Fareed's (Mis)Take

I can't explain why I keep watching Fareed Zakaria when he manages to piss me off each and every week. There must be a deep masochistic flaw in my psyche. This week's outrage? The United States is "a miracle" of peace and stability. Yeah, right.

We now have a Trump Doctrine, and it is, at least in its conception and initial execution, the most radical departure from a bipartisan U.S. foreign policy since 1945. ... In 1945, the world did change. In the wake of two of the deadliest wars in human history, with tens of millions killed and much of Europe and Asia physically devastated, the United States tried to build a new international system. It created institutions, rules and norms that would encourage countries to solve their differences peaceably — through negotiations rather than war.

Yeah, right. I remember the peaceable negotiation with Libya before we overthrew Qaddafi and plunged the country into chaos and death. I remember the peaceable negotiation with Syria before we supported Al Qaida's efforts to overthrow Assad. And I clearly remember the peaceable negotiation with Iraq before we bombed the crap out of them for possessing imaginary WMD.

Oh, wait a minute. None of those peaceable negotiations happened. The bold new international system failed miserably.

Western Europe, Canada and the United States did, in fact, become an amazing zone of peace and economic, political and military cooperation. Certainly there was competition among nations, but it was managed peacefully and always with the aim of greater growth, more freedom and improved human rights.

Yes, Fareed. If you ignore the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Panama War, the Gulf War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the Libya War, the Syria War and the dozen other conflicts and millions of deaths perpetrated by the United States, often with the cooperation of its "peaceable" allies, there is an amazing zone. Unfortunately for those outside the zone, our bombs and missiles and drones have created anything but peace.

Consider Laos, the next-door neighbor of Vietnam. Did you know that we dropped more bombs on Laos, a country we weren't at war with, than were dropped during the entirety of World War II? Two hundred and sixty MILLION freaking bombs. "Given our history here, I believe that the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal," President Obama said during his 2016 visit to Laos. I'm sure the 29,000 people killed during and since the bombing frenzy feel better now.

But back to Fareed and his (Mis)Take. It's all Trump's fault, because the United States has changed from the Champion of Peace to the Destroyer of Nations in just 5 short months.

From the start of his political career, Trump has seemed unaware of this [peaceful] history and ignorant of these [miraculous] accomplishments. He has consistently been dismissive of the United States’ closest political, economic and moral allies.

Yeah, Fareed. Trump has ruined everything!!!

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Big Al's picture

to enable the western ruling class to attempt to rule the world, not for peace, obviously. Relative to foreign policy, Trump and Obama have proven it just doesn't matter which political party is in charge, the agenda of global U.S. imperialism is set and will continue until life on earth changes forever.
Zakaria is an imperialist tool, fool and propaganda specialist. They just cannot obfuscate away the facts as you pointed out what the U.S. government has done and is doing around the world. War after war, millions upon millions killed all for greed and power.

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often. .

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PriceRip's picture

          at least many here seem to think that is the case. For the past 37 years I have lived where people are not really aware of the "outside" world and its problems. Even the college students didn't seem to be aware of "current events". How is that possible with the creation and growth of the internet during that time. As a very connected individual, I feel like an alien from another dimension.

          I helped smuggle illegal aliens away from our "helpful" and totally "humanitarian" interventions in various Central American countries. My neighbors never knew what was happening, I wonder what they would have said if they had known.

Unknw
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Alligator Ed's picture

@PriceRip Find a nice, dark forest in Oregon--just friendly advice.

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I just had some yahoo tell me that if we could afford universal health care, we'd have it by now. Seriously, he believes this?

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

CB's picture

combined with a steady stream of propaganda poured on them from birth. Because they have been bathed in it for their entire lives, they can't see it for what it is. One of the greatest myths instilled in Americans, that has been passed from generation to generation, is the fear of Russia. It's almost as American as apple pie.

99.9% of Americans believe it was Goebbels who perfected propaganda. The reality was that Hitler stole these tools from the Allies when he realized how effective they were for manipulating masses of people. The Allies response was to rename these very same techniques as public relations and to denigrate the term propaganda as something evil the enemy does to brainwash innocent people.

Arguably, no other nation in the world has perfected the use of propaganda techniques to control its populace as much as has the United States.

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Song of the lark's picture

people around than Zakaria to pick on. The guy at least has interviews with foreign leaders who most American MSM ignores. He doesn't even have the long legs of Megyn Kelly. Zakaria just reflects but doesn't set the real agenda. Please focus on the REAL enemies. You can start with KSA, Eric Prince, and hundreds of other malefactors of great wealth and power. Just sayin

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edg's picture

@Song of the lark

Who's KSA? I don't know who Eric Prince is, either.

I focus on the enemies I know. The worst in my view are the ones like Fareed who are supposedly on our side but spend their time undercutting the progressive agenda and the anti-war agenda. They do far more damage than right-wing nutjobs ever will.

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@edg KSA = Kingdom of Saudia Arabia

Erik Prince = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince

Head of Blackwater, brother of Betsy de Vos, etc.

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edg's picture

@MichaelSF

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Like the school of the Americas aka Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation

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Solidarity forever