A Change Ain't Gonna Come: Democrats Openly Embrace Aggression and Torture--Clinton/Powell

[tekisui]

It was a remarkable display even by the hideous standards that the Democrats have already set for themselves. Over the past week, the party's leaders have put forward not one but two architects of Bush Regime war crimes as standard-bearers for Democratic policies and principles. In so doing, they have aligned themselves as completely and publicly as possible with the Hitlerian war crime of military aggression in Iraq and the Stalinist filth of deliberate, calculated and brutal torture, as exemplified by (but in no way limited to) the sickening atrocities at Abu Ghraib.

First, the party leadership picked retired General Ricardo Sanchez to give the Democratic response to the president's weekly radio address last Saturday. Then, just three days later, frontrunning presidential candidate Hillary Clinton singled out Colin Powell as one of the personal emissaries she would send out to tell the world that "bipartisan foreign policy is back."

(snip)

As for Colin Powell, the idea that this knowing conspirator in deceitful warmongering and criminal war-waging could "represent our country well" speaks volumes about Clinton's vision of what America is really all about. As we noted here before:


Powell's reputation as "one of the good guys" in the Bush Administration has been one of the most enduring mysteries of our sad, demented times. He was not only one of the chief enablers of Bush's war crime in Iraq, but his entire career has marked him out as a bagman for a bloody elite, ever willing to turn a blind eye — or to pitch in directly — when there is dirty work to be done, from the My Lai massacre to Iran-Contra to the murderous excursion in Panama to the warm embrace of Saddam Hussein to Powell's final apotheosis as Imperial Handmaiden in his sick-making appearance at the UN in February 2003, when he "made the case" for war. (For more, see Jon Schwarz's detailed look at Powell's deliberate deceits, and this history of the handmaiden from the incomparable Robert Parry.)
But of course, this dismal record is precisely what makes him a "distinguished American" in Clinton's eyes: he knows how to serve the powerful, and how to give their ugly lusts for loot and dominion a more pleasing outer appearance.

What is perhaps most remarkable about all of this is that none of it is regarded as remarkable by the molders and mouthers of public opinion in the echo chamber of the political-media world. Should it not be scandalous for an "opposition" candidate – one nominally opposed to a disastrous war – to embrace a man who by all rights should be on trial for his key role in creating that disaster? Should it not be scandalous for an "opposition" party – one nominally opposed to the Administration's "lawlessness" – to embrace a man who by all rights should be on trial for his complicity in torture and atrocity?


more at link: http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2953/32/


Hillary Clinton needs to say that bringing on war crimes enablers to her cabinet is a stupid mistake. She is the supposed frontrunner. We don't need this kind of bi-partisanship.

[fasttense]

1. I'll never forgive Powell

I didn't believe all that crap about WMDs and mushroom clouds as an excuse to attack Iraq, until I heard Powell's full speech to the UN. He conned me, he lied and I believed him. I will never forgive him.

[tekisui]

2. And Hillary values that, wants more of it.

Kucinich got filleted here when he mentioned Ron Paul. Why is someone who actually has a chance at winning the Nomination given a pass on Colon-fucking-Powell. He has been a part of two B*sh administrations, for christsakes. He was the major convincer, THE snowballer that allowed Iraq and all of the subsequent dominoes to fall.

Hillary has jumped the shark.

I will vote for the Democratic Nominee in November, that is why it is vitally important to beat Hillary, NOW.

[mod mom]

11. "vitally important to beat Hillary" AMEN TO THAT!

[TwilightGardener]

3. I believed him too. We were big Powell fans in my household (my husband

is in the military)--he had a lot of credibility with us, and I thought, "If Powell says it, it must be true"--stupid of me.

[cali]

7. I didn't believe him. I knew it was bullshit when he started in with all the mobile

wmd labs. In fact, I knew it was bullshit from the get go.

[tekisui]

8. I didn't buy it either. And I doubt Sen. Clinton actually did.

And she wants him in her cabinet. She mentioned Republican(s), plural.

Who else from the Reich Wing would she bring?

[cali]

10. yeah, I agree that she didn't buy it either and like too many

others with presidential ambitions, she voted for it. No excuse for that. However, it is not true that she mentioned him or any other repuke for a cabinet position.

[disndat]

4. H.C. must be

desperate to grab the black voters from Obama. They say her campaign is run by pollsters so they must have put her up to it. That shows great leadership ruling by polls. Colin Powell is a liar and traitor and made a lot of money getting his son Michael on the F.C.C.

[leftchick]

5. The Empress has no clothes

I always recognize and appreciate Chris Floyd's writing, thank you for this. He cuts right to the heart of it. Blood on their hands indeed.....

<snip>

But it is not scandalous – because the bipartisan American Establishment does not consider aggressive war, lawlessness and torture to be scandalous, as long as these crimes advance the interests – and flatter the prejudices and self-regard – of the elite. And if you wish to belong to this elite, to reap the rich bounty of such an inclusion, then you must embrace those who commit the crimes that maintain you in your marvelous privilege. You must accept whatever means are necessary to perpetuate the system that undergirds your lofty position.

To be sure, there will be quibbles over tactics, over points of emphasis, over specific policies, and whether or not they best serve the system; this happens under every form of government, even the most totalitarian. But the presence of politics in any given system has nothing to do with its moral content. And as we have seen this week, to play in the big leagues in the American system, you must openly signify your approval of aggressive war, deceit and torture. You must dip your hands in blood. And that is exactly what Hillary Clinton and the Democratic leadership have done — yet again — in the last week.

[tekisui]

6. We need a True Change in Our government.

Hillary Clinton does not represent that.

[tom_paine]

12. Bingo. Hammer, meet nailhead.

:toast:

[spanone]

9. powell lied to the world on behalf of the chimperor

[EFerrari]

13. It's not only Clinton when you have the likes of Ricardo Sanchez

delivering the Democrat's weekly address:

New Army documents reveal US knew of and approved torture before Abu Ghraib scandal

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday May 2, 2006



BREAKING HARD -- FROM AN ACLU RELEASE TO RAW STORY.
#

New Army documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union today reveal that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez ordered interrogators to "go to the outer limits" to get information from detainees. The documents also show that senior government officials were aware of abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke.

"When our leaders allow and even encourage abuse at the 'outer limits', America suffers," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "A nation that works to bring freedom and liberty to other parts of the world shouldn't stomach brutality and inhumanity within its ranks. This abuse of power was engineered and accepted at the highest levels of our government."

Among the documents released today by the ACLU is a May 19, 2004 Defense Intelligence Agency document implicating Sanchez in potentially abusive interrogation techniques. In the document, an officer in charge of a team of interrogators stated that there was a 35-page order spelling out the rules of engagement that interrogators were supposed to follow, and that they were encouraged to "go to the outer limits to get information from the detainees by people who wanted the information." When asked to whom the officer was referring, the officer answered "LTG Sanchez." The officer stated that the expectation coming from "Headquarters" was to break the detainees.

The ACLU also released an Information Paper entitled "Allegations of Detainee Abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan" dated April 2, 2004, two weeks before the world saw the pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib prison. The paper outlined the status of 62 investigations of detainee abuse and detainee deaths. Cases include assaults, punching, kicking and beatings, mock executions, sexual assault of a female detainee, threatening to kill an Iraqi child to "send a message to other Iraqis," stripping detainees, beating them and shocking them with a blasting device, throwing rocks at handcuffed Iraqi children, choking detainees with knots of their scarves and interrogations at gunpoint.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/New_Army_documents_reveal_US_knew_0502.html

[tekisui]

14. How do Clinton supporters defend her desire to have colon powell

working in her government? I have yet to hear a reasonable defense.

[redqueen]

15. We don't need it. But it looks like we're gonna get it.

Oh well. Too bad so sad.

[tekisui]

16. It looks like we're offered it.

We don't know what we're gonna get, yet.