[Peace-discuss] Power & slaughter

[C. G. Estabrook]

Frank Brodhead:

Alexander Cockburn's brief characterization of [Obama's NSC aide]  Samantha 
Power's/Problem from Hell/ as a study of "US foreign-policy response to 
genocide" is not quite accurate.  Among  its "case studies," the book includes 
only those situations/countries where the genocide was outside the US 
sphere/area of control.  It does not include any studies about genocides that 
took place in areas within the US sphere/area of control, such as Indonesia, 
Guatemala, Turkey/the Kurds, etc.  I asked her about this at one of her 
lectures; she said my complaint was false, because her chapter on Saddam's 
gassing of Halabja was of the period in which Saddam was a US ally/client. Not 
much of a defense....Whether deliberately or not, Power's argument for US 
intervention against mass killing is framed as an argument for expanding the 
United States' military reach, while not troubling itself about mass killing 
within its own sphere of control/influence.


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