[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] News notes for the AWARE meeting 2008-01-20: faction fights

[Morton K. Brussel]

Shame on you---the Boston game was over---but thanks for a good recap  
of the news of the week.  --mkb


On Jan 21, 2008, at 2:17 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> [AWAREists-- Sorry I wasn't there to deliver these last night, but  
> I was investigating a faction fight amongst uniformed forces (the  
> professional football playoffs...) --CGE]
>
>
> SUNDAY 20 JANUARY 2008. ONE YEAR FROM TODAY a new chief magistrate of
> the United States of America is scheduled to be inaugurated.  I think
> however it would be a mistake to think either (a) the Bush
> administration is over, or (b) the new administration will follow
> substantially different policies, absent serious public pressure  --
> which of course it is the business of the media and the political  
> system
> to prevent.
>
> [1] FEAR AND LOATHING OF THE ECONOMY have so possessed the authorities
> in the central bank and the treasury that they've sent out the  
> president
> and the chairman of the Federal Reserve to say that nothing's  
> wrong, but they're going to fix it: interest rate cuts and a $150B  
> “stimulus package” (which I thought was what I keep getting spam  
> about).
> 	The economic news is in fact quite bad, and it's suggested that  
> the authorities are aware of worse to come.  The Dow-Jones industrial
> average is down 2,000 points from its October high; wholesale  
> inflation
> has taken the worst jump in 26 years; and the Financial Times reports
> that a rise in import prices spurs fears of 1970s-style stagflation
> (prices go up, jobs go down).
> 	There will probably be a decline in buying and selling in 2008 and  
> a concomitant rise in unemployment (“recession”).  Most Americans  
> will find their economic circumstances tightening further, while  
> the few who control wealth and power will do very well.  E.g., Alan  
> Greenspan, the Ayn Rand devotee who as chairman of the Federal  
> Reserve shaped the
> policies that gave us the now-burst housing bubble, has gone to  
> work for
> a hedge fund manager, John Paulson, who personally made billions [sic]
> this year by shorting the subprime crisis – which Greenspan's policies
> caused.  Alan, who really wanted to be a jazz musician when he was
> young, goes to his reward...
>
> [2] THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE LAST YEAR OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
> apparently is being shaped by a bitter fight within the only effective
> branch of the USG, the executive, between the war party (centered  
> in the
> OVP and the Rumsfeld civilians in the Pentagon) and the foreign policy
> establishment (the “permanent government,” centered in the  
> “intelligence
> community,” the Department of State, and the uniformed military –  
> itself
> riven by faction).  Both are of course devoted to the constant goal of
> US foreign policy – control of ME energy resources as a strangle- 
> hold on
> America's economic rivals – but they differ in tactics (notably
> regarding attacking Iran).  The latter seems recently to have gone  
> into
> the ascendant (perhaps because of a shift by Bush and the White House
> from Cheney to Rice/Gates).  The change was announced by the recent
> National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which – contrary to the war
> party's frenzied claims – said that Iran was not much of a threat.
> 	On his ME trip, Bush seemed to distance himself from the report –  
> by saying that it was crafted by “independent” spy agencies  
> (independent from the war party, he means) who “come to conclusions  
> separate from what I may or may not want” [sic].  But the White  
> House rushed forward Thursday to contradict him, according to  
> Agence-France Presse: White House spokesman Tony Fratto told  
> reporters, “The president stands by the full scope of the findings  
> in that they were put together by incredibly dedicated people that  
> did their best work and put their best views out”!
> 	Meanwhile, the corresponding factions in the military are openly
> debating troop cuts in Iraq: US Iraq commander Petraeus says that he
> will decide (as Bush indicated), and the Joint Chiefs of Staff reply
> that no, he won't: they will.  And the chairman of the JCS casually
> outrages the war party by saying that the US concentration camp at
> Guantanamo Bay should be closed!
>
> [3] THE WAR CONTINUES, ALTHOUGH THE COVERAGE DOESN'T.  The U.S.
> conducted more than five times as many airstrikes in Iraq in 2007  
> as it
> did in 2006.  And the “war on terror” moves East to the “good war,”
> avidly promoted by the Democrats.  (See John Pilger's piece on the war
> in Afghanistan, “The 'Good War' is a Bad War.”)  SOD Gates faults NATO
> forces in southern Afghanistan for not trying hard enough.  Lord  
> Ashdown
> (“Paddy” from his schoolboy NIreland accent), the UN proconsul in  
> Bosnia (and former special forces officer and leader of the Liberal  
> Democrat party) will become the United Nations' envoy to  
> Afghanistan, “expected to achieve nothing less than to save the  
> faltering Western mission in
> Afghanistan,” says the British press.
> 	Admiral William Fallon, the commander of CENTCOM [the US military  
> district of the Middle East] says that Pakistan OKs a bigger US  
> role after “negotiations” with Musharraf who had previously vigorously
> rejected such a suggestion.  (Fallon, technically Petraeus' superior,
> seems not to have denied the story, put about by Pentagon sources,  
> that
> at their first meeting in Baghdad in March, Fallon told Petraeus  
> that he
> considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I
> hate people like that.")
>
> [4] DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE MIKE MCCONNELL is profiled in  
> the
> current New Yorker.  The article should perhaps be read as an  
> update to
> Tim Weiner's 2007 book, *Legacy of Ashes: the History of the CIA*.
> Weiner is a NYT reporter and no lefty, but he is a severe critic of  
> the
> US “intelligence community” from WWII on, for what he sees as  
> stupidity
> and incompetence. But he describes murder and criminality with a  
> curious
> acceptance that makes sense only under the supposition that, as Noam
> Chomsky recently titled an article worth reading, “We [i.e., the  
> US] own
> the world.”
> 	McConnell, a retired admiral who was Colin Powell’s intelligence
> officer before and during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and had  
> directed
> the National Security Agency [electronic spying] from 1992 to 1996,  
> was
> working for a defense contractor [“and finally making real money”]  
> when
> he was approached about the D.N.I. position.  He wants "reforms" to  
> the
> Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that will make the  
> current
> debate “a walk in the park.”  It was McConnell’s decision to  
> declassify
> the recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program,
> after he had initially said that it would remain classified.
>
> [5] MAKE FRIENDS FOR YOURSELF WITH THE MAMMON OF INIQUITY.  Stephen
> Cambone -- Igor to Rumsfeld's Dr. Frankenstein -- the Pentagon  
> spychief
> and head of special operations (murder and torture, free even of the
> control supposedly exercised over the CIA) while Rumsfeld was SOD,
> resigned when Rumsfeld did.  In 2006 Germany decided, within the legal
> framework of universal jurisdiction, to prosecute Cambone for the Abu
> Ghraib torture. (Nothing came of it.)
> 	Now Cambone has been hired by a “defense contractor” created by  
> the British Ministry of Defense.  Two months later the company  
> received a multi-million dollar contract for unspecified “security  
> services” from a Pentagon office that claims to monitor terrorist  
> threats to U.S.
> military bases in North America -- and was once reprimanded by the US
> Congress for spying on antiwar activists -- the “Counter-Intelligence
> Field Activity” office.  Cambone created the office while he was in  
> the Pentagon...
>
> [6] WILL IT SURPRISE YOU TO HEAR THE THE DEMOCRATS ARE NOT REALLY
> ANTI-WAR? House Democrats rolled over again this week and passed the
> defense bill that include exemption of Iraq from lawsuits dating  
> back to
> Saddam Hussein, as the administration demanded.
> 	A coalition of fake anti-war groups – Democratic party fronts like  
> MoveOn, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq et al. -- admitted  
> this week that they're not really going to oppose the war in the  
> Congress. ("Anti-war groups retreat on funding fight," read the  
> headline.) They'll simply try to use the war for the electoral  
> advantage  of the Democratic party against Republicans by questioning
> the administration's arrangements with the Maliki government.
>
> [7] THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES are a contemptuous parody of democracy,
> designed to forestall policies desired by the majority, such as an end
> to the war and universal health care.  But they will labor for another
> ten months to give us a run-off between two pro-war, pro-corporate
> candidates (so that it won't matter to our rulers which you pick).
> 	If it's McCain against Clinton, we'll choose between an authentic  
> war criminal and the wife of one, but the campaign and the media  
> successfully cover that over: in NH, the 34% of Republican primary
> voters who said they disapproved of the war voted overwhelmingly for
> McCain, a rabid advocate of the war, who's considering warmongering
> Democrat Joe Lieberman as a running mate!
> 	A new AP-Ipsos national poll reported last week shows that the war  
> and the economy tie as the top issues in the public's minds.  Robert
> Weissman at counterpunch.org reports polls that show that the "public
> holds Big Business in shockingly low regard."  The job of he  
> campaign is
> to erase these views.
> 	Since real issues can't be discussed, this week Clinton used race  
> against Obama (it had apparently been effective in NH); Obama  
> praised Reagan for dealing with the "excesses of the '60s and  
> '70s" (from Obama's book it's clear that he meant the anti-war  
> movement); and the surprisingly strong vote for Ron Paul in Nevada  
> -- because of his
> uncompromising anti-war position and worries about the economy -- goes
> unmentioned in the media.  And while all the other GOP candidates were
> ready to attack Iran after the (faked) Straits of Hormuz incident, Ron
> Paul alone expressed skepticism about it and and warned against a rush
> to war.
>
> [8] IN LATIN AMERICA, Guatemala's first leftist president since the US
> overthrew an elected government 50 years ago (see Weiner's book for an
> account of the stupid and criminal action by the CIA), Alvaro Colom,
> took office Monday with a pledge to help the poor; Brazil’s president
> offered Cuba a $1-billion line of credit; and the US foreign policy
> establishment, including the media, appears to think that Venezuela is
> off-base for supporting a negotiated solution to the conflict in
> Colombia – which is the result of US support for a murderous regime  
> there.
>
> [9] THE CHIEF CLIENT AT WORK.  Israel Defense Forces troops on Tuesday
> killed at least 19 Palestinians, including three civilians, in ground
> and air attacks on the Gaza Strip.  In Israel and the Occupied
> Territories, Israel has ordered the closure of all crossings into the
> Gaza Strip. The border had already been heavily restricted, but now  
> all
> goods have been blocked, including humanitarian supplies from the UN.
> This collective punishment was justified by the Israeli government
> spokesman who said, “It’s unacceptable that people in Sderot are  
> living
> in fear every day and people in the Gaza Strip are living life as  
> usual.”
> 	Israel needs to promote the war to resist US pressure for a  
> settlement. The Israeli paper Ha'aretz reported that – after Bush's  
> visit – a “senior American diplomat” (Rice?) made it clear to the  
> Israeli government that the USG disapproves of all building in East  
> Jerusalem and the West Bank -- including in the large settlement  
> blocs.
>
> [10] FINAL HOPEFUL NOTE (FOR LINDA).  New NYT columnist, the neocon
> William Kristol (once foreign policy advisor to Dan Quayle) seems  
> to get
> it right: "that National Intelligence Estimate ... was, I think, an
> attempt by the intelligence agencies to prevent the Bush  
> administration
> from sort of seriously considering taking action" (viz., bombing  
> Iran -- but they still might).
> 	The Regency wit (and a good bit more), Rev. Sydney Smith, when  
> walking through an Edinburgh alleyway, saw two women shouting abuse  
> at one another across the alley from their tenement windows.  
> "They'll never
> agree," he said. "They're arguing from different premises."  (And  
> Flann
> O’Brien improved on the line in At Swim Two Birds: "The conclusion of
> your syllogism, I said lightly, is fallacious, being based upon  
> licensed
> premises.")
>
> --Carl Estabrook <www.newsfromneptune.com>
>
>     ###
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