The United States of America Has Gone Mad" -- John Le Carr'e REDUX

[KoKo]

Last edited Wed Jul 2, 2014, 05:26 PM - Edit history (1)

Uploaded on Sep 20, 2010

Democracy NOW! - DN! -While John le Carré is famous for his spy novels, he wrote a widely read anti-war essay in 2003 titled "The United States of America Has Gone Mad." He reads an excerpt.

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[Overseas]

1. K&R. This is poignant. He talks about reality in the way I felt it then and now.

[yuiyoshida]

2. brilliant

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, KoKo.

[navarth]

4. He's a great one. His books are the absolute top level, nobody else is even close.

He really walked the walk, he knows what he writes about. No other 'spy novelist' can touch him. I'll have to look for that book 'Our Kind Of Traitor', I haven't read it. But I've read all the others. Wonderful.

[90-percent]

5. paraphrase of my FB post about this vid

First time in my life I have seen this vid was today! The FB audience is much different than DU. I try to be a lot more neutral and journalistic, as some of my best friends are conservatives. Honestly. OTOH, on DU, I strive to be as hyperbolic and HST/Zappa as possible. Kinda like a literary tribute band of those guys. The pics i mention are not worth the trouble of trying to post here.




I had some strong and passionate understandings about the 2003 Iraq Invasion and tried to do something about it before it happened. I attended Congressman Larson’s pre-invasion town hall meeting in West Hartford late 2002 early 2003 and told him in a room full of fellow citizens that the rational for the invasion was bogus and I would prefer to have the MAFIA in the White House because I felt the people that run the Mafia were MORE HONORABLE and SMARTER than the entire GW
Bush cabinet.

On January 18 I took a bus to DC to attend an International Answer Anti War protest on the National Mall in DC. This was the first war protest of my life, and I received my draft card in 1972, while the Vietnam conflict was still going strong. Boy was it cold that day. I took the pics with a disposable camera, cuz I was afraid I’d lose my $900 digital in all the riots there might have been. (Nothing of the sort happened. It was extremely peaceful)

The pics are Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and former LBJ Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

If you’re an American, you probably are not aware that the largest war protests in the history of the universe back to the Big Bang took place in this era. Our “patriotic” main stream media had to do their part to propagandize and censor, so as not to be smeared as supporting the terrorists themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War

I was pretty OK with invading Afghanistan because a lot of the 9-11 perps were there, but, to plagiarize a bit of lefty wisdom, I felt that GWB invading Iraq for 9-11 was like Franklin Roosevelt invading New Zealand after Pearl Harbor.

And I share this now because there are some public figures, many the very people that got it so wrong the first time, advocate re-invading Iraq. If we didn’t fix it up correctly after eleven years of trying, who in their right mind would think, we should go in again and expect a different outcome?


-90% Jimmy

[KoKo]

6. Thanks for sharing that....

Many DU'ers were very active in trying to stop the Iraq Invasion. We posted pics of our protests and we were a hive of communications about what we were doing. All that is in the DU Archives. The original essay of John Le Carr'e was posted here DU and got great response. I thought it was time to repost the essay since "DN" now has a video with the 2010 interview and it's 4th of July Weekend coming up.

The DU in those days...at that time...was very different from the DU these days which seems to be in support of "Interventions," no matter where they are, as long as its our Dem President doing it.

Yes, there were huge protests all over the world and large protests even in smaller US cities (along with the massive ones in LA and NYC) before the Invasion trying to stop it. I was involved in a large one in my state and for almost a year afterwards there were smaller protests and vigils ongoing.

Bush was protested during the rest of his administration and good folks in my state lined the road as his motorcade passed on the way to a meeting with a Big Republican donor. It was the first time we encountered the "Fee Speech Pens" where we were forced to stand with our signs. Even Cheney was protested when he came to my city...but, they whisked him in a back door of the hotel..while we chanted loudly enough hoping he would still hear us.

They didn't listen to us. They still don't. And look at the consequences... But, people on both sides are getting tired of these "interventions" turned into wars on the people we wish to force "Regime Change" on and the money it costs us and the loss of lives on both sides. Eventually something will have to change but I'm not holding my breath.

[geretogo]

7. He's right . It's more like an armed mad house .

[KoKo]

8. Indeed...it seem so as we go forward. N/t

[KoKo]

9. For 4th of July...which I ALWAYS HONORED..(Flag is Outside my House for WWII Veteran FIL)

Who didn't ever want his Five Boys to go to Vietnam. He was an honored VET of WWII, KOREA.

John Le Carr'e reminds us of what these Kids Today are fighting for.....and it's Coporate Greed and for scripts/memes written by those who feel "WAR" is the "Only Answer" for "American Exceptionalism.

So My Flag is out there and I will watch the Fireworks...........but....the Patriot in me for the Kiling, Death and American Might has "flagged out."

I would have put a "PEACE FLAG" out.....but, America, the way it's going will NEVER BE FOR PEACE. So, I try to fit in with my neighbors .....one of which had "Sarah Palin for President" and the Other had McCain-Palin.......

And I don't want them F***Iing with my Internet Connection and Spying on me. This is how bad it has gotten...these days.

Neighbor watching Neighbor....and so much differences in people who live just a household apart who barely speak to each other.....

It shouldn't be this way.......I live in a 2% Neighborhood.... You would ask why? Because we moved from a High Cost area of the NE and could afford More when we moved here (AND...THINGS WERE dIFFERENT Clinton had just been ELECTED and we were YOUNGER...... And, it has not been good........