Salon: Hillary Clinton and the ISIS Mess (by Jeffrey Sachs)

[Divernan]

The author of this Salon article is Jeffrey Sachs. Who is he?

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, “probably the most important economist in the world,” and by Time Magazine “the world’s best known economist.” A recent survey by The Economist Magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s three most influential living economists of the past decade.

Professor Sachs serves as the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals, having held the same position under former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and is director of the Millennium Villages Project. Sachs is also one of the Secretary-General’s MDG Advocates, and a Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development. He has authored three New York Times bestsellers in the past seven years: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). ). His most recent book is To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace (2013).

Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For more than a quarter century he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Society of Fellows, and the Fellows of the World Econometric Society. He has received more than 20 honorary degrees, and many awards and honors around the world. Professor Sachs is also a frequent contributor to major publications such as the Financial Times of London, the International Herald Tribune, Scientific American, and Time magazine.

Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as Director of the Center for International Development and the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/

Here are excerpts from his longer and very detailed article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/hilary-clinton-and-the-is_b_8627042.html

Hillary Clinton's speech on ISIS to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) showed clearly what to expect in a Clinton presidency: more of the same. In her speech, Clinton doubled down on the existing, failed U.S. approach in the Middle East, the one she pursued as Secretary of State. The CIA-led policy in the Middle East works like this. If a regime is deemed to be unfriendly to the U.S., topple it. If a competitor like the Soviet Union or Russia has a foothold in the region, try to push it out. If this means arming violent insurgencies, including Sunni jihadists, and thereby creating mayhem: so be it. And if the result is terrorist blowback around the world by the forces created by the US, then double down on bombing and regime change.

Thanks to America's misguided policies, we now have wars and violence raging across a 5,000-mile stretch from Bamako, Mali to Kabul, Afghanistan, with a U.S. hand in starting and stoking the violence. Libya, Sudan, the Sinai, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are all cases where the U.S. has directly intervened with very adverse results. Mali, Chad, Central African Republic, Somalia are some of the many other countries indirectly caught up in turmoil unleashed by U.S. covert and overt operations.

Until today, Clinton has not acknowledged the roots of the conflict in the region, including the disastrous role that the U.S. has played, including under her watch as Secretary of State. She has not been a mastermind of it, but has been a loyal backer carried along by the CIA, the broader military-industrial-intelligence complex, and the conventional neocon thinking in DC. That's no doubt good for her national politics. It's hard to run for President as an opponent of the permanent U.S. security state. Being a card-carrying member of the U.S. security establishment is the mainstream media's definition of a "serious" candidate.

Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders are learning this for all their troubles. O'Malley and Sanders wisely and correctly support an America that works with other countries and with the UN Security Council to build peace in the Middle East rather than an America that continues to indulge in endless and failed CIA adventures of regime change and war. While Clinton arrogantly demands that other countries such as Russia and Iran fall squarely behind the U.S., O'Malley and Sanders recognize that it is through compromise in the UN Security Council that we can defeat ISIS and find lasting solutions in the Middle East.

[peacebird]

1. A nation that doesn't take care of its veterans should not create more of them. Hillarys neocon

Warhawk tendencies are on full display.

We cannot bomb and kill our way to peace.

[firebrand80]

2. Let's stop pretending

that anyone has any good answers about what to do about the Middle East. Every time there's a new crisis, we're faced with several options, all of them bad. The ones that didn't make the decision can always point to the ones that made the decision and say "see, the current mess is because of the policy you chose."

The fact is the Middle East is likely going to be a mess no matter what we do. This post-WWII creation is falling apart, with or without us.

[Phlem]

3. We created ISIS Chief.

Apparently we do have an effect on the Middle east and how fucked it is.

No Fresh Thinking?

[Divernan]

6. HRC is a creature of the CIA, the MIC and the Pentagon

As discussed in the OP link:
In rare cases, great presidents learn to stand up to the CIA and the rest of the military-industrial-intelligence complex. JFK became one of the greatest presidents in American history when he came to realize the awful truth that his own military and CIA advisors had contributed to the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The CIA-led Bay of Pigs fiasco and other CIA blunders had provoked a terrifying response from the Soviet Union. Recognizing that the U.S. approach had contributed to bringing the world to the brink, Kennedy bravely and successfully stood up to the warmongering pushed by so many of his advisors and pursued peace, both during and after the Cuban Missile Crisis. He thereby saved the world from nuclear annihilation and halted the unchecked proliferation of nuclear arms.

Clinton's speech shows that she and her advisors are good loyalists of the military-industrial-intelligence complex. Her speech included an impressive number of tactical elements: who should do the bombing and who should be the foot soldiers. Yet all of this tactical precision is nothing more than business as usual. Would Clinton ever have the courage and vision to push back against the U.S. security establishment, as did JFK, and thereby restore global diplomacy and reverse the upward spiral of war and terror?

Just as the CIA contributed to the downward slide to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and just as many of JFK's security chiefs urged war rather than negotiation during that crisis, so too today's Middle East terrorism, wars, and refugee crises have been stoked by misguided CIA-led interventions. Starting in 1979, the CIA began to build the modern Sunni jihadist movement, then known as the Mujahedeen, to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The CIA recruited young Sunni Muslim men to fight the Soviet infidel, and the CIA provided training, arms, and financing. Yet soon enough, this US-created jihadist army turned on the US, a classic and typical case of blowback.

The anti-U.S. and anti-Western blowback started with the first Gulf War in 1990, when the U.S. stationed troops throughout the region. It continued with the Second Gulf War, when the U.S. toppled a Sunni regime in Iraq and replaced it with a puppet Shia regime. In the process, it dismantled Saddam's Sunni-led army, which then regrouped as a core part of ISIS in Iraq. Next the U.S. teamed up with Saudi Arabia to harass, and then to try to topple Bashir al-Assad. His main crime from the perspective of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia: being too close to Iran. Once again, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia turned to Sunni jihadists with arms and financing, and part of that fighting force morphed into ISIS in Syria. The evidence is that the covert U.S. actions against Assad pre-date the overt U.S. calls for Assad's overthrow in 2011 by at least a couple of years.

In a similar vein, the U.S. teamed up with France and the UK to bomb Libya and kill Muammar Qaddafi. The result has been an ongoing Libyan civil war, and the unleashing of violent jihadists across the African Sahel, including Mali, which suffered the terrorist blow last week at the hands of such marauders.

[Martin Eden]

11. Yes, let's stop pretending ...

... that the current mess is not to a large extent the consequence of our own terribly misguided interventions.

You are correct there are no easy answers, but future policy absolutely has be guided by understanding the negative affects of our own policies and implementing a fundamental change to our approach.

With Hillary Clinton, I think we can agree there will be more of the same.

[KoKo]

4. Interesting and surprising article from Jeffrey Sachs

[oasis]

5. Stick to your day job Sachs. When egg headed, numbers crunchers

think they know more about what's involved in the protection of America than those who have actually taken on that responsibility, they've gone far beyond their pay grade.

[Divernan]

7. Your superficial dismissal is why I included his credentials for all to read.

Those who have, in your words "taken on the responsibility" are exactly whom, if you may be bothered to provide any specifics. The CIA, the MIC, the Pentagon?

Whomever is responsible for this mess has nothing to brag about, let alone, as HRC would like to do, double down.

[oasis]

9. Economic strategy and knowledge of international trade won't

get it done when ISIS comes a calling.

[AlbertCat]

12. Economic strategy and knowledge of international trade won't

Actually.... it might!

Since the regime change and wars are mostly about oil and the hatred has a lot to do with "westerners" coming in and creating huge profitable enterprises that the local population does not benefit from.

We just had an article about how most men sign up as foot soldiers for ISIS because they are broke.

As far as the UN is concerned.... local "regime changed" governments just go with the sweet deals given them and do not pass it on to their populations.


Try to think of more than one thing at a time. Mr Natural icons might be more appropriate then.

[Divernan]

13. Precise & concise response. Thanks.

[pnwmom]

15. He's an economist/writer -- not an expert in international relations. So what do you think

qualifies him to be such an astute judge of HRC's policies?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Her much ballyhooed "foreign policy experience" is highly overrated.

See IWR vote, support for Bush's wars, support for torture, Libya, etc for evidence of her lack of judgement.

[pnwmom]

16. Sachs much-ballyhooed foreign policy credentials are non-existent. nt

[Divernan]

18. UN Sec.Gen.& heads of dozens of countries disagree with you!

Your unsourced denial is incredibly desperate. Get back to us when YOU have been brought in as an advisor and consultant to the United Nations and more than 125 countries!

Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For more than a quarter century he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Society of Fellows, and the Fellows of the World Econometric Society. He has received more than 20 honorary degrees, and many awards and honors around the world. Professor Sachs is also a frequent contributor to major publications such as the Financial Times of London, the International Herald Tribune, Scientific American, and Time magazine.

Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as Director of the Center for International Development and the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade.

[rhett o rick]

10. There is no truth to the rumor that Clinton made a call to Bush to ask his advice. He was so right

on about Iraq.

[Geronimoe]

14. Voting for Hillary is.....

rewarding her for supporting Bush & Cheney Iraq War.

[Paka]

17. Wars and rumors of wars...

...that's exactly what an HRC presidency would be. There's too much money at stake and everyone knows there's no money in peace.