Failures to Communicate
Tuesday 14 April 2009
by: Richard Cohen | Visit article original @ The Washington Post
George W. Bush. (Photo: Getty Images)
Former president George W. Bush and some of his White House aides are gathering in Dallas this week to plan the future George W. Bush Policy Institute. There, I guess, they will ponder grand themes and marble foyers, but I propose they begin by simply renaming the place. I suggest naming it the "George W. Bush Institute of Management Failure" and dedicating it to studying how this presidency went so wrong - a task as big as Texas itself.
Bush's tenure was truly remarkable. He left office with the lowest presidential poll ratings in 60 years, two wars begun and not ended, and the deepest recession since the Great Depression. If it's true that we learn from our mistakes, Bush's eight years represent a bonanza of lessons.
What commends the Bush presidency to further study was its sheer managerial ineptitude. This is irony aplenty for a man not known for irony. Bush's one area of expertise, after all, supposedly was in management. Not only had he been a businessman, but he had graduated from Harvard Business School. Bush was the Decider. He was a delegator. He was precise and punctual - early to the office, early out of the office and a clean desk at all times. Wow!
Conventional wisdom holds that the bungling of the Iraq war was a consequence of ideology run amok. Maybe. But it was also an example of awful management. Whether you supported the war or opposed it, you have to concede that it should have ended years ago and, along with the invasion of Grenada, be a fit dissertation subject for a desperate PhD candidate and not, as it remains, a festering debacle.
At the insistence of Donald Rumsfeld, the war was fought with too few troops, and then, when the country was occupied, too few troops were there to maintain law and order. Matters were made infinitely worse when L. Paul Bremer, Rumsfeld's designated viceroy, disbanded the Iraqi army, freeing a good many armed and unemployed young men to shoot the place up. Bremer also purged Baath Party members from the government, leaving precisely no one in senior positions who knew anything. This, the evidence suggests, was modeled on the Bush White House itself.
Had Bush, Rumsfeld and Bremer performed better, the war might have ended a lot sooner. It finally took the surge to get things under control - and that may yet turn out to be too optimistic a statement. Still, the surge would not have been necessary had the war been handled competently from the beginning.
The war in Afghanistan waged against the Taliban, which had provided Osama bin Laden with sanctuary, was similarly mishandled. Once again, too few troops were sent to do too big a job. Good managers know how to make choices. Bush not only chose wrongly when he gave Iraq precedence over Afghanistan, but he chose not to choose at all when he thought both wars could be fought on the cheap - no draft, no tax hike, no sacrifice from the general public.
The Bush Institute of Management Failure should also look into how the administration was so late in noticing that the country was slipping into a profound recession. This should be coupled with a look-see at how Bush's various appointees failed to regulate the banking, insurance, housing and mortgage industries. (Have I mentioned Hurricane Katrina and "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job?" No? Just as well.)
Bush and his aides ought to devote time to what went wrong at the Justice Department. It was politicized and mismanaged to the point where even the Senate noticed. U.S. attorneys apparently had to pass political muster, the Constitution was interpreted along monarchical lines, and somehow the trial of Ted Stevens was so botched that his conviction was thrown out. Alberto Gonzales, a Bush crony, was supervised from the White House by Harriet Miers, an old Bush friend whose qualification for the job was that she was an old Bush friend.
If Bush and his aides do get around to politics, it is my fondest wish that they ask the always voluble Karl Rove - that latter-day Mark Hanna who was going to create a Republican era to last 30 or 40 years - what happened. Rove has reduced the Republican Party to himself, Rush Limbaugh and a scattering of red ties in Congress that only he can name. He has so very much to teach us.
Bush's presidency - rich in lessons - should keep everyone occupied deep into the night. If it's not too late - and especially for those already critical of Barack Obama - let me suggest dessert.
How's humble pie?
»
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Comments
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If only Smedley D. Butler
Fri, 04/17/2009 - 01:49 — J L G (not verified)
If only Smedley D. Butler were here to give an updated assessment on the benefactors of the most recent two wars and this past presidency. The U.S. Marine Corps General did a fabulous job illuminating the corruption and "benefits" of wars of the 19th and early 20th century in War is a Racket. Read it and weep. Those who say, "Follow the money," are right on target. That is where you'll find the criminals and fat-cats who found fertile fields in the Bush-Cheney years.
A proverb I first heard some
Thu, 04/16/2009 - 13:18 — bogi666 (not verified)
A proverb I first heard some 40 years ago "NEVER HIRE A HARVARD M.B.A." FOR WHICH BUSH SHOULD BE THE POSTER BOY.Bush had his epiphany to be President in 1984 while watching a matinee showing of a science fiction movie. This was in his drugging/drinking days so who knows what hallucination he was having then. One of the things that are taught in business school is contingency planning should something go wrong with a project. Another is budgeting. Bush must have either missed those classes or was stoned or both.
Follow the leader and refuse
Thu, 04/16/2009 - 09:48 — Anonymous (not verified)
Follow the leader and refuse to prosecute anyone for anything. Fair is fair.
We need desperately to set
Thu, 04/16/2009 - 09:23 — Anonymous (not verified)
We need desperately to set up a citizens court. We need to clean house, both of them. Mr. Dejanjuk is still being persecuted after 60 years. Why not our terribles now? Let's not wait 60 years. If Bush attacked Israel we would have him hung by now.
Trashing Bush are we? Why
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 22:10 — Americonned (not verified)
Trashing Bush are we? Why not blame ourselves and do something about it? We can't wait for the government to do anything. We have to force they're hand. A letter and phone call campaign would do some good. Not just voting on line. Actually give them physical evidence that we are not happy. Bother them until they bother Bush.
WTC 7. All the answers are
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 13:07 — mysterioso (not verified)
WTC 7. All the answers are there but nobody's looking. Why is that?
You Will NEVER get such an
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 12:01 — Anonymous (not verified)
You Will NEVER get such an honest review of the BuSh Administration as long as almost all Media in America is now owned and operated by just a few huge Corporations...
A WAR-FOR-PROFIT IS MASS
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 07:21 — Always Ask WHY (not verified)
A WAR-FOR-PROFIT IS MASS MURDER. Forget "failure." The Bush Mafia goals were achieved with great success! They attained all they intended: mass controlled chaos, looting of the U.S. Treasury, dividing up the Iraqi oil fields among "friends", with the added bonus of perverted and depraved sexual torture, discussed in great in the Oval Officein, I'm sure, "satisfying", detail. They twisted minds with lying to an extent never known in the history of a U.S. president and vice-president and minions. Mass murder, torture, lies, treason, fraud. SICK, TWISTED, PERVERTED, INDIFFERENT TO HUMAN LIFE. THESE PEOPLE DESERVE TO ROT IN PRISON FOR THE REST OF THEIR NATURAL LIVES... UNDER A MICROSCOPE OF PSYCHIATRISTS IN ORDER TO DETERMINE HOW HUMAN BEINGS BECOME SO DETACHED AND DEPRAVED.
It should be studied.
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 05:49 — Anonymous (not verified)
It should be studied. Intensely. Senator John Kyl (Az) sent a letter to the NY Times recently espousing most of the tax and economic programs imposed by Bush II. Apparently the GOP has not learned anything in the last 28 years.
MISSION
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 05:24 — jstuv (not verified)
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! The Bush/Chaney Administration was able to succeed where Osama bin Laden failed. Should the crimes of treason, by the Bush/Chaney Administration, be overlooked, then these crimes of high treason will be repeated in future administrations.
The Allies conducted the Nürenberg Trials (in 1945 to 1949) for several reasons: A) To make aware that these crimes were actually committed,
B) To examine HOW these crimes were able to be committed,
C) Who committed these crimes and
D) To punish the criminals. Should the guilty not be punished, then, their Criminal Acts would be absolved and could easily be repeated. There would not be any justice. “The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government.”
Should the Bush/Chaney Administration (alleged) criminals not be prosecuted, not be brought to trial and not found guilty, then, like the Ronald Reagan Republican group, they will be glorified, deified and praised. With ALL the evidence available: Eyewitnesses, Documents, Dead Bodies, Remnants of Death Camps, Newsreel clips, piles of clothes, piles of shoes, piles of hair, piles of eyeglasses, piles of gold teeth –COLD HARD EVIDENCE-, there are Holocaust Deniers being celebrated, glorified and believed.
So, too, these (alleged) criminals will be praised and glorified for future generations. We will have not have learned from history –and the American society will repeat this debacle. With ALL the evidence available: Eyewitnesses, Documents, Dead Bodies, Remnants of Death Camps, Newsreel clips, piles of clothes, piles of shoes, piles of hair, piles of eyeglasses, piles of gold teeth –COLD HARD EVIDENCE-, there are Holocaust Deniers being celebrated, glorified and believed. So, too, these (alleged) criminals will be praised and glorified for future generations. We will have not have learned from history –and the American society will repeat this debacle.
Thank you for an excellent
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 04:59 — JustinaForJustice (not verified)
Thank you for an excellent synopsis of the most glaring errors of the Bush-Cheney regime, although you left out Bush's systematic demolition of our tri-partite constitutional government, wherein our Congress and Courts were denuded of oversight authority. The failure to investigate and prosecute the criminals involved in the Iran-Contra scandal left the main evil doers free to re-appear and carry on with their nefarious schemes as high officials in the Bush-Cheney administration. We must learn from that failure and thoroughly investigate and clean out the neo-fascists in the Bush-Cheney administration so they can never re-appear to damage the United States again. The U.S. has been totally shamed in the eyes of the world and in those of its citizens. To restore any semblance of honor, we must investigate and prosecute all the criminals in the Bush-Cheney administration, including Bush and Cheney.
The sad part about this
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 02:07 — Anonymous (not verified)
The sad part about this article is that even in this day and age; Mr Cohen still believes that if the war had been prosecuted better, it would have all been OK. Never mind that the rationale was flawed from the beginning. If you are going to invade and kill people, you should do it right!
Let me tell you from a non
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 01:40 — Dauphin Ermite (not verified)
Let me tell you from a non american perspective, Bush's presidency has not been the high point of USA's moral and political preeminence in the world. I am severely understating... And when one adds Cheney to the equation, the word "disgust" is a mild one. Many of my friends in the political and social spheres are asking why Bush and Cheney are not presently prosecuted for crimes of war and crimes of desecration of democracy and human rights. No we are not wobling at the knees, Chuck, just using a bit of our two neurones...
So when do we start
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 01:34 — Jonathan Mitchell (not verified)
So when do we start prosecuting these monsters to erase their dangerous precedent from the blackboard of U.S. history? (Roaring silence from the Obama administration...)
All was made possible by
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 01:00 — PortArnie (not verified)
All was made possible by 9/11 maybe that should be investigated now or is this institude formed to prevent that!
Bankruptcies 'R' US Bush,
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 00:40 — Anonymous (not verified)
Bankruptcies 'R' US Bush, the lying fool who led every company he was involved with into bankruptcy, bailed out in the past by his partners who financed Al-Queda, his criminal empire finally busted the entire economy with its trickle down corruption. Suck this worm into a jail cell and regain the respect of the thinking world.
This article has listed the
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:52 — Devon Noll, MPA (not verified)
This article has listed the faults of the Bush Administration, in part, but something else that was not addressed should give us all pause. Bush and his cadre of thieves, liars, and rogues who would have had a dictatorship in place if not for a failed emergency are once again meeting in private to plan - a policy institute! Let's get a clue here - these guys want to plan policy agendas for the likes of Cantor et al, and how to rebuild the Republican policies in a new government. They will be working long and hard to complete what they started in 2000 and they have the money, the media, and the people to succeed again. This group should be watched very carefully, see who they work with, and be very careful about dismissing them. This group is not done, and as I said when Miers, Rove, and Gonzalez left DC, they have fallen below media radar for a long time now, which means that many things are afoot that may not be quite so noticeable now because of Bush's economic debacle and the media's penchant for distraction. Be very, very careful!
NYCartist is right! There
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:33 — Anonymous (not verified)
NYCartist is right! There were no failures as far as any of the gang of escapees from hell is concerned - they stole 10 trillion dollars from the world and we are now witnessing the aggrandizement of it all - like a statue to Satan in Hell. Instead, can we quickly set up a new commando unit to quickly put bars on all the doors and windows of that monstrosity while they are all in there admiring their killing spree and then kinda loose the keys? Please... pretty please
The Bush administration was
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:19 — Anonymous (not verified)
The Bush administration was a success - in the same way Tony Soprano was a success when he took over his friend's sporting goods store and busted it out for the benefit of himself and his crew. We keep looking at the mess Bush left behind while we really need to look for all those who benefited from this enterprise, understand what they did, how they did it and set up safeguards to keep anyone from being able to do this again.
As long as not ONE tax
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:14 — Anonymous (not verified)
As long as not ONE tax dollar is spent on it, let them build their monument to corruption and stupidity. It will make good study for future generations. The Rove propaganda gallery should be especially interesting.
Let's NOT move on! Bush
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:50 — Robert B. (not verified)
Let's NOT move on! Bush should be handed over to the International Criminal Court ASAP.
The “Decider” and
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:15 — Anonymous (not verified)
The “Decider” and friends should use the meeting to systematize their management experiences and draw the lessons learned on the best and more cost effective management strategies to....shot up the unemployment, foreclosures and, bankruptcies rates; increase environmental vulnerabilities, reach higher poverty rates; “left behind” more children without health benefits, provide fatter paychecks for CEOs to reward incompetence, “improve” political corruption, claim secrecy privileges and more to hide from the people (who are supposed to be informed) enhance violation of human rights and international law, make “rapid lousy assessment” and response to Katrina, obtain high disapproval level, and more and more nationally and internationally. That's a heck of management! Worth a book for the Nobel Prize.
>Thankya f'r y'r support!
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:08 — Anonymous (not verified)
>Thankya f'r y'r support! My institute is gonna be diff'rent, it's gonna have a barbecue pit in the back, and a sub-basement where we're gonna prototype the tortures of a future policy. Some folks may be lookin' for that pointy headed progressive stuff, well that will not be part of the plan of my policy institute. It's gonna be on 40 acres, on a pastoral type setting with lots of meadows where Dick Cheney can blast away at skeet and various folks he don't like.
I wonder if Bush can yet
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:03 — Anonymous (not verified)
I wonder if Bush can yet name any of his mistakes!
Trashing Bush was great
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 20:58 — Anonymous (not verified)
Trashing Bush was great sport while he was in office. Now it's pointless. Lets move on, get the war crimes trial going, and put this where it belongs: in our history books under the chapter titled Mistakes We Should Avoid Repeating. In fact, lets make it a required course for all students. America Is Not Infallible 101.
This article is pussing
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 19:46 — Anonymous (not verified)
This article is pussing footing! not one word about how the war was an illegal invasion!!
Let's hope America remembers
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 18:37 — Anonymous (not verified)
Let's hope America remembers this the next time we get the urge to put a born-again former-alcoholic party-frat boy whose military and business accomplishments consist mainly of getting preferential treatment from daddy's friends in charge.
It is beyond the scope of
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 17:58 — Mg (not verified)
It is beyond the scope of George W. Bush to actually make sense of all that he has done, and probably will do. From our perspective on this side of his face, it doesn't look too good.
Bush expanded Pres. powers,
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 17:41 — NYCartist (not verified)
Bush expanded Pres. powers, gave cronies jobs, got funding for 2 wars, tax cuts for his friends...This is failure?
Or, America could have
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 17:23 — Anonymous (not verified)
Or, America could have listened to the millions of people here and abroad who knew that the invasion of Iraq was designed to steal their oil, and not done it at all.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Challenging Negative Campaign against Ethiopia
Dear Patriotic Global Citizens and Friends of Ethiopia
Re: Making Genocide Watch accountable and transparent towards managing allegation with verifiable facts
The assumption and premise of this article is questionable.
I found this posting rather interesting as it begins with the notion that any thing that private groups such as Genocide Watch and Human Rights watch say and write is the word of God. No where does it ask for evidence to the allegations.
It alleges that the response that the Ethiopian government provided more or less saying bring the facts or shut up is not acceptable.
Where is the facts for the allegations?
Imagine, a group that said nothing when the real genocide took place in Africa under White Ian Smith and Botha in Southern Africa or more recently in Congo where over 6 million people perished, feels it has a god given divine authority to allege a serious crime against the Ethiopian people and when asked to account, come up with nothing factual but another set of allegations.
Is Genocide Watch a fair institution or a propaganda tool
Have we seen Genocide watch reporting on the Shock and Awe Campaign in Irag or here in Guantano bay about the shocking revelations of Bush Administration criminal activities.
The focus on emerging nations alone is quite obvious
Why is this group so focused only on developing countries and does not report on other critical issues. Most importantly, why does it feel that it has the moral authority when it is writing a letter to an organization based of all places in Switzerland, a country that collaborated with Nazi Genocide and now the mother of all Economic Genocide Tax Shelter Government that literally writes its budget with looted money from 6 million Jews that perished in the German Genocide and 1.1 Billion African poor.
Imagine an Ethiopian Government being asked to present its leaders to International Criminal Court based in Italy, a country that has not as of yet accounted for its Genocidal activity against Ethiopians in 1896 when it was defeatedand in 1925 when it cluster bombed Ethiopians like America did to the Japanese.
Who is the cause of Genocide?
Imagine, expecting Ethiopians will ever allow that. May be to Belosconi and never to Meles Zenawi. So, comes the idiotic Genoricde Watch expecting Ethiopians to be judged by institutions run by those who ran the most henious Genocide against their fathers and grand fathers and the country that looted the Emeperos'sd savings and money put aside for times of crisis. The Swiss banks and Government that now houses this so called Human Rights Group. It is so offensive.
Imagine the Swiss Government judging on Economic Genocide and Grey List of OECD. Ask President Obama, PMs Gordon Brown and PM Meles Zenawi how they intend to get their looted money back.
The oly government in history, that has allowed governance and self determination based on language and ethnic group is now being accused as being genocidal of the very group that they have devolved power to.
I have interviewed the current Administrator of Gambella who was the security chief during the previous regime and knows first hand that the so called genocide on the Annuak was perpetuated
by the previous appointee of the Military Marxist Communist regime.
The case has been investigated by Ethiopian parliament and this group that calls itself is so incompetent it is making its allegation based by a group led by the same former Communist regime representatives here in Canada and the USA.
Can we demand transparency and accountability from Genocide Watch or their handlers?
Balance is missing grossly.
Most of the write up in this article is so one sided and unfortunately negative one cannot go and discuss every detail. It is like the Republicans who looted the US economy for 8 years with out any accountability now demonstrating on Tax Return day with Tea bags saying Taxed Enough Already and sent to Tax Shelters.. To late Barack our money is sheltered in Toxic Assets and Switzerland.
Is Genocide Watch part of the Fox Network of the Australian Group?
Ofcourse in World of Fomer Catholic Priest turned propaganda chief Hannities of this world, they have the facts and all of us are fools.
The reports from CIA and Bush Administration Economic and Military expenditures state otherwise. But Fox is busy trying to steal the sheep. Unfortunately, this writer is no better than the foolish Hanni ties of the Right Wing propaganda.
The facts are by far different that what this writer tries to paint. Ethiopia is the island of democracy and good governance in a sea of piracy, genocide in Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya.
The Ethiopian government has not done half the crimes of the Bush administration who carpet bombed Iraq and continues to abuse the American Citizens with unwarranted communication interference.
So, Have you seen Genocide watch reporting on Europe, North America, Cuba and Latin America.
I believe we need to have transparency and accountability on at all levels of our lives. The Ethiopian government like the Bush and Obama Governments have to be made accountable with facts and not with fantasy.
Dr B
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April 17, 2009
Ethiopia Seals the Lid on Ethnic Rights
Recently, the Ethiopian government scoffed at Genocide Watch’s request that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees investigate human rights violations in the country. Genocide Watch primarily voiced its concern over the government’s involvement in atrocities committed against members of the Anuak ethnic group in 2005. The organization has concluded that the crimes committed against this group fit the definition of genocide. The Ethiopian government, in response, called the allegations “unfounded, fabricated lies.”
This turn of events is indicative of the increasingly adverse human rights situation in the country. The government’s general level of respect for civil liberties has been spiraling downward. More particularly, the rights of several of Ethiopia’s myriad ethnic groups have been jeopardized. The deplorable state of affairs has been brought about by both the government’s active undermining of minority protections and its failure to respond to allegations of human rights violations.
Ethiopia is populated by at least 80 different ethnic groups. The Oromo people, who make up 40-45% of the population, are the largest group, followed by the Amhara, who make up 25% of the population. The country’s political scene has traditionally been dominated by the Amhara people. More recently, however, the Tigray group has become the most powerful political entity. The Tigray, who make up less than 10% of Ethiopia’s population, exert their influence through the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a party which constitutes the nucleus of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (ERPRDF). Other important groups include the Oromo and Somali groups, who have traditionally been the targets of extensive persecution.
As the 2007 Countries at the Crossroads report notes, the EPRDF government made a concerted effort to respect ethnic rights in the country at the outset of its rule. When it came to power in 1991, the EPRDF nominally responded to the injustices suffered by the majority of the country’s ethnic communities. In the constitution drafted in 1995, the EPRDF government granted increased regional autonomy to various groups by creating a federal system based upon ethnic lines. It also incorporated these ethnic groups into the government by including their respective parties within the ruling coalition. In addition, the government made seemingly positive strides toward adopting good governance practices on such pressing issues as poverty and food insecurity.
Unfortunately, the positive trend towards respecting ethnic rights soon stalled out and then reversed itself. The government squeezed out all parties but the TPLF and its allies from the ruling coalition. In addition, violence and discrimination against ethnic groups resumed. While the human rights situation was unfortunate, the Ethiopian government seemed to remain committed to adopting reforms aimed at economic and political development well into this decade.
Nevertheless, by the 2005 elections, the hopes that technocratic governance improvements might be accompanied by further democratization had been dashed. During the run-up to the elections, the Ethiopian government became engaged in a campaign to intimidate and restrict the activities of opposition members. This political targeting was partially ethnic in nature. The All Ethiopian Unity Party, the main political party of the Amhara people, comprises an influential component of the country’s main opposition movement. The opposition, which is made up of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the United Ethiopian democratic Forces, campaigned for greater power and respect for the country’s different ethnic groups. Throughout this period, members of the opposition were harassed, arrested, and killed.
Persecution of this sort has continued into the present. A report released by the UN committee responsible for implementing the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination reported that government agents including military officials and police officers had committed crimes against minority groups including the Anuak and the Oromo. Human Rights Watch has made similar claims.
Most notably, it alleged that Ethiopian security forces have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against ethnic Somalis residing in the Ogaden region. According to HRW, the most intense persecution took place in 2007, when Ethiopian troops tortured and raped innocent Somali civilians. In addition, HRW has echoed Genocide Watch’s accusation that heinous crimes were committed against the Anuak communities in the Gambella region from 2003-2005. In addition to these more extreme examples, the Minority Rights Group International has reported that the level of representation of minority groups at the government level remains unsatisfactory.
Due to its ever clearer involvement in the persecution of minority groups, the government’s response to this situation has been extremely lackluster. The Ethiopian government has failed to investigate allegations of discrimination and crimes; indeed, official government policy with regards to human rights abuses consists almost exclusively of denying all charges or turning a deaf ear. The fact that the country has refused to grant the requests of several international human rights organizations to investigate the situation on the ground has only lent credence to the allegations.
In some cases, the Ethiopian government has felt compelled to counter the aforementioned NGO reports. For example, the government urged the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to publish a report on the situation in the Ogaden region.Unfortunately, however, this commission is by no means an independent entity. As the 2007 Crossroads report maintains, it is largely a government tool and is given little actual authority to respond to violations. That being the case, the report’s finding that no human rights violations were committed in the region is both unsurprising and extremely suspect. This general failure to address the human rights crisis has perpetuated a strong culture of impunity in the country.
Given this situation, the onus of responding to and raising the alarm about the steady stream of violations has largely fallen on human rights organizations operating both within and outside of Ethiopia. However, the government has recently taken steps to control the activities of NGOs. On January 6, the Ethiopian parliament passed new regulations it claims are necessary in order to provide a favorable legal framework and environment for NGOs in the country.
Nevertheless, the new law will bring decidedly negative consequences for ethnic rights, not to mention its freedom of association and assembly implications. The law labels as “foreign” any organization that receives over 10% of its funding from outside of Ethiopia. Most alarmingly, it goes on to prohibit these “foreign” NGOs from engaging in human rights and governance work. As a recent Human Rights Watch report notes, this law will be especially damaging due to the fact that there are very few organizations that engage in human rights work in Ethiopia and even fewer that will be able to qualify as “domestic” under the new law. Tragically, this law’s implementation may effectively stifle Ethiopia’s few remaining ethnic rights watchdogs.
As the domestic environment becomes more repressive, the role of international actors will become critical. While they may be unable to investigate violations on the ground, it will remain the responsibility of international human rights organizations to raise awareness about the crisis in Ethiopia and to continue petitioning international organizations such as the UN to respond to the issue. NGOs must continue to lobby world powers including the United States and the EU to speak out against Ethiopia’s abuses and provide support to human rights defenders within the country. Due to the fact that Ethiopia is highly dependent on foreign assistance to combat such daunting challenges as rampant poverty, food shortages, and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, international pressure of this sort could bear more fruit than pressure on regimes that are already more internationally isolated.
Photo Credit: Flickr user aheavens
Posted at 02:04 PM in Africa, Human Rights, Minority Rights | Permalink
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Comments
Re: Making Genocide Watch accountable and transparent towards managing allegation with verifiable facts
The assumption and premise of this article is questionable.
I found this posting rather interesting as it begins with the notion that any thing that private groups such as Genocide Watch and Human Rights watch say and write is the word of God. No where does it ask for evidence to the allegations.
It alleges that the response that the Ethiopian government provided more or less saying bring the facts or shut up is not acceptable.
Where is tha fcts for the allegations?
Imagine, a group that said nothing when the real genocide took place in Africa under White Ian Smith and Botha in Southern Africa or more recently in Congo where over 6 million people perished, feels it has a god given divine authority to allege a serious crime against the Ethiopian people and when asked to account, come up with nothing factual but another set of allegations.
Is Genocide Watch a fair institution or a propaganda tool
Have we seen Genocide watch reporting on the Shock and Awe Campain in Irag or here in Guantano bay about the shocking revelations of Bush Administration criminal activities.
The focus on emerging nations alone is quite obvious
Why is this group so focussed only on developing countries and does not report on other critical issues. Most importantly, why does it feel that it has the moral authority when it is writing a letter to an organization based of all places in Switzerland, a country that collaborated with Nazi Genocide and now the mother of all Economic Genocide Tax Shelter Government that literally writes its budget with looted money from 6 million Jews that perished in the German Genocide and 1.1 Billion African poor.
Imagine an Ethiopian Government being asked to present its leaders to Internatonl Criminal Court based in Italy, a country that has not as of yet accounted for its Genocidal activity against Ethiopians in 1896 when it was defeatedand in 1925 when it cluster bombed Ethiopians like America did to the Japanese.
Who is the cuase of Genocide?
Imagine, expecting Ethiopians will ever allow that. May be to Belosconi and never to Meles Zenawi. So, comes the idiotic Genoricde Watch expecting EThiopians to be judged by institutions run by those who ran the most henious Genocide against their fathers and grand fathers and the country that loooted the Emeperos'sd savings and money put aside for times of crisis. The Swiss banks and Government that now houses this so called Human Rights Group. It is so offensive.
Imagine the Swiss Government judging on Economic Genocide and Grey List of OECD. Ask President Obama, PMs Gordon Brown and PM Meles Zenawi how they intend to get their looted money back.
The oly government in history, that has allowed governance and self determination based on language and ethnic group is now being accused as being genocidal of the very group that they have devolved power to.
I have interviwed the current Administrator of Gambella who was the security chief during the previous regime and knows first hand that the so called genocide on the Annuak was perpetuated
by the previous appointee of the Military Marxist Communist regime.
The case has been investigated by Ethiopian parliament and this group that calls itself is so incompetent it is making its allegation based by a group led by the same former Communist regime representatives here in Canada and the USA.
Can we demand transparency and accountability from Genocide Watch or their handlers?
Ballance is missing grossly.
Most of the write up in this article is so one sided and unfortunately negative one cannot go and discuss every detail. It is like the Republicans who looted the US economy for 8 years with out any accountability now demonstrating on Tax Return day with Tea bags saying Taxed Enough Already and sent to Tax Shelters.. To late Barack our money is sheltered in Toxic Assets and Switzerland.
Is Genocide Watch part of the Fox Network of the Australian Group?
Ofcourse in World of Fomer Catholic Priest turned propaganda chief Hannities of this world, they have the facts and all of us are fools.
The reports from CIA and Bush Administration Economic and Military expenditures state otherwise. But Fox is busy trying to steal the sheep. Unfortunately, this writer is no better than the foolish Hannities of the Right Wing propaganda.
The facts are by far different that what this writer tries to paint. Ethiopia is the island of democracy and good governance in a sea of piracy, genocide in Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya.
The Ethiopian government has not done half the crimes of the Bush administration who carpet bombed Iraq and continues to abuse the American Citizens with unwaranted communication interference.
So, Have you seen Genocide watch reporting on Europe, North America, Cuba and Lantin America.
I believe we need to have transparency and accountability on at all levels of our lives. The Ethiopian government like the Bush and Obama Governments have to be made accountable with facts and not with fantasy.
Dr B
Re: Making Genocide Watch accountable and transparent towards managing allegation with verifiable facts
The assumption and premise of this article is questionable.
I found this posting rather interesting as it begins with the notion that any thing that private groups such as Genocide Watch and Human Rights watch say and write is the word of God. No where does it ask for evidence to the allegations.
It alleges that the response that the Ethiopian government provided more or less saying bring the facts or shut up is not acceptable.
Where is the facts for the allegations?
Imagine, a group that said nothing when the real genocide took place in Africa under White Ian Smith and Botha in Southern Africa or more recently in Congo where over 6 million people perished, feels it has a god given divine authority to allege a serious crime against the Ethiopian people and when asked to account, come up with nothing factual but another set of allegations.
Is Genocide Watch a fair institution or a propaganda tool
Have we seen Genocide watch reporting on the Shock and Awe Campaign in Irag or here in Guantano bay about the shocking revelations of Bush Administration criminal activities.
The focus on emerging nations alone is quite obvious
Why is this group so focused only on developing countries and does not report on other critical issues. Most importantly, why does it feel that it has the moral authority when it is writing a letter to an organization based of all places in Switzerland, a country that collaborated with Nazi Genocide and now the mother of all Economic Genocide Tax Shelter Government that literally writes its budget with looted money from 6 million Jews that perished in the German Genocide and 1.1 Billion African poor.
Imagine an Ethiopian Government being asked to present its leaders to International Criminal Court based in Italy, a country that has not as of yet accounted for its Genocidal activity against Ethiopians in 1896 when it was defeatedand in 1925 when it cluster bombed Ethiopians like America did to the Japanese.
Who is the cause of Genocide?
Imagine, expecting Ethiopians will ever allow that. May be to Belosconi and never to Meles Zenawi. So, comes the idiotic Genoricde Watch expecting Ethiopians to be judged by institutions run by those who ran the most henious Genocide against their fathers and grand fathers and the country that looted the Emeperos'sd savings and money put aside for times of crisis. The Swiss banks and Government that now houses this so called Human Rights Group. It is so offensive.
Imagine the Swiss Government judging on Economic Genocide and Grey List of OECD. Ask President Obama, PMs Gordon Brown and PM Meles Zenawi how they intend to get their looted money back.
The oly government in history, that has allowed governance and self determination based on language and ethnic group is now being accused as being genocidal of the very group that they have devolved power to.
I have interviewed the current Administrator of Gambella who was the security chief during the previous regime and knows first hand that the so called genocide on the Annuak was perpetuated
by the previous appointee of the Military Marxist Communist regime.
The case has been investigated by Ethiopian parliament and this group that calls itself is so incompetent it is making its allegation based by a group led by the same former Communist regime representatives here in Canada and the USA.
Can we demand transparency and accountability from Genocide Watch or their handlers?
Balance is missing grossly.
Most of the write up in this article is so one sided and unfortunately negative one cannot go and discuss every detail. It is like the Republicans who looted the US economy for 8 years with out any accountability now demonstrating on Tax Return day with Tea bags saying Taxed Enough Already and sent to Tax Shelters.. To late Barack our money is sheltered in Toxic Assets and Switzerland.
Is Genocide Watch part of the Fox Network of the Australian Group?
Ofcourse in World of Fomer Catholic Priest turned propaganda chief Hannities of this world, they have the facts and all of us are fools.
The reports from CIA and Bush Administration Economic and Military expenditures state otherwise. But Fox is busy trying to steal the sheep. Unfortunately, this writer is no better than the foolish Hanni ties of the Right Wing propaganda.
The facts are by far different that what this writer tries to paint. Ethiopia is the island of democracy and good governance in a sea of piracy, genocide in Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya.
The Ethiopian government has not done half the crimes of the Bush administration who carpet bombed Iraq and continues to abuse the American Citizens with unwarranted communication interference.
So, Have you seen Genocide watch reporting on Europe, North America, Cuba and Latin America.
I believe we need to have transparency and accountability on at all levels of our lives. The Ethiopian government like the Bush and Obama Governments have to be made accountable with facts and not with fantasy.
Dr B
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April 17, 2009
Ethiopia Seals the Lid on Ethnic Rights
Recently, the Ethiopian government scoffed at Genocide Watch’s request that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees investigate human rights violations in the country. Genocide Watch primarily voiced its concern over the government’s involvement in atrocities committed against members of the Anuak ethnic group in 2005. The organization has concluded that the crimes committed against this group fit the definition of genocide. The Ethiopian government, in response, called the allegations “unfounded, fabricated lies.”
This turn of events is indicative of the increasingly adverse human rights situation in the country. The government’s general level of respect for civil liberties has been spiraling downward. More particularly, the rights of several of Ethiopia’s myriad ethnic groups have been jeopardized. The deplorable state of affairs has been brought about by both the government’s active undermining of minority protections and its failure to respond to allegations of human rights violations.
Ethiopia is populated by at least 80 different ethnic groups. The Oromo people, who make up 40-45% of the population, are the largest group, followed by the Amhara, who make up 25% of the population. The country’s political scene has traditionally been dominated by the Amhara people. More recently, however, the Tigray group has become the most powerful political entity. The Tigray, who make up less than 10% of Ethiopia’s population, exert their influence through the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a party which constitutes the nucleus of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (ERPRDF). Other important groups include the Oromo and Somali groups, who have traditionally been the targets of extensive persecution.
As the 2007 Countries at the Crossroads report notes, the EPRDF government made a concerted effort to respect ethnic rights in the country at the outset of its rule. When it came to power in 1991, the EPRDF nominally responded to the injustices suffered by the majority of the country’s ethnic communities. In the constitution drafted in 1995, the EPRDF government granted increased regional autonomy to various groups by creating a federal system based upon ethnic lines. It also incorporated these ethnic groups into the government by including their respective parties within the ruling coalition. In addition, the government made seemingly positive strides toward adopting good governance practices on such pressing issues as poverty and food insecurity.
Unfortunately, the positive trend towards respecting ethnic rights soon stalled out and then reversed itself. The government squeezed out all parties but the TPLF and its allies from the ruling coalition. In addition, violence and discrimination against ethnic groups resumed. While the human rights situation was unfortunate, the Ethiopian government seemed to remain committed to adopting reforms aimed at economic and political development well into this decade.
Nevertheless, by the 2005 elections, the hopes that technocratic governance improvements might be accompanied by further democratization had been dashed. During the run-up to the elections, the Ethiopian government became engaged in a campaign to intimidate and restrict the activities of opposition members. This political targeting was partially ethnic in nature. The All Ethiopian Unity Party, the main political party of the Amhara people, comprises an influential component of the country’s main opposition movement. The opposition, which is made up of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the United Ethiopian democratic Forces, campaigned for greater power and respect for the country’s different ethnic groups. Throughout this period, members of the opposition were harassed, arrested, and killed.
Persecution of this sort has continued into the present. A report released by the UN committee responsible for implementing the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination reported that government agents including military officials and police officers had committed crimes against minority groups including the Anuak and the Oromo. Human Rights Watch has made similar claims.
Most notably, it alleged that Ethiopian security forces have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against ethnic Somalis residing in the Ogaden region. According to HRW, the most intense persecution took place in 2007, when Ethiopian troops tortured and raped innocent Somali civilians. In addition, HRW has echoed Genocide Watch’s accusation that heinous crimes were committed against the Anuak communities in the Gambella region from 2003-2005. In addition to these more extreme examples, the Minority Rights Group International has reported that the level of representation of minority groups at the government level remains unsatisfactory.
Due to its ever clearer involvement in the persecution of minority groups, the government’s response to this situation has been extremely lackluster. The Ethiopian government has failed to investigate allegations of discrimination and crimes; indeed, official government policy with regards to human rights abuses consists almost exclusively of denying all charges or turning a deaf ear. The fact that the country has refused to grant the requests of several international human rights organizations to investigate the situation on the ground has only lent credence to the allegations.
In some cases, the Ethiopian government has felt compelled to counter the aforementioned NGO reports. For example, the government urged the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to publish a report on the situation in the Ogaden region.Unfortunately, however, this commission is by no means an independent entity. As the 2007 Crossroads report maintains, it is largely a government tool and is given little actual authority to respond to violations. That being the case, the report’s finding that no human rights violations were committed in the region is both unsurprising and extremely suspect. This general failure to address the human rights crisis has perpetuated a strong culture of impunity in the country.
Given this situation, the onus of responding to and raising the alarm about the steady stream of violations has largely fallen on human rights organizations operating both within and outside of Ethiopia. However, the government has recently taken steps to control the activities of NGOs. On January 6, the Ethiopian parliament passed new regulations it claims are necessary in order to provide a favorable legal framework and environment for NGOs in the country.
Nevertheless, the new law will bring decidedly negative consequences for ethnic rights, not to mention its freedom of association and assembly implications. The law labels as “foreign” any organization that receives over 10% of its funding from outside of Ethiopia. Most alarmingly, it goes on to prohibit these “foreign” NGOs from engaging in human rights and governance work. As a recent Human Rights Watch report notes, this law will be especially damaging due to the fact that there are very few organizations that engage in human rights work in Ethiopia and even fewer that will be able to qualify as “domestic” under the new law. Tragically, this law’s implementation may effectively stifle Ethiopia’s few remaining ethnic rights watchdogs.
As the domestic environment becomes more repressive, the role of international actors will become critical. While they may be unable to investigate violations on the ground, it will remain the responsibility of international human rights organizations to raise awareness about the crisis in Ethiopia and to continue petitioning international organizations such as the UN to respond to the issue. NGOs must continue to lobby world powers including the United States and the EU to speak out against Ethiopia’s abuses and provide support to human rights defenders within the country. Due to the fact that Ethiopia is highly dependent on foreign assistance to combat such daunting challenges as rampant poverty, food shortages, and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, international pressure of this sort could bear more fruit than pressure on regimes that are already more internationally isolated.
Photo Credit: Flickr user aheavens
Posted at 02:04 PM in Africa, Human Rights, Minority Rights | Permalink
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Comments
Re: Making Genocide Watch accountable and transparent towards managing allegation with verifiable facts
The assumption and premise of this article is questionable.
I found this posting rather interesting as it begins with the notion that any thing that private groups such as Genocide Watch and Human Rights watch say and write is the word of God. No where does it ask for evidence to the allegations.
It alleges that the response that the Ethiopian government provided more or less saying bring the facts or shut up is not acceptable.
Where is tha fcts for the allegations?
Imagine, a group that said nothing when the real genocide took place in Africa under White Ian Smith and Botha in Southern Africa or more recently in Congo where over 6 million people perished, feels it has a god given divine authority to allege a serious crime against the Ethiopian people and when asked to account, come up with nothing factual but another set of allegations.
Is Genocide Watch a fair institution or a propaganda tool
Have we seen Genocide watch reporting on the Shock and Awe Campain in Irag or here in Guantano bay about the shocking revelations of Bush Administration criminal activities.
The focus on emerging nations alone is quite obvious
Why is this group so focussed only on developing countries and does not report on other critical issues. Most importantly, why does it feel that it has the moral authority when it is writing a letter to an organization based of all places in Switzerland, a country that collaborated with Nazi Genocide and now the mother of all Economic Genocide Tax Shelter Government that literally writes its budget with looted money from 6 million Jews that perished in the German Genocide and 1.1 Billion African poor.
Imagine an Ethiopian Government being asked to present its leaders to Internatonl Criminal Court based in Italy, a country that has not as of yet accounted for its Genocidal activity against Ethiopians in 1896 when it was defeatedand in 1925 when it cluster bombed Ethiopians like America did to the Japanese.
Who is the cuase of Genocide?
Imagine, expecting Ethiopians will ever allow that. May be to Belosconi and never to Meles Zenawi. So, comes the idiotic Genoricde Watch expecting EThiopians to be judged by institutions run by those who ran the most henious Genocide against their fathers and grand fathers and the country that loooted the Emeperos'sd savings and money put aside for times of crisis. The Swiss banks and Government that now houses this so called Human Rights Group. It is so offensive.
Imagine the Swiss Government judging on Economic Genocide and Grey List of OECD. Ask President Obama, PMs Gordon Brown and PM Meles Zenawi how they intend to get their looted money back.
The oly government in history, that has allowed governance and self determination based on language and ethnic group is now being accused as being genocidal of the very group that they have devolved power to.
I have interviwed the current Administrator of Gambella who was the security chief during the previous regime and knows first hand that the so called genocide on the Annuak was perpetuated
by the previous appointee of the Military Marxist Communist regime.
The case has been investigated by Ethiopian parliament and this group that calls itself is so incompetent it is making its allegation based by a group led by the same former Communist regime representatives here in Canada and the USA.
Can we demand transparency and accountability from Genocide Watch or their handlers?
Ballance is missing grossly.
Most of the write up in this article is so one sided and unfortunately negative one cannot go and discuss every detail. It is like the Republicans who looted the US economy for 8 years with out any accountability now demonstrating on Tax Return day with Tea bags saying Taxed Enough Already and sent to Tax Shelters.. To late Barack our money is sheltered in Toxic Assets and Switzerland.
Is Genocide Watch part of the Fox Network of the Australian Group?
Ofcourse in World of Fomer Catholic Priest turned propaganda chief Hannities of this world, they have the facts and all of us are fools.
The reports from CIA and Bush Administration Economic and Military expenditures state otherwise. But Fox is busy trying to steal the sheep. Unfortunately, this writer is no better than the foolish Hannities of the Right Wing propaganda.
The facts are by far different that what this writer tries to paint. Ethiopia is the island of democracy and good governance in a sea of piracy, genocide in Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya.
The Ethiopian government has not done half the crimes of the Bush administration who carpet bombed Iraq and continues to abuse the American Citizens with unwaranted communication interference.
So, Have you seen Genocide watch reporting on Europe, North America, Cuba and Lantin America.
I believe we need to have transparency and accountability on at all levels of our lives. The Ethiopian government like the Bush and Obama Governments have to be made accountable with facts and not with fantasy.
Dr B
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
HIM Haile Selassie I Biography: A house built on a rock is the theme of President Brack Obama's Speech at Georgetown University on 14 April 2009
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
“The House Upon a Rock”
The past three months have seem a storm of activity from the White House, with initiatives on housing, the markets, the auto industry, small businesses, international financial cooperation, and job creation through the Recovery Act. Today the President made it his central purpose of to explain the vision that has served as the foundation for every major initiative on the economy thus far:
So today, I want to step back for a moment and explain our strategy as clearly as I can. This is going to be prose, and not poetry. I want to talk about what we've done, why we've done it, and what we have left to do. I want to update you on the progress we've made, but I also want to be honest about the pitfalls that may still lie ahead.
Most of all, I want every American to know that each action we take and each policy we pursue is driven by a larger vision of America's future -- a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes; a future where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, or reckless speculation, or fleeting profits, but is instead built by skilled, productive workers, by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in the technologies and the innovation and discoveries that will shape the 21st century. That's the America I see. That's the America that Georgetown is preparing so many of you for. That is the future that I know that we can have.
He explained that in order to understand where we have to go from here, we also have to understand how we got here:
Now, this is when the crisis spread from Wall Street to Main Street. After all, the ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to, as you all know very well, a college education. It's how stores stock their shelves, and farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll. So when banks stopped lending money, businesses started laying off workers. When laid-off workers had less money to spend, businesses were forced to lay off even more workers. When people couldn't get a car loan, a bad situation at the auto companies became even worse. When people couldn't get home loans, the crisis in the housing market only deepened. Because the infected securities were being traded worldwide and other nations also had weak regulations, this recession soon became global. And when other nations can't afford to buy our goods, it slows our economy even further.
So this is the situation, the downward spiral that we confronted on the day that we took office. So our most urgent task has been to clear away the wreckage, repair the immediate damage to the economy, and do everything we can to prevent a larger collapse. And since the problems we face are all working off each other to feed a vicious economic downturn, we've had no choice but to attack all fronts of our economic crisis simultaneously.
The President spoke at length addressing a sentiment he said he hears most often in letters from people across the country, namely outrage about the government support for banks teetering on failure. As he did throughout the speech, he took time to address opposing arguments and perspectives. To those who take the intuitively and emotionally understandable position that we should simply let the banks fail – "where’s my bailout?" in short – he argued that in truth a dollar in credit can have an immense multiplier effect that will produce a much greater gain in terms of jobs and the broader economy. And in turn, the failure of those banks would have a vastly disproportionate impact on every American. To those who urge the preemptive takeover of banks, "the nationalization argument" as he called it, he gave assurance that his reticence to engage in that strategy was not born of ideological rigidity or moral obligation to shareholders, but rather a belief that this strategy would cause even bigger losses for taxpayers.
Perhaps the heart of the speech was focused on the core weaknesses of the economy that led to the crisis we see now, and the pillars of the new economy the President envisions to ensure such a crisis will be kept at bay in the future:
It is simply not sustainable to have a 21st-century financial system that is governed by 20th-century rules and regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the entire economy. It is not sustainable to have an economy where in one year, 40 percent of our corporate profits came from a financial sector that was based on inflated home prices, maxed-out credit cards, over-leveraged banks and overvalued assets. It's not sustainable to have an economy where the incomes of the top 1 percent has skyrocketed while the typical working household has seen their incomes decline by nearly $2,000. That's just not a sustainable model for long-term prosperity.
For even as too many were out there chasing ever-bigger bonuses and short-term profits over the last decade, we continued to neglect the long-term threats to our prosperity: the crushing burden that the rising cost of health care is placing on families and businesses; the failure of our education system to prepare our workers for a new age; the progress that other nations are making on clean energy industries and technologies while we -- we remain addicted to foreign oil; the growing debt that we're passing on to our children. Even after we emerge from the current recession, these challenges will still represent major obstacles that stand in the way of our success in the 21st century. So we've got a lot of work to do.
Now, there's a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was soon destroyed when a storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."
It was founded upon a rock. We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity -- a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.
It's a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: Number one, new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation, not reckless risk-taking -- (applause); number two, new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive -- (applause); number three, new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and new industries -- (applause); number four, new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and number five, new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. (Applause.)
That's the new foundation we must build. That's our house built upon a rock. That must be our future -- and my administration's policies are designed to achieve that future.
Towards the end of his speech, he noted that in addition to the fundamental weaknesses of the economy, there is also a fundamental weakness in the political system that must be confronted. He talked about how the prospects for long-term, bold, necessary solutions often give way to 24-hour news cycles and fluctuating poll numbers.
This can’t be one of those times. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high. I know how difficult it is for Members of Congress in both parties to grapple with some of the big decisions we face right now. It’s more than most congresses and most presidents have to deal with in a lifetime.
But we have been called to govern in extraordinary times. And that requires an extraordinary sense of responsibility – to ourselves, to the men and women who sent us here, and to the many generations whose lives will be affected for good or for ill because of what we do here.
Having been forthright about the challenges ahead, he expressed confidence: America will have that house upon the rock.
“The House Upon a Rock”
The past three months have seem a storm of activity from the White House, with initiatives on housing, the markets, the auto industry, small businesses, international financial cooperation, and job creation through the Recovery Act. Today the President made it his central purpose of to explain the vision that has served as the foundation for every major initiative on the economy thus far:
So today, I want to step back for a moment and explain our strategy as clearly as I can. This is going to be prose, and not poetry. I want to talk about what we've done, why we've done it, and what we have left to do. I want to update you on the progress we've made, but I also want to be honest about the pitfalls that may still lie ahead.
Most of all, I want every American to know that each action we take and each policy we pursue is driven by a larger vision of America's future -- a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes; a future where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, or reckless speculation, or fleeting profits, but is instead built by skilled, productive workers, by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in the technologies and the innovation and discoveries that will shape the 21st century. That's the America I see. That's the America that Georgetown is preparing so many of you for. That is the future that I know that we can have.
He explained that in order to understand where we have to go from here, we also have to understand how we got here:
Now, this is when the crisis spread from Wall Street to Main Street. After all, the ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to, as you all know very well, a college education. It's how stores stock their shelves, and farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll. So when banks stopped lending money, businesses started laying off workers. When laid-off workers had less money to spend, businesses were forced to lay off even more workers. When people couldn't get a car loan, a bad situation at the auto companies became even worse. When people couldn't get home loans, the crisis in the housing market only deepened. Because the infected securities were being traded worldwide and other nations also had weak regulations, this recession soon became global. And when other nations can't afford to buy our goods, it slows our economy even further.
So this is the situation, the downward spiral that we confronted on the day that we took office. So our most urgent task has been to clear away the wreckage, repair the immediate damage to the economy, and do everything we can to prevent a larger collapse. And since the problems we face are all working off each other to feed a vicious economic downturn, we've had no choice but to attack all fronts of our economic crisis simultaneously.
The President spoke at length addressing a sentiment he said he hears most often in letters from people across the country, namely outrage about the government support for banks teetering on failure. As he did throughout the speech, he took time to address opposing arguments and perspectives. To those who take the intuitively and emotionally understandable position that we should simply let the banks fail – "where’s my bailout?" in short – he argued that in truth a dollar in credit can have an immense multiplier effect that will produce a much greater gain in terms of jobs and the broader economy. And in turn, the failure of those banks would have a vastly disproportionate impact on every American. To those who urge the preemptive takeover of banks, "the nationalization argument" as he called it, he gave assurance that his reticence to engage in that strategy was not born of ideological rigidity or moral obligation to shareholders, but rather a belief that this strategy would cause even bigger losses for taxpayers.
Perhaps the heart of the speech was focused on the core weaknesses of the economy that led to the crisis we see now, and the pillars of the new economy the President envisions to ensure such a crisis will be kept at bay in the future:
It is simply not sustainable to have a 21st-century financial system that is governed by 20th-century rules and regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the entire economy. It is not sustainable to have an economy where in one year, 40 percent of our corporate profits came from a financial sector that was based on inflated home prices, maxed-out credit cards, over-leveraged banks and overvalued assets. It's not sustainable to have an economy where the incomes of the top 1 percent has skyrocketed while the typical working household has seen their incomes decline by nearly $2,000. That's just not a sustainable model for long-term prosperity.
For even as too many were out there chasing ever-bigger bonuses and short-term profits over the last decade, we continued to neglect the long-term threats to our prosperity: the crushing burden that the rising cost of health care is placing on families and businesses; the failure of our education system to prepare our workers for a new age; the progress that other nations are making on clean energy industries and technologies while we -- we remain addicted to foreign oil; the growing debt that we're passing on to our children. Even after we emerge from the current recession, these challenges will still represent major obstacles that stand in the way of our success in the 21st century. So we've got a lot of work to do.
Now, there's a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was soon destroyed when a storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."
It was founded upon a rock. We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity -- a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.
It's a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: Number one, new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation, not reckless risk-taking -- (applause); number two, new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive -- (applause); number three, new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and new industries -- (applause); number four, new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and number five, new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. (Applause.)
That's the new foundation we must build. That's our house built upon a rock. That must be our future -- and my administration's policies are designed to achieve that future.
Towards the end of his speech, he noted that in addition to the fundamental weaknesses of the economy, there is also a fundamental weakness in the political system that must be confronted. He talked about how the prospects for long-term, bold, necessary solutions often give way to 24-hour news cycles and fluctuating poll numbers.
This can’t be one of those times. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high. I know how difficult it is for Members of Congress in both parties to grapple with some of the big decisions we face right now. It’s more than most congresses and most presidents have to deal with in a lifetime.
But we have been called to govern in extraordinary times. And that requires an extraordinary sense of responsibility – to ourselves, to the men and women who sent us here, and to the many generations whose lives will be affected for good or for ill because of what we do here.
Having been forthright about the challenges ahead, he expressed confidence: America will have that house upon the rock.
Does Good Governance define the Progressives and are they really progressive enough?
Progressive Divisions
by BooMan
Mon Apr 13th, 2009 at 11:10:30 PM EST
Today's progressives are different from the people that lived during The Progressive Era but we share much in common with our forebears. Consider this description:
Progressives did not agree on a single agenda. They disagreed vehemently in their attitudes toward such subjects as immigration restriction and prohibition of alcohol. They were a diverse lot that included Republicans and Democrats, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and urban and rural reformers. Women's organizations stood at the forefront of the social reforms and policy innovations during the Progressive era...
...For the most part, Progressives were urban and college-educated, including journalists, academics, teachers, doctors, and nurses, as well as many business people.
Uniting these various reform movements stemmed from a preoccupation with the elimination of corruption and waste and an emphasis on efficiency, science, and professional expertise as the best ways to solve social problems.
A book published in 1913, Benjamin Parker De Witt's The Progressive Movement, argued that three tendencies underlay progressive reforms: the desire to eliminate political corruption, the impulse to make government more efficient and effective, and a belief that government should "relieve social and economic distress." Progressives wanted to apply the techniques of systematization, rationalization, and bureaucratic administrative control developed by business to problems posed by the city and industry.
Today's progressives, like the old ones, do not share a single agenda. We are still made up of liberal Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and skewed toward the female gender. We are still dominated by the urban, the college-educated, and the professional ranks. What's changed is mainly related to larger demographic and living-style changes that have occurred over the last century. For example, we're less urban now because we have suburbs and exurbs that house hordes of college-educated professionals.
Yet, our movement is more inclusive of urban and immigrant organizations because of the decline of machine politics and the rise of sophisticated community organizations in our cities. Many of our new immigrant communities are neither Christian nor Jewish, and progressives are increasingly secular in orientation (including toleration and the embrace of the Gay Community). The Hispanic population has exploded and trends heavily Democratic. And blacks now enjoy full voting and citizenship rights and form the backbone of the progressive movement.
Another difference is that the modern progressive movement is almost totally devoid of support from members of the Republican Party. The modern progressive movement can best be understood ideologically as a mixture of center-left Democrats, left and far-left Democrats, and elements of Greens and non-aligned far-left independents (whose participation is heavily dependent on mini-cycles and message/personality). Insofar as the new progressive movement involves Republicans, they are no longer Republicans.
They have been driven out over the modern GOP's social conservatism, opposition to science-based policy/efficient government, lack of respect for civil liberties, corruption, and/or their foreign adventurism.
The modern progressive movement is more diverse in every way from the prior one. It has more geographic scope, involves a wider array of ethnicities, races, and religions, and brings together rather than separating the urban community. And, yet, very few elected politicians in Washington represent progressive values as they are daily expressed in everything from the Blogosphere to black/Hispanic radio, to college newspapers. Our lack of representation actually unites us and helps keep some of our internal divisions hidden...at least, most of the time.
For, while progressives are united in opposing corruption and supporting good government in the interest of relieving social and economic distress, we have many differences. I often separate progressives into two subcategories: Academic Progressives and Urban Progressives. The reason I do this is to highlight our differences. Most people do not actually belong in just one camp, but life-experience counts for a lot.
In the broadest terms, Academic Progressives differ from Urban Progressives in the urgency and focus of their approach. Academics like to devise long-term strategies for ameliorating social ills. Perhaps because they like to develop positive slippery-slopes, they are always on the watch-out for negative slippery slopes. Academics are hyper-vigilant about separation of church and state (e.g., on school choice and faith-based charities), while Urban Progressives are more willing to accept any help they can get regardless of potential long-term consequences.
Because Urban Progressives work in their communities and face first-hand the day-to-day problems of the poor and dispossessed, they tend to have lower expectations (less idealistic) and focus on pragmatic solutions that solve problems in the very short-term. Urban Progressives might organize protests and petitions to keep the recreation centers and libraries open. Academic Progressives are more likely to explore ways to improve the stability of the city budget so that we don't face cyclical pressure to close public pools and libraries.
There can be surprises, too. Urban Progressives are concerned about police brutality, racial profiling, the war on drugs, and the availability of guns. But they're more concerned about crime and the lack of police protection against thugs in their neighborhoods. As a general matter, Urban Progressives are tougher on crime than Academic Progressives. They are more likely to see the necessity of gun ownership, for example, because the police cannot (or will not) protect them from home intrusion. They are less likely to oppose Stop and Frisk laws than Academics who are concerned with the slippery slope impact on civil liberties.
All these things are relative and averages, but there are real differences between progressives. Even something as simple as the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from pirates can split progressives. Someone told me today that I'm a right-winger because I applaud the job our Navy SEALS did and have no sympathy for the three pirates who were killed in the process. And I am constantly reminded that a small but significant percentage of the Academic Progressive Left actually does fit the negative stereotypes (Blame America First) and distrusts power to such a degree that they could never actually wield it.
But we have entered a new progressive era and we will be increasing our political power on the Left for some time. We won't agree on everything, but we'll agree on enough to maintain a coherent and stable left-leaning governing majority on the Congressional level. Progressives that understand power and respect and desire power will do well. Progressives that do not understand, respect, or desire power will remain, by necessity, outside critiquers who always insist they hold the only true progressive values.
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Progressive Divisions | 36 comments (36 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Contrary to what some progressive like to think, we live in a real world, with real dangers. Not all problems can be cured with idealogical purity. Reading progressive blogs I sometimes get a feeling some of the posters are not all that different in 'moral certitude' than 'wingers'.
It is possible to be proud of America, and Americans without being evil or jingoistic.
It is possible to love your country, but not necessarily like everything it does.
nalbar
by nalbar (nalbarsatgmaildotcom) on Mon Apr 13th, 2009 at 11:32:58 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
And I am constantly reminded that a small but significant percentage of the Academic Progressive left actually does fit the negative stereotypes (Blame America First) and distrust power to such a degree that they could never actually wield it.
I think there is a very small part, although it may seem larger as they tend to be the most vocal and follow politics very closely.
And I don't think the characterization 'blame America first' is accurate, but it's more of an empathy thing...ie, seeing the USA as others might, and being much more willing to see and acknowledge shortcomings. Also, I think progressives- by nature- tend to identify and side with underdogs and the oppressed, hence the rationalizing of the actions of the pirates.
by jdw on Mon Apr 13th, 2009 at 11:48:59 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Here's a MyDD piece that concludes:
Now ask yourselves, why are there pirates off the coast of Somalia?
Sorry, but I am not indifferent to the plight of Somalis especially when the root causes of their misery is US militarism and corporate greed. The US and the Europeans continue to put their noses where they don't belong. They poke at snakes and then wonder why the snake bites back.
Needless to say, he never built much of any predicate for Somalia's problems being caused by the United States. Europe? Maybe. The Soviet Union? Possibly. Regardless, it's all our fault. And, of course, the people that drew the maps that created Somalia in 1885. They were Americans...not!
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:12:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I see your point, but I think this is a very small but very vocal minority of progressives as a whole, perhaps very overrepresented in the blogosphere.
At least I hope so :)
Jeebus.
by jdw on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:29:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Here's Susie Madrak at Crooks & Liars:
I wonder which principled member of our corporate media will point out that, in the big picture, the Somali pirates are acting in self-defense?
Overrepresented? Sure. I said 'small, but significant.'
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:35:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I noticed a lot of comments like this at various blogs over the last several days. (Mostly from reader comments and not as featured posts.)
I assumed that this represents a very small minority, figuring that of maybe 100 progressives, a small minority of them are blog connected, even less blog active, and even less have these views. Dunno.
by jdw on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:02:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
No. It's much more widespread. It's still a small minority but they have a big megaphone.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:10:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
ugh.
by jdw on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:19:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
But you can't deny the role the US has played that has contributed to the continuing failed state-ness of Somalia, and that THAT is a major contributor to getting people to take up piracy.
by MNPundit on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 09:15:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Here
and
Here
The US is not the sum of the problem here, but we have not helped and we have often hurt, though I don't think there are any easy answers.
by MNPundit on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 09:21:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
No, I do deny that.
I think the United States was briefly allied with the Somali government during the Cold War and we tried to help them in 1992 with some humanitarian aid. The place is very hard to govern. It's not our fault. About the only blame I can place on America is that we sold them weapons that were later used in their civil war. We did nothing to promote piracy. He haven't had any interest in keeping Somalia a failed state, and we're right to consider its current state as a security threat to the whole world.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:36:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I never said we wanted to keep Somalia as a failed state, so don't put words in my mouth. But the policies we have pursued have had the effect of making the situation worse and at times, impeding what progress there is.
What do intentions have to do with that?
by MNPundit on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:16:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
if you look hard enough you can blame the United States for anything and everything. And sometimes we are directly to blame. But in Somalia? It's a very strained argument. There is a long line of Brits, Italians, Soviets, and Somalis ahead of us that can take blame first.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:19:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I agree with your take completely but didn't the US military support Ethopia with aid in the most recent conflict?
Blue Tidal Wave
by Mac G on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:39:07 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Yes:
WASHINGTON -- The United States has quietly poured weapons and military advisers into Ethiopia, whose recent invasion of Somalia opened a new front in the Bush administration's war on terrorism.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:48:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Getting there - but ... (none / 0)
Look at the "new way forward" banking plan promoted by OpenLeft and FDL and similar and you will see that the "academic left" is not really about much change in the status quo at all. They are about: we need more regulations and people like us doing the regulating.
by rootless2 (sansracine_at_yahoo_dot_fr) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 07:59:10 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 1)
An Inconvenient opinion, apparently:
Beyond Pirate Rescue: What's Really Happening in Somalia?
by Valtin [Subscribe]
Share this on Twitter - Beyond Pirate Rescue: What's Really Happening in Somalia? Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 11:16:03 AM PDT
The dramatic rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates made for smash headlines in the U.S. and around the world, but is not the first such dramatic rescue from pirates in these waters. The French had dramatic video footage of one of their captures.
What has not been covered in the news, obsessed with GOP hopes for Obama's first big failure, and Democrats patriotic triumphalism, is that the U.S. has played a big role in plunging Somalia into the chaos that has allowed piracy to take hold there, and that it's an open question how the Obama administration will deal with the bigger picture.
This diary is an attempt to cover these two issues.
Valtin's diary :: ::
No one wants to see an innocent man be killed or held hostage, so it was with some satisfaction that most heard of the rescue of the sea captain who had offered himself up as hostage for the safety of his crew.
But this kind of small scale human drama is dwarfed by the reality of what has been happening in Somalia for almost two decades now. I don't know why large-scale human drama doesn't play as well in the U.S. media, but I suspect it is because when it serves U.S. interests to exploit a tragedy, headlines are rolled out.
When the tragedy, such as the millions of refugees created by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, is politically inconvenient, the headlines are mysteriously absent.
An Inconvient Fact: The U.S. Helped Create the Conditions for Piracy
From Times Online (a conservative UK newspaper -- emphases added -- H/T Chris Floyd):
Years of violence, neglect and misguided policies have left Somalia one of the most dangerous countries and a breeding ground for the pirates attacking one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
Today the northeast area of the country, including Puntland, has been carved up by warlords who finance themselves by drug and gun running.
This is also the heartland of the pirates, whose main backers are linked to the Western-backed government. Radical Islamists control much of the south, including the key port of Kismayo and the porous border area with Kenya, a staunch Western ally.
This has realised a Western nightmare, which was supposed to have been destroyed by Ethiopia's American-backed invasion of Somalia two years ago in support of a puppet government created by the international community.
That alliance spanned the spectrum from extreme radicals to moderate, devout Muslims.
The latter were in charge.
Everyone - except Pentagon planners, it seems - knew that Somalia had never proved fertile territory for Saudi-style radical Islam. However, indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas by Ethiopia, Somalia's historic enemy, with huge casualties, put an end to that.
The Islamists were driven out, the moderates went into exile and the hardliners took control of the south with a popular powerbase beyond their wildest dreams.
Approximately 20,000 have died, and almost two million people have been displaced in this senseless civil war, prompted in part by the U.S., and certainly a proxy war with numerous players (the U.S., Ethiopia, various Arab states, Eritrea, even North Korea!, as we shall see).
So while I'm glad this sea captain was rescued, I don't look at the U.S. government as some sort of savior.
And I certainly am not angry at Somalians, who did not ask for the rule of warlords, pirates, and hardline Islamists in a fractured state ruling over them. Many have fled for the refugee camps already.
The Huffington Post published an article yesterday by Joanne Offer, IRC information officer in Nairobi, describing the miserable conditions in which a quarter-million Somalian refugees are living in the overcrowded Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya.
Dr. Vincent Kahi, the IRC's health coordinator, described a cholera outbreak: "To date, the number of cases . . . has been small --- just 26 --- and we have managed to contain the outbreak, but resources in the camps remain massively overstretched and provide ideal conditions for diseases like cholera to keep coming back. All [aid] agencies in Dadaab are doing their best, but the sheer number of people in such a small space and in an area with water scarcity is a recipe for future problems."
While I do not blame Obama -- and please note this, readers who may think I'm trashing Obama -- such facts mute any enthusiasm I have over this latest military show.
Again, I'm glad an innocent man was saved, but I'm sick of the U.S. media, who makes a huge thing because it's an American life, but barely makes a peep over what U.S. policy in the region has wrought in past years, and to the miserable suffering of the people in the region.
Convergent Evidence of U.S. Duplicity in Somalia
Those touting the U.S. raid as some sort of Entebbe, i.e., a military action that will make others think twice about messing with the big, bad United States, just don't get it.
Even U.S. Naval Forces Central Command chief Vice Adm. Bill Gortney stated after the rescue, "This could escalate violence in this part of the world, no question about it."
Other pirates in the region are quoted as making violent threats, but the real truth is that the pirates already understand that the U.S. will intervene in their region at will, as in the backing the Ethiopian invasion of their country to overthrow their government.
Does anyone really think that this one incident will significantly change their consciousness of what the U.S. can do?
A commenter in another diary called Somalia "a pawn of foreign interests and paranoia"? I'd say so. The former includes the United States, and their paranoia is well-earned.
From an article in The Progressive in Dec. 2008:
Alas, there are no good guys in this war. Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi is a nasty piece of work. He has been a darling of the United States ever since the Clinton Administration's time, when he was hailed as being part of the "African renaissance."
The war on terror has drawn Zenawi, a Christian leader of a religiously mixed but Christian-dominated country, closer to the Bush Administration. African renaissance man or not, he has been ruthless in his exercise of power.
For instance, Ethiopian security forces killed nearly fifty people in November 2005 in a crackdown on protests. They also arrested thousands, including politicians, journalists, and activists.
U.S. policy in Somalia is born out of desperation.
The United States abandoned Somalia after its failed mission in the early 1990s, and looked the other way as the country was mired in anarchy for the next decade. It was only recently that the Bush Administration, frightened by Islamic fundamentalism, began a dubious policy of handing out cash to Somali warlords as a way to check the Islamist militias....
The human toll of the invasion is increasing day by day.
Plus, the U.S. backing for the invasion will add to its unpopularity on the continent and in the Middle East. The African Union and the Arab League have called for Ethiopia to pull out, as have Kenya and Djibouti.
The United States should firmly add its voice, and instead of backing military adventures should invest in the Somali peace process as a way of staving off the Islamist threat.
The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia had full U.S. military backing. So you see, the Somalis have already tasted what U.S. military power can do. From coverage in Wired:
Citing the possibility that the Islamic Courts government was harboring terrorists, the Pentagon ordered gunships, fighters and warships to attack targets in Somalia, paving the way for Ethiopian tanks to sweep south, destroying Somalia's first relatively stable government in 15 years.
What Somalia was left with is starvation, tribal infighting, a brutal Ethiopian occupation and, ironically, a genuine Islamic insurgency where before there was only a suspicion of one....
Even the European Union warned the U.S. that bombing Somali towns "only escalates violence," as it purportedly goes after Al Qaeda Islamists.
Oh, and here's another example of U.S. duplicity and cynicism in the region that will blow your mind, from the NY Times in April 2007:
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, April 7 -- Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country's nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.
The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.
Obama and Somalia
What of President Obama's policy towards Somalia? One sea rescue does not make a foreign policy.
When he was running for president, Obama stated that he wanted "a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia."
Writing at Foreign Policy in Focus earlier this year, Francis Njubi Nesbitt described the situation for the new Obama administration (emphasis in original):
Among the litany of booby traps left by the Bush administration for the Obama team, Somalia could be one of the most complicated and bizarre....
The Obama administration, if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing is any indication, also views the Horn of Africa in the context of terrorism.
Nevertheless, Obama has also talked of his preference for diplomatic solutions. Somalia would be an ideal place to test his diplomacy.
Nesbitt described the particulars of the Ethiopian invasion, providing readers here with yet another description of the situation, the better for us to form an opinion of what has occurred in that part of the world.
Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in December 2006, backed by the United States, sparked an Islamist resistance that led to thousands of civilian deaths, displaced over a million people, and depopulated the capital, Mogadishu.
But instead of focusing on the aftermath of this crisis and helping foster a peace process, the United States, European Union, and other international actors are engaged in the more dramatic and media-friendly anti-piracy campaign....
While the pirates attract the lion's share of world attention, the Islamist militias are gaining ground and are sure to control the whole country once Ethiopia withdraws its troops.
The conflict has spread to other parts of the region, with suicide bombings in the formerly stable Somaliland and Puntland regions, piracy in international waters, and cross-border kidnappings in Kenya.
U.S. and EU actions and policies since 2001 were supposed to prevent this kind of chaos. By treating Somalia and the region as a battle-zone in the "war on terror," however, the international community has made things worse....
Nesbett describes U.S. policy in the Bush years as "obdurate and counterproductive." The CIA backed the warlords, "setting the stage" for the rise of the "Islamic Courts", which in turn stoked the invasion of Ethiopia, in the name of the "war on terror." As we can see, even the North Koreans got into the act.
What a concoction of cynicism, ignorance, misdealing, and big power politics, with the Somali people the innocent victims! The media talk about piracy and dramatic sea rescues does not change the situation in that part of the world.
In fact, if the chaos in Somalia, stirred up by the U.S. and Ethiopia, had not spilled into the world's sea lanes, then we most likely would not be talking about Somalia at all right now.
I can't take much from Obama's sign-off on the rescue of Capt. Phillips. I think the U.S. couldn't afford to let the captain of a U.S.-flagged ship (a rare enough thing in itself) be held hostage or killed.
But what now of Somalia? Most likely it will slip off the front pages, and the excited recommended diaries at Daily Kos, and back into its state of forgotten misery, a pawn in the U.S. perpetual war on terror.
Nesbitt ends his article hopefully. I don't share his sense of hope, but will end here, too, because at the moment, even desperate hope may be all we have.
Obama's pledge to change the Bush administration's belligerent and counterproductive policies could have far-reaching consequences for the region as a whole.
Also posted at Invictus
Tags: Somalia, Ethiopia, piracy, Richard Phillips, U.S. war on terror, war on terror, refugees, Barack Obama, Recommended (all tags) :: Add/Edit Tags to this Diary :: Previous Tag Versions
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dd
by lyvwyr101 (lyvwyr101@aol.com) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 08:41:57 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
The irony is that often those best equipped to wield power are scared of power and reluctant to wield it.
by MNPundit on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 09:22:59 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
a lot of what you say is accurate, but this:
Urban Progressives are concerned about police brutality, racial profiling, the war on drugs, and the availability of guns. But they're more concerned about crime and the lack of police protection against thugs in their neighborhoods. As a general matter, Urban Progressives are tougher on crime than Academic Progressives. They are more likely to see the necessity of gun ownership, for example, because the police cannot (or will not) protect them from home intrusion. They are less likely to oppose Stop and Frisk laws than Academics who are concerned with the slippery slope impact on civil liberties.
...has a lot of of problematic statements to unpack. A lot.
rban Progressives are concerned about police brutality, racial profiling, the war on drugs, and the availability of guns. But they're more concerned about crime and the lack of police protection against thugs in their neighborhoods.
Actually, it's not a question of more concerned about one or the other, but a balancing act. In Philly, for example, the system has been out of whack for years: we have neighborhoods that, thanks to Bush-era cuts, are patrolled by cops in cars who don't know the residents. As a result, when an incident occurs if the cops bother to show up at all, there is more likely to be brutality because the cops don't know anyone: both are due to the lack of community presence. Urban progressives like my neighbors and me want police protection against thugs, but not in the sense of a monolithic police state.
They are less likely to oppose Stop and Frisk laws than Academics who are concerned with the slippery slope impact on civil liberties.
That may be true among wealthy white progressives in neighborhoods far away from the poor, but among urban progressives who live in the neighborhoods targeted by stop and frisk, the opposite is true. We see stop-and-frisk as a police state tactic that will encourage racial profiling, target young black men indiscriminately, and breed distrust between the community and the cops.
In short, you are oversimplifying.
John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??
by brendan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 09:23:38 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
true. it would be a very long essay if i didn't.
but that's okay because we have a comments section to get into more detail.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:21:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Let me get this straight . . . Liberals that don't want to go around the world starting wars are academic wimps that will never have power so they should stfu, or something . . . .
Okay. Not a particularly novel argument (I seem to remember a good number of conservative Democrats and right-wingers mocking those opposed to Iraq war as being appeasing cowards that can never have power in America)
But I think you and Obama will discover the trappings of the super-warrior fighter killing the bad guys and laying down some justice will only get you so far. It's not a win-win for you and your man Obama--just ask Bush the dangers of mindless militarism to one's political fortunes.
Your killing and wars will not bring about your stated goals of peace in the Horn of Africa. It might bring Obama a small bump in the polls, and all these noxesistant people that were waiting for Obama to prove he's not a secret communist and is willing to use the military can relax. Yes, the media game of making sure our leader will order assasinations and military assaults is alive and well. And you and Obama have secret chubbies over this. how convenient. If we don't share in your childish death fantasies than we're not "serious" enough liberals and the real adults will never let us near real power because we're not smart enough to use military power just cause we can and to show the world we're not pussies.
That's all this is. You are puffing your chest out and you want to kill you some bad guys and you will use the very American political tool of claiming those that don't want war are pussies. It doesn't matter that your and your warmongering ilk are almost always wrong. You need the history book dude. You're clueless.
It's disgusting. And Obama (and this country) will fail if Obama takes the military bait to start conflicts throughout the World.
American empire as we know it is over. Whether you and Obama like that or not. You might have a couple of media coups up your sleeves. Democrats always like putting on the codpiece and playing commander and I'm sure Obama thinks he's a big man now and he loves everyone feeling his muscles and telling him how tough he looks. As you apparantly do. Do you feel like a tough guy? Jumping around in joy over an assasination. Did you dream about it? Or is it simple political opportunism for you? You see your chance for your man to look tough and this is your way of getting back at all those liberals that were saying mean things about Obama's "bipartisanship" (really his conservativism).
Is Matt Yglesias a big progressive pussy unlike you, the tough guy? http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-14/the-war-on-piracy/ Do you and your urban tough guys that like guns plan on prosecuting a war in Somalia? Do you know how many people died there? Via U.S. guns and weapons and from the hands of U.S. military? Are you going to be the tough guy and go fight in Somalia?
by SFHawkguy on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 11:30:29 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
"Let me get this straight . . . Liberals that don't want to go around the world starting wars are academic wimps that will never have power so they should stfu, or something . . . ."
That's so wrong, you deserve some sort of commendation.
by rootless2 (sansracine_at_yahoo_dot_fr) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:17:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
What do you think this is all about?
Bush and military wanted to be able to declare the whole world a war zone.
The legal justification for America's actions in Somalia 2 years ago was that 3 terrorists were responsible for the bombings in Kenya so we had to support a war (involving thousands of deaths) to bring these 3 dudes "to justice". It was subterfuge for the real agenda which was to get involved in the affairs of Somalia and prevent the Islamic Courts movement from taking over the country. It was a bullshit legal justification for starting and participating in a pretty good sized war.
Most of America was blissfully unaware because the pussy Democrats in Congress didn't want to look like pussies so they didn't say anything as our country waged a probably illegal action in Somalia.
Now, we hear we have to send the military in because of pirates.
To me, on its face, it appears the military is once again seeking justification for a wider war in the region that has nothiing or little to do with piracy.
Maybe it is in the U.S. interest to wage war on Somalia. I tend to think not.
But the U.S. Congress should declare war on Somalia if that is the case.
We don't need more bullshit wars for unstated hidden reasons. Especially when the political dynamic is a Democrat politician trying to seize on the popularity of a president at war who appears to like the game of going after the evildoers . . .
by SFHawkguy on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 02:58:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
what is it all about? Hostage rescue. Why are you turning into the Third World War. A man was kidnapped and held for ransom. He was freed. End of story. He didn't kidnap himself you know.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:05:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Because I see where this is going. It will be the justification for a greater military adventure in the region. It's the military's way of asserting it's power over Obama.
Crime happens throughout the world and throughout history. Declaring war on crime will not work.
This is simply a way for the military and the U.S. to assert it's ability to act throughout the world. We were like kids at the State Fair shooting gallery last time. Truckloads of Somalis were wiped out 2 years and where did it get us? Do we as a country really know enough to support a warlord over a Islamic fighter in Somalia? Haven't we learned that we don't know enough to pick sides in this battle and our bombs and death and destruction always make it worse?
We are always told that it is heroic actions of the noble Navy sniper (or whatever) that will save us. Then as we start wiping out whole villages or start dropping bombs on the "bad" guys it all goes to hell.
Don't fall for trick.
Pirates are bad. Crime is bad. But this is about a bigger military prescense in the area. That is not good for America. And you guys trying to sucker the U.S. into a wider war are the real un-American traitors. You would have the World in smoking ruins as you cling to your silly sniper fantasies. Did you dream about pulling the trigger yourself?
by SFHawkguy on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:14:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
give me a break.
The whole world is clamoring for some solution to the piracy problem. And in the whole wide range of American projection of power, nothing has more legitimacy as our role in securing safe shipping lanes. Working with the Chinese and European nations, we will find a way to make the Suez trip safe for shipping. And we should do that or we're worth a damn as a world power.
It's by far the least offensive aspect of our power.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:39:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Killing kidnappers is assassination?
I'm collecting quite a list of STUPID LEFTIST remarks. Maybe I'll make a little book for the holidays filled with these canards. The righties will buy them in droves. $$$$$
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:41:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I have no idea what happened on that boat. I really don't care. I know enough to be suspect of the story put out by the military. Some heroic sniper [legally] used deadly force to stop an illegal action. Great.
I'm refering to your not-to-hidden glee in sending a bullet into another human because it makes your man look like a tough guy.
And I'm referring to your glee in taking on the crazy left. You get them tough guy. You ever killed another human being? Even if it is legally justified?
You've just been waiting for your chicken hawk in chief to be able to bring in the guns and start shooting so you can battle the pussy peåçenik left and show that Obama is as American as American pie and the sweet justice of a sniper's bullet ripping through some subhuman beast on the horn of that subhuman continent. Kill all of America's enemies. That will surely get the heat off of Obama and we can all forget our collective problems as we breeze in and smoke these thugs. You in?
Write your foolish book about the "stupid left". I can tell this is where you've been heading. You, the real men on the left, will distract the country from its real problems as you and the rest of the tough guys go smoke you some evildoers.
Did you see how we smoked that Somalia scum 2 years ago. It was like a video game. Stupid Muslims riding around like big fat targets that we SMOKED . . .;
Tough guy. How'd that turn out? Or, are you urban progressives too touigh to get involved in un-American debates about war with us peacenik pussies? You know that America will support you as you smoke you some black African Muslim scum? Go for it. It will be a cheap political win for you.
Big man taking on the pussy left. You tell them how silly they are for not realizing that we can sniper assasinate our way out of our problems. Pussies on the left don't realize the power of a sniper assasian--or as Booman would have it--a super-partirot hero gunfighter bringin' American justice to the World.
You show us silly lefties. Write your silly book,
by SFHawkguy on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 02:49:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Your problem is much deeper than pirate killing.
It seems that you see it as unseemly for Americans to celebrate the successful rescue of one of our citizens because the price was the loss of life for three poor brown Muslims. You are putting a whole lot of your personal issues on me where they do not belong. I don't care if you personally are a pussy. I didn't say that you were. I'm just glad that Captain Phillips is safe and sound and that we had a bit of good luck. Politically, it is helpful to the degree that being decisive, lucky, and successful confers benefits on any leader. But the feel-good part of this is that Phillips was rescued unharmed, not that people got killed in the process.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:02:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
So now we're STUPID, too?
Fascinating, how quickly the "gloves come off" over other people's opinions. I guess we really "hit a nerve," for some people. Tough shit. That's how that goes.
dd
by lyvwyr101 (lyvwyr101@aol.com) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:47:35 PM EST
Truly Insightful (none / 0)
Progressives that understand power and respect and desire power will do well. Progressives that do not understand, respect, or desire power will remain, by necessity, outside critiquers who always insist they hold the only true progressive values.
Very well stated.
Let's include an observation. Barack Obama clearly belongs in the first group listed above but used superior political skill to convince the second group that he was "one of them."
Ergo, as time goes on, and history tends to write itself, there will be more and more of a reckoning of sorts as more and more of the folks in the second group become more and more aware that Barack Obama is not "one of them."
by Prometheus09 on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 02:30:37 PM EST
Re: Truly Insightful (none / 0)
I consider Obama to be a progressive, and you see signs of it all the time, including most recently his bold action inre Cuba.
But he's not where I want him to be on civil liberties. It's a huge problem that won't go away.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 02:52:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Implying that someone is mentally unstable because they disagree with you is a cheap shot. Be that as it may-do kidnappers usually kill their victims when they demand ransom?
I know little about the mentality or motives of kidnappers-while so many others seem to know so much-however, wrong though I may be, I thought that exchanging the hostage for money was the dynamic involved.
dd
by lyvwyr101 (lyvwyr101@aol.com) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:16:09 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
We are still made up of liberal Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and skewed toward the female gender.
A significant percentage of us are none of the above. There are a bunch of other religions in the mix, some of which lean heavily left, and of course, the biggest (and fastest-growing) non-Judaeo-Christian faction would be non-religious people.
As far as the pirates go, I don't frankly give a shit. As soon as you pick up a gun and use it to compel behavior, you have left the arena of civilized discourse and are, as far as I'm concerned, a fair target for anyone else with a gun. Those who use violence or the threat of violence to achieve their ends are in no position to complain when someone else uses violence to thwart them. And in the case of four guys with light arms engaging in a standoff with the US Navy, well, let's just say they earned their Darwin Awards just as surely as the folks at Waco and Ruby Ridge did with their hopeless standoffs. It doesn't matter who's right or wrong if one of the participants is unable to grasp simple matters of cause and effect.
by corvus on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:42:38 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
The Somali pirates were all teenagers, weren't they? There are violent, armed, and dangerous kids everywhere. Not just in Somalia.
No one works harder than law enforcement in dealing with violent and armed kids especially during hostage situations. Perhaps these kids were just not seen as being worth the time or the trouble.
dd
by lyvwyr101 (lyvwyr101@aol.com) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 04:10:55 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
yes, it appears that the kidnappers were all 19 or younger. Youth might explain their recklessness. Imagine thinking that you can outsmart the US Navy while they tow you in an out-of-gas motorboat and wind up with $6 million in cash.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 04:19:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Progressive Divisions | 36 comments (36 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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by BooMan
Mon Apr 13th, 2009 at 11:10:30 PM EST
Today's progressives are different from the people that lived during The Progressive Era but we share much in common with our forebears. Consider this description:
Progressives did not agree on a single agenda. They disagreed vehemently in their attitudes toward such subjects as immigration restriction and prohibition of alcohol. They were a diverse lot that included Republicans and Democrats, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and urban and rural reformers. Women's organizations stood at the forefront of the social reforms and policy innovations during the Progressive era...
...For the most part, Progressives were urban and college-educated, including journalists, academics, teachers, doctors, and nurses, as well as many business people.
Uniting these various reform movements stemmed from a preoccupation with the elimination of corruption and waste and an emphasis on efficiency, science, and professional expertise as the best ways to solve social problems.
A book published in 1913, Benjamin Parker De Witt's The Progressive Movement, argued that three tendencies underlay progressive reforms: the desire to eliminate political corruption, the impulse to make government more efficient and effective, and a belief that government should "relieve social and economic distress." Progressives wanted to apply the techniques of systematization, rationalization, and bureaucratic administrative control developed by business to problems posed by the city and industry.
Today's progressives, like the old ones, do not share a single agenda. We are still made up of liberal Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and skewed toward the female gender. We are still dominated by the urban, the college-educated, and the professional ranks. What's changed is mainly related to larger demographic and living-style changes that have occurred over the last century. For example, we're less urban now because we have suburbs and exurbs that house hordes of college-educated professionals.
Yet, our movement is more inclusive of urban and immigrant organizations because of the decline of machine politics and the rise of sophisticated community organizations in our cities. Many of our new immigrant communities are neither Christian nor Jewish, and progressives are increasingly secular in orientation (including toleration and the embrace of the Gay Community). The Hispanic population has exploded and trends heavily Democratic. And blacks now enjoy full voting and citizenship rights and form the backbone of the progressive movement.
Another difference is that the modern progressive movement is almost totally devoid of support from members of the Republican Party. The modern progressive movement can best be understood ideologically as a mixture of center-left Democrats, left and far-left Democrats, and elements of Greens and non-aligned far-left independents (whose participation is heavily dependent on mini-cycles and message/personality). Insofar as the new progressive movement involves Republicans, they are no longer Republicans.
They have been driven out over the modern GOP's social conservatism, opposition to science-based policy/efficient government, lack of respect for civil liberties, corruption, and/or their foreign adventurism.
The modern progressive movement is more diverse in every way from the prior one. It has more geographic scope, involves a wider array of ethnicities, races, and religions, and brings together rather than separating the urban community. And, yet, very few elected politicians in Washington represent progressive values as they are daily expressed in everything from the Blogosphere to black/Hispanic radio, to college newspapers. Our lack of representation actually unites us and helps keep some of our internal divisions hidden...at least, most of the time.
For, while progressives are united in opposing corruption and supporting good government in the interest of relieving social and economic distress, we have many differences. I often separate progressives into two subcategories: Academic Progressives and Urban Progressives. The reason I do this is to highlight our differences. Most people do not actually belong in just one camp, but life-experience counts for a lot.
In the broadest terms, Academic Progressives differ from Urban Progressives in the urgency and focus of their approach. Academics like to devise long-term strategies for ameliorating social ills. Perhaps because they like to develop positive slippery-slopes, they are always on the watch-out for negative slippery slopes. Academics are hyper-vigilant about separation of church and state (e.g., on school choice and faith-based charities), while Urban Progressives are more willing to accept any help they can get regardless of potential long-term consequences.
Because Urban Progressives work in their communities and face first-hand the day-to-day problems of the poor and dispossessed, they tend to have lower expectations (less idealistic) and focus on pragmatic solutions that solve problems in the very short-term. Urban Progressives might organize protests and petitions to keep the recreation centers and libraries open. Academic Progressives are more likely to explore ways to improve the stability of the city budget so that we don't face cyclical pressure to close public pools and libraries.
There can be surprises, too. Urban Progressives are concerned about police brutality, racial profiling, the war on drugs, and the availability of guns. But they're more concerned about crime and the lack of police protection against thugs in their neighborhoods. As a general matter, Urban Progressives are tougher on crime than Academic Progressives. They are more likely to see the necessity of gun ownership, for example, because the police cannot (or will not) protect them from home intrusion. They are less likely to oppose Stop and Frisk laws than Academics who are concerned with the slippery slope impact on civil liberties.
All these things are relative and averages, but there are real differences between progressives. Even something as simple as the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from pirates can split progressives. Someone told me today that I'm a right-winger because I applaud the job our Navy SEALS did and have no sympathy for the three pirates who were killed in the process. And I am constantly reminded that a small but significant percentage of the Academic Progressive Left actually does fit the negative stereotypes (Blame America First) and distrusts power to such a degree that they could never actually wield it.
But we have entered a new progressive era and we will be increasing our political power on the Left for some time. We won't agree on everything, but we'll agree on enough to maintain a coherent and stable left-leaning governing majority on the Congressional level. Progressives that understand power and respect and desire power will do well. Progressives that do not understand, respect, or desire power will remain, by necessity, outside critiquers who always insist they hold the only true progressive values.
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Progressive Divisions | 36 comments (36 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Contrary to what some progressive like to think, we live in a real world, with real dangers. Not all problems can be cured with idealogical purity. Reading progressive blogs I sometimes get a feeling some of the posters are not all that different in 'moral certitude' than 'wingers'.
It is possible to be proud of America, and Americans without being evil or jingoistic.
It is possible to love your country, but not necessarily like everything it does.
nalbar
by nalbar (nalbarsatgmaildotcom) on Mon Apr 13th, 2009 at 11:32:58 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
And I am constantly reminded that a small but significant percentage of the Academic Progressive left actually does fit the negative stereotypes (Blame America First) and distrust power to such a degree that they could never actually wield it.
I think there is a very small part, although it may seem larger as they tend to be the most vocal and follow politics very closely.
And I don't think the characterization 'blame America first' is accurate, but it's more of an empathy thing...ie, seeing the USA as others might, and being much more willing to see and acknowledge shortcomings. Also, I think progressives- by nature- tend to identify and side with underdogs and the oppressed, hence the rationalizing of the actions of the pirates.
by jdw on Mon Apr 13th, 2009 at 11:48:59 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Here's a MyDD piece that concludes:
Now ask yourselves, why are there pirates off the coast of Somalia?
Sorry, but I am not indifferent to the plight of Somalis especially when the root causes of their misery is US militarism and corporate greed. The US and the Europeans continue to put their noses where they don't belong. They poke at snakes and then wonder why the snake bites back.
Needless to say, he never built much of any predicate for Somalia's problems being caused by the United States. Europe? Maybe. The Soviet Union? Possibly. Regardless, it's all our fault. And, of course, the people that drew the maps that created Somalia in 1885. They were Americans...not!
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:12:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I see your point, but I think this is a very small but very vocal minority of progressives as a whole, perhaps very overrepresented in the blogosphere.
At least I hope so :)
Jeebus.
by jdw on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:29:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Here's Susie Madrak at Crooks & Liars:
I wonder which principled member of our corporate media will point out that, in the big picture, the Somali pirates are acting in self-defense?
Overrepresented? Sure. I said 'small, but significant.'
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:35:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I noticed a lot of comments like this at various blogs over the last several days. (Mostly from reader comments and not as featured posts.)
I assumed that this represents a very small minority, figuring that of maybe 100 progressives, a small minority of them are blog connected, even less blog active, and even less have these views. Dunno.
by jdw on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:02:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
No. It's much more widespread. It's still a small minority but they have a big megaphone.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:10:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
ugh.
by jdw on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:19:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
But you can't deny the role the US has played that has contributed to the continuing failed state-ness of Somalia, and that THAT is a major contributor to getting people to take up piracy.
by MNPundit on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 09:15:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Here
and
Here
The US is not the sum of the problem here, but we have not helped and we have often hurt, though I don't think there are any easy answers.
by MNPundit on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 09:21:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
No, I do deny that.
I think the United States was briefly allied with the Somali government during the Cold War and we tried to help them in 1992 with some humanitarian aid. The place is very hard to govern. It's not our fault. About the only blame I can place on America is that we sold them weapons that were later used in their civil war. We did nothing to promote piracy. He haven't had any interest in keeping Somalia a failed state, and we're right to consider its current state as a security threat to the whole world.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:36:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I never said we wanted to keep Somalia as a failed state, so don't put words in my mouth. But the policies we have pursued have had the effect of making the situation worse and at times, impeding what progress there is.
What do intentions have to do with that?
by MNPundit on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:16:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
if you look hard enough you can blame the United States for anything and everything. And sometimes we are directly to blame. But in Somalia? It's a very strained argument. There is a long line of Brits, Italians, Soviets, and Somalis ahead of us that can take blame first.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 01:19:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I agree with your take completely but didn't the US military support Ethopia with aid in the most recent conflict?
Blue Tidal Wave
by Mac G on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:39:07 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Yes:
WASHINGTON -- The United States has quietly poured weapons and military advisers into Ethiopia, whose recent invasion of Somalia opened a new front in the Bush administration's war on terrorism.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:48:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Getting there - but ... (none / 0)
Look at the "new way forward" banking plan promoted by OpenLeft and FDL and similar and you will see that the "academic left" is not really about much change in the status quo at all. They are about: we need more regulations and people like us doing the regulating.
by rootless2 (sansracine_at_yahoo_dot_fr) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 07:59:10 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 1)
An Inconvenient opinion, apparently:
Beyond Pirate Rescue: What's Really Happening in Somalia?
by Valtin [Subscribe]
Share this on Twitter - Beyond Pirate Rescue: What's Really Happening in Somalia? Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 11:16:03 AM PDT
The dramatic rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates made for smash headlines in the U.S. and around the world, but is not the first such dramatic rescue from pirates in these waters. The French had dramatic video footage of one of their captures.
What has not been covered in the news, obsessed with GOP hopes for Obama's first big failure, and Democrats patriotic triumphalism, is that the U.S. has played a big role in plunging Somalia into the chaos that has allowed piracy to take hold there, and that it's an open question how the Obama administration will deal with the bigger picture.
This diary is an attempt to cover these two issues.
Valtin's diary :: ::
No one wants to see an innocent man be killed or held hostage, so it was with some satisfaction that most heard of the rescue of the sea captain who had offered himself up as hostage for the safety of his crew.
But this kind of small scale human drama is dwarfed by the reality of what has been happening in Somalia for almost two decades now. I don't know why large-scale human drama doesn't play as well in the U.S. media, but I suspect it is because when it serves U.S. interests to exploit a tragedy, headlines are rolled out.
When the tragedy, such as the millions of refugees created by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, is politically inconvenient, the headlines are mysteriously absent.
An Inconvient Fact: The U.S. Helped Create the Conditions for Piracy
From Times Online (a conservative UK newspaper -- emphases added -- H/T Chris Floyd):
Years of violence, neglect and misguided policies have left Somalia one of the most dangerous countries and a breeding ground for the pirates attacking one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
Today the northeast area of the country, including Puntland, has been carved up by warlords who finance themselves by drug and gun running.
This is also the heartland of the pirates, whose main backers are linked to the Western-backed government. Radical Islamists control much of the south, including the key port of Kismayo and the porous border area with Kenya, a staunch Western ally.
This has realised a Western nightmare, which was supposed to have been destroyed by Ethiopia's American-backed invasion of Somalia two years ago in support of a puppet government created by the international community.
That alliance spanned the spectrum from extreme radicals to moderate, devout Muslims.
The latter were in charge.
Everyone - except Pentagon planners, it seems - knew that Somalia had never proved fertile territory for Saudi-style radical Islam. However, indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas by Ethiopia, Somalia's historic enemy, with huge casualties, put an end to that.
The Islamists were driven out, the moderates went into exile and the hardliners took control of the south with a popular powerbase beyond their wildest dreams.
Approximately 20,000 have died, and almost two million people have been displaced in this senseless civil war, prompted in part by the U.S., and certainly a proxy war with numerous players (the U.S., Ethiopia, various Arab states, Eritrea, even North Korea!, as we shall see).
So while I'm glad this sea captain was rescued, I don't look at the U.S. government as some sort of savior.
And I certainly am not angry at Somalians, who did not ask for the rule of warlords, pirates, and hardline Islamists in a fractured state ruling over them. Many have fled for the refugee camps already.
The Huffington Post published an article yesterday by Joanne Offer, IRC information officer in Nairobi, describing the miserable conditions in which a quarter-million Somalian refugees are living in the overcrowded Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya.
Dr. Vincent Kahi, the IRC's health coordinator, described a cholera outbreak: "To date, the number of cases . . . has been small --- just 26 --- and we have managed to contain the outbreak, but resources in the camps remain massively overstretched and provide ideal conditions for diseases like cholera to keep coming back. All [aid] agencies in Dadaab are doing their best, but the sheer number of people in such a small space and in an area with water scarcity is a recipe for future problems."
While I do not blame Obama -- and please note this, readers who may think I'm trashing Obama -- such facts mute any enthusiasm I have over this latest military show.
Again, I'm glad an innocent man was saved, but I'm sick of the U.S. media, who makes a huge thing because it's an American life, but barely makes a peep over what U.S. policy in the region has wrought in past years, and to the miserable suffering of the people in the region.
Convergent Evidence of U.S. Duplicity in Somalia
Those touting the U.S. raid as some sort of Entebbe, i.e., a military action that will make others think twice about messing with the big, bad United States, just don't get it.
Even U.S. Naval Forces Central Command chief Vice Adm. Bill Gortney stated after the rescue, "This could escalate violence in this part of the world, no question about it."
Other pirates in the region are quoted as making violent threats, but the real truth is that the pirates already understand that the U.S. will intervene in their region at will, as in the backing the Ethiopian invasion of their country to overthrow their government.
Does anyone really think that this one incident will significantly change their consciousness of what the U.S. can do?
A commenter in another diary called Somalia "a pawn of foreign interests and paranoia"? I'd say so. The former includes the United States, and their paranoia is well-earned.
From an article in The Progressive in Dec. 2008:
Alas, there are no good guys in this war. Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi is a nasty piece of work. He has been a darling of the United States ever since the Clinton Administration's time, when he was hailed as being part of the "African renaissance."
The war on terror has drawn Zenawi, a Christian leader of a religiously mixed but Christian-dominated country, closer to the Bush Administration. African renaissance man or not, he has been ruthless in his exercise of power.
For instance, Ethiopian security forces killed nearly fifty people in November 2005 in a crackdown on protests. They also arrested thousands, including politicians, journalists, and activists.
U.S. policy in Somalia is born out of desperation.
The United States abandoned Somalia after its failed mission in the early 1990s, and looked the other way as the country was mired in anarchy for the next decade. It was only recently that the Bush Administration, frightened by Islamic fundamentalism, began a dubious policy of handing out cash to Somali warlords as a way to check the Islamist militias....
The human toll of the invasion is increasing day by day.
Plus, the U.S. backing for the invasion will add to its unpopularity on the continent and in the Middle East. The African Union and the Arab League have called for Ethiopia to pull out, as have Kenya and Djibouti.
The United States should firmly add its voice, and instead of backing military adventures should invest in the Somali peace process as a way of staving off the Islamist threat.
The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia had full U.S. military backing. So you see, the Somalis have already tasted what U.S. military power can do. From coverage in Wired:
Citing the possibility that the Islamic Courts government was harboring terrorists, the Pentagon ordered gunships, fighters and warships to attack targets in Somalia, paving the way for Ethiopian tanks to sweep south, destroying Somalia's first relatively stable government in 15 years.
What Somalia was left with is starvation, tribal infighting, a brutal Ethiopian occupation and, ironically, a genuine Islamic insurgency where before there was only a suspicion of one....
Even the European Union warned the U.S. that bombing Somali towns "only escalates violence," as it purportedly goes after Al Qaeda Islamists.
Oh, and here's another example of U.S. duplicity and cynicism in the region that will blow your mind, from the NY Times in April 2007:
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, April 7 -- Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country's nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.
The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.
Obama and Somalia
What of President Obama's policy towards Somalia? One sea rescue does not make a foreign policy.
When he was running for president, Obama stated that he wanted "a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia."
Writing at Foreign Policy in Focus earlier this year, Francis Njubi Nesbitt described the situation for the new Obama administration (emphasis in original):
Among the litany of booby traps left by the Bush administration for the Obama team, Somalia could be one of the most complicated and bizarre....
The Obama administration, if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing is any indication, also views the Horn of Africa in the context of terrorism.
Nevertheless, Obama has also talked of his preference for diplomatic solutions. Somalia would be an ideal place to test his diplomacy.
Nesbitt described the particulars of the Ethiopian invasion, providing readers here with yet another description of the situation, the better for us to form an opinion of what has occurred in that part of the world.
Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in December 2006, backed by the United States, sparked an Islamist resistance that led to thousands of civilian deaths, displaced over a million people, and depopulated the capital, Mogadishu.
But instead of focusing on the aftermath of this crisis and helping foster a peace process, the United States, European Union, and other international actors are engaged in the more dramatic and media-friendly anti-piracy campaign....
While the pirates attract the lion's share of world attention, the Islamist militias are gaining ground and are sure to control the whole country once Ethiopia withdraws its troops.
The conflict has spread to other parts of the region, with suicide bombings in the formerly stable Somaliland and Puntland regions, piracy in international waters, and cross-border kidnappings in Kenya.
U.S. and EU actions and policies since 2001 were supposed to prevent this kind of chaos. By treating Somalia and the region as a battle-zone in the "war on terror," however, the international community has made things worse....
Nesbett describes U.S. policy in the Bush years as "obdurate and counterproductive." The CIA backed the warlords, "setting the stage" for the rise of the "Islamic Courts", which in turn stoked the invasion of Ethiopia, in the name of the "war on terror." As we can see, even the North Koreans got into the act.
What a concoction of cynicism, ignorance, misdealing, and big power politics, with the Somali people the innocent victims! The media talk about piracy and dramatic sea rescues does not change the situation in that part of the world.
In fact, if the chaos in Somalia, stirred up by the U.S. and Ethiopia, had not spilled into the world's sea lanes, then we most likely would not be talking about Somalia at all right now.
I can't take much from Obama's sign-off on the rescue of Capt. Phillips. I think the U.S. couldn't afford to let the captain of a U.S.-flagged ship (a rare enough thing in itself) be held hostage or killed.
But what now of Somalia? Most likely it will slip off the front pages, and the excited recommended diaries at Daily Kos, and back into its state of forgotten misery, a pawn in the U.S. perpetual war on terror.
Nesbitt ends his article hopefully. I don't share his sense of hope, but will end here, too, because at the moment, even desperate hope may be all we have.
Obama's pledge to change the Bush administration's belligerent and counterproductive policies could have far-reaching consequences for the region as a whole.
Also posted at Invictus
Tags: Somalia, Ethiopia, piracy, Richard Phillips, U.S. war on terror, war on terror, refugees, Barack Obama, Recommended (all tags) :: Add/Edit Tags to this Diary :: Previous Tag Versions
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dd
by lyvwyr101 (lyvwyr101@aol.com) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 08:41:57 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
The irony is that often those best equipped to wield power are scared of power and reluctant to wield it.
by MNPundit on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 09:22:59 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
a lot of what you say is accurate, but this:
Urban Progressives are concerned about police brutality, racial profiling, the war on drugs, and the availability of guns. But they're more concerned about crime and the lack of police protection against thugs in their neighborhoods. As a general matter, Urban Progressives are tougher on crime than Academic Progressives. They are more likely to see the necessity of gun ownership, for example, because the police cannot (or will not) protect them from home intrusion. They are less likely to oppose Stop and Frisk laws than Academics who are concerned with the slippery slope impact on civil liberties.
...has a lot of of problematic statements to unpack. A lot.
rban Progressives are concerned about police brutality, racial profiling, the war on drugs, and the availability of guns. But they're more concerned about crime and the lack of police protection against thugs in their neighborhoods.
Actually, it's not a question of more concerned about one or the other, but a balancing act. In Philly, for example, the system has been out of whack for years: we have neighborhoods that, thanks to Bush-era cuts, are patrolled by cops in cars who don't know the residents. As a result, when an incident occurs if the cops bother to show up at all, there is more likely to be brutality because the cops don't know anyone: both are due to the lack of community presence. Urban progressives like my neighbors and me want police protection against thugs, but not in the sense of a monolithic police state.
They are less likely to oppose Stop and Frisk laws than Academics who are concerned with the slippery slope impact on civil liberties.
That may be true among wealthy white progressives in neighborhoods far away from the poor, but among urban progressives who live in the neighborhoods targeted by stop and frisk, the opposite is true. We see stop-and-frisk as a police state tactic that will encourage racial profiling, target young black men indiscriminately, and breed distrust between the community and the cops.
In short, you are oversimplifying.
John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??
by brendan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 09:23:38 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
true. it would be a very long essay if i didn't.
but that's okay because we have a comments section to get into more detail.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:21:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Let me get this straight . . . Liberals that don't want to go around the world starting wars are academic wimps that will never have power so they should stfu, or something . . . .
Okay. Not a particularly novel argument (I seem to remember a good number of conservative Democrats and right-wingers mocking those opposed to Iraq war as being appeasing cowards that can never have power in America)
But I think you and Obama will discover the trappings of the super-warrior fighter killing the bad guys and laying down some justice will only get you so far. It's not a win-win for you and your man Obama--just ask Bush the dangers of mindless militarism to one's political fortunes.
Your killing and wars will not bring about your stated goals of peace in the Horn of Africa. It might bring Obama a small bump in the polls, and all these noxesistant people that were waiting for Obama to prove he's not a secret communist and is willing to use the military can relax. Yes, the media game of making sure our leader will order assasinations and military assaults is alive and well. And you and Obama have secret chubbies over this. how convenient. If we don't share in your childish death fantasies than we're not "serious" enough liberals and the real adults will never let us near real power because we're not smart enough to use military power just cause we can and to show the world we're not pussies.
That's all this is. You are puffing your chest out and you want to kill you some bad guys and you will use the very American political tool of claiming those that don't want war are pussies. It doesn't matter that your and your warmongering ilk are almost always wrong. You need the history book dude. You're clueless.
It's disgusting. And Obama (and this country) will fail if Obama takes the military bait to start conflicts throughout the World.
American empire as we know it is over. Whether you and Obama like that or not. You might have a couple of media coups up your sleeves. Democrats always like putting on the codpiece and playing commander and I'm sure Obama thinks he's a big man now and he loves everyone feeling his muscles and telling him how tough he looks. As you apparantly do. Do you feel like a tough guy? Jumping around in joy over an assasination. Did you dream about it? Or is it simple political opportunism for you? You see your chance for your man to look tough and this is your way of getting back at all those liberals that were saying mean things about Obama's "bipartisanship" (really his conservativism).
Is Matt Yglesias a big progressive pussy unlike you, the tough guy? http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-14/the-war-on-piracy/ Do you and your urban tough guys that like guns plan on prosecuting a war in Somalia? Do you know how many people died there? Via U.S. guns and weapons and from the hands of U.S. military? Are you going to be the tough guy and go fight in Somalia?
by SFHawkguy on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 11:30:29 AM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
"Let me get this straight . . . Liberals that don't want to go around the world starting wars are academic wimps that will never have power so they should stfu, or something . . . ."
That's so wrong, you deserve some sort of commendation.
by rootless2 (sansracine_at_yahoo_dot_fr) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:17:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
What do you think this is all about?
Bush and military wanted to be able to declare the whole world a war zone.
The legal justification for America's actions in Somalia 2 years ago was that 3 terrorists were responsible for the bombings in Kenya so we had to support a war (involving thousands of deaths) to bring these 3 dudes "to justice". It was subterfuge for the real agenda which was to get involved in the affairs of Somalia and prevent the Islamic Courts movement from taking over the country. It was a bullshit legal justification for starting and participating in a pretty good sized war.
Most of America was blissfully unaware because the pussy Democrats in Congress didn't want to look like pussies so they didn't say anything as our country waged a probably illegal action in Somalia.
Now, we hear we have to send the military in because of pirates.
To me, on its face, it appears the military is once again seeking justification for a wider war in the region that has nothiing or little to do with piracy.
Maybe it is in the U.S. interest to wage war on Somalia. I tend to think not.
But the U.S. Congress should declare war on Somalia if that is the case.
We don't need more bullshit wars for unstated hidden reasons. Especially when the political dynamic is a Democrat politician trying to seize on the popularity of a president at war who appears to like the game of going after the evildoers . . .
by SFHawkguy on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 02:58:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
what is it all about? Hostage rescue. Why are you turning into the Third World War. A man was kidnapped and held for ransom. He was freed. End of story. He didn't kidnap himself you know.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:05:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Because I see where this is going. It will be the justification for a greater military adventure in the region. It's the military's way of asserting it's power over Obama.
Crime happens throughout the world and throughout history. Declaring war on crime will not work.
This is simply a way for the military and the U.S. to assert it's ability to act throughout the world. We were like kids at the State Fair shooting gallery last time. Truckloads of Somalis were wiped out 2 years and where did it get us? Do we as a country really know enough to support a warlord over a Islamic fighter in Somalia? Haven't we learned that we don't know enough to pick sides in this battle and our bombs and death and destruction always make it worse?
We are always told that it is heroic actions of the noble Navy sniper (or whatever) that will save us. Then as we start wiping out whole villages or start dropping bombs on the "bad" guys it all goes to hell.
Don't fall for trick.
Pirates are bad. Crime is bad. But this is about a bigger military prescense in the area. That is not good for America. And you guys trying to sucker the U.S. into a wider war are the real un-American traitors. You would have the World in smoking ruins as you cling to your silly sniper fantasies. Did you dream about pulling the trigger yourself?
by SFHawkguy on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:14:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
give me a break.
The whole world is clamoring for some solution to the piracy problem. And in the whole wide range of American projection of power, nothing has more legitimacy as our role in securing safe shipping lanes. Working with the Chinese and European nations, we will find a way to make the Suez trip safe for shipping. And we should do that or we're worth a damn as a world power.
It's by far the least offensive aspect of our power.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:39:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Killing kidnappers is assassination?
I'm collecting quite a list of STUPID LEFTIST remarks. Maybe I'll make a little book for the holidays filled with these canards. The righties will buy them in droves. $$$$$
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:41:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
I have no idea what happened on that boat. I really don't care. I know enough to be suspect of the story put out by the military. Some heroic sniper [legally] used deadly force to stop an illegal action. Great.
I'm refering to your not-to-hidden glee in sending a bullet into another human because it makes your man look like a tough guy.
And I'm referring to your glee in taking on the crazy left. You get them tough guy. You ever killed another human being? Even if it is legally justified?
You've just been waiting for your chicken hawk in chief to be able to bring in the guns and start shooting so you can battle the pussy peåçenik left and show that Obama is as American as American pie and the sweet justice of a sniper's bullet ripping through some subhuman beast on the horn of that subhuman continent. Kill all of America's enemies. That will surely get the heat off of Obama and we can all forget our collective problems as we breeze in and smoke these thugs. You in?
Write your foolish book about the "stupid left". I can tell this is where you've been heading. You, the real men on the left, will distract the country from its real problems as you and the rest of the tough guys go smoke you some evildoers.
Did you see how we smoked that Somalia scum 2 years ago. It was like a video game. Stupid Muslims riding around like big fat targets that we SMOKED . . .;
Tough guy. How'd that turn out? Or, are you urban progressives too touigh to get involved in un-American debates about war with us peacenik pussies? You know that America will support you as you smoke you some black African Muslim scum? Go for it. It will be a cheap political win for you.
Big man taking on the pussy left. You tell them how silly they are for not realizing that we can sniper assasinate our way out of our problems. Pussies on the left don't realize the power of a sniper assasian--or as Booman would have it--a super-partirot hero gunfighter bringin' American justice to the World.
You show us silly lefties. Write your silly book,
by SFHawkguy on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 02:49:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Your problem is much deeper than pirate killing.
It seems that you see it as unseemly for Americans to celebrate the successful rescue of one of our citizens because the price was the loss of life for three poor brown Muslims. You are putting a whole lot of your personal issues on me where they do not belong. I don't care if you personally are a pussy. I didn't say that you were. I'm just glad that Captain Phillips is safe and sound and that we had a bit of good luck. Politically, it is helpful to the degree that being decisive, lucky, and successful confers benefits on any leader. But the feel-good part of this is that Phillips was rescued unharmed, not that people got killed in the process.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:02:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
So now we're STUPID, too?
Fascinating, how quickly the "gloves come off" over other people's opinions. I guess we really "hit a nerve," for some people. Tough shit. That's how that goes.
dd
by lyvwyr101 (lyvwyr101@aol.com) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:47:35 PM EST
Truly Insightful (none / 0)
Progressives that understand power and respect and desire power will do well. Progressives that do not understand, respect, or desire power will remain, by necessity, outside critiquers who always insist they hold the only true progressive values.
Very well stated.
Let's include an observation. Barack Obama clearly belongs in the first group listed above but used superior political skill to convince the second group that he was "one of them."
Ergo, as time goes on, and history tends to write itself, there will be more and more of a reckoning of sorts as more and more of the folks in the second group become more and more aware that Barack Obama is not "one of them."
by Prometheus09 on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 02:30:37 PM EST
Re: Truly Insightful (none / 0)
I consider Obama to be a progressive, and you see signs of it all the time, including most recently his bold action inre Cuba.
But he's not where I want him to be on civil liberties. It's a huge problem that won't go away.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 02:52:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
Implying that someone is mentally unstable because they disagree with you is a cheap shot. Be that as it may-do kidnappers usually kill their victims when they demand ransom?
I know little about the mentality or motives of kidnappers-while so many others seem to know so much-however, wrong though I may be, I thought that exchanging the hostage for money was the dynamic involved.
dd
by lyvwyr101 (lyvwyr101@aol.com) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:16:09 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
We are still made up of liberal Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and skewed toward the female gender.
A significant percentage of us are none of the above. There are a bunch of other religions in the mix, some of which lean heavily left, and of course, the biggest (and fastest-growing) non-Judaeo-Christian faction would be non-religious people.
As far as the pirates go, I don't frankly give a shit. As soon as you pick up a gun and use it to compel behavior, you have left the arena of civilized discourse and are, as far as I'm concerned, a fair target for anyone else with a gun. Those who use violence or the threat of violence to achieve their ends are in no position to complain when someone else uses violence to thwart them. And in the case of four guys with light arms engaging in a standoff with the US Navy, well, let's just say they earned their Darwin Awards just as surely as the folks at Waco and Ruby Ridge did with their hopeless standoffs. It doesn't matter who's right or wrong if one of the participants is unable to grasp simple matters of cause and effect.
by corvus on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 03:42:38 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
The Somali pirates were all teenagers, weren't they? There are violent, armed, and dangerous kids everywhere. Not just in Somalia.
No one works harder than law enforcement in dealing with violent and armed kids especially during hostage situations. Perhaps these kids were just not seen as being worth the time or the trouble.
dd
by lyvwyr101 (lyvwyr101@aol.com) on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 04:10:55 PM EST
Re: Progressive Divisions (none / 0)
yes, it appears that the kidnappers were all 19 or younger. Youth might explain their recklessness. Imagine thinking that you can outsmart the US Navy while they tow you in an out-of-gas motorboat and wind up with $6 million in cash.
by BooMan on Tue Apr 14th, 2009 at 04:19:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Progressive Divisions | 36 comments (36 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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