Chris Hedges - The Next Quagmire...

[bridgit]

'The most effective diplomats, like the most effective intelligence officers and foreign correspondents, possess empathy. They have the intellectual, cultural and linguistic literacy to get inside the heads of those they must analyze or cover. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents that go into making up decisions and reactions. And because of this—endowed with the ability to communicate and more able to find ways of resolving conflicts through diplomacy—they are less prone to blunders.

But we live in an age where dialogue is dismissed and empathy is suspect. We prefer the illusion that we can dictate events through force. It hasn’t worked well in Iraq. It hasn’t worked well in Afghanistan. And it won’t work in Iran. But those who once tried to reach out and understand, who developed expertise to explain the world to us and ourselves to the world, no longer have a voice in the new imperial project. We are instead governed and informed by moral and intellectual trolls.'

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070903_the_next_quagmire/

[Tom Joad]

1. Do you find it interesting to hear the rapid response to Bush's very threatening Iran speech by Dem

leaders?
could hear a pin drop. they said nothing.
nothing. Bush escalates all he wants, and you are not going to hear any concern from any of bush's supposed replacements. just like they said nothing when he was threatening Iraq in 2002-3

It seems like without a whisper of protest from dem mis-leaders, Rev Hagee and Pat Robertson will get the conflagration they dream of.

[bridgit]

4. some time back now, when i had hoped out cyber-loud that rapid response was doable...

i received a pm from a person on that very team...or so they represented; i can only hope the team is still in place, and that these matters are being considered in that time remains of the essence i agree

[Tom Joad]

2. If only an opposition party existed in the US....

[kenny blankenship]

3. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents

that go into making up decisions and reactions.

Wow, they must be blowing out their o-rings trying to empathize with George Bush: he doesn't know any of that shit.

[Disturbed]

6. "If only an opposition party existed in the US...."

There is a such a party, the Green Party. Progressives in the Dem Party still believe that they can change the conservative Dems in that party, so they refuse to join a party that actually represents the values that they truly believe in.

[grasswire]

5. the comments section is extremely interesting

well worth reading