Freedom Rider: Attack of the Cruise Missile Liberals
Wed, 03/30/2011 - 08:48 — Margaret Kimberley
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Americans are warlike – as long as they think they can be victorious.
These nominal Democrats and Republicans “differ
only on who they want to see doing the dominating.” Today, a Black
Democrat is the head killer in charge, allowing the likes
of Ed Schultz, Bill Maher and Juan Cole to endorse the criminal assault
on Libya. When the chips are down, fraudulent anti-war liberals show
their true racist, Manifest Destiny-loving colors. “The true anti-war movement
must reawaken itself and hit the streets in the hundreds of thousands.”
Freedom Rider: Liberals Love War
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“The
desire for America to dominate the rest of the world is prevalent among
most of its citizens, regardless of party affiliation.”
Peace loving Americans are few and far
between. The vast majority of our citizens see nothing wrong with their
government killing masses of people as long as the rationale sounds high
minded and noble.
The love of bloodshed is generally
connected with the right wing in this country, but nothing could be
further from the truth. The desire for America to dominate the rest of
the world is prevalent among most of its citizens, regardless of party
affiliation. Those citizens differ only on who they want to see doing
the dominating. Republicans are ecstatic when a Republican president
drops bombs, sends drones on killing missions or occupies other nations.
Democrats are equally enthusiastic when one of their own does the same.
Democratic party reaction to President
Obama’s military intervention in Libya is but the latest example of the
American propensity to exult over government sponsored violence. Obama,
like George W. Bush before him, claims that his intervention, no-fly
zone, peace mission (take your pick) is being conducted only for the
most humanitarian of purposes. The dead bodies belie the claims of
dogooderism but those words have a distinct power for people in this
country and will always be used as a pretext for someone dying somewhere
on the planet.
“The belief in white American superiority effects and infects every
policy discussion in this nation.”
The legacy of Manifest Destiny and the
belief in white American superiority effects and infects every policy
discussion in this nation. The equation of goodness and rightness with
white America holds sway very strongly and sadly not just for white
people either. The willingness to see white behavior as normative means
that foreign policy decisions get a pass precisely at the moment when
resistance and skepticism are needed.
No, Barack Obama isn’t white, but he may
as well be. He is president precisely because he assured voters that he
would not change the complexion of their belief systems. If he didn’t
fulfill the deeply ingrained belief that might makes right as long as
America, a country thought of as white, is in charge of world affairs,
he would never have become the president.
The United States attack on Libya has
brought out the worst in this phenomenon. Liberals are gleeful that
conservative icon Newt Gingrich backtracked on supporting intervention
until the Democratic president actually intervened, but Gingrich is no
different than they are.
We now have MSNBC television host Ed Schultz
proclaiming “Support for Obama’s Invasion of Libya.” Never mind that
Obama has taken great pains to claim that the bombing will be of limited
duration and that ground troops will not have a presence there. Schultz
seems to be ahead of the president on this one, but his show of support
is telling in revealing the true support for American motivations in
its interventions abroad. Likewise Juan Cole
in an “Open Letter to the Left on Libya” dismisses criticism of the
intervention thusly. “I would like to urge the Left to learn to chew gum
and walk at the same time,” and adds, “We should avoid making ‘foreign
intervention’ an absolute taboo . . .”
“Barack Obama isn’t white, but he may as well be.”
Foreign interventions conducted by the
United States should be taboo. Our system is not designed to be in any
way humanitarian. Its motives are to say the least suspect and no matter
how evil its enemies are made out to be, the evidence of past history
should make us suspicious of the arguments in favor of war.
The liberal hawks, like Obama, have no
concern for Libyan civilians who are enduring bombing, and exposure to
depleted uranium shells which create cancers and birth defects for years
to come. This is not conjecture, but has been seen in Iraq and ought to
be a reason for anyone who claims to be on the “left” to oppose the
actions which bring it to pass.
The true anti-war activist, not just
anti-Republican activist, has to raise its voice. The true anti-war
movement must reawaken itself and hit the streets in the hundreds of
thousands, just as they did in 2003 before the invasion of Iraq. That
moment can be recreated, and in a deeper, more honest way, now that a
Democrat is the head killer in charge.
Margaret
Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely
reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as
at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and
can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-attack-cruise-missile-liberals
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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