[Peace-discuss] Queen of Chaos

Tue Apr 12 18:32:43 EDT 2016

April 12, 2016

            About a year ago, I concluded my book on Hillary Clinton,
<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0012KZTKZWWJ5LU_jH6ThqIfs-OMyAA_ogmSlxj7XiwYhER
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Z33MeLSijOTHAFwAQ==> Queen of Chaos, with a fairly pessimistic chapter on
the "War Party" which controls United States foreign policy. At the time, I
wrote:

            "A last-minute peace candidate would be a divine surprise. But a
real alternative to the War Party must be built up over time..."

            In fact, this primary campaign has produced a couple of
surprises, more earthly than divine. Both surprises reveal widespread grass
roots discontent with both Hillary Clinton and the whole American political
establishment.  However, this discontent so far fails to focus on the point
of my book: the need to combat the ideology and practice of U.S. war policy
personified by Hillary Clinton. Where is the effective alternative to the
War Party? 

Description: https://static.ctctcdn.com/letters/images/1101116784221/S.gif

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http://files.ctctcdn.com/b6e5da70101/825826f7-8d4d-49fe-9b5a-91bc2b72f2dc.jp
g

            Donald Trump has made it clear he wants to end the current
hysterical anti-Putin pre-war propaganda and do business with Russia.  This
sounds like a major step toward preventing nuclear war.  All to the good.
The problem is, Trump is a lone wolf.  Many of his supporters seem more
excited by style than by content.  Their multiple incoherent grudges against
the system do not add up to an anti-war movement.  Trump is unpredictable,
and it is hard to see where he would find the foreign policy team and the
support needed to overthrow the entrenched foreign policy elite.

            With Bernie Sanders, things are a bit the other way around.  The
Sanders campaign is creating an enthusiastic popular movement, with specific
aims in domestic policy.  Bernie calls for a "political revolution" and
insists that he cannot accomplish all this by himself.  All to the good. But
Bernie Sanders has said little about foreign policy. The radical shift in
domestic priorities advocated by Bernie implies drastic cuts in military
spending, but he has not been spelling this out. Despite his strong
opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he has been susceptible to the
"humanitarian" war cries of the liberal interventionists, who would
certainly strive to take charge of his foreign policy should he miraculously
be elected.

            So, Trump has the defiance, and Bernie has the movement.

            What is still lacking in this campaign is clear denunciation of
the very worst of Hillary Clinton's many negative traits: her eagerness to
go to war.   And it is not merely Hillary who needs to be defeated: it is
the entire militaristic power structure she represents.

            One hopeful sign is the resignation from the Democratic National
Committee of Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard in order bring her strong
voice against "regime change" wars into the Sanders campaign. There is a
chance that as it develops, anti-war sentiment may grow more explicit in the
Sanders movement, influencing Bernie himself and providing the social force
needed to confront the liberal interventionists within the Democratic Party.

            The occasion of this campaign should be seized not only to
expose the lies of Hillary Clinton, but also to seek freedom from America's
seven decades of subjugation to the military-industrial complex and its
organic intellectuals who never cease conjuring up "threats" and "enemies"
to justify the war economy. This entire policy needs to be exposed,
denounced and rejected. That is what I tried to do in Queen of Chaos.

            CounterPunch invited me to write this letter to advertise my
book at this crucial time, but I prefer to quote someone I admire, David
Swanson, who wrote:

"Diana Johnstone's forthcoming book, Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of
Hillary Clinton, succeeds in providing an understanding of Hillary Clinton's
own worldview like nothing else I've read -- and it does so despite being
largely not about Hillary Clinton. Johnstone's book is culture and political
criticism at its finest. It's a study of the American neo-liberal, with a
particular focus here-and-there on Clinton. I strongly recommend reading it,
whatever your level of interest in the 'Queen of Chaos' herself, for its
illumination of the ideologies underlying U.S. adventurism, exceptionalism,
and 'responsibility to protect', obsession with identifying believable
threats of 'genocide' in nations disloyal to Washington or Wall Street."

Sincerely,

Diana Johnstone

Diana Johnstone is the author of Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO, and
Western Delusions. Her latest book is
<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0012KZTKZWWJ5LU_jH6ThqIfs-OMyAA_ogmSlxj7XiwYhER
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Z33MeLSijOTHAFwAQ==> Queen of Chaos: the Misadventures of Hillary Clinton. 

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