krebscycle

The quote below from Tom Engelhardt is indicative of the weird reactionary shell shocked state of the American left after 7 years of a black man in the White House. We are in the United States in 2016, 60 years after CIA coup in Iran installed the Shah’s torture state, 40 years after the Vietnam War ended, 30 years after Ronald Reagan’s bloody wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and a decade after George W. Bush’s excellent adventure in Iraq began. And poor Tom is astounded to find that the US engages military interventions all over the world now:

And yet, true as all that may be, Washington increasingly seems like a new land, sporting something like a new system
in the midst of our much-described polarized and paralyzed politics.
The national security state doesn’t seem faintly paralyzed or polarized
to me. Nor does the Pentagon. On certain days when I catch the news, I
can’t believe how strange and yet humdrum this uncharted new territory
is. Remind me, for instance, where in the Constitution the Founding
Fathers wrote about that national security state? And yet there it is in
all its glory, all its powers, an ever more independent force in our
nation’s capital. In what way, for instance, did those men of the
revolutionary era prepare the ground for the Pentagon to loose its spy
drones from our distant war zones over the United States? And yet, so it has. And
no one even seems disturbed by the development. The news, barely
noticed or noted, was instantly absorbed into what’s becoming the new
normal.

By GOLLY! We were just sitting in our New England town meeting, posing for the Norman Rockwell painting and thinking of taking Suzie to the Malt-Shop after the game, when we realized this terrible black guy Obama had unleashed the Empire Drones! What’s a hard working white working class hero to do? Faint? Flex a bicep? “Remind me, for instance, where in the Constitution the Founding Fathers wrote about that national security state?“  By Gad! The Founding Fathers wanted to live in peace with Native Americans and help African Americans form labor unions and worker collectives. The USA didn’t even fight an undeclared war in nearby Tunisia until 1801. And now poor Tom has discovered:

It seems that if the US puts advisers in place anywhere on the planet — and any day of any year they are now in scores of countries — that’s excuse enough to validate acts of war based on the “imminent” threat of their attack.

Faith and Begorrah! Someone fetch Father Tom a brandy. It seems as if any day now the US will put advisers in Philippines and intervene militarily – oh wait that was 1900 – or in Guatemala – oh wait, that was 1950 – or Costa Rica – wait that was 1850 – or Russia (1920), or Argentina (1970s) or Greece (1950s) or Haiti (1920) or Japan (1850s) or …

Since Obama took office, the US Right has repeatedly pitched fits that Obama would President while black. I would never suggest that the shock and horror the US Left has for stuff the US has been doing forever is caused by the same unease that having a black guy in the Oval Office has induced in the right. I mean these are enlightened people.