Monday, January 07, 2008
Change, part II
Expanding on the theme from below, here's a bit from the latest column from one of my favorite corporate media columnists (albeit the Cape Cod Times, not exactly one of the biggies), Sean Gonsalves:
After studying the foreign policies of past presidents, whenever I hear presidential candidates talking about “change” I reflexively sneer: yeah right. Because one of the most striking aspects of the foreign policy decisions of past presidents is their consistency - not in style, but substance; no matter who’s in the White House defending the “national interest” abroad. The consistency being that “national interest” is understood to mean business (class) interest, as Maj. General Smedley Butler tried to tell us in “War Is A Racket” back when FDR was in office.
Change? One of Hillary’s key advisers is Madeliene Albright - the diplomat who, when asked on 60 minutes if she thought the 500,000 Iraqi children who died under the U.S.-led sanctions (during the Clinton years) was worth it, answered: “we think the price was worth it.”
One of Obama’s foreign policy advisers is Anthony Lake. The same Anthony Lake who was “pushing for the invasion of Haiti” as a diplomat in the Clinton administration, as he told PBS’ Frontline in 2004.
On the Republican side, Huckabee is reportedly yukking it up with political strategist Dick Morris, Clinton’s former adviser. And Huckabee’s national campaign manager is GOP insider Ed Rollins, Ronald Reagan’s former campaign director.
Guiliani is down with Norman Pohoretz, author of “World War IV” and the conservative intellectual who thinks we should bomb Iran, like, yesterday.
In Sen. McCain’s corner is Alexander Haig, whose record overseeing U.S. policy in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua sends shivers down the spines of peace-lovers everywhere.
Mitt’s man is Cofer Black, longtime CIA officer and Blackwater USA executive.
Change? You want that in quarters or dimes-and-nickels?
