Frankenstein's back, with a resounding endorsement of Barack Obama. I refer, of course, to the reemergence in public of former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Albright chastized Bush and defended Obama's statement that he would be happy to talk to Iran and other enemies of the United States. Albright blasted the current approach to the Middle East and made the anodyne point that it is just as important to converse with one's adversaries as it is to converse with one's friends.
The problem, of course, is not with talking with folks like Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The problem is: who is going to do the talking? Certainly a President McCain has the experience and resolve to sit across the table with the bad guys and not fall for their deceptions or give in to their pressures. With an unseasoned guy like Obama, whose global experience may be confined to an occasional visit to the International House of Pancakes, who knows?
With Albright too it is credibility that becomes an issue. On May 11, 1996 this woman was asked by a television interviewer for "60 Minutes" whether she was troubled by the fact that Clinton-supported sanctions had resulted in the death of 500,000 Iraqi children. "It's a hard choice," she replied, "but we think it's worth it."
Leftists should keep Albright's response in mind when they wail about civilian casualties as a consequence of Bush's war in Iraq. Iraq Body Count keeps track of these casualties, and they are less than one-fifth the number of innocent civilians (mostly children) killed in the aftermath of sanctions. Sanctions had no effect on Saddam or his henchmen, who didn't miss a meal. Rather, they hurt the most vulnerable members of Iraqi society.
These facts remind us not only of the shortcomings of sanctions, which are not likely to work better with Iran than they did with Iraq. They also remind us that bad things in the world must be measured not against utopia but against what came before. Bush's Iraq war has resulted in a steep reduction of Iraqi deaths compared to the 300,000 people Saddam deposited in the mass graves and compared to the even greater number of deaths that Clinton's policies seem to have produced.
Still, I come back to Albright's original dismissal of half a million deaths with the calm affirmation: it's worth it. Can you recall another secretary of state making a remark more shockingly callous than Albright's? How this Frankenstein became the first female secretary of state remains a mystery.
And it is this same person who would presume to lecture us on what we should now be doing with Iran. I don't think we need more advice from Albright. Rather, what we need from her is an apology, followed by an overdue withdrawal from public life.
Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 14)
46. Get the picture? Why hasn't someone out there thought of this already?
Dee at 10:17AM on Jun 29th 2008
xxx
Because Barack Obama doesn't look very much like George W. Bush, the bona fide doppleganger of Alfred E. Neuman.
I'll never forget the Nation Magazine cover!
Obama does look like the winner in November, though.
Hey, speaking of Mad Mag, john mcsame looks damn near exactly like the little beady eyed puffy cheeked baby in a nightshirt and pulling a little red wagon full of guts and human bones.
That was from a Wallace Wood illustration he used all the time in the margins.
or a more modern version slightly synthesized with Pogo Possum, look at Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. Spiff the spaceman is real close and very wally wood too.
Thanks for the imagery! From now on, I think I'll probably see the warmonger as that little wally wood guy.
Man, the resemblance is amazing and the wagon full of blood and guts he always carried around is a 100% fit! the round head, puffy cheeks and beady eyes belying whatever gore he's dragging behind him.
Perfect!
I can't think of anybody Barack looks like except the next president of the U.S.
He's a dead ringer for him!
But hey, here's a babymama hussein terrorist fist jab for effort!
Clif Kuplen at 4:07PM on Jun 29th 2008
47. AN OPEN LETTER TO DINESH AND OTHER LIKE-MINDS: Do you know that the only citizens who are prone to buy propaganda are those who insulate themselves from facts. Facts related to this matter are simple: The Republicans: Reagan and his successor Bush are the ones who supplied Iraq with weapons with which they killed half a million Iranians and gassed Kurdish children. We all have seen the now famous photo of Rumselfd shaking hands with Saddam Husein. Republicans are hell bent against peace and Dinsesh and his like-minded ilk keep pushing the envelop away from peace and towards war. Dinesh, we will never bomb our way out of our problems. Your hero Ronald Reagan talked to the greatest enemy America had and for the longest time, the former USSR. I suppose that makes Reagan a traitor who helped our greatest enemy.
Robb at 4:13PM on Jun 29th 2008
48. And Barrack doesn't get to stifle our freedom of speech and our ability to "question authority".
xxx
actually the more terrorist madrossa rev babymama hussein fistjab stuff you dumb up, er drum up, the more it teaches us how much respect you deserve. Rave on, rev. Phelps!
Meanwhile, 83% of us will remain focused on the issues we are voting to have changed. It's too bad you don't know what they are and can't find out.
They aren't itemized on Homer Simpbaugh's oxycontin fantasy page. But hey, he does a mean Michael J. Fox imitation!
You also teach us how little you regard your vote regardless of who may have died or sacrificed to ensure you keep it.
BTW if you're allowed to vote at all, thank a liberal.
Clif Kuplen at 4:13PM on Jun 29th 2008
49. He should never have surrendered his nuts like that.
xx
I think he may have stored them in that left cheek. That's probably the only place he has left where the swelling won't go down....
Clif Kuplen at 4:20PM on Jun 29th 2008
50. Madeleine Albright once said, " I for one do not believe this would be a better world if it was run by women, because I remember what high school was like."
What a gal.
gshort3011 at 4:21PM on Jun 29th 2008
51. So until they say otherwise, to hell with Cindy McCain who herself felt the need to pile on Michelle who has yet to return the favor and is probably too smart to do so.
rabidmccain at 1:14PM on Jun 29th 2008
xxxx
they only smell it when it's incoming and you always start it when you hit them back. For all the good it's doing.
The more they smear, the worse it makes them look and the lower the poll ratings go.
Clif Kuplen at 4:24PM on Jun 29th 2008
52. Scott,
It could be worst...you could actually try and get info from an infomercial station, like FOX. What a joke!
Gregory Thomas at 5:14PM on Jun 29th 2008
53. Obama Linked To Arab Marxist Terrorist Group
No doubt, the media, and all the liberal Jews and other Obama supporters will ignore this.
An article has appeared on the ISM affiliated website Electronic Intifada (EI) by one of its co-founders, Ali Abunimah, in which Abumimah recounts his close past working relationship with Obama prior to the presidential campaign and how Abunimah believes Obama is merely giving lip service to the Jewish community to get elected, and that once in office he will work for the Palestinian cause. Abunimah lists himself and is mentioned in subsequent Obama articles in the mainstream press merely as a “Palestinian activist.” Abunimah insists that Obama will “come around” once elected.
But Ali Abunimah is more than just some “Palestinian activist” based in Chicago, the same location as Reverend Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ. He is, in fact, one of the founders of the fiercely anti-Semitic ISM Arab group Al Awda, the Palestine Right of Return Coalition. Abunimah is a high level international leader of the ISM for the Arabs who travels extensively between Chicago, Europe and Ramallah.
Al Awda in Arabic means “The Return,” and the group not only calls for the complete destruction of Israel, even denying Israel’s current existence on its website and urging boycotts against not only Israelis, but American Jews and their businesses, but also calls for specifically supporting Arab terrorists in Iraq who kill US soldiers. Among its more than 130 chapters across the US and Canada, Al Awda’s New Jersey chapter is led by a young woman named Charlotte Kates who has called Israeli children killed by suicide bombers “fair game.” The ISM’s Al Awda openly supports terrorism as “legitimate resistance” in ISM revolutionary lingo.
Al Awda’s anti-Semitism has also linked to neo-Nazi groups in promoting the boycott and divestment from Israel on American campuses and in the US business community. It became so virulent that the group was booted by the UC Riverside campus administration from holding an international conference on that campus last year. Ali Abunimah, even today, is featured on the Al Awda website supporting terrorism against Israelis because he considers that “nonviolence is overrated.”
In short, Obama saw no problem being lobbied in the past by someone who openly promotes terrorism.
Jim2u at 5:20PM on Jun 29th 2008
54. First of all, there is blood on everyone's hands in Washington... no one is "innocent"... so it boils down to a whose got the biggest contest.
Secondly, voting record is what matters... this person should be representing how you would vote if in public office... Obama is one of the most liberal senators out there... McCain is more of a middle of the road kind of voter. Vote they way you think. Period.
Thirdly, who cares about the wives already. They are both not perfect. And BTW, neither are you.
Maggie May at 5:41PM on Jun 29th 2008
55. which wife Maggie? McCains fist or second?
Dennis at 5:55PM on Jun 29th 2008
56. hey Jim2u. could that story be any more convoluted?
Dennis at 5:57PM on Jun 29th 2008
57. ok, i'm officially resigning. frankly, i must admit i have been reading dd for years only to gloat and feel superior to this hoover-crafter with the dart-mouth. dull and doltish, the man, has proven himself to be uninformed and keeled-over when presenting soundbites as "facts." but, most profoundly, dd is a devotee of fiction and fallacy. dd is as feckless a practicioner of his kraft, i mean, krappwerk as he is weak in logic, proposing theories and spliffing out some the most egregiously INANE hypotheses without ONE thought given to it before,obviously self-satisfied as only the inane can be, consigning it to the web.
suffering from OCD- Obessessive Christian Disorder- as you are, DD, i can think of no better farewell: via con diablo.
boredwell at 6:21PM on Jun 29th 2008
58. Jim2stupid.
This is going to be like taking candy away from a blind, hydrocephalic thalidomide baby.
Do you honestly believe that McInsane’s little lap dog Lieberman would not be taking any opportunity to point out Obama as an anti Semite if he indeed was one?
Below is part of an editorial critical of Obama’s support for Israel written by Ali Abunimah himself on his Electronic Intifada website from 2007. This is just one of several Articles on that site critical of Obama’s support for Israel.
“On Friday Obama gave a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Chicago. It had been much anticipated in American Jewish political circles which buzzed about his intensive efforts to woo wealthy pro-Israel campaign donors who up to now have generally leaned towards his main rival Senator Hillary Clinton.
Reviewing the speech, Ha'aretz Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner concluded that Obama "sounded as strong as Clinton, as supportive as Bush, as friendly as Giuliani. At least rhetorically, Obama passed any test anyone might have wanted him to pass. So, he is pro-Israel. Period."
Israel is "our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy," Obama said, assuring his audience that "we must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs." Such advanced multi-billion dollar systems he asserted, would help Israel "deter missile attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza." As if the starved, besieged and traumatized population of Gaza are about to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Obama offered not a single word of criticism of Israel, of its relentless settlement and wall construction, of the closures that make life unlivable for millions of Palestinians.”
rabidmccain at 6:24PM on Jun 29th 2008
59. such desparation and lies from the republicans. I swear I can smell the fear.
Dennis at 6:57PM on Jun 29th 2008
60. Maggie May
From Voteview.com
According to voting records senators,
Feingold (WI)
Whitehouse (RI)
Sanders (VT)
Boxer (CA)
Kennedy (MA)
Brown (OH)
Lautenberg (NJ)
Levin (MI)
Are all more liberal than Obama.
There are 88 members in the House of Representative with more liberal voting records than Obama.
From
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002900172
Over the past two years 40% of Obama’s votes were in line with Bush.
rabidmccain at 7:04PM on Jun 29th 2008