No subject

redolent with all the gimcrack theology of the high cold war era, about=20
"first strike", "second strike", "stable deterrence", "controlled escalatio=
n"=20
and "mutual assured destruction", used to sell US escalations in nuclear=20
arms production, from Kennedy and the late Robert McNamara ("the=20
Missile Gap") to Reagan ("Star Wars").=20

Indeed, as one Pentagon veteran remarked to me earlier this week, "the=20
Administration's whole nuclear stance is turning into a cheesy rerun of the=
=20
Cold War and Mutually Assured Destruction, all based on a horrible=20
exaggeration of one or two Iranian nuclear bombs that the Persians may be=
=20
too incompetent to build and most certainly are too incompetent to deliver.=
"=20

The Biden and Clinton "foreign" policy is: 1) to recreate the same old Cold=
=20
War (with a new appendage, the US versus Iran nuclear confrontation) for th=
e=20
same old reasons: to pump up domestic defense spending; and 2) to continue=
=20
sixty years of supporting Israeli imperialism for the same reasons that=20
every president from Harry to Dubya (perhaps barring Ike) did so: to corner=
=20
Israel lobby money and votes. Regarding the latter, Obama did the same by=
=20
grabbing the Chicago-based Crown and Pritzker family money very early in hi=
s=20
campaign and by making Rahm Emanuel his very first appointment (the two are=
=20
hardly unrelated).=20

So right from the start Obama was already an Israel lobby fellow traveler.=
=20
The Mitchell appointment and the toothless blather about settlements were=
=20
simply cosmetic, bones tossed to the increasing proportion of the American=
=20
electorate that's grossed out by the ethnic cleansing of the Arabs from the=
=20
Holy Land. Obama does have a coherent strategy: keep the defense money=20
flowing and increasing, but without making so much noise as the older=20
generation did about ancient Cold War enemies (e.g. Russia and Cuba). The=
=20
F-22 -- to date, the one and only presidential issue on which he's shown an=
y=20
toughness at all -- is in no sense a departure from keeping the money=20
flowing, since he is indeed increasing the defense budget, in part by using=
=20
the F-22 cancellation to push spending on the even worse F-35 and to hide=
=20
his acquiescence to all the other pork in the Congressional defense budget.=
=20

The window for any new president to impose a decisive change in foreign=20
policy comes in the first three months, before opposition has time to=20
solidify. Obama squandered that opportunity, stocking his foreign policy=20
team with tarnished players such as Ross. As the calculated indiscretions o=
f=20
Biden and Clinton suggest, not to mention the arrogance of Netanyahu and hi=
s=20
political associates, the window of opportunity has closed.=20

Would it have been that hard to signal a change in course? Not really. Obam=
a=20
could have excited the world by renouncing the Bush administration's=20
assertion, in the "National Defense Strategy of the United States" in 2005,=
=20
of the right and intention of the United States to pre=C3=ABmptively attack=
 any=20
country "at the time, place, and in the manner of our choosing." As=20
William Polk, the State Department's middle east advisor in the Kennedy era=
,=20
wrote last year: "As long as this remains a valid statement of American=20
policy, the Iranian government would be foolish not to seek a nuclear=20
weapon."=20

But Obama, surrounded with Clinton-era veterans of NATO expansionism and, a=
s=20
his Accra speech indicated, hobbled with an impeccably conventional view of=
=20
how the world works, is rapidly being overwhelmed by the press of events. H=
e's=20
bailed out the banks. He's transferred war from Iraq to Afghanistan. The bi=
g=20
lobbies know they have him on the run.=20

Hence Biden and Clinton's mutinies, conducted on behalf of the Israel lobby=
=20
and designed to seize administration policy as Obama's popularity weakens.=
=20
When the results of the latest Rasmussen presidential poll were published,=
=20
showing Obama's declining numbers, there were news reports of cheering in=
=20
Tel Aviv. And remember two useful guiding principles: first, it is=20
impossible to underestimate the vanity of politicians, particularly of Joe=
=20
Biden. Maybe he secretly entertains some mad notion of challenging Obama in=
=20
2012, propelled by Israel Lobby money withheld from Obama. Maybe Bill is=20
reminding HRC that he reached the White House in 1992 partly because the=20
Israel lobby turned against George Bush Sr. Second, there is no such thing=
=20
as foreign policy, neither in democratic governments nor in dictatorships.=
=20
All policy is domestic.=20

Professor Gates Should Count Himself Lucky!=20

"Eighty years ago, with the publication of the Wickersham Report on=20
Lawlessness in Law Enforcement, America learned that torture didn't work.an=
d=20
promptly forgot.=20

"Debates on the morality and practical efficacy of torture periodically=20
erupt in American politics. Now, the issue has re-emerged with the efforts=
=20
of ex-Bush administration officials and allies to defend their legacy and=
=20
their legal impunity against the current administration's stated desire to=
=20
move beyond coercive interrogations."=20

This is Peter Lee in our latest CounterPunch newsletter, in an enthralling=
=20
piece of historical excavation about how a commission appointed by Herbert=
=20
Hoover managed to include a savage expose of torture as practiced by US=20
police departments. Lee shows how exactly the torture techniques of our=20
current era and their rationales mirror those of the practitioners and=20
sponsors of torture in the last century.=20

Alexander Cockburn can be reached at alexandercockburn at asis.com=20