{"id":4835,"date":"2013-06-07T06:19:21","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T06:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=4835"},"modified":"2013-06-07T06:20:56","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T06:20:56","slug":"4835","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=4835","title":{"rendered":"On the war path with Samantha Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Trust Republicans to give battle over the wrong broad and for the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

Political posturing aside, Susan Rice, whom Barack Obama has appointed to be his national security adviser \u2013 despite or perhaps because of her role in developing the administration\u2019s Benghazi fable \u2013 is likely less dangerous than Samantha Power, who will be sent to the United Nations in Rice\u2019s place.<\/p>\n

Rice, you\u2019ll recall, was shoved out onto the Sunday shows \u2013 five days following the Sept. 11 attack on the mission in Libya last year \u2013 to tell tall tales about the genesis of that attack, and to saddle the blame for U.S. fatalities there on an anti-Islam filmmaker. (The man\u00a0still languishes in jail.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Formerly at the National Security Council, and acting as senior White House security adviser at the time, Power knows a thing or two about the Benghazi pickle. More to the point: In cahoots with Rice and Hillary Clinton \u2013 the woman who cracked the whip at Foggy Bottom \u2013 Power was responsible for Obama\u2019s war on Libya, having \u201cdeveloped\u201d a doctrine every bit as intellectually and morally bankrupt as the Bush Doctrine (which advocated waging war to ostensibly prevent it).<\/p>\n

Writing in The Nation, a magazine of the ultra-left, Tom Hayden has illustrated just how dangerous is Power\u2019s \u201cResponsibility to Protect\u201d doctrine. A former California state senator, Hayden is also a \u201960s flower-power peacenik, whose progressive pedigree can be traced back to Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Jane Fonda.<\/p>\n

According to Hayden, Power is an \u201cIrish internationalist\u201d; a \u201chumanitarian hawk\u201d who \u201csee[s] war as an instrument for achieving her liberal, even radical, values.\u201d She \u201cadvocates American and NATO military intervention in humanitarian crises.\u201d As she sees it, \u201cThe United States must \u2026 be prepared to risk the lives of its soldiers to stop the threat of genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hip to Power\u2019s hypocrisy, Hayden points out that \u201clike U2\u2032s Bono, another Irish human rights activist,\u201d she \u201chas been less preoccupied by the human rights abuses inflicted by the British during the 30-year war in the northern part of her own country.\u201d Indeed, like her neoconservative philosophical clones, Power considers herself a redeemer of mankind \u2013 but not, mind you, of her own kind.<\/p>\n

Power has still to scale the Senate Foreign Relations committee for confirmation. My guess is that the leggy fanatic will clear the hurdle by offering as confirmation\u00a0quid pro quo<\/em>\u00a0a softer stance on, say, Israel. And voila, onward to Syria.<\/p>\n

By far the more dangerous of the two Obama Amazons is Samantha Power. Susan Rice, in a sense, has been neutralized by scandal; she\u2019s under scrutiny. And if you\u2019re wondering what a U.S. ambassador at the U.N. could possibly do by way of taking the country to war, think of John Negroponte. He pushed for the Security Council resolution\u00a0\u201cthat President Bush eventually cited in going to war in Iraq.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

If they play rough, Republicans will lap up the ladies\u2019 foreign-policy antics, starting with the senior Republican senator from Arizona. John McCain recently crossed enemy lines to cavort with Syrian rebels,\u00a0the type of chaps who lunch on enemy lungs.<\/a>\u00a0He, Lindsey Graham (another senior Republican senator) and their colleagues can\u2019t wait to supply the noble savages of the world with rations.<\/p>\n

The only time Republicans will shake fists and point fingers is over a war delayed, one that isn\u2019t led by the U.S., or a war waged without the necessary conviction (read collateral damage).<\/p>\n

In all, white progressives like Power derive an erotic rush from swooping down to save The Unknown Other, whether he likes it or not. The coolest place from which to keep this hot thrill going is the global geopolitical scene.<\/p>\n

To expect someone like Power to care about her homies first is a lot like expecting Angelina Jolie to adopt a poor white baby (an\u00a0Afrikaner living in a shantytown\u00a0<\/a>, for example). How unglamorous! There\u2019s no chic value in that. In Jolie\u2019s defense, it\u2019s her money. It\u2019s hers to do with as she pleases. In a public servant, however, Power\u2019s proclivities amount to treason.<\/p>\n

Order lIana Mercer\u2019s brilliant polemical work, \u201cInto the Cannibal\u2019s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Edmund Burke certainly thought so. These sellouts of American interests would do well to ponder Burke\u2019s wisdom:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed toward a love to our country and to mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangement is a trust in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also read Ilana’s blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trust Republicans to give battle over the wrong broad and for the wrong reasons. Political posturing aside, Susan Rice, whom Barack Obama has appointed to be his national security adviser \u2013 despite or perhaps because of her role in developing the administration\u2019s Benghazi fable \u2013 is likely less dangerous than Samantha Power, who will be … Continue reading “On the war path with Samantha Power”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[593,2910,12254,2909,2908,12251],"class_list":["post-4835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-ilana-mercer","tag-barack-obama","tag-edmund-burke","tag-ilana-mercer","tag-samantha-power","tag-susan-rice","tag-united-states"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/ilana_mercer_and_book.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4837,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions\/4837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}