Be fair. Dr. Cole's words reflect a needed mindfulness, however uncomfortable to entertain. And anti-American? What does that even mean anymore in a world now slogging through the Anthropocene? One thing is becoming very clear: nation states are a mere fiction to Mother Nature.
You do pose a provocative question re: Saudi Arabia, i.e. "Did we direct the Saudis to attack Yemen?" It is naive to ignore our longstanding and entrenched Pentagonal industrial ties to the Saudi Royals. And in answer to your question, we are, in fact, choosing Yemeni targets. Hello? Dr. Cole chose his blog title aptly.
My thought exactly when reading this: the Clinton years were a swampy bi-partisan bunch, and Trumpism is the result of such amoral collaborations, exposing once again the outlines of a Very Deep State. Question: how far will Bannon's "destruction of the administrative state" extend? Surely not into the Pentagon?
Importantly: Woody Guthrie was also a critic (& tenant?) of Fred Trump's (the father), and referred to him in a lyric:
I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed that color line
Here at his Beach Haven family project
Beach Haven ain't my home!
No, I just can't pay this rent!
My money's down the drain,
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven is Trump’s Tower
Where no black folks come to roam,
No, no, Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain't my home!
You missed his point. He was simply saying Clinton has already proved her ruthlessness. No doubt Trump will do the same, after all both are power-hungry socio-paths.
So true & so damn depressing. This growing (world-wide) wealth "gap" (abyss) is beyond obscene. This Vast Casino of radicalized bankster capitalism will implode someday...soon.
I have the same question, but let's include the word "True" American Values. I'm at a loss to understand what that means. I'm sorry but it smacks of propaganda. Isn't it time to move beyond our deranged notions of exceptionalism
I'm a long-time admirer of (and donor to) Juan Cole. But thankfully, and with due respect, we have Informed Responses to Juan's Informed Comment(s).
Is it not crucial (NOW) that we move beyond the charade of right/left, Dem/Rep points of view and keep our eyes on disecting the anatomy of this bi-partisan Deep State/Shit we're in? Ike's hagiography (one who helped design and craft this imperial madness) encourages complacency to The Good Leader.
And to imply Obama has escaped "capture" from The Complex
is taking too lightly his disturbing affection for precision kills.
He probably shoots baskets with his Kill Team. Leadership? Please.
Sarcastic, surely? If not we agree to disagree. And I agree to contribute (again) to your travel expenses. I'm alone and dirt-poor but with a conscience ablaze. Thank you for stirring my embers with equanimity.
In the confusion and turmoils of our agitated world we need not only Informed, but Soulful commentary that stirs our principled and rebellious hearts from their sad slumber. Thank you for helping me in this daily endeavor.
The NSA does represent Americans: they're called corporations. And just as the Egyptian Military holds that country's Portfolio, so the Pentagon holds ours. I always thought the phrase The Great Satan were well chosen words.
Great idea, I'd gladly share punishment for Courageous Honesty - short of sharing imprisonment, I guess I ought to donate to his defense. And thank you Juan Cole for reminding us.
"The hypocrisies of Great Power realism" - indeed! Thank you for being succinct in describing our sad lack of Principles in international affairs. And noted that hypocrisy is plural.
The Agency should never have had that Vast Access to personal correspondence without a Court Order! Period. Greenwald is hitting the right note on this issue. Enough already.
When Schieffer asked Romney if he "would use drones" he eagerly, of course, endorsed the President's enthusiastic use of Drone Warfare - now enshrined as a Presidential, or shall we say, Kingly Right. He almost seemed excited by the prospect of having his Own Private Hit List!
I only pray that Obama had even a nano-second of prescient thought: "Oh shit, what have I wrought? If I get a second term, maybe I should rein-in the droning?" Probably not, he strikes me as sociopathic in this regard. Or maybe powerless? For all his Good Words and Good Looks, he's creepy in some crucial areas.
And surely, as everybody knows by now, these drone strikes in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somali, Libya (& countries/regions unknown?) are killing more "civilians" (Old&Young Men&Women Boys&Girls Infants) than the "targeted militants" (whoever they might be in varying contexts around the world?).
Thank you Mr. President, for your reckless behavior. We all feel safer now. Not.
Let's remember that our brazen adoption of Kill Lists follows YEARS (even decades!) of Israeli Judicial-Free-Killings in Gaza & the West Bank (not to mention the obscene bombardment of Gaza as the Nobel Peace Commander-in-Chief took office four years ago). Israel seems to set the precedents for US foreign policy. We are obviously following Zionism into an abyss.
And in today's "news"': 3500 US warriors are playing War Games with 1000 Israeli warriors for the next few months. Why? Perfecting & refining the Iron Dome, of course.
Lastly, this is exactly the Clear Talk that encourages me to contribute to Juan Cole's Peace Chest for his necessary mid-east travels! Perhaps to Gaza next year?
I made the mistake of watching the clip before my morning coffee and now feel nauseated and despondent. Thank you Juan for sharing. Now, back to packing my bags.
"Understand America will never retreat from the world." And therein is the problem. This gravitas-rant reeks of hypocrisy. As I respect Juan Cole, and in my own small way contribute when I can to his efforts, I respectfully read the transcript. But I made the mistake of eating while doing so.
And in the midst of so much sanitizing rhetoric - I even learned something from the former Professor Obama: that the "FOUNDING PURPOSE of the USA" is "to stand up for These Aspirations . . . . all across the world." Oh, really?
Agreed. As Mubarak and Saleh were forced off-stage, the stages themselves (their respective Military Industrial Complexes that hold the countries fortunes & portfolios) are held firmly in hand.
Some day soon Americans will have to consider the growing need for their own "liberation" from "the dungeons of secular tyrants" - that is, the sprawling Pentagonal Basements throughout the world?
And please let's not forget Secretary Clinton's bereaved
plea to the World Press that she considers the Mubarak Family to be Personal Friends! Well, of course.
I share the sentiments of yr post. I watched it live and enjoyed vicariously the feelings of excitement & pride (there were even tears!).
Then followed the Press Conference led by the two "Obama Suits" (all engineers were uniformed in sky-blue short-sleeved shirts), and what followed (what little I could stand to listen to before I turned it off in disgust) was the opposite of the spirit of your post: chest-beating American exceptional-ism, including (in the list of Curiosity payoffs) a boon to "National Security". That's when I turned it off - when I risked barfing on my keyboard.
While Humanity was approaching Mars, Sikhs, in the Heartland of America, were murdered in their Pacifist Temple. American Exceptional-ism, yeah right.
Thanks for the clear & concise evaluation of this latest effort to subvert Iran's economy. I heard a clip of Mr Carney almost gleefully referring to the now likely increasing sanctions on Iran as being able to further destroy another sovereign's domestic well-being.
My first reaction to this "breaking story" was here we go again with another Re-election War. And before our very eyes Ms. Clinton is morphing into Condoleezza. This is a desperate effort to contain Iran as we pull out of Iraq.
Substitute Americans for your reference to "Egyptians . . . poking into details of how their economy got into its current state" and we have a remarkable systemic equivalence. But no surprise, Egypt is our neo-colonial baby.
Naturally, our Secretary of State, Ms. Clinton, immediately came to The Mubarek Family's defense, stating with pride the friendship between their families. Nor was it a surprise for the Vice-President of the United States of America, the Honorable Mr. Biden, to scold the world for referring to President Mr. Mubarek as a "dictator".
I too "can't imagine it (US Military Industry) willingly giving up its companies"! There is Systemic Authoritarian Rot being exposed around our spinning globe. So let us give thanks to all the Brave Young People willing to be battered & pepper-sprayed be they in Cairo, New York or Athens (or any number of World Cities - Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu) for conscientiously demanding Political & Economic Democracy.
Trans-national corporations have unknowingly opened the doors to Trans-National Citizenry. Something indeed "will be needed to put the brakes on." Righteous populism when disrespected will rage.
Excuse me, but as Glenn reminded us today, a drone strike in Yemen not long ago killed dozens of civilians (women, children & elders - I know, how quaint to consider their lives as meaningful), and that does (in my quaint mind) rise to a Crime Against Humanity. Let's try not to loose our own humanity when discussing this savagery from our armchairs.
Thank you for an elegant vision of Iran. Those vast mountainous (& mystic!) spaces an ancient turbine there for the taking, and a Persian sun bearing down on vast grids of photovoltaic mosaics! If only those Theo-Oligarchs with their entrenched control & surveillance powers would allow for a Green Revolution (both in Tehran & Washington!).
Lets not forget our Domestic Assassination Program in the 60's and 70's called Co-Intel directed against charismatic African-American leaders (Black Panthers).
The answer to your question is: obviously not. We (like our Israeli allies) have been carrying out extra-judicial assassinations with Collateral Damage for many years now on fellow human beings with little outrage from the public. I don't remember a peep of outrage just a few months ago when Israel murdered of a young non-violent US Citizen on a Peace Flotilla. Was our Peace Loving President bothered by it? Did he object? Did any Mainstream Media Personalities object?
Your so-called "bright-line is meaningless in a War Without End. Like the War on Drugs, the War on Terror can easily slip into domestic government murder of citizens: wiki-terrorists, eco-terrorists, gang-terrorists, militia-terrorists, and now "incitement" terrorists. Civil libertarians are not the ones "blurring" what was maybe once, in a more Quaint Time, a bright-line.
Prince has nothing to worry about. He (he & his many elite connections within our corporate/government complex) represents perfectly the Warped Christian Theology (like the warped fundamentalism of other religions) that fuels this continuing madness of killing. And Prince didn't flee the US - he's simply following the Mercenary Money!
"Proud to be a traitor to America" - the Fresh Breeze of the Arab Spring carries the voices of millions of young world-savvy citizens who are No Doubt proud to be traitors to their nation's murderous regimes. And if USA continues its slide into nothing but a Wall Street Brand, I stand with the brave young people in NY getting beaten & pepper-sprayed by New York's Finest Thugs. Call them Traitors, and call me a Traitor!
Does Dehumanizing ("piece of garbage"?) this Radicalized American Cleric(it happen over The Past Decade while watching the mind-boggling savagery of US Military Actions in Muslim Homes & Cities all over our Sad Planet) contribute anything worthy to this otherwise Sane Blog?
Our Nobel Laureate Leader seemed to take full responsibility at his press conference yesterday. Don't Mafia underlings often go to their Leaders to suggest additions to the Hit List?
"We are still required to follow due process" - Due Process now includes targeted extra-judicial assassination (a process we've long watched from afar, with Bi-Partisan Approval, in the Occupied Territories). Rule of Law seems to be a very malleable construct.
This "diplomatic push.....is salutary precisely because it reworks conflict as politics and international negotiation."
And your sentence salutary for its precision!
And herein is the Historical Challenge: that the United Nations assumes its rightful, if nascent, place for the practice & development of democratic international negotiations - bringing to bear, in this case, the conscience of the world regarding the aspirations of the Palestinian people for the Justice of Statehood.
Then we must assume that this "wealth of knowledge & expertise" that makes its way into security deliberations is treated in the same manner as the monetary Wealth of Our Sad Nation: ignored & wasted, in the interests of wickedly (and always?) defining our National Interest in preserving (at home & abroad) an international economic blueprint.
Some call it neo-liberalism, emulated say, by Mubarak's Egypt(whose military are currently enjoying the portfolio!) or the ever-morphing Chinese Model: International Authoritarian Capitalism. History, like the environment, is a trash-bin for this devouring beast.
I suspect this "small group of protesters" is the tip of an Iceberg of Righteous Impatience with sixty years of Palestinian Degradation and trigger-happy Israeli policy. Blow-back is a powerful force, not to be underestimated (take note Mr.Obama & Ms. Clinton!). I read that the Israelis feel "international norms" have been violated. Ah, the bittersweet irony!
I must, though, thank you Juan Cole, for yr Very Cool Head.
Steady as she goes! This blog is of great value to me, in spite of the In-left splintering going on. Thus I'll budget another modest monetary contribution (the best I can do trekking below the poverty-level).
Who needs "boots on the ground" when 21st century high-tech drone warfare is available (and being used in numerous locales as I drink this morning's coffee) to disrupt a state's security, cause unease & paranoia within that state, and, oh yeah, kill selective citizens?
The only feet on the ground need be protected by hand-made Italian loafers shuffling about in any state's elite centers of power & economy.
You're clearly not in Cockburn's "left brigade" as evidenced in a very disparaging remark he made about you recently while being interviewed on KPFA (Berkeley). Apparently your Left-ish credentials are not adequate for Mr. Cockburn.
It was upsetting for me as I long for Principled Dialogue and read your work to fan that flame in my own intellectual efforts (I'm part of the blue-collar un-schooled wing of progressive yearning). The "principals" regarding the Civil War in Libya are becoming ever-more difficult to follow.
I do thank you for your efforts & will make another monetary contribution to your blog when I decide to raise my debt-ceiling!
And let us not forget, please, this caged family are Personal Family Friends of the Clinton's (and by inference Friends of Elite Families throughout our small disturbed world). I smell rot.
My response to yr words this morning(over coffee for morning depression): I donated $25(a substantial sum for this unemployed blue-collar elder)into your pocket to encourage your exemplary work. And thank you for bringing Comments back, as the roughshod discussions (here, with Greenwald & others is intrinsic to my "continuing education". We really do live in a media wasteland.
"nothing like putting bullets in someone's skull and dumping their corpse into an ocean to rejuvenate that can-do American sense of optimism," Glenn Greenwald expressing for many our sentiments of the present Media Circus.
How disgusting & foul the whole business, including Our Foreign Policy that allowed for US Base & Barracks into Saudi Arabi in the first place, and, of course, due credit to Our Stench-filled Foreign Policy that overseas(for decades now)our Open-air Prison Settlements of Gitmo, Gaza & oh how many more, scattered upon Weary Mother Earth.
I think I hear Her wretching.
I'm neither an academic nor a scholar, just an aging blue-collar citizen with an insatiable desire to deepen both Conscience & Principles; thus I've been reading your essays and books for years.
But your (strangely) short and cold paragraph on droning Libya was so casually accepting that I wondered if I had read it correctly. Killing-by-drone is obscene imperial cowardice, a twenty-first century Game of Warfare, a nightmare the wickedness of which, I fear, will one day be visited upon us.
But we have our Excellent Points! The point is the Points are meaningless when Ruled by a very non-democratic International Economic Order of . . .
let's say (and limiting ourselves to the most recent historical context) the Bush-One, Clinton-One, Bush-Two, Obama-One/Clinton-Two Administrations.
This trajectory of Democratic/Republican Liberalism (Corporatism: which makes cozy-capitalist relationships for High Players like Mubarek,the Chinese,the Saudis, etc., makes meaningless these Quaint Ideals.
Secretary of State Clinton PROUDLY reminded us: The Mubarek Family are personal friends of Her Family! So have the Kadaffi Sons been well-heeled players in this fast moving international jet-set casino they all play in.
All "national" Sovereignty is abdicated at the Shiny Brass & Glass Doors of Goldman Sachs. Alas, that means you too Tripoli.
Thank you Lambert for your pithy pro-truth Intrusion of Fact into this strong tendency to sanitize Our Peace-Prized President's intentions & ventures of Conscience (in Libya or elsewhere).
Empathy? Yeah,right - for Goldman Sachs. Obama's rhetorical gifts(and ingratiating personal style)are limited to phonetics and body-language only - bereft of moral consistency over a wide-range of crucial issues. I find it very difficult to listen to him anymore. I better serve my sanity by not listening(unless I'm in my cold analytical mode).
If the bombing(killing)was/is saving rebel lives(and don't we all want lives saved?), that's just a side-effect of another video-game war. Are unmanned drones flying yet over North Africa?
Move to China? What planet do you live on? Washington DC has been in ecstatic economic coitus with Beijing for decades now. Hello? Don't you understand that Elite Republicans & Democrats look to China as our exemplar for the perfect recipe of Totalitarianism & Capitalism? Hello? Think Walmart.
Too bad Saddam isn't hear to tell his side of the Story. Let's see, where did Saddam end up? Oh, that's right he was hung in a (miss)handled tortuous display under the Liberator's Occupation. Life in prison would have preserved a primary source!
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Be fair. Dr. Cole's words reflect a needed mindfulness, however uncomfortable to entertain. And anti-American? What does that even mean anymore in a world now slogging through the Anthropocene? One thing is becoming very clear: nation states are a mere fiction to Mother Nature.
You do pose a provocative question re: Saudi Arabia, i.e. "Did we direct the Saudis to attack Yemen?" It is naive to ignore our longstanding and entrenched Pentagonal industrial ties to the Saudi Royals. And in answer to your question, we are, in fact, choosing Yemeni targets. Hello? Dr. Cole chose his blog title aptly.
My thought exactly when reading this: the Clinton years were a swampy bi-partisan bunch, and Trumpism is the result of such amoral collaborations, exposing once again the outlines of a Very Deep State. Question: how far will Bannon's "destruction of the administrative state" extend? Surely not into the Pentagon?
Importantly: Woody Guthrie was also a critic (& tenant?) of Fred Trump's (the father), and referred to him in a lyric:
I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed that color line
Here at his Beach Haven family project
Beach Haven ain't my home!
No, I just can't pay this rent!
My money's down the drain,
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven is Trump’s Tower
Where no black folks come to roam,
No, no, Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain't my home!
You missed his point. He was simply saying Clinton has already proved her ruthlessness. No doubt Trump will do the same, after all both are power-hungry socio-paths.
Thank you for your well thought-out comment. I very much appreciate your straightforwardness. I hear you!
What do we know about Senator Sanders Foreign Policy inclinations (especially as they regard the portfolios of the top 1%)?
So true & so damn depressing. This growing (world-wide) wealth "gap" (abyss) is beyond obscene. This Vast Casino of radicalized bankster capitalism will implode someday...soon.
Machiavellian Manichean times!
"Pictures in the Iraqi press of women and children droned to death are a propaganda bonanza for al-Qaeda."
And an unconscionable stain on the withering heart of the American people.
I have the same question, but let's include the word "True" American Values. I'm at a loss to understand what that means. I'm sorry but it smacks of propaganda. Isn't it time to move beyond our deranged notions of exceptionalism
I'm a long-time admirer of (and donor to) Juan Cole. But thankfully, and with due respect, we have Informed Responses to Juan's Informed Comment(s).
Is it not crucial (NOW) that we move beyond the charade of right/left, Dem/Rep points of view and keep our eyes on disecting the anatomy of this bi-partisan Deep State/Shit we're in? Ike's hagiography (one who helped design and craft this imperial madness) encourages complacency to The Good Leader.
And to imply Obama has escaped "capture" from The Complex
is taking too lightly his disturbing affection for precision kills.
He probably shoots baskets with his Kill Team. Leadership? Please.
Sarcastic, surely? If not we agree to disagree. And I agree to contribute (again) to your travel expenses. I'm alone and dirt-poor but with a conscience ablaze. Thank you for stirring my embers with equanimity.
Hear-hear, for all those alone in their rooms, bearing the viral hypocrisy&sociopathy that surrounds!
In the confusion and turmoils of our agitated world we need not only Informed, but Soulful commentary that stirs our principled and rebellious hearts from their sad slumber. Thank you for helping me in this daily endeavor.
The NSA does represent Americans: they're called corporations. And just as the Egyptian Military holds that country's Portfolio, so the Pentagon holds ours. I always thought the phrase The Great Satan were well chosen words.
JTMcPhee! Thank you for reminding us of these Fundamental Questions. And boy do I hear you!
Great idea, I'd gladly share punishment for Courageous Honesty - short of sharing imprisonment, I guess I ought to donate to his defense. And thank you Juan Cole for reminding us.
"The hypocrisies of Great Power realism" - indeed! Thank you for being succinct in describing our sad lack of Principles in international affairs. And noted that hypocrisy is plural.
The Agency should never have had that Vast Access to personal correspondence without a Court Order! Period. Greenwald is hitting the right note on this issue. Enough already.
When Schieffer asked Romney if he "would use drones" he eagerly, of course, endorsed the President's enthusiastic use of Drone Warfare - now enshrined as a Presidential, or shall we say, Kingly Right. He almost seemed excited by the prospect of having his Own Private Hit List!
I only pray that Obama had even a nano-second of prescient thought: "Oh shit, what have I wrought? If I get a second term, maybe I should rein-in the droning?" Probably not, he strikes me as sociopathic in this regard. Or maybe powerless? For all his Good Words and Good Looks, he's creepy in some crucial areas.
And surely, as everybody knows by now, these drone strikes in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somali, Libya (& countries/regions unknown?) are killing more "civilians" (Old&Young Men&Women Boys&Girls Infants) than the "targeted militants" (whoever they might be in varying contexts around the world?).
Thank you Mr. President, for your reckless behavior. We all feel safer now. Not.
Let's remember that our brazen adoption of Kill Lists follows YEARS (even decades!) of Israeli Judicial-Free-Killings in Gaza & the West Bank (not to mention the obscene bombardment of Gaza as the Nobel Peace Commander-in-Chief took office four years ago). Israel seems to set the precedents for US foreign policy. We are obviously following Zionism into an abyss.
And in today's "news"': 3500 US warriors are playing War Games with 1000 Israeli warriors for the next few months. Why? Perfecting & refining the Iron Dome, of course.
Lastly, this is exactly the Clear Talk that encourages me to contribute to Juan Cole's Peace Chest for his necessary mid-east travels! Perhaps to Gaza next year?
I made the mistake of watching the clip before my morning coffee and now feel nauseated and despondent. Thank you Juan for sharing. Now, back to packing my bags.
"Understand America will never retreat from the world." And therein is the problem. This gravitas-rant reeks of hypocrisy. As I respect Juan Cole, and in my own small way contribute when I can to his efforts, I respectfully read the transcript. But I made the mistake of eating while doing so.
And in the midst of so much sanitizing rhetoric - I even learned something from the former Professor Obama: that the "FOUNDING PURPOSE of the USA" is "to stand up for These Aspirations . . . . all across the world." Oh, really?
Rewrite. "One thing the Muslim world does understand and respect is power".
Let's try it this way: One thing the Muslim world does understand (because its been on the receiving end for over a century)is power.
And the one (and seemingly only) thing the USA respects is power (absent understanding!).
Agreed. As Mubarak and Saleh were forced off-stage, the stages themselves (their respective Military Industrial Complexes that hold the countries fortunes & portfolios) are held firmly in hand.
Some day soon Americans will have to consider the growing need for their own "liberation" from "the dungeons of secular tyrants" - that is, the sprawling Pentagonal Basements throughout the world?
And please let's not forget Secretary Clinton's bereaved
plea to the World Press that she considers the Mubarak Family to be Personal Friends! Well, of course.
I share the sentiments of yr post. I watched it live and enjoyed vicariously the feelings of excitement & pride (there were even tears!).
Then followed the Press Conference led by the two "Obama Suits" (all engineers were uniformed in sky-blue short-sleeved shirts), and what followed (what little I could stand to listen to before I turned it off in disgust) was the opposite of the spirit of your post: chest-beating American exceptional-ism, including (in the list of Curiosity payoffs) a boon to "National Security". That's when I turned it off - when I risked barfing on my keyboard.
While Humanity was approaching Mars, Sikhs, in the Heartland of America, were murdered in their Pacifist Temple. American Exceptional-ism, yeah right.
Gosh, how far can we let this surveillance stuff go, and what do we do about it.
Thanks for the clear & concise evaluation of this latest effort to subvert Iran's economy. I heard a clip of Mr Carney almost gleefully referring to the now likely increasing sanctions on Iran as being able to further destroy another sovereign's domestic well-being.
My first reaction to this "breaking story" was here we go again with another Re-election War. And before our very eyes Ms. Clinton is morphing into Condoleezza. This is a desperate effort to contain Iran as we pull out of Iraq.
Substitute Americans for your reference to "Egyptians . . . poking into details of how their economy got into its current state" and we have a remarkable systemic equivalence. But no surprise, Egypt is our neo-colonial baby.
Naturally, our Secretary of State, Ms. Clinton, immediately came to The Mubarek Family's defense, stating with pride the friendship between their families. Nor was it a surprise for the Vice-President of the United States of America, the Honorable Mr. Biden, to scold the world for referring to President Mr. Mubarek as a "dictator".
I too "can't imagine it (US Military Industry) willingly giving up its companies"! There is Systemic Authoritarian Rot being exposed around our spinning globe. So let us give thanks to all the Brave Young People willing to be battered & pepper-sprayed be they in Cairo, New York or Athens (or any number of World Cities - Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu) for conscientiously demanding Political & Economic Democracy.
Trans-national corporations have unknowingly opened the doors to Trans-National Citizenry. Something indeed "will be needed to put the brakes on." Righteous populism when disrespected will rage.
Excuse me, but as Glenn reminded us today, a drone strike in Yemen not long ago killed dozens of civilians (women, children & elders - I know, how quaint to consider their lives as meaningful), and that does (in my quaint mind) rise to a Crime Against Humanity. Let's try not to loose our own humanity when discussing this savagery from our armchairs.
Thank you for an elegant vision of Iran. Those vast mountainous (& mystic!) spaces an ancient turbine there for the taking, and a Persian sun bearing down on vast grids of photovoltaic mosaics! If only those Theo-Oligarchs with their entrenched control & surveillance powers would allow for a Green Revolution (both in Tehran & Washington!).
"There is a sickness upon us." Is there ever . . .
Gosh, come to think of it, they were American Citizens.
Lets not forget our Domestic Assassination Program in the 60's and 70's called Co-Intel directed against charismatic African-American leaders (Black Panthers).
The answer to your question is: obviously not. We (like our Israeli allies) have been carrying out extra-judicial assassinations with Collateral Damage for many years now on fellow human beings with little outrage from the public. I don't remember a peep of outrage just a few months ago when Israel murdered of a young non-violent US Citizen on a Peace Flotilla. Was our Peace Loving President bothered by it? Did he object? Did any Mainstream Media Personalities object?
Your so-called "bright-line is meaningless in a War Without End. Like the War on Drugs, the War on Terror can easily slip into domestic government murder of citizens: wiki-terrorists, eco-terrorists, gang-terrorists, militia-terrorists, and now "incitement" terrorists. Civil libertarians are not the ones "blurring" what was maybe once, in a more Quaint Time, a bright-line.
Prince has nothing to worry about. He (he & his many elite connections within our corporate/government complex) represents perfectly the Warped Christian Theology (like the warped fundamentalism of other religions) that fuels this continuing madness of killing. And Prince didn't flee the US - he's simply following the Mercenary Money!
"Proud to be a traitor to America" - the Fresh Breeze of the Arab Spring carries the voices of millions of young world-savvy citizens who are No Doubt proud to be traitors to their nation's murderous regimes. And if USA continues its slide into nothing but a Wall Street Brand, I stand with the brave young people in NY getting beaten & pepper-sprayed by New York's Finest Thugs. Call them Traitors, and call me a Traitor!
Well said!
And by "mouthing off critically" I assume you mean Free Speech?
Does Dehumanizing ("piece of garbage"?) this Radicalized American Cleric(it happen over The Past Decade while watching the mind-boggling savagery of US Military Actions in Muslim Homes & Cities all over our Sad Planet) contribute anything worthy to this otherwise Sane Blog?
Our Nobel Laureate Leader seemed to take full responsibility at his press conference yesterday. Don't Mafia underlings often go to their Leaders to suggest additions to the Hit List?
"We are still required to follow due process" - Due Process now includes targeted extra-judicial assassination (a process we've long watched from afar, with Bi-Partisan Approval, in the Occupied Territories). Rule of Law seems to be a very malleable construct.
"Someplace less honorable" hardly comes close to describe Slimy Slide our Sad Country has been on for decades.
You've just described the American Skies in 2048! Sci-Fi American Authoritarianism.
Hear hear! Is this now Historical Fact? I didn't know the definitive photos (and video?) had been released?
This "diplomatic push.....is salutary precisely because it reworks conflict as politics and international negotiation."
And your sentence salutary for its precision!
And herein is the Historical Challenge: that the United Nations assumes its rightful, if nascent, place for the practice & development of democratic international negotiations - bringing to bear, in this case, the conscience of the world regarding the aspirations of the Palestinian people for the Justice of Statehood.
Then we must assume that this "wealth of knowledge & expertise" that makes its way into security deliberations is treated in the same manner as the monetary Wealth of Our Sad Nation: ignored & wasted, in the interests of wickedly (and always?) defining our National Interest in preserving (at home & abroad) an international economic blueprint.
Some call it neo-liberalism, emulated say, by Mubarak's Egypt(whose military are currently enjoying the portfolio!) or the ever-morphing Chinese Model: International Authoritarian Capitalism. History, like the environment, is a trash-bin for this devouring beast.
I suspect this "small group of protesters" is the tip of an Iceberg of Righteous Impatience with sixty years of Palestinian Degradation and trigger-happy Israeli policy. Blow-back is a powerful force, not to be underestimated (take note Mr.Obama & Ms. Clinton!). I read that the Israelis feel "international norms" have been violated. Ah, the bittersweet irony!
I must, though, thank you Juan Cole, for yr Very Cool Head.
Steady as she goes! This blog is of great value to me, in spite of the In-left splintering going on. Thus I'll budget another modest monetary contribution (the best I can do trekking below the poverty-level).
Who needs "boots on the ground" when 21st century high-tech drone warfare is available (and being used in numerous locales as I drink this morning's coffee) to disrupt a state's security, cause unease & paranoia within that state, and, oh yeah, kill selective citizens?
The only feet on the ground need be protected by hand-made Italian loafers shuffling about in any state's elite centers of power & economy.
You're clearly not in Cockburn's "left brigade" as evidenced in a very disparaging remark he made about you recently while being interviewed on KPFA (Berkeley). Apparently your Left-ish credentials are not adequate for Mr. Cockburn.
It was upsetting for me as I long for Principled Dialogue and read your work to fan that flame in my own intellectual efforts (I'm part of the blue-collar un-schooled wing of progressive yearning). The "principals" regarding the Civil War in Libya are becoming ever-more difficult to follow.
I do thank you for your efforts & will make another monetary contribution to your blog when I decide to raise my debt-ceiling!
And let us not forget, please, this caged family are Personal Family Friends of the Clinton's (and by inference Friends of Elite Families throughout our small disturbed world). I smell rot.
My response to yr words this morning(over coffee for morning depression): I donated $25(a substantial sum for this unemployed blue-collar elder)into your pocket to encourage your exemplary work. And thank you for bringing Comments back, as the roughshod discussions (here, with Greenwald & others is intrinsic to my "continuing education". We really do live in a media wasteland.
"nothing like putting bullets in someone's skull and dumping their corpse into an ocean to rejuvenate that can-do American sense of optimism," Glenn Greenwald expressing for many our sentiments of the present Media Circus.
How disgusting & foul the whole business, including Our Foreign Policy that allowed for US Base & Barracks into Saudi Arabi in the first place, and, of course, due credit to Our Stench-filled Foreign Policy that overseas(for decades now)our Open-air Prison Settlements of Gitmo, Gaza & oh how many more, scattered upon Weary Mother Earth.
I think I hear Her wretching.
Dear Sir
I'm neither an academic nor a scholar, just an aging blue-collar citizen with an insatiable desire to deepen both Conscience & Principles; thus I've been reading your essays and books for years.
But your (strangely) short and cold paragraph on droning Libya was so casually accepting that I wondered if I had read it correctly. Killing-by-drone is obscene imperial cowardice, a twenty-first century Game of Warfare, a nightmare the wickedness of which, I fear, will one day be visited upon us.
But we have our Excellent Points! The point is the Points are meaningless when Ruled by a very non-democratic International Economic Order of . . .
let's say (and limiting ourselves to the most recent historical context) the Bush-One, Clinton-One, Bush-Two, Obama-One/Clinton-Two Administrations.
This trajectory of Democratic/Republican Liberalism (Corporatism: which makes cozy-capitalist relationships for High Players like Mubarek,the Chinese,the Saudis, etc., makes meaningless these Quaint Ideals.
Secretary of State Clinton PROUDLY reminded us: The Mubarek Family are personal friends of Her Family! So have the Kadaffi Sons been well-heeled players in this fast moving international jet-set casino they all play in.
All "national" Sovereignty is abdicated at the Shiny Brass & Glass Doors of Goldman Sachs. Alas, that means you too Tripoli.
put the Qaddafis under chloroform and just drive them to the airport and wish them a bon voyage to Caracas . . .
Was this slight to Venezuela necessary?
Thank you Lambert for your pithy pro-truth Intrusion of Fact into this strong tendency to sanitize Our Peace-Prized President's intentions & ventures of Conscience (in Libya or elsewhere).
Empathy? Yeah,right - for Goldman Sachs. Obama's rhetorical gifts(and ingratiating personal style)are limited to phonetics and body-language only - bereft of moral consistency over a wide-range of crucial issues. I find it very difficult to listen to him anymore. I better serve my sanity by not listening(unless I'm in my cold analytical mode).
If the bombing(killing)was/is saving rebel lives(and don't we all want lives saved?), that's just a side-effect of another video-game war. Are unmanned drones flying yet over North Africa?
Move to China? What planet do you live on? Washington DC has been in ecstatic economic coitus with Beijing for decades now. Hello? Don't you understand that Elite Republicans & Democrats look to China as our exemplar for the perfect recipe of Totalitarianism & Capitalism? Hello? Think Walmart.
Gosh, I wonder why a "cornered rat" (surprisingly, you used the phrase a few days back to describe Persians) might act without Moral Consideration?
Too bad Saddam isn't hear to tell his side of the Story. Let's see, where did Saddam end up? Oh, that's right he was hung in a (miss)handled tortuous display under the Liberator's Occupation. Life in prison would have preserved a primary source!