Susan Rice Is Bad News
Her appointment will outrage conservatives - for the wrong reasons
.....As Ethiopia's late dictator Meles Zenawi
<
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2007/01/10/they-never-learn/> slashed
and burned his way through Somalia, in 2007, Rice's was the loudest voice in
his cheering section....
by <
http://original.antiwar.com/author/justin/> Justin Raimondo,
November 21, 2012
The largely partisan debate over what really happened in Benghazi has
centered around the public pronouncements of UN Ambassador
<
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7421874n> Susan Rice, whose comments
on the Sunday talk show circuit attributed the death of Ambassador Chris
Stevens and three others to a riot precipitated by the "Innocence of
Muslims" video. With
<
http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/reports-susan-rice-is-favorite-fo
r-state-20121113> indications the administration may be considering Rice to
replace Hillary Clinton at the State Department, Sen. John McCain has gone
on
<
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57549514/mccain-susan-rice-not-quali
fied-to-be-secretary-of-state-after-benghazi/> the warpath, declaring her
unfit to hold office and vowing to block her nomination: the Fox News media
machine echoes his ranting (or perhaps I should say McCain is echoing
<
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=Susan+R
ice+state#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=Susan+Rice+state+site:foxnews.com&oq=
Susan+Rice+state+site:foxnews.com&gs_l=serp.3...169773.173714.0.174001.17.17
.0.0.0.0.245.2069.7j8j2.17.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.1NMVIaoG-_I&pbx=1&bav=on.2,o
r.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=5eee548253162b85> their
<
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=Susan+R
ice+state#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=Susan+Rice+state+site:foxnews.com&oq=
Susan+Rice+state+site:foxnews.com&gs_l=serp.3...169773.173714.0.174001.17.17
.0.0.0.0.245.2069.7j8j2.17.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.1NMVIaoG-_I&pbx=1&bav=on.2,o
r.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=5eee548253162b85> ravings). And so the stage is set
for another one of those Red Team-Blue Team showdowns that underscore the
evolution of politics into pure entertainment, and have nothing whatsoever
to do with whatever policy differences the two sides may have.
McCain's grandstanding is unfortunate, not least of all because it obscures
the real reason the Senate should reject the Rice nomination, if and when it
is announced: she's one of the most
<
http://www.brookings.edu/%7E/media/research/files/articles/2007/7/human%20r
ights%20rice/07_human_rights_rice> militant [pdf] of the New
Interventionists who infest the Obama administration's foreign policy shop.
With Rice at the helm, the State Department would become an increasingly
belligerent mouthpiece for the militant regime-changers who increasingly
dominate our foreign policy councils.
Rice was in the
<
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2061224,00.html> vanguard
of the Libya operation, and is credited with pressuring a reluctant
President to get involved in an adventure he was sure to regret. As the
<
http://johnavlon.com/my_column/remembering-the-good-occupation-new-york-sun
-607> idiotic left-neocon John Avlon
<
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/03/20/libya-airstrikes-hillary-c
linton-and-the-women-who-called-for-war.html> enthused in Newsweek/The Daily
Beast:
"The Libyan airstrikes mark the first time in U.S. history that a
female-dominated diplomatic team has urged military action.
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice
and the influential Office of Multilateral and Human Rights Director
Samantha Power to argue for airstrikes against Libya. Their advice triggered
an abrupt shift in U.S. policy, overturning more cautious administrations'
counselors."
Leave it to the Beasties to frame this in terms of identity politics, but
that is precisely the political calculation the Obama administration will be
making if Rice is indeed the President's nominee for State: not only is Rice
one of the
<
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-obamas-war-room-20111013>
Three Harpies of War who - in the
<
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/10/the-evil-of-madeleine-albright/>
Madeleine Albright tradition - agitated for the disastrous Libyan
intervention, she's also African-American, a major plus in an administration
where identity politics trumps real world qualifications.
As Undersecretary of State for African Affairs during the Clinton
administration, Rice
<
http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-aides-find-moral-clarity-in-libyas-fogg
y-war/article/112169> traces her induction into the Humanitarian
Interventionist Brigade to the alleged genocide in Rwanda that occurred
under Clinton's watch, and credits the administration's failure to act as
her come-to-Jesus moment: ""I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a
crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down
in flames if that was required." That it was the US consulate in Benghazi
that went down in flames due to the
<
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NI14Dj01.html> blowback from
her policy stance and influence is just one of those little ironies of
history no one in Washington wants to talk about.
Mentored by Albright - whose reputation as an interventionist of the
"humanitarian" school was secured by her infamous remark that the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis due to sanctions was "
<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIX1CP9qr4> worth it" - Rice apparently
absorbed the Albrightian mindset.
She is an
<
http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/susan-rice-benghazi-may-be-
least-of-her-problems-20121116> especially fervent advocate of stepping up
US intervention in Africa. The dark continent, she avers, is in the midst of
its "first world war," and she knows what side she's on. As Ethiopia's late
dictator Meles Zenawi
<
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2007/01/10/they-never-learn/> slashed
and burned his way through Somalia, in 2007, Rice's was the loudest voice in
his cheering section. Zenawi, a Marxist revolutionary who seized power in
1991, was a <
http://antiwar.com/blog/2005/06/09/ethiopias-zenawi-neocon/>
ruthless tyrant who suppressed the opposition, staged phony elections, and
became a compliant instrument of Washington.
<
http://www.thenation.com/article/163210/blowback-somalia> Washington
utilized Zenawi when they took up against the Al-Shabab "terrorist" group in
Somalia, where Ethiopian troops launched a full-scale invasion which
predictably ended in failure. As US military aid poured in, Zenawi launched
a campaign of
<
http://gadaa.com/oduu/697/2009/07/04/zenawis-ethiopia-oromo-afars-anuak-som
alis-are-most-under-threat/> brutal repression against the Oromo and Anuak
minorities, decimating their communities, murdering thousands and jailing as
many as 25,000.
In spite of Zenawi's record, his death elicited loud cries of mourning from
his Western patrons, especially from Rice, who delivered an embarrassingly
<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXwQSesAJe0> effusive paean at his funeral:
the departed dictator was "wise," she said, as well as a loving family man,
and she lauded him as a "friend," calling him by his first name throughout.
A more sickening display of obsequious fawning by a US official over a
<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jmHwR6o-cw> monster in human form has
rarely been recorded.
Like Albright, Rice is an abrasive personality: her rhetorical style,
suffused with the smug self-righteousness that characterizes the Clinton
State Department, was on full display when she went after Russian UN envoy
Vitaly Churkin for <
http://www.innercitypress.com/libya1iccban122211.html>
calling for an investigation into civilian deaths suffered by the Libyans at
the hands of their NATO liberators: "Oh, the bombast and bogus claims," she
<
http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/12/23/the_russian_grinch_and_
the_stanford_dictionary_of_expletives> shrieked. "Welcome to December. Is
everybody sufficiently distracted from Syria now and the killing that is
happening before our very eyes?" She characterized the Russian veto of
measures to isolate the Syrian regime as "
<
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/8419/the-agonies-of-susan-rice_gaza-an
d-the-negroponte-> disgusting."
Churkin was quick to
<
http://columlynch.tumblr.com/post/14684032525/russian-un-envoy-vitaly-churk
in-snaps-at-susan-rice> reply, chiding this American Valkyrie for the cold
war-ish tone of her remarks:
"We hear that the Obama administration wants to establish a dialogue with
the international community in the United Nations, and in the Security
Council. If that is to be the case, really this Stanford dictionary of
expletives must be replaced by something more Victorian, because certainly
this is not the language in which we intend to discuss matters with our
partners in the Security Council."
Rice is a Stanford University alumnus, where she graduated, in 1986, with a
B. A. in history. She was the recipient of a
<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman_Scholarship> Truman
Scholarship, i.e. a government subsidy, awarded by a federally-supported
"foundation" to favored applicants in the field of international studies.
Chairperson of the board: Madeleine Albright, who describes the program as
"identifying future change agents."
The "change" she will bring - and has already brought - to the course of US
foreign policy means a qualitative ramping up of the "regime change"
campaign begun by the Bush administration and escalated by Obama. The theory
of the " <
http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/responsibility.shtml>
responsibility to protect" will rationalize the stepped up tempo of US
intervention in the Middle East and Africa , at least to the satisfaction of
the liberal elites who will cheer her appointment and revel in her rudeness
(especially when it comes to insulting the Russians). And it won't just be
Ambassador Churkin who will cringe at her histrionics once she's ensconced
in Foggy Bottom.
While more cautious when it comes to Syria, she'll no doubt be in the
forefront of the administration's efforts to shape a Syrian opposition group
less <
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019712067_apmlsyria.html>
upfront in its fealty to al-Qaeda. More ominously, she'll be aggressive when
it comes to confronting Iran.
Rice has been the White House's point-person in its efforts to sound tough
on Tehran, and she is firmly in the back pocket of the Israel lobby - a "
<
http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/249721-ric
e-no-daylight-between-us-israel-on-approach-to-iran> no daylighter" to the
max.
President Obama has been backed into a corner by McCain, and if he doesn't
choose Rice it will be counted as a scalp on
<
http://worddrum.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/john-mccain.jpg?iact=rc&dur=7&s
ig=117265495545680365926&ei=WzKsUIKAJIfG2wXltoC4Bg&page=7&tbnh=142&tbnw=183&
start=120&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:33,s:100,i:103&tx=101&ty=72> Mad John's belt.
Add to this the domestic political advantages of elevating a photogenic
African-American female with ties to the Clinton faction of the Democratic
party, and you have all the elements of a politically savvy and quite
obvious choice. As us
<
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/11/10/looking-at-the%C2%A0big-pictu
re/> libertarian realists like to say: foreign policy is all about domestic
politics, and the Rice nomination will mobilize the disparate elements of
the Obamaite coalition in a high profile high stakes fight.
Liberals who consider themselves peaceniks will rally around her not least
due to the Benghazi bungle and McCain's vendetta, while conservatives will
hate her for entirely the wrong reasons. This is at it should be - in
<
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2002/02/13/bizzaro-world/> Bizarro
World.
Bemoaning McCain's hegemony in the Republican foreign policy field, and
mocking his refusal to consider any appointment unless his (rather vague)
demands are met, Rachel Maddow launched into one of her fascinating foreign
policy speeches <
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#49894823> the other
night. She showed a hilarious video montage of McCain calling for arming
various "rebel" groups, from Bosnia to Syria, and asked: can't the GOP do
better than the Arizona militarist when it comes to finding a foreign policy
spokesman?
I wonder what Maddow and her fans will say when Secretary Rice announces
we're
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/middleeast/cia-said-to-aid-in-steer
ing-arms-to-syrian-rebels.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0> arming the rebels in
Syria - and in whatever
<
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/mali/9640853
/Hillary-Clinton-in-Algeria-to-press-for-Mali-military-action.html> African
hellhole is on the verge of a sudden "humanitarian crisis"?
Susan Rice is bad news for opponents of our global meddling, bad news for
the peace movement, and bad news for the country. Too bad we have to depend
on McCain to torpedo her nomination: this means she will almost certainly be
confirmed, as Mad John is widely seen as pursuing a personal feud and is
increasingly isolated on the Hill. Even the always dependable
<
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/18/joe-lieberman-committee-benghazi_n
_2154728.html> Joe Lieberman - who is retiring - has abandoned him on this
matter. That leaves Lindsey Graham as the sole remaining member of the Three
Amigos of the War Party. The joke is that McCain and Rice disagree on
nothing of substance.
If and when Rice is confirmed, it will mark the beginning of a new era of
"humanitarian" intervention-on-steroids. Enlisted service members can look
forward to frequent deployments to the jungles of Africa, while the
"liberal" punditocracy on the home front can anticipate silencing critics
with bombastic and bogus claims of "racism."
<
http://m.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/08/28/chris-matthews-show
-spends-half-program-discussing-racisms-impact-oba> Chris Matthews will have
a ball.
Received on Wed Nov 21 2012 - 20:38:54 EST
