[Peace-discuss] Elizabeth Warren promotes pro-war agenda

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Lisa Abraham writes, "The honeymoon progressives were on with Warren  
is officially over. The good ideas she has about Wall Street reform  
can't make up for the fact she's yet another pro-Israel, pro-war hawk.  
So long, Lizzie."  We pointed this out some time ago on News from  
Neptune: h/t to our former producer, Dr. No. --CGE]

Published on Sunday, February 26, 2012 by Al-Akhbar (Beirut, Lebanon)
Progressive Democratic Hero Elizabeth Warren Enlists to Serve AIPAC's  
Pro-War Agenda
by Max Blumenthal
Few congressional candidates have excited the progressive base of the  
Democratic party as much as consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren has.  
With her tenacious advocacy for a consumer protection agency to fight  
unfair lending practices and her consistent framing of economic issues  
in terms of structural inequality has earned her enthusiastic  
promotion from major progressive figures from Markos Moulitsas to  
Rachel Maddow to Michael Moore.

Elizabeth WarrenWarren has focused her race against incumbent  
Republican Senator Scott Brown almost entirely around issues of  
economic justice, placing her quixotic battle for the Consumer  
Financial Protection Bureau at the center of her campaign narrative.  
During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Warren boasted that she  
succeeded in creating the bureau despite opposition from "the toughest  
lobbying force ever assembled on the face of the earth."

While progressives celebrate Warren for her fight against the big  
banks and the financial industry's lobbying arm, they have kept silent  
over the fact that she has enlisted with another powerful lobby that  
is willing to sabotage America's economic recovery in order to advance  
its narrow interests. It is AIPAC, the key arm of the Israel lobby; a  
group that is openly pushing for a US war on Iran that would likely  
trigger a global recession, as the renowned economist Nouriel Roubini  
recently warned. The national security/foreign policy position page on  
Warren's campaign website reads as though it was cobbled together from  
AIPAC memos and the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry by the  
Democratic Party hacks who are advising her. It is pure boilerplate  
that suggests she knows about as much about the Middle East as Herman  
"Uzbeki-beki-stan-stan" Cain, and that she doesn't care.

Warren's statement on Israel consumes far more space than any other  
foreign policy issue on the page (she makes no mention of China, Latin  
America, or Africa). To justify what she calls the "unbreakable bond"  
between the US and Israel, Warren repeats the thoughtless cant about  
"a natural partnership resting on our mutual commitment to democracy  
and freedom and on our shared values." She then declares that the  
United States must reject any Palestinian plans to pursue statehood  
outside of negotiations with Israel. While the US can preach to the  
Palestinians about how and when to demand the end of their 45-year- 
long military occupation, Warren says the US "cannot dictate the  
terms" to Israel.

Warren goes on to describe Iran as "a significant threat to the United  
States," echoing a key talking point of fear-mongering pro-war forces.  
She calls for "strong sanctions" and declares that the "United States  
must take the necessary steps to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear  
weapon" -- a veiled endorsement of a military strike if Iran crosses  
the constantly shifting American "red lines." Perhaps the only option  
Warren does not endorse or implicitly support is diplomacy. Her  
foreign policy views are hardly distinguishable from those of her  
Republican rival, who also marches in lockstep with AIPAC.

The same progressives who refused to vet Barack Obama's views on  
foreign policy when he ran for president in 2008, and who now feel  
betrayed that he is not the liberal savior they imagined him to be,  
are repeating their mistake with Warren. With AIPAC leading the push  
for war at the height of an election campaign, there is no better time  
to demand accountability from candidates like Warren. Who does she  
serve? The liberal grassroots forces that made her into a populist  
hero or the lobby seeking to drag the US into a dubious, potentially  
catastrophic war? It is far better for progressives to grill her on  
her foreign policy positions before the campaign is over than after  
the next war begins.

© 2012 Al-Akhbar

Max Blumenthal is the author of the bestselling book Republican  
Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party. He is a  
writing fellow at the Nation Institute and a senior writer for the  
Daily Beast. Visit his website, MaxBlumenthal.com.
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