Got Indictment Fever?.......How the game of 'scapegoat' is played [View All]

[Dover]

Scapegoating 'for the better good'. But is it BETTER or just a change in strategy?

Please read this article by Brzezinski (former Sec. of State and author of The Grand Chessboard).
While doing so it's important to remember that Brzezinski helped to engineer the war between the USSR and Afghanistan, the purpose being to 'give the Soviets their own Vietnam'. Afterwards, he described it as the 'coup de grace' of the 'cold war' between the USSR and the USA. Do the apparent inconsistencies between that mindset and the following article leave you scratching your head?
The article he wrote (below) is followed with a VERY interesting analysis by Richard Moore at Cyberjournal, who wades through the politspeak to provide a very different reading.

I find the layering fascinating and disturbing, but probably a valid insight into the ways of the amoral, Machiavellian power brokers -- all smoke and mirrors while humans and the earth are scorched for the next, temporary win.*1

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10618.htm

George W. Bush's suicidal statecraft
by Zbigniew Brzezinski
Tribune Media Services International

Washington, DC -- Thursday, October 13, 2005 -- (ICH) -- Sixty years ago,
Arnold Toynbee concluded, in his monumental "A Study of History," that the
ultimate cause of imperial collapse was "suicidal statecraft." Sadly for
President George W. Bush's place in history but -- much more important --
ominously for America's future, it has lately seemed as if that adroit
phrase might be applicable to the policies pursued by the United States
since the cataclysm of 9/11.

Though there have been some hints lately that the administration may be
beginning to reassess the goals, so far defined largely by slogans, of its
unsuccessful military intervention in Iraq, Bush's speech of October 6 was a
throwback to the more demagogic formulations that he employed during the
presidential campaign of 2004 to justify the war that he himself started.

That war, advocated by a narrow circle of decision makers for motives still
not fully exposed, propagated publicly by demagogic rhetoric reliant on
false assertions, has turned out to be much more costly in blood and money
than anticipated.

It has precipitated worldwide criticism, while in the Middle East it has
stamped the United States as the successor to British imperialism and as a
partner of Israel in the military repression of the Arabs. Fair or not,
that perception has become widespread in the world of Islam as a whole.

More than a reformulation of U.S. goals in Iraq is now needed, however. The
persistent reluctance of the administration to confront the political
background of the terrorist menace has reinforced public sympathy among
Muslims for the terrorists.


...> cont'd

(Zbigniew Brzezinski was national security adviser to President Jimmy
Carter. This Global Viewpoint article was distributed by Tribune Media
Services International.)
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Intro by Richard Moore giving background for the article above on the
USSR-Afghan war, which Brzezinski helped to orchestrate (Richard Moore
[e-mail] ):

Excerpt:

RM:....So far, it seems Brzezinski is simply doing a hatchet job on Bush, using his prestige, saying whatever works as anti-Bush propaganda. This would
indicate that the CFR-level community is ready to dump Bush, as they dumped
Nixon, hoping that all the shit will stick to him as they flush him away, as
it did with Nixon: the scapegoat scenario.

ZBrzezinski: "Compounding U.S. political dilemmas is the degradation of America's
moral standing in the world. The country that has for decades stood tall in
opposition to political repression, torture and other violations of human
rights has been exposed as sanctioning practices that hardly qualify as
respect for human dignity.

RM: Ditto pot & kettle; ditto scapegoat propaganda.

ZB: "But it need not be so. A real course correction is still possible,
and it could start soon with a modest and common-sense initiative by the
president to engage the Democratic congressional leadership in a serious
effort to shape a bipartisan foreign policy for an increasingly divided and
troubled nation."

RM: This is totally in line with a 'clean flush' agenda. they dump Bush,
everyone in Washington and media-land reveals they didn't really like his
policies in the first place, and Americans believe that democracy has been
restored -- as they did when Nixon resigned.

If Bush were to scale back his goals in Iraq, that would be a retreat, a
failure -- not only for Bush, but for America's reputation as a tough guy
that you better watch out for. But if the whole situation can be blamed
entirely on Bush -- a rogue President who lost it, like Nixon -- then any
retrenchment will be seen as a well-intentioned attempt to clean up an
unfortunate mess. The Establishment survives, and all options are open as
regards policy shifts.

But then we'd be left with Cheney and Rumsfeld. Either they'd need to be
dumped as well, or else they could have 'changes of heart' -- they were only
taking orders and being good soldiers -- like the fearsome flying monkeys
who became like puppies once the wicked witch had been slain.

ZB: "In a bipartisan setting, it would be easier not only to scale down the
definition of success in Iraq but actually to get out -- perhaps even as
early as next year. And the sooner the United States leaves, the sooner the
Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis will either reach a political arrangement on their
own, or some combination of them will forcibly prevail.

RM: Brzezinski knows full well that the U.S. will never vacate Iraq. We've
built, and are still building, very permanent military bases, establishing
just the kind of imperial infrastructure Brzezinski himself so eloquently
promotes. He never mentions in this article the elephant in the kitchen --
oil -- and he knows full well that the U.S. will never relinquish control
over those reserves now that control has been achieved. The PNAC document
says that the issue of Iraq transcends the issue of Saddam's regime;
similarly it transcends Bush's regime....> cont'd

http://cyberjournal.org
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*1 The beginning statement was a paraphrasing of an email being circulated that is reported to be from Sylvia Perrera, author of The Scapegoat Complex, which I took a few minor liberties with to fit this venue.