Who Makes US Foreign Policy? - Lawrence Wilkerson On Reality Asserts Itself

[Jefferson23]

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson says US foreign policy is made by the oligarchs

May 9, 14

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.

snip*COL. LAWRENCE WILKERSON, FMR. CHIEF OF STAFF TO COLIN POWELL: Thanks for having me, Paul.

JAY: So, in Reality Asserts Itself we usually start with a personal back story, and then we get into the some of the issues. But we actually did all that with Larry prior to even having Reality Asserts Itself. In fact, you could say the format--Larry is, like, the first person for that format before there was that format. So we're going to link this series of interviews of Larry to that. You'll be able to find all the earlier ones, which has a lot to do with Larry's back story. And we're going to kind of dig into some of the issues.

So, Larry, you were right at the center of the State Department. Back when you were there, and then sort of extrapolating to today, who runs U.S. foreign policy? 'Cause there's this sort of feeling there's this grand design and, you know, grand machinations and chessboard-playing and all of that. Where are the centers of power for making U.S. foreign policy? 'Cause it seems to me it's not just the president.

WILKERSON: I think you're right. And part of what I teach--and I teach post-World War II policy more than anything else, but we have to go back into the past to understand that policy. Part of what I teach is how since World War II and the acquisition of this enormous power by what in essence is the new Rome in the world, the United States, part of the shift that takes place in manipulating and managing that new power is a centralization of foreign policy away from the old cabinet places where it used to take place, most prominently through the Foreign Service and through the Secretary of State, to the White House and to the creation of the 1947 National Security Act, the National Security Council. So if you ask me pro forma where does it exist today, it exists more in the National Security Council and its staff than it does anywhere else, certainly anywhere else in the cabinet.

So what I'm saying is it's centralized in the White House. But what does that mean in terms of, I think, your real question, who's behind the White House, and who's therefore behind U.S. foreign policy, more or less? I think the answer today is the oligarchs, which would be the same answer, incidentally, ironically, if you will, for Putin in Russia, the people who own the wealth, the people who therefore have the power and who more or less (and I'm not being too facetious here, I don't think) buy the president and thus buy American foreign policy. So that's as succinct an answer as I can give you and touch on a few historical points.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11839

[yurbud]

1. Wilkerson is just short of this century's Smedley Butler when it comes to pulling back the curtain

on our foreign policy.

[bemildred]

2. That is pretty much what I see.

Policy and politicians don't have all that much to do with each other any more, and the politicians see it as a threat when they are required to take public positions on policy.

[yurbud]

3. like Bill Hicks said about every new president being called into a room with the richest guys

and being shown film of the JFK assassination from an angle no one has seen before and being asked, "Any questions?"

Of course anyone smart enough to be elected president already knows what will happen if they color too far outside the lines.

[Cal33]

4. What a sad state for anyone to be in. Yet here's where we've been for decades! Can people become

used to anything -- anything at all?!?! I feel sure most corporate oligarchs would say "Yes!" to this question.

Sociopaths are running not only this country. They are ruling the world -- hence this state our world is in. And
as long as sociopaths are the rulers, there will never be peace for long. Their greed and aggressive ways will
ensure that disharmony, discord and war are always in the offing.

Nice way to live, isn't it?

[yurbud]

5. their time is running out. just as the business class realized they didn't need monarchs and nobles

a few centuries ago, the middle class is realizing the financial elite have no special claim to brains, morality, creativity, or hard work that made them the elite.

Many were born into it, others got their through sociopathy, and some minority actually came up with a better product or service that made them rich (making them something like an embarrassing cousin to the other wealthy who got their money without an honest day's work).

[Cal33]

6. The middle-class was actually doing quite well for some decades after World War II, then along

came Reagan. But, of course, during the decades before World War II, it was the corporations
that were on the rise. This situation seems to be changing back and forth: Corporations -
Middle Class - Corporations -

Is it time for the Middle Class again? The coming elections in November may give us a hint.