The Taming of Hillary

To me, the most revealing fact about Hillary is that millions of Democrats seem to have no clue that she's a hawk and voted to facilitate the bombing of Iran, on top of her vote for Iraq that she's never apologized for. When we talk about 'liberal' and 'conservative', or 'hawk' and 'dove', we must bear in mind huge vacua of simple ignorance that permeate the political spectrum.

George, since you are against US interventionism, you may want to start talking about Samantha Power, which is now a trendy topic on the net. She is, of course, the liberal interventionist at Harvard who has a close personal relationship with Obama. She may push Obama to get us involved in all kinds of wars again. I am one of those who think that our efforts in the Balkans have not been nearly as pure as advertised. Any rescues from 'genocide' should be under the auspices of the UN, or local governments, however difficult to manage. The US is never an honest broker in anything (cf. the Middle East).

A few months after I resigned from the State Department I went to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at the invitation of its then-president Mort Abramowitz. Shortly after I arrived at Carnegie Samantha Power appeared as Mort's new intern. So, given Mort's interest in the Balkans I remember Sam quite well, as she was often asking me asking me about one thing or another (including borrowing an armload of newspaper clippings, never returned). Sam was distinguished by her very superior, superficial intelligence, her drop-dead looks (which she played to the hilt), and her astonishing ambition. Regarding Balkan policy she picked the politically correct side without hesitation and has been riding that horse ever since. I'm not at all surprised to see how successful she's become. I have — let's say — minimally high regard for her character. And I view her presence as an influential advisor to Obama as one of his most serious defects. It'll be interesting to see whether and how he detaches himself from her "humanitarian interventionist" views.

Hear Powers direct from horse's mouth at http://www.democracynow.org/
shows of 2/22 and 23.

They kept Powers over for a second day — I don't know why this excellent broadcast, which serves so well to broadcast alternative views, treated her so excessively politely. It may be that they have succumbed and see the Obama campaign as on the anti-war side of the campaign fence — demonstrably false.

Also see http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16640
for well-done left analysis by Street of Powers' very scary observations and conjectures.

The best dismantling of Samantha Power is by the great Edward Herman.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5538

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12404

I wonder what she is saying about it.

She is just another careerist and opportunist who figured out how the game is played and sold out herself.

Her writings are so superficial she wouldn't stand a chance if she ever debated someone like Noam Chomsky or Edward Herman. She would be outmatched 200 to 0.

I hope George Kenney will interview Herman one day. He promised me sometime ago to interview him. But hadn't done it till now.

[Ed. note: Not to be technical but I promised to consider trying. I may yet talk with Ed Herman — I'd certainly like to — but that would depend upon his availability.]