Tag Archives: Cold War

January 25, 2013 · 5:05 AM

MSNBC: Senator Kerry’s most important Senate appearance was in 1971

MSNBC – The Last Word

The next chapter in Sen. John Kerry’s story began Thursday during his confirmation hearings for his nomination to be Secretary of State. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell took a look back at John Kerry’s place in history when he testified on Capitol Hill before a panel nearly 40 years ago as a Vietnam War veteran and protester.

In his opening statement on Thursday, Kerry reminded himself of his own journey that began in 1971 when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971 and spoke about his  experience in war and as the leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

“Nearly 42 years ago, Chairman Fulbright first gave me the opportunity to testify before this committee during a difficult and divided time for our country,” Kerry said. “Today I can’t help but recognize that the world itself then was in many ways simpler, divided as it was along bi-polar, Cold War antagonism. Today’s world is more complicated than anything we have experienced.”

Speaking to the complex challenges the country is now facing, Kerry remained humble about the first time he set foot on Capitol Hill. “I’ll tell you, Mr. Chairman, when I first came to Washington to testify it was as a member of group who came to have their voices heard. That is what this place is all about.” Kerry was a former navy lieutenant in Vietnam, was wounded three times and awarded the silver star for heroism.

His well-received testimony received a standing ovation from peace demonstrators in the gallery; his speech also resonated with President Richard Nixon who ended the draft a year later.

O’Donnell praised Kerry as the ultimate war hero, saving countless of lives with his powerful testimony against the war.

“More than 2,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam after John Kerry’s testimony. That number was going to be higher, much higher. 5,000? 10,000? We’ll never know, but it was going to be higher if John Kerry hadn’t become the most “extremely effective” war protester in American history. The only war protester who the war President, Richard Nixon, thought was, in his words, ‘extremely effective.’”

O’Donnell thanked Kerry for his most valuable contribution to the country and the world.

“There are men who are alive today in this country thanks to John Kerry. I have brothers who I believe are alive today, thanks to John Kerry. Some of you have brothers, fathers, uncles, who are alive today because of John Kerry. John Kerry didn’t play it safe when he testified against the war. He personally attacked by name President Johnson’s Defense Secretary–along with the other Democrats in the Johnson Administration who were the architects of that war… the so-called best and the brightest who failed the country and the world so miserably. On April 22, 1971, at the age of 27, John Kerry assured his position in American history, and that position is war hero…the most valuable kind of war hero, the hero who helps end the war.”

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September 1, 2012 · 10:54 AM

Mario Piperni: The Republican Convention – Lies, Deception and Clint Eastwood

Mitt Romney / Paul Ryan / Clint Eastwood : http://mariopiperni.com/

Once again, Mario Piperni’s art and assessment of the Republican Convention speaks volumes…

Mario Piperni

The illustration pretty much sums up my thoughts on the Republican National Convention. Lies, deception and just plain nonsense. If you were solidly behind Romney before the convention, then three days of Obama bashing must have felt like an extended Christmas morning . Each new speaker brought out their own crudely wrapped gift of distortions, untruths and wingnuttery. I’m sure it was a joy.

If prior to the lie-fest you believed the Republican party represented all that is wrong with America, then nothing happened in those three days to change those sentiments…except, possibly, to reinforce any thought that, yes, these people are detached sociopaths.

But if you weren’t sure who you’d vote for in November and were hoping to learn something about Romney and how he planned to turn the economy around, you got nothing except vague promises and shiny glitter. No new ideas or policies were presented on the domestic front. But you did learn that Romney is intent on starting a new Middle East war with Iran…and something about reviving the Cold War and putting Putin in his place. Neocons love villains, real or imagined.

You also learned that empty chairs and invisible presidents are best left on a vaudeville stage.

 

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April 2, 2012 · 12:10 AM

How Mitt Romney Fumbled The ‘Hot Mic’ Opportunity

How Mitt Romney Fumbled The ‘Hot Mic’ Opportunity

When it comes to campaign political gaffes, poor Mitt Romney, always gets it wrong several times before he eventually just gives up.  It seems this time his foreign policy gravitas is sorely lacking and the Obama camp is seizing the opportunity to let voters know this.

TPM2012

Mitt Romney may be settling in as his party’s presumptive nominee, but his team is still cutting its teeth when it comes to going toe-to-toe with President Obama. This week, a series of misfired remarks over what seemed like an easy political winner for Romney — Obama’s ‘hot mic’ moment with Russia’s leader — is now being turned by the White House into a referendum on the ex-governor’s foreign policy chops.

As a Sunday interview with Vice President Joe Biden made clear, Democrats are on the offensive over the ‘hot mic’ affair.

“He acts like he thinks the Cold War is still on. Russia is still our major adversary. I don’t know where he’s been,” Biden said on CBS’ Face The Nation, pointing out various ways in which Russia is working with the U.S. “So I think what the exchange did — it exposes how little the governor knows about foreign policy.”

So, how did Romney lose control of a story that was destined to hurt Obama?

Last Monday, when Obama’s comment to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more “flexibility” on missile defense after the election was picked up by a live microphone, Romney was presented with a golden opportunity. The gaffe fit perfectly into the GOP’s narrative that the president is a radical in sheep’s clothing who will impose far-left policies as soon as he’s re-elected. But over the course of the last week, Romney dropped the ball.

The first mistake: While his campaign was sending out press releases about how Obama would impose “job-killing tax increases” in a second term, Romney was making news by accusing Russia of being “without question our number one geopolitical foe.” The candidate’s pronouncement against Russia turned public scrutiny from Obama back on him. Democrats shot back with a statement from Gen. Wes Clark, saying Romney’s comment “sounds like a rehash of Cold War fears.”

The back and forth went on all week, with Democrats largely defending the gaffe as a statement about the realities of election-year politics and asking Americans not to read anything else into it — but peppering those comments with questions about Romney’s knowledge of foreign affairs.

Then, on Friday, the Romney campaign all but gave up the game. Challenged by team Obama to release his last 30 years of tax returns, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul responded bycalling on the president to “release the notes and transcripts of all his meetings with world leaders.”

Team Romney’s point was that Obama should prove “that he’s not promising to sell out the country’s interests after the election is over.” Dems slapped their foreheads in response, pointing out the obvious perils of releasing sensitive information from meetings between world leaders, and hammering Romney with another round of attacks on his foreign policy “naiveté.”

Saturday morning, the DNC had yet another foreign policy expert, this time the Dr. Colin Kahl, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, attack the campaign’s comments as “yet another indication that Mitt Romney is not ready to be Commander-in-Chief.” And now, almost a week after Obama’s gaffe, Team Romney has been silent on the issue for going on two days while the Obama camp — including both Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — is happy to discuss their opponent’s “Cold War mentality.”

Whether or not Romney is naive about foreign policy, this episode demonstrates some of Romney’s weaknesses in messaging wars with the president. Romney and Republicans will probably continue to use the ‘hot mic’ incident against Obama, but they’ve given the president ample room to bite back.

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October 3, 2011 · 7:54 AM

JP Morgan Hearts The NYPD

Think Progress – Matthew Yglesias

Via Neil Sinhababu, this looks like a well-timed investment as direct action protests against banks gain steam:

JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD’s main data center.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon a note expressing “profound gratitude” for the company’s donation.

To my way of thinking, this is a healthy dynamic. I’m not a radical anti-capitalist. But something you saw during the Cold War was that the possibility of radical anti-capitalists taking over helped create incentives for the business class to ensure that the “free world” organized market economies in a way that was broadly beneficial.

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February 8, 2011 · 4:35 AM

Egyptian Revolution – “I Will Die Today!”

 Mario Piperni

“We will not be silenced, whether you’re a Christian, whether you’re a Muslim, whether you’re an atheist, you will demand your goddamn rights, and we will have our rights, one way or another! We will never be silenced!”

We live on a planet where almost 2 billion of its inhabitants live and die under the rule of dictators, a group of which there is no shortage.  Foreign Policy estimates there are at least 40 dictators in the world today.

…the cost of all that despotism has been stultifying. Millions of lives have been lost, economies have collapsed, and whole states have failed under brutal repression. And what has made it worse is that the world is in denial. The end of the Cold War was also supposed to be the “End of History” — when democracy swept the world and repression went the way of the dinosaurs. Instead, Freedom House reports that only 60 percent of the world’s countries are democratic — far more than the 28 percent in 1950, but still not much more than a majority. And many of those aren’t real democracies at all, ruled instead by despots in disguise while the world takes their freedom for granted. As for the rest, they’re just left to languish.

I’m one of those who has always taken his freedom for granted. I’ve never lived under an oppressive regime and I do not know what it feels like to march in protest to rid myself of a dictator who has ruthlessly suppressed my rights.

It is with that thought in mind that I watched the video below shot by a young Egyptian.  It’s gone viral but if you haven’t yet seen it, do so. 

You’ll find it difficult to not be moved by it.

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