The Counter-coup has begun.
By Colin Buchanan
The counter-coup has begun and thanks to the simple beauty of the US constitution it didn’t require tanks rolling down to Congress. What is more as Pelosi has made quite clear it doesn’t mean impeachment. The presidency has emerged strengthened despite the rather hapless figure who continues to occupy it. What has changed is who controls it.
Back in 2001 at a celebratory dinner three months after 9/11, Frank Gaffney, head of the Center for Security Policy, leading neo-con thinktank, made the following remarkably revealing statement:
"It's taken us 13 years to get here, but we've arrived," (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,619784,00.html)
The thirteen years were the neo-con years in the wilderness after Bush senior’s election victory in 1988. Now after 9/11 they were back in the driver’s seat and set to impose their policies on a weak president. Now the dream (our nightmare)is in tatters and an old Bush senior CIA hand is back at the helm. Where did it all go wrong?
The Achilles heel of the chickenhawks, as the civilian Pentagon leadership came to be known, was that someone was going to have to die for that dream. Rumsfeld’s drivel about special forces, and the extensive use of mercenaries couldn’t cut out the main body of the armed forces. Rumsfeld’s dismissal was the fruit of their rebellion.
Darn that dream.
But are the War Party going to sit back and watch as the mere President of the United States, the commander-in –chief, now with the ear of the military, buoyed up by congressional support for his new policy direction, attempts to sideline them? Is it for nothing that they have spent years painstakingly constructing a whole new state apparatus stuffed with their own supporters - Eberhard at Northern Command, Chertoff at Homeland security, Negroponte as Director of National Intelligence with Cheney de facto leader in consultation of the likes of Gaffney at CSP – only to be outdone by a piece of paper, the US constitution? After all their efforts to protect us can it really be that the people don’t care?
The sparks can only continue to fly. They may be losing in Iraq but there is still the “War on Terror” and a frightened American public. Can’t they continue to milk the “Muslim threat” for all its worth. Just to keep that dream alive.
“Darn that one track mind of mine
It can’t understand that you don’t care
Just to change the mood I’m in
I’d welcome a nice old nightmare.”
By Colin Buchanan
The counter-coup has begun and thanks to the simple beauty of the US constitution it didn’t require tanks rolling down to Congress. What is more as Pelosi has made quite clear it doesn’t mean impeachment. The presidency has emerged strengthened despite the rather hapless figure who continues to occupy it. What has changed is who controls it.
Back in 2001 at a celebratory dinner three months after 9/11, Frank Gaffney, head of the Center for Security Policy, leading neo-con thinktank, made the following remarkably revealing statement:
"It's taken us 13 years to get here, but we've arrived," (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,619784,00.html)
The thirteen years were the neo-con years in the wilderness after Bush senior’s election victory in 1988. Now after 9/11 they were back in the driver’s seat and set to impose their policies on a weak president. Now the dream (our nightmare)is in tatters and an old Bush senior CIA hand is back at the helm. Where did it all go wrong?
The Achilles heel of the chickenhawks, as the civilian Pentagon leadership came to be known, was that someone was going to have to die for that dream. Rumsfeld’s drivel about special forces, and the extensive use of mercenaries couldn’t cut out the main body of the armed forces. Rumsfeld’s dismissal was the fruit of their rebellion.
Darn that dream.
But are the War Party going to sit back and watch as the mere President of the United States, the commander-in –chief, now with the ear of the military, buoyed up by congressional support for his new policy direction, attempts to sideline them? Is it for nothing that they have spent years painstakingly constructing a whole new state apparatus stuffed with their own supporters - Eberhard at Northern Command, Chertoff at Homeland security, Negroponte as Director of National Intelligence with Cheney de facto leader in consultation of the likes of Gaffney at CSP – only to be outdone by a piece of paper, the US constitution? After all their efforts to protect us can it really be that the people don’t care?
The sparks can only continue to fly. They may be losing in Iraq but there is still the “War on Terror” and a frightened American public. Can’t they continue to milk the “Muslim threat” for all its worth. Just to keep that dream alive.
“Darn that one track mind of mine
It can’t understand that you don’t care
Just to change the mood I’m in
I’d welcome a nice old nightmare.”
posted by Cailean Bochanan at 2:34 AM
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