[Peace-discuss] Rahm-Obama Bang Bang

[E. Wayne Johnson]

While the tireless faithful seek to steer BHO's foreign policy like 
dot.hack-ers huddling around by the dim light
personal computers deep inside the twin-cities of C-U, it might be 
interesting
to consider what is already choreographed and
cut if not dried crisply a long time already regarding the tone of the 
new administration.

from CounterPunch - October 24, 2006
Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats
The Book of Rahm

By JOHN WALSH

Last week in CounterPunch (1), I wrote that the chair of the Democratic 
Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Congressman Rahm Emanuel, had 
worked hard to guarantee that Democratic candidates in key toss-up House 
races were pro-war. In this he was largely successful, because of the 
money he commands and the celebrity politicians who reliably respond to 
his call, ensuring that 20 of the 22 Democratic candidates in these 
districts are pro-war. So the fix is in for the coming elections.

In 2006, no matter which party controls the House, a majority will be 
committed to pursuing the war on Iraq--despite the fact that the 
Democratic rank and file and the general voting public oppose the war by 
large margins. (I hasten to add that this state of affairs can be 
reversed even after the sham election between the two War Parties.)

What are Emanuel's views on war and peace? Emanuel has just supplied the 
answer in the form of a scrawny book co-authored with Bruce Reed, 
modestly entitled: The Plan: Big Ideas for America. The authors 
obligingly boil each of the eight parts of "The Plan" down to a single 
paragraph. The section which embraces all of foreign policy is entitled 
"A New Strategy to End the War on Terror," a heading revealing in itself 
since "war on terror" is the way the neocons and the Israeli Lobby 
currently like to frame the discussion of foreign policy. Here is the 
book's summary paragraph with my comments in parentheses:

    "A New Strategy to Win the War on Terror"
    ("War on Terror," as George Soros points out, is a false metaphor 
used by those who would drag us into military adventures not in our 
interest or that of humanity.)

    "We need to use all the roots of American power to make our country 
safe. (He begins by playing on fear.) America must lead the world's 
fight against the spread of evil and totalitarianism, but we must stop 
trying to win that battle on our own. (Messianic imperialism.) We should 
reform and strengthen multilateral institutions for the twenty-first 
century, not walk away from them. We need to fortify the military's 
"thin green line" around the world by adding to the U.S. Special Forces 
and the Marines, and by expanding the U.S. army by 100,000 more troops. 
(An even bigger military for the world's most powerful armed forces, a 
very militaristic view of the way to handle the conflicts among nations. 
What uses does Emanuel have in mind for those troops?) We should give 
our troops a new GI Bill to come home to. (More material incentives to 
induce the financially strapped to sign up as cannon fodder.) Finally we 
must protect our homeland and civil liberties by creating a new domestic 
counterterrorism force like Britain's MI5. (A new domestic spying 
operation is an obvious threat to our civil liberties; MI5 holds secret 
files on one in 160 adults in Britain along with files on 53,000 
organizations.)

There it is straight from the horse's mouth.(2)

How does Emanuel, the man who has screened and chosen the 2006 
Democratic candidates for Congress, feel specifically about the war on 
Iraq, the number one issue on voters' minds. Emanuel and Reed do not so 
much as mention Iraq in their book except in terms of the "war on 
terror." Nor does Emanuel mention Iraq on his web site as among the 
important issues facing us, quite amazing omission and one shared by 
Chuck Schumer who is his equivalent of the Senate side, chairing the 
DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee). However a very recent 
profile in Fortune (9/25/2006), "Rahm Emanuel, Pitbull Politician," by 
Washington Bureau chief Nina Easton notes: "On Iraq, Emanuel has steered 
clear of the withdraw-now crowd, preferring to criticize Bush for 
military failures since the 2003 invasion. 'The war never had to turn 
out this way,' he told me at one of his campaign stops. In January 2005, 
when asked by Meet the Press's Tim Russert whether he would have voted 
to authorize the war-'knowing that there are no weapons of mass 
destruction'-Emanuel answered yes. (He didn't take office until after 
the vote.) 'I still believe that getting rid of Saddam Hussein was the 
right thing to do, okay?' he added."(3)

When Jack Murtha made his proposal for withdrawal from Iraq, Emanuel 
quickly declared that "Jack Murtha went out and spoke for Jack Murtha." 
As for Iraq policy, Emanuel added: "At the right time, we will have a 
position." That was November, 2005. In June, 2006, it was obviously 
time, and Emanuel finally revealed his policy in a statement on the 
floor of the House during debate over Iraq, thus: "The debate today is 
about whether the American people want to stay the course with an 
administration and a Congress that has walked away from its obligations 
or pursue a real strategy for success in the war on terror. We cannot 
achieve the end of victory and continue to sit and watch, stand pat, 
stay put, status quo and that is the Republican policy. Democrats are 
determined to take the fight to the enemy." The refrain is familiar; 
more troops are the means and victory in Iraq is the goal.

The war on Iraq benefited Israel by laying waste a country seen to be 
one of its major adversaries. Emanuel's commitment to Israel (4) and his 
Congressional service to it are not in doubt. The most recent evidence 
was his attack on the U.S. puppet Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al 
Maliki, because Maliki had labeled Israel's attack on Lebanon as an act 
of "aggression." Emanuel called on Maliki to cancel his address to 
Congress; and he was joined by his close friend and DSCC counterpart, 
Sen. Chuck Schumer, who asked; "Which side is he (Maliki) on when it 
comes to the war on terror?" In terms of retired Senator Fritz Holling's 
statement that Congress is Israeli occupied territory, Rahm Emanuel must 
be considered one of the occupying troops. And he certainly is a major 
cog in the Israel Lobby as defined by Mearsheimer and Walt. Nor is the 
idea that the Lobby exists and has tremendous influence on Middle East 
policy any longer a taboo in the minds of the general populace. 
According to a poll just carried out by Zogby International for CNI (5), 
39% of the American public "agree" or "somewhat agree" that "the work of 
the Israel lobby on Congress and the Bush administration has been a key 
factor for going to war in Iraq and now confronting Iran." A similar 
number, 40%, "strongly disagreed" or "somewhat disagreed" with this 
position. Some 20% of the public were not sure.

But in some respects, Emanuel is a mysterious fellow, as evidenced by 
his biography, which is readily available on Wikipedia and in the piece 
in Fortune (3). But there are a few things missing or not fully 
explained. First, as is often pointed out, Emanuel's physician father 
was an Israeli émigré; but, according to Leon Hadar, he also worked 
during the 1940s with the notorious Irgun, which was labeled as a 
terrorist organization by the British authorities.(6) Perhaps Rahm's 
current interest in terrorism was first kindled at his father's Irgun knee.

Second, during the 1991 Gulf War, Emanuel was a civilian volunteer in 
Israel, "rust-proofing brakes on an army base in northern Israel." 
(Wikipedia, New Republic). This is peculiar on two counts. Here the U.S. 
goes to war with Iraq, but Emanuel, a U.S. citizen, volunteers not for 
his country, but for Israel. Moreover, here is a well-connected Illinois 
political figure with a father who had been in the Irgun, but he is 
assigned to "rust-proof brakes" on "an army base." Maybe.

Third, immediately upon his return from his desert sojourn, Emanuel at 
once became a major figure in the Clinton campaign "who wowed the team 
from the start, opening a spigot on needed campaign funds."(3) How did 
he do that after being isolated overseas, and with no experience in 
national politics? Fourth, after leaving the Clinton White House, he 
decided that he needed some accumulated wealth and "security" if he were 
to stay in politics. So he went to work for Bruce Wasserstein, a major 
Democratic donor and Wall Street financier.

According to Easton, "Over a 2 1/2-year period he helped broker 
deals-often using political connections-for Wasserstein Perella. 
According to congressional financial disclosures, he earned more than 
$18 million during that period. His deals included Unicom's merger with 
Peco Energy and venture fund GTCR Golder Rauner's purchase of SBC 
subsidiary SecurityLink. But friends say his compensation also benefited 
from two sales of the Wasserstein firm itself, first to Dresdner Bank 
and then to Allianz AG." Again for a newcomer to haul in $18 million in 
two years is almost miraculous. How did he do it? Next Emanuel won a 
seat in Congress in 2002, and by 2006 he was chair of the DCCC. Another 
near miraculous rise.

But Emanuel and his fellow hawks may yet fail to get their way. Major 
figures among the rulers of U.S. empire, and their well-compensated 
advisors, from James Baker to Jimmy Carter to Zbigniew Brzezinski to 
Mearsheimer and Walt, see disaster looming unless the neocons of both 
War Parties with their dual loyalties to the U.S. and Israel are brought 
to heel. Second and more important, the people are fed up with the war 
on Iraq and wary of other wars the hawks like Emanuel have planned for 
us. The politicians who win office, whether Rove's Republicans or 
Emanuel's Democrats, will have to deal with this rising tide of anger or 
risk losing their sinecures. That risk is offset by the machinations of 
Emanuel and others to guarantee that there is no genuine opposition 
party or movement. And that lack of a real opposition is a problem we 
must solve.

John Walsh can be reached at john.endwar at gmail.com.

(1) http://www.counterpunch.com/walsh10142006.html

(2) Emanuel and Reed also refer approvingly to Peter Beinart, the neocon 
warrior theoretician for the Democrats, warehoused at Marty Peretz's The 
New Republic, thus: "In his recent book, The Good Fight, Peter Beinart, 
explains why a tough new national security policy is as essential to the 
future of of progressive politics as a united front against 
totalitarianism and communism was to the New Deal and the Great 
Society." (This chapter ofThe Plan is titled: "Who Sunk My Battleship." 
Needless to say, the battleship in question is not the USS Liberty.) 
Emanuel and Reed also like Anne-Marie Slaughter's proposal for "a new 
division of labor in which the United Nations takes on economic and 
social assistance and an expanded (!) NATO takes over the burden of 
collective security." In other words the UN can do the charity work 
while the US-dominated NATO is policeman to the world. Quite a vision. 
And their call for more troops is shared by the Republican neocons, with 
William Kristol's Weekly Standard calling for 250,000 more for the army 
this past week.

(3)http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/17/

(4)http://www.radioislam.org/islam/english/jewishp/usa/rahmzion.htm

(5) http://www.cnionline.org/learn/polls/czandlobby/index2.htm

(6) J. Palestine Studies, 23: 84(1994).