[R-G] Barack or no, the empire will roll on as before

[Aaron Aarons]

I'm posting this, not because it has any original analysis, but because I like some of its rhetorical flourishes, e.g., "a think-tanker who thinks tanks", "Obamba Pakistan", "American progressives (don't ask for any precise definition)".

 - Aaron

<http://www.taylor-report.com/articles/index.php?id=36>

Letter: Barack or no, the empire will roll on as before
M. Hazlitt
October 27, 2008
Obama's like Kennedy and that's the problem.

Campaigning for President Kennedy said he'd be a tougher cold warrior than Nixon. Jack said Ike Eisenhower/Nixon had been unwilling to confront Communist "Chiner" and America was lagging in the arms race, he'd fix that and he'd take care of Castro.

Liberal democrats would mutter, he's just saying that. Turns out - Bay of Pigs/Vietnam/ Cuba missile crisis - he wasn't just saying that.

With Obama we hear he has to say those things, but soon the phrase will be, he has to do those things. He will go right into the bomb and embargo business same as his Republican/Democrat predecessors. He'll go from just saying that, to just doing that.

Let's take him at his word: More troops in Afghanistan; hot-pursuit into Pakistan; "boots on the ground" in Sudan. He will appoint people like Holbrooke, the thug who ripped up Yugoslavia; Samantha Power, a think-tanker who thinks tanks and provides blather for humanitarian intervention, sugar-coated imperialism; General Powell will get a job somewhere. So, it will be Obamba Pakistan and such, laced with high-minded rhetoric that will pall rather early.

Every four years American progressives (don't ask for any precise definition) have a nervous breakdown over which servant of plutocrats they should vote for. Better they spent some time over the speeches of the authentic labor leader and anti-war militant imprisoned for opposition to imperialist war, Gene Debs, and put their energies into putting the brakes on an out-of-control empire. If they leave it to Barack, they're in for a shock.

M. Hazlitt