australia's special forces commander, Major General
Mike Hindmarsh, Senator Hill also met Australian ambassador Howard
Brown and Air Commodore Greg Evans, the new commander of Australian
forces in the Middle East.
Senator Hill said General Casey had told him the taking of Fallujah was a
critical step in overcoming the largely Sunni-backed insurgency.
But with insurgents lacking a centralised command structure, military
operations would continue with a key goal being to support the
counter-insurgency capabilities of the Iraqis themselves.
"There is a view among the Sunnis and those who were part of Saddam's
regime that not only have they lost, but they will continue to lose
through
the building of a new democratic system," Senator Hill said. "They are
fighting back, and they see the January 30 national elections as a
critical event."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/7gSolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
