Consortium News
The Fear of Hillary’s Foreign Policy
James W. Carden
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
James W. Carden — The Fear of Hillary’s Foreign Policy
Consortium News
The Fear of Hillary’s Foreign Policy
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Superb article. I was in a text message conversation with an old friend the other day. We had caught up after many years. He was a typical liberal: Putin and Assad are evil, etc. It was as if he believed everything he had read in the Guardian of had watched on the BBC was true. So I told him how the US possibly backs ISIS to fight its proxy wars in the Middle East via Turkey and Saudi Arabia. How Washington caused a coup in the Ukraine costing thousands of lives with the aim of closing down the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. That we had caused a civil war in Syria so that we can get gas pipelines from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Europe, etc. Well my friend couldn't handle that, here's his reply:
'Hahaha - your so funny! You'll be telling me next that the world is round and not flat and that Donald Trump isnt really Vladimir Putin in drag! Haha Whatever next? Dont tell me - Mulder isnt really working for the FBI investigating X-Files - its just science fiction and he's some 2nd rate actor playing a role! hehe - now if you think I'd believe that you really would think I've lost it. I'm not that stupid! :-) Anyway I'm off for a pint....'
So I went out with another old friend I have recently caught up with the other day (who is friends with my friend above) and I had almost the same reaction. He's a Labour supporter, like me, but he believed that Putin is evil who has his rivals shot, etc. It was as if Putin had personally drilled the fillings out of people's teeth. Putin an oligarch gangster.
He thought I had moved to the right when I said that I was hoping Trump would win and that I thought that Nigel Farage was right about British foreign policy. But to prove my left credentials I told him I was a big supporter of George Galloway, and after that our conversation nearly came to an end.
I never thought I would become so critical of liberals and begin to despise them so much (not my friends, of course). But the liberals have moved to the hawkish right. Well, I'm not a communist and I would say that I was in the centre. And not only is there a place for capitalism in our society, it is also the bedrock of our society. I've bought all the arguments about incentives, competition, innovation, etc, but it's just too extreme and brutal in its present form. A citizens wage might be the answer.
And when it came to banking my friend was completely for the status quo. Debt makes the world go around, he said. One person's debt was another person's wealth to spend in the economy, so it doesn't matter about debt, he told me.
I looked across the bar and saw all the young people who probably have no money because they had huge student loans, many of whom may have to rent a house for the rest of their lives because they will never be able to afford to get on the property ladder. So I said to my friend, 'but you are part of the 2%, you've done alright out of it.'
My friend insisted that we will never be able to change the system, no one can. He was an apologist for New Labour, who were much better than the Conservatives, he said. So if a party can cause the deaths of millions of people all over the world, leave the Middle East in ruins, and leave British people poorer than ever, it's okay because the Conservatives would have been much worse. What kind of argument is that?.
My friends and I are all meeting up together for a pint soon, I will have to try to make sure it doesn't descend into one big argument.
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