OPINION
Consortium News
Posted by
See No Evil
The Push of Conscience and Secretary Clinton
By RAY McGOVERN
It was not until Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked to the George Washington University podium last week to enthusiastic applause that I decided I had to dissociate myself from the obsequious adulation of a person responsible for so much death, suffering and destruction.
I was reminded of a spring day in Atlanta almost five years earlier when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld strutted onto a similar stage to loud acclaim from another enraptured audience.
Introducing Rumsfeld on May 4, 2006, the president of the Southern Center for International Policy in Atlanta highlighted his “honesty.” I had just reviewed my notes for an address I was scheduled to give that evening in Atlanta and, alas, the notes demonstrated his dishonesty.
I thought to myself, if there’s an opportunity for Q & A after his speech I might try to stand and ask a question, which is what happened. I engaged in a four-minute impromptu debate with Rumsfeld on Iraq War lies, an exchange that was carried on live TV.
That experience leaped to mind on Feb. 15, as Secretary Clinton strode onstage amid similar adulation.
The fulsome praise for Clinton from GWU’s president and the loud, sustained applause also brought to mind a phrase that – as a former Soviet analyst at CIA – I often read in Pravda. When reprinting the text of speeches by high Soviet officials, the Communist Party newspaper would regularly insert, in italicized parentheses: “Burniye applaudismenti; vce stoyat” — Stormy applause; all rise.
With the others at Clinton’s talk, I stood. I even clapped politely. But as the applause dragged on, I began to feel like a real phony. So, when the others finally sat down, I remained standing silently, motionless, with my eyes fixed narrowly on the rear of the auditorium and my back to the Secretary.
I did not expect what followed: a violent assault in full view of Secretary Clinton by what in Soviet parlance were called the “organs of state security.” The rest is history, as they say.
Callous Aplomb
As the video of the event shows, Secretary Clinton did not miss a beat in her speech as she called for authoritarian governments to show respect for dissent and to refrain from violence. She spoke with what seemed to be an especially chilly sang froid, as she ignored my silent witness and the violent assault that took place right in front of her.
The experience gave me personal confirmation of the impression that I had reluctantly drawn from watching her behavior and its consequences over the past decade. The incident was a kind of metaphor of the much worse violence that Secretary Clinton has coolly countenanced against others.
Again and again, Hillary Clinton – both as a U.S. senator and as Secretary of State – has demonstrated a nonchalant readiness to unleash the vast destructiveness of American military power. The charitable explanation, I suppose, is that she knows nothing of war from direct personal experience.
And that is also true of her husband, her colleague Robert Gates at the Defense Department, President Barack Obama, and most of the White House functionaries blithely making decisions to squander the lives and limbs of young soldiers in foreign adventures — conflicts that even the top brass admit cannot be won with weapons.
The analogy to Vietnam is inescapable. As White House tapes from the 1960s show, President Lyndon Johnson knew that the Vietnam War could not be “won” in any meaningful way. Nonetheless, he kept throwing hundreds of thousands into the battle lest someone accuse him of being soft on communism.
I had an inside seat watching Johnson do that. And I did nothing.
Now, with an even more jittery president, a hawkish Secretary of State, General David they-injure-their-own-children-to-make-us-look-bad Petraeus, and various Republican presidential hopefuls – all jockeying for political position as the 2012 election draws near – the country is in even deeper trouble today.
No one on this political merry-go-round can afford to appear weak on terrorism. So, they all have covered their bets. And we all know who pays the price for these political calculations.
This time, I would NOT do nothing.
My colleagues in Veterans for Peace and I have known far too many comrades-in-arms and families whose lives have been shattered or ended as a result of such crass political maneuvering. Many of us know far more than we wish to know about war and killing. But — try as we may with letters and other appeals — we cannot get through to President Obama. And Secretary Clinton turns her own deaf ear to our entreaties and those of others who oppose unnecessary warfare. It is a pattern that she also followed in her days as a U.S. senator from New York.
Read the rest of this ‘OUTSTANDING’ Opinion Piece HERE
Also see the T-Room’s coverage and opinion piece “The Height of Hypocrisy Shown by Sec’y Hillary Clinton” by clicking HERE
8 Comments
Bringing this up from downstairs. Posted by Troy –
Submitted on 2011/02/25 at 11:50pm
Hello ladies, I’m not sure if this is still an active thread, therefore I really don’t know where to post this…I hope you read it.
This is from one of my long time bloggers at my blog site, therefore I have no reason not to completely trust the source….She is a Christian lady that has absolutely no history of posting personal warnings, ever.
This is the first time that she has ever posted anything like this before….She would not make this up out of thin air….If the info doesn’t turn out to be accurate it would mean that it was given to her inaccurately….At this time, I have no reason to believe that is the case….I am going to ask her to contact her friend and try to get more details.
I’m going to delete her screen name because I have not asked for her permission to pass this on, although I’m certain that she won’t mind.
Here is her comment:
XXXXXXXX says:
February 25, 2011 at 6:51 pm (Edit)
Got a call today from a very dear friend of mine. He travels extensively and has lots of friends in pretty important places. He was in contact with a friend of his that owns a bank in Texas. He confided to my friend that his bank will be closed in 60 to 90 days due to a bank holiday. Not sure if that means it will be closed temporarily or if until the currency has been exchanged for another. Just proves what all here have been expecting and preparing. People are going to get blindsided because they have not heeded the warnings that have been given and trusting in a false government who claims to be able to fix anything.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The original comment can be found here: http://heyokapatriots.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/divinely-blessed-artist/#comment-11017
Troy…I have urged my DH to tell all he knows…he says, is anyone listening to you?
Point made.
Note: Helen, I shopped yesterday…the spam, beef stew, and ch. dumplings I bought more of have increased 50/75/and some $1 per can since last I bought them.
God, please, how will these families feed their children??
Below is a review of Vicker’s new book “Day After Dollar Crashes: Surviving the Rise of the New World Order” – here’s a link to others reviews –
http://www.amazon.com/Day-After-Dollar-Crashes-Survival/product-reviews/047091033X/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Vickers assembled an impressive collection of reasons to believe a worse financial storm is coming. Most of the book is devoted to listing, explaining and charting how our collective debt cannot be repaid. I was already convinced of this. It can’t be repaid in current dollar terms – this is widely accepted as irrefutable. But financial analysts already published nearly the equivalent in volume to half the tax code on the subject. Most of the book was redundant to me but the argument was presented masterfully.
The unique and interesting part is where Vickers finally describes a two week period where a new world order is born, and the dollar system dies. Triggering this is essentially the Chinese decision to stop buying Treasuries. That’s really the day the dollar dies, according to Vickers, a scion of the Rockefeller family. This is where Vickers shines and makes his mark in contemporary Declinist literature.
While tempted to tell the sequence of events following the Chinese decision, I should not. That would spoil the plot. But I will suggest that since the drama is based on informed speculation, it would make a great movie. Movies about natural disasters are plentiful. Subgenres include epidemics, space disasters and transportation disasters. A financial disaster movie where people panic to the extent Vickers describes might be a Hollywood hit. Just thinking about it scares me. I don’t feel prepared for anything that terrible.
The book’s weakness is where it addresses survival. Advice about surviving the predicted bad times was dealt with in only an introductory way. As expected, we should have gold, a sound idea but not new and lacking specific advice with regard to purchasing, safeguarding and trading. As expected, the immediate post-crash environment is described as one of empty grocery stores and useless ATM machines. I personally need a lot more detail in practical terms on the subject of surviving such a financial disaster.
Most of the book, a recounting of the ways the debt cannot be repaid, could have been reduced to a 10-page appendix. Those for whom the looming debt problem is news will get more value. We all benefit from learning the potential sequence of major financial and political events following China’s action.
JJ – watch this interview above and read the review below the vid. The globalists are now beginning to warn the public at large what we’ve been trying to do for months and months and months now. Feel free to copy and paste and send to your friends and family.
JJ – this story is for you – http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/us_constitution/gun_control/news.php?q=1298667994
Sen. Gravel announces a new strategy to get a real 911 investigation -
Regarding the 4.5 Arkansas quake…two years ago, Ky., where we live had a small quake..4:35 AM..husband in the family bath, not ours, me asleep..the quake didn’t wake me…the door shaking violently did for good 10 seconds..
I was so upset with the door activity, I didn’t notice any wall vibration; I will not forget that morning any time soon..it scared the hades out of me.
I’ll bet. Here in Richmond we’ve had a few shakes but nothing on any great magnitude. Are you seeing in activity in your area? Still waiting btw.