"I find most liberals to be conservatives who want to be forgiven."

this is an interview by Jennifer Van Bergen

"Stan Goff is a former Sergeant with Special Forces and military instructor at West Point, among other posts. He is the author of “Hideous Dreams,” about his experience in the 1994 American incursion into Haiti. Goff’s upcoming book, "Full Spectrum Disorder," from Soft Skull Press, will be available in December.



JVB: Thank you, Stan, for taking the time to do this interview. Your extensive military background, which we'll get into in a moment, certainly qualifies you to speak on military matters. I want to remark, though, that it seems unusual for former military, especially those who were in Special Forces, to come out as strongly as you have against military measures. From your book, I sense that you are as much a social commentator and analyst as you are a former military man. Without going into your background yet, can you give truthout readers a short reason for this? How did you come to speak out as you're doing and, briefly, what is your main message?

SG: I've always been intellectually restless, as I think anyone is who is truly interested in what is going on around them. Not interested in appearances, but interested in understanding how things work and damn the consequences. The military actually exposed me to some of the most educational experiences around, not the least of which was travel and the occasional obligation to live among and at the level of poor people in peripheral countries. Measuring my own experience against a lot of reading and studying led me to the left in a pretty gradual but inevitable way. I don't hold my views because of some religious devotion to an idea, but because leftist analysis conforms most consistently with my own experience. That doesn't mean it conforms with my comfort level. But when we stay comfortable, we quit growing. So I try to stay a little uncomfortable intellectually, an important thing for an auto-didact.

And a friend of mine who died recently said that soldiers are natural political scientists, because politics can be a matter of life or death to them. If I have a main message, it's that I'm from inside the military system, and now I am from inside the political left, and I want to build a bridge between the left and the military. Not militarism, but the people in the military.

JVB: Tell us about your background.

SG: My parents' families were from Arkansas and Michigan, but I moved a great deal when I was a kid. My dad followed work. I was actually born in San Diego. My family lived outside St. Louis when I joined the Army at 18. Both my parents worked at McDonnell-Douglas as riveters on center fuselage assembly of the F-4 Phantom close air support aircraft.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

There is more at this link: http://truthout.org/docs_03/073103A.shtml

I advise reading it it gets much better.

[cherryperry]

1. Love Me, I'm A Liberal by Phil Ochs

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

2. LOL

I hope the liberal jab isn't the only thing that comes out of this post. I just figured that a controversial title gets more people to pay attention, perhaps even read the interview. Nonetheless it's a good song.

[coda]

3. Bump

:kick: