Appropriate Disillusionment (on Sheehan & Bacevich despair with Democrats)

[yurbud]

By GARY LEUPP

>snip<

Professor Bacevich, now sharing Sheehan's personal grief, calls his earlier hopes that he and others might force the country to change course "an illusion," noting that "responsibility for the war's continuation now rests no less with the Democrats who control Congress than with the president and his party." "Money," he notes bitterly, "maintains the Republican/Democratic duopoly of trivialized politics. It confines the debate over U.S. policy to well-hewn channels It negates democracy, rendering free speech little more than a means of recording dissent. This is not some great conspiracy. It's the way our system works."

If there is a positive aspect to this despair, it is this very realization: the system is the problem. It has not so much "failed" us as we have failed to understand what Sheehan and Bacevich are concluding: it isn't designed to work for us but for but for them.

For those who can't bring themselves to say that the war is not a "mistake" but a crime. For those who can't call for immediate withdrawal in accordance with the wishes of the American and Iraqi people but talk about "benchmarks" for a gradual withdrawal. For those who want to shift the onus of the U.S. failure in Iraq to Iraqi politicians for their delays and bickering, and the Iraqi people for their bewildering Islamic sectarianism.

It serves those who vote in bipartisan fashion to further vilify and isolate Syria and Iran---the fools who do not know the first thing about Islamic history and the divisions between Shiites and Sunnis, secularists and Islamists. It serves those lining up to embrace the fear-mongering Islamophobic neocon agenda for more confrontation with the Muslim world. It serves those who fear AIPAC more than the consequences of a strike on Iran. It serves the Democrats who want to keep an attack on Iran on the table, but assure President Bush that his impeachment is off the table because it's just too radical a prospect for them to consider.

http://counterpunch.com/leupp05312007.html

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Thanks for posting this. It cuts to the heart of the matter. n/t

[yurbud]

2. yep. money talks, and democracy walks

[Dhalgren]

3. K&R! Thanks for this. It states the reality perfectly.

"It isn't designed to work for us, but for them."

[ixion]

4. kicked and recommended....

the 'system' belongs to We, the people, not the pols. :grr: