[Peace-discuss] The message of wiki-leaks…

[David Green]

The two liberal responses in today's NYT are interesting. Rich's is that the 
Afghan war is on its downside, everyone knows it, so let's attend to other 
issues while war is ended by some vague process that will not require voluntary 
action on the part of the citizenry.

Thomas Friedman's response is that Americans are being played for suckers by our 
puppets, including Karzai, and the Pakistanis. He also offers an account that 
differentiates between the Saudi royal family and the Wahabbi sect--I haven't 
heard this before, and I suspect its either fiction or exaggerated. Of course, 
we nurtured the most "extreme" forces for our original foray into Afghanistan 
during the Carter administration.

In any event, in Friedman's narrative, idealistic well-intentioned Americans are 
being victimized by those trying to help them. Rich doesn't go that 
far--implicitly well-intentioned Americans have simply made lots of mistakes.

In addition, there's enough megalomania between these four ears to fill a wing 
of a psychiatric hospital, or perhaps the Pentagon.

DG




________________________________
From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: Brussel Morton K. <mkbrussel at comcast.net>
Cc: Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Sun, August 1, 2010 2:12:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] The message of wiki-leaks…

American liberalism is a closed oyster into which a mere grain of sand - the 
Wikileaks documents - has penetrated.  Here we see that echt liberal Frank Rich, 
equal to the challenge, beginning the process of covering the offending element 
with a first layer of nacre, by the same living process as is used in the 
secretion of the mother of pearl covering that lines liberalism's shell...

Behold - a pearl!

    Kiss This War Goodbye
    By FRANK RICH
    Published: July 31, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01rich.html?_r=2&hp


On 8/1/10 11:37 AM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:
> *From Paul Street on a ZNet article:*
> 
> “The lesson; no, the message; no, um, the takeaway of the leaked documents is
> not: if only they knew how badly it's going, how hard it's going to be, then 
>the
> administration would bring an end to the conflict. Rather, the takeaway; no, 
>the
> message is that even knowing how badly the war goes, they persist. The lesson 
>is
> not the Administration's blindness, but its dogged intransigence, its total
> commitment to the endeavor, regardless of the means or outcome, regardless of
> the possibility of reward, regardless of the cost, regardless of suffering,
> regardless of sense and duration. The United States has an institutional
> commitment to the occupation of Afghanistan. It can't be argued out of 
>it.”*[7]*
> *
> *
> One of the best reflections about Wiki-Leaks and related matters. See
> 
> http://www.zcommunications.org/revealing-moments-by-paul-street
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