Chris Floyd--Hero Blues: Liberals Line Up With Militarism

[laststeamtrain]

Hero Blues: Liberals Line Up With Militarism
Written by Chris Floyd

Joan Walsh gives us another bravura performance in a new episode of what will apparently be a very long-running show, "Deep in the Tank for Obama."

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Of course, this is all just surface chatter -- the peccadilloes of partisanship, the bemusing spectacle of political leopards changing, or at least re-ordering, their spots. It's not really important in itself. But there is a more sinister side to such hero-gazing. In the course of her encomium, Walsh applauds Obama's recourse to one of the most morally hideous tropes of our time:

"According to AP's Jennifer Loven, speaking by phone to MSNBC a little while ago, Obama got his biggest applause when he told the crowd, "It's time for Iraq to take responsibility for itself." "


This is the line that national Democrats such as Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the gaggle of gormless bagmen, blue dogs and corporate shills in Congress have been pushing for years. The American invasion itself was "an extraordinary achievement," as Obama had the shameless brass to announce in Baghdad this week. "You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country." And now it's up to these ungrateful, lazy, shiftless creatures to take advantage of the magnificent gift America has given them -- or else.

The moral depravity of this stance is breathtaking. Invade a country for no reason, kill a million of its people, drive four million into exile, destroy its infrastructure, plunge it into civil war, abet its "ethnic cleansing," loot its wealth, put it in the hands of religious extremists, unleash disease, poverty and social breakdown: this is an "extraordinary achievement," says the progressive paladin. And now the Iraqis must "take responsibility" for the hell on earth created by their invaders.

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This has also been my position for years (here, for instance): The Iraq war is a crime; stop committing the crime, get out immediately, pay massive reparations for the evil you have done -- and be prepared to take in the horde of refugees who will flee the harsh and broken regime you have created in the ruins of the country you have destroyed. For you -- you -- are responsible for them now. (For more on what we have created with our "extraordinary achievement" in Iraq, see here, here, here and here.)

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http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1736-hero-blues-liberals-line-up-with-militarism.html

[alarimer]

1. They should be apologizing to the Iraqi people.

We're sorry we fucked your country up and killed millions for whatever changing reasons we had.

In any case, as soon as we leave, it will descend into chaos. Worse than it is already. Actually, judging by the size of the embassy we probably have no plans on ever leaving.

[stillcool]

2. "Invading a country for no reason"

of course there was a reason. And there is a reason why we won't be leaving. And there is a reason why we won't be leaving Afghanistan. And there is a reason why we have over 1,000 military bases on foreign soil. The only 'hope' I have for 'change' in our foreign policy is if we attempt to work with other countries to get them to meet our 'demands' by like maybe giving them something for what we want to take. Highly unlikely I know.

[laststeamtrain]

3. Fair trade?

What an idea.

But then we'd have to have some carrot instead of just stick.

That would mean we'd have to make stuff. That would mean people would have jobs. People would be successful.

We just can't have that. What would capitalist parasites do? You don't expect them to work do you?

I remember quality off-the-rack clothes being made & marketed in the US. Names like Levi, Pendleton, etc. People around the world wanted those clothes. Lots of other stuff we made, too.

We fucked ourselves up. We have got to stop that. Some of the bastards are down right now. But we're 'bailing them out'.

Sometimes, I just despair too much to even think about it.

O well... I can't go on, I'll go on.

[stillcool]

4. How very odd...

I just had a flash-back of the Main St. of my youth. It seems so Norman Rockwell-ish, with a little James Taylor in the background. The 80's really did change everything. I knew disco would be the end of us.