Are We "Useful Idiots"?

[LeahMira]

Why have American liberals acquiesced in President Bush’s catastrophic foreign policy? Why have they so little to say about Iraq, about Lebanon, or about reports of a planned attack on Iran? Why has the administration’s sustained attack on civil liberties and international law aroused so little opposition or anger from those who used to care most about these things? Why, in short, has the liberal intelligentsia of the United States in recent years kept its head safely below the parapet?

It wasn’t always so. On 26 October 1988, the New York Times carried a full-page advertisement for liberalism. Headed ‘A Reaffirmation of Principle’, it openly rebuked Ronald Reagan for deriding ‘the dreaded L-word’ and treating ‘liberals’ and ‘liberalism’ as terms of opprobrium. Liberal principles, the text affirmed, are ‘timeless. Extremists of the right and of the left have long attacked liberalism as their greatest enemy. In our own time liberal democracies have been crushed by such extremists. Against any encouragement of this tendency in our own country, intentional or not, we feel obliged to speak out.’

More at: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n18/judt01_.html

I read (in the September issue of "The Progressive," book review section)that the invasion of Iraq was not an isolated episode, but one more instance of a 110-year long period during which the U.S. has had a central role in overthrowing at least fourteen governments that displeased it for various reasons. Additionally, the U.S. interventions have invariably made things worse in those countries, i.e. Cuba got Batista, the Philippines got Marcos, the Iranians got the Shah, and etc. I don't think very many people know that. I didn't.

Would it help at all if we made it a point to talk about history? If there's truly a liberal intelligensia in this country, why can't it speak to the average person and explain that this "war on terror" is not a clash of civilizations so much as more of the same old pattern that we've repeated over and over again and that we've always managed to make things worse in the long run.

[ShortnFiery]

1. It's not us LIBERALS who are at fault, it's many of our pansy assed ...

Political Leaders holding seats within The House and Senate.

How can the Democratic Party be united when a number of Our Representatives are being paid off by The Corporations representative of The Military Industrial Complex?

As long as we have both Big Business FIRST and Warmongering Democratic Representatives, we, as a Party can not send a clear message to The American People. :shrug:

My Answer: Kick the Corporate enablers and Warmongers who are profiteering off of the Military Industrial's WAR MACHINE out during the next Democratic Primary. ;)

[area51]

2. useful idiots

The only useful idiots that I know are members of the republinazi party, who, despite not being rich, keep voting pro-nazi, even though they've lost their jobs & healthcare due to offshoring, & who still vote for GW Hoover & other members of the nazi party even though 9/11 happened on his watch.