Former Aussie PM chides contemporary governance USA

Editing, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett

U.S. Capitol prepares for inauguration January 20, 2009.

As efficacy in U.S. military power decreases, importance of economic power increases. 

Recognition of these central realities — and bipartisanship in addressing them — is critical for America’s future and for the future of the West.  malcolm fraser

Australia’s former Prime Minister John Malcolm Fraser set out an insightful opinion in a late August article at Project Syndicate later published at Al Jazeera. The article excerpted, slightly edited and endorsed on this site is — “America’s self-inflicted decline.”

On several occasions in the post-World War II period, Fraser writes, the U.S. has learned with great pain that there are limits to the effective use of military power.

U.S. objectives in Vietnam could not be achieved

The outcome in Iraq will not be determined until the last U.S. troops withdraw.

In Afghanistan, where withdrawal dates have already been set, it is difficult to believe that a cohesive unified state can be established.

http://sc94.ameslab.gov/TOUR/whitehouse.html

The United States’ current fiscal problems are rooted in a long period of unfunded spending. [The George W. Bush government]’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the manner in which he conducted the ‘global war on terror’ made matters much worse, contributing to a totally unsustainable situation. [The Obama government] inherited an almost impossible legacy.

“In the weeks since the debt ceiling agreement, it has become increasingly [and embarrassingly] clear that good government might be impossible in the U.S.

The coming months of campaigning for the U.S. presidency will be spent in petty brawling over what should be cut.

The example of recent weeks gives us no cause for optimism that U.S. legislators will rise above partisan politics and ask themselves what is best for America.

http://www.bellona.org/weblog/1309027676.82

“U.S. leadership in world affairs began to weaken with the unilateralism of [the George W. Bush government] and today’s economic problems are reinforcing this tendency. To reverse the United States’ decline, [the Obama government] needs bipartisan support for (quite mainstream) policies. However, so far, the U.S. Congress has shown no stomach for a principled approach to its legislative duties.

“If Germany’s half-hearted efforts to stabilize Europe somehow turn out to be successful, the U.S. position will be further eroded, and central banks around the world will begin to regard the euro once again as a reliable alternative to the dollar as a reserve currency.

http://www.realtruth.org/articles/070503-003-gvfe.html

The alternative, as China has suggested, would be to develop a new reserve currency.

“If this forces the United States toward what international relations scholar Joseph Nye calls ‘soft power and multilateral diplomacy’ — it may well be a good thing.”

Sources and notes

“America’s self-inflicted decline — The United States is facing major economic problems, and its politicians are unable — or unwilling — to solve them” (Malcolm Fraser) September 4, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/20119474217665992.html

“America’s Self-Inflicted Decline” (Malcolm Fraser), Project Syndicate. August 30, 2011, http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/fraser2/English

John Malcolm Fraser

A former Australian Liberal Party politician, the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (elections: 1975, 1977, 1980, 1983), John Malcolm Fraser was active in foreign policy and supported the Commonwealth in campaigning to abolish apartheid in South Africa. He opposed white minority rule in Rhodesia. Fraser supported multiculturalism and established a government-funded multilingual radio and television network. Under his government, a formal policy was developed for ‘a humanitarian commitment to admit refugees for resettlement’ and immigration; immigration from Asian countries expanded and more refugees were allowed to enter Australia.

In 2006, Fraser attacked the Howard [John Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia: 1996-2007] Liberal government’s policies on refugees, terrorism and civil liberties. He charged that ‘if Australia continues to follow United States policies, it runs the risk of being embroiled in the conflict in Iraq for decades, and a fear of Islam in the Australian community will take years to eradicate.’  In 2007, Fraser reportedly wrote an open letter in which he stated, ‘One of the things we [Australians] should say to the Americans, quite simply, is that if the United States is not prepared to involve itself in high-level diplomacy concerning Iraq and other Middle East questions, our forces will be withdrawn before Christmas.’

In retirement, Malcolm Fraser chaired the UN Panel of Eminent Persons on the Role of Transnational Corporations in South Africa (1985), co chaired the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons on South Africa (1985–86), and chaired the UN Secretary-General’s Expert Group on African Commodity Issues (1989–90). He was a distinguished international fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (1984 to 1986) then became president of the foreign aid group Care International (1991).

In 2006, he received an appointment of Professorial Fellow at the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law and in October 2007 presented his inaugural professorial lecture — ‘Finding Security in Terrorism’s Shadow: The importance of the rule of law.’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Fraser

Captions

Britannica images

U.S. Capitol

Final preparations being made at the U.S. Capitol prior to the inauguration ceremony, Jan. 20, 2009.

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Stop choosing choice-less “lesser of two evils”

Grounds for establishing and maintaining in the public space support for diversity of political views, beyond partisans, beyond tribes to substantive, capable, truth-telling public-issues contenders  —

Beyond “Lesser of two-Evils”

North Portico White House USA Britannica image

Edited excerpt with comment by Carolyn Bennett

From Alexander Cockburn’s August 19 opinion piece, “The Real Obama” — Cockburn is also author of Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils.

Flawed governance USA

Cockburn’s recitation of current reality leading into the 2012 campaign season highlights further evidence for uprooting an entrenched, corrupt status quo in U.S. systems of government and politics, tribal allegiances and patronage, electoral processes, parties and partisans and an ever-present array of shadowy, covert and in-the-face “partners.”

In 2008, Cockburn writes, “liberals and most leftists were deeply in love with [U.S. President Barack] Obama. They genuinely believed the promissory notes about a better America that he strewed along the campaign trail and has since welshed [reneged] on at a rate of well over 90 percent.…”

Although from a White House “news-leak point of view,” Cockburn says, the president presides over “the tightest ship in living memory …  where it counts, he  is not in control. Republicans regarded as certifiably insane by more Americans than disapprove of the president’s performance face down the president and he  leaps to do their bidding — even as they kick him in the teeth for not doing more.”

An ‘appeaser’ — the president pulls his forelock “to [shows respect for perceived ‘betters’ in] Wall Street, the defense industry, the oil companies, Monsanto, the agriculture industry, Israel. … and when the dust of battle rises, [the president] cuts and runs.”

Capitol USA Britannica image

Lacking imagination and guts, Leftists hang on to choice-less, regressive‘lesser-of-two-evils’

“There are plenty of Obama loyalists out there,” Cockburn concludes. Some leftists are still forlornly trying “to make a case for the man and [they] will stay true to the end; but if they vote for him next year, it won’t be for any positive reason — like what sent them delightedly to the polls in 2008: searching for hope. They will gesture to Governor Rick Perry or some other Republican challenger and fall back on the ‘lesser of two evils’ argument.”

We do not, however, have to settle for a choice-less “lesser of two evils.” Not only for our sake, the sake of the United States, but for the sake of our country’s relations with the world’s peoples and with respect for their cultures, we can and we must uproot and progress beyond the entrenched criminally regressive, medieval practices of Washington Wizards and wannabees and their partners.

Sources and notes

“The Real Obama” (Opinion, Alexander Cockburn, Creators dot com), August 19, 2011, http://www.creators.com/opinion/alexander-cockburn.html

Alexander Cockburn also made some insightful remarks about media this week in conversation with Doug Henwood on “Behind the News” aired over Pacifica’s KPFA radio and KPFA online.

Behind the News with Doug Henwood, for August 27, 2011 - 10:00 a.m. [KPFA 94.1 AM],

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/72789,

http://www.kpfa.org/programgrid

Tugs forelock

Saying a person “tugs his/her forelock” to other persons or entities is to criticize the person for showing “too much respect” to that other or “being unnecessarily worried about their opinions.”   

People often used to pull their forelocks to show respect for other people of a higher class than they were, mainly British expression

A forelock is a piece of hair that falls over or grows out of the forehead (noun, plural “forelocks”), http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-cobuild/tug/touch%20one's%20forelock

Britannica: forelock (n, 1589): a lock of hair growing from the front of the head

Alexander Cockburn

A writer among writers, broadcasters and print journalists, Alexander Claud Cockburn (koʊbərn/ koh-bərn) was born in Scotland, raised in Ireland and, since 2009, has been a citizen of the United States. He is a political journalist and media critic. He has written for a variety of U.S. news outlets including The Village Voice and The Nation magazine and is currently a co-editor of CounterPunch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cockburn

Books by Cockburn include: Corruptions of Empire; Death of Liberal America; The Democrats in End Time: The True and Terrible Story of How the Dems Blew It and What Comes After; Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils (co-author Jeffrey St. Clair); Encounters with the Sphinx : Journey of a Radical in Changing Times; Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press; Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia (co-author Jeffrey St. Clair) http://www.bookfinder.com/author/alexander-cockburn/

Sunday News updates from Obama’s theaters and regions of aggression and occupation — Press TV reports

AFRICA

SOMALIA — At least 67 people have died and more than 560 others have been hospitalized due to starvation and cholera in famine-stricken Somalia

LIBYA  — Prominent political analyst, author and historian Webster Tarpley said in an interview today with Press TV that NATO forces have teamed up with the terrorist group al-Qaeda to rebuild Libya after the departure of Col. Muammar Qaddafi. Tarpley said the new rebel commander of Tripoli “is a top al-Qaeda leader who has worked for the Afghanis and fought against the United States.”

AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN —A newly established political front in Afghanistan strongly rejects the notion of establishing permanent U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. Reportedly comprised of people from “all walks of life,” Afghanistan’s Unity Front today declared its existence and said that the permanent presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan runs counter to the country’s independence and national pride.

In Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan today two NATO oil tankers were set light.

In a cross-border attack on Pakistan’s northwestern district of Chitral yesterday, at least 25 Pakistani paramilitary troops died and several others were wounded.

Today in southern Afghanistan, at least four civilians died and others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded. Attacks in the south of Afghanistan have also reportedly killed two members of U.S.-led NATO. A foreign reconstruction site has also come under attack in the provincial capital of Zabul Province in the south of Afghanistan.

IRAQ — Fourteen people died Friday in bomb blasts against security forces across Iraq. Scores were reportedly injured.

U.S. House of Representatives chamber Britannica image

Wednesday in a new rise of violence, at least 11 people died and more were injured in the western provinces of Anbar and Diyala governorate in Iraq’s east.

U.S. ANTI-ISLAM — a shocking new report released Friday by the Center for American Progress reveals that seven foundations and wealthy donors have been behind the 10-year campaign to spread Islamophobia in the United States. The 130-page report by CAP identified foundations that have provided more than $42 million to key individuals and organizations that between 2001 and 2009 spearheaded the nationwide effort.

Among the organizations funding anti-Islam experts who promote Islamophobia are: “Donors Capital Fund [the single biggest contributor paying $18 million to the Clarion Fund which, during the 2008 election, distributed 30 million anti-Muslim DVDs through local newspapers]; Richard Melton Scaife foundations; Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; Newton D. & Rochelle F. Becker foundations and charitable trust; Russell Berrie Foundation; Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund; Fairbrook Foundation.”

Some of the funded experts spreading information through conservative organizations, politicians and news channels: “Frank Gaffney at the Center for Security Policy, David Yerushalmi at the Society of Americans for National Existence, Daniel Pipes at Middle East Forum, Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Stop Islamization of America, Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.”

http://www.presstv.ir/

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY] • Articles also at World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire
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