In his interview with Grist, Dennis Kucinich urged us all to recognize the connection between global warming and global warring.
In that spirit, I thought I'd pass along an astute observation from Glenn Greenwald, who on matters of media and war/terrorism is without peer. About this quote from Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.), a conservative member of the DLC:
Bill Clinton ordered our troops and worked with NATO in Bosnia. That's the kind of pro-war Democrat that we ought to be: the war that we fight wisely, the ones that we engage in wisely.
Greenwald says this:
This is the most extraordinary aspect of our political culture. Rep. Davis' assumption is that we are going to be fighting a series of "wars." That is just a given. And the only question is whether we will fight our wars "wisely" or unwisely. We are a nation more or less permanently at war, and we really do not debate whether that should be the case. Enforced Beltway orthodoxy requires that this is a given and anyone who challenges that premise will be deemed extremist and insane (see e.g., Ron Paul, Mike Gravel, "paleoconservatives," the "anti-war left", "isolationists," etc.).
The Grand Beltway Consensus, one that encompasses both parties, is that War is how we rule the world. The only debates allowed are how many we should fight, where we should fight them, and how "wisely" we prosecute them. And the principal reason that we don't really debate the fact that we are a Nation permanently at war is because such a tiny percentage of our population -- and an even tinier percentage of our Beltway opinion-making elite -- actually bears the burdens of those wars (at least directly).
(via Jim Henley)
City preps and countries posture ahead of Copenhagen talks
Is Bill McKibben right to be angry with Obama?
Comments
View as Flat
Delay And Deny Posted 3:31 am
02 Aug 2007
Pundits decry our wars...but they rarely question or hypothesize he result if we did not fight.
John Bailo
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justlou Posted 3:49 am
02 Aug 2007
Kucinich could have related warring with growth, but that would be getting too close for comfort with way too many interests in this country.
He could have also related warring with class warfare in the US. There are elite interests in this country that have an interest in keeping the lower classes engaged in fighting common enemies rather than in fighting the elites themselves. But in the case of global warming there are big interests striving to keep it from becoming an identified common enemy. Keeping the focus on wars is one means of achieving that by diverting precious capital and resources to the war effort.
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Jon Rynn Posted 4:39 am
02 Aug 2007
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Colin Wright Posted 6:59 am
02 Aug 2007
Here's a recent quote of Chomsky from an interview at citylights.com, the bombing of Serbia was the cause, not the consequence, of the ethnic cleansing, and the anticipated cause, and we learn from the highest level of the Clinton administration that the bombing was not undertaken out of concern for the plight of Kosovar Albanians but because Serbia was not carrying out the socio-economic reforms demanded by the Clinton administration.
Of course, certain administrations are more war-like than others! Or perhaps as American economic dominance falters, we will see more of the "hidden fist" at work.For globalism to work, America can't be afraid to act like the almighty super power it is. The hidden hand of the market will never work without the hidden fist. McDonalds cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas. The hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley is called the US army,
navy, airforce. Thomas Friedman in the NY Times
Great interview with Kucinich!
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Jon Rynn Posted 7:30 am
02 Aug 2007
Nice way to try and link peace with the planet and peace with other nations. I don't think his "greenness" comes through in the debates as well as it did in the interview -- but what can you do in 90 seconds?
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