Elizabeth Warren Nails Economy, Muddles Foreign Policy
January 4, 2019
It's imperative to criticize presumable progressive politicians and parse
their words carefully. It might open the door to actual improvements in
policy, writes Sam Husseini.
By Sam Husseini
Post Haven
In her New Year's Eve announcement about forming an exploratory committee
for the presidency, Sen. Elizabeth Warren made a great point: "Right now,
Washington works great for the wealthy and the well-connected. It's just not
working for anyone else."
In case you missed that, she did not say "the economy isn't working well" or
such, as we've all heard numerous politicos say countless times.
She rather said the opposite of that; repeatedly: "The way I see it right
now, Washington works great for giant drug companies, but just not for
people who are trying to get a prescription filled. Washington works great
for for-profit colleges and student loan outfits, but not for young people
who are getting crushed by student loan debt. And you could keep going
through the list. The problem we have got right now in Washington is that it
works great for those who've got money to buy influence."
And in case anyone missed the point, she said it yet again: "We want a
government that works not just for the rich and the powerful. We want a
government that works for everyone."
Warren: Circumspect on who profits from war. (Ben Wikler, Flickr)
It's laudatory that Warren is using her perch and analytical skills to avoid
a common rhetorical trap and is articulating the truism that the political
establishment largely does the bidding of the wealthy and connected when it
comes to the economy.
Silent on War Profiteers
The problem is that she doesn't articulate that in the same manner when it
comes to bloody wars. Quite the contrary. Her list of problems-drug
companies, for-profit colleges and student loan outfits-omits those who have
an interest in continuing horrific wars.
When asked on Wednesday night by Rachel Maddow about Trump's recent
announcement on pulling troops from Syria, Warren said the U.S.'s wars are
"not working."
She didn't say: "The wars are working great for military contractors, just
not for regular people in the U.S. or Syria or anywhere else."
Warren-who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee-did not say: "The wars
are great for the wealthy profiting off of them, they're just terrible for
the people getting killed in them."
Instead, Warren actually swallowed some of the rhetoric about U.S. wars
having as their alleged goals stability or humanitarianism or security. The
profits of military contractors or geopolitical elites went unexamined.
She said it was "right" to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, an
arguably positive position, but added: "It is not working and pretending
that somehow, in the future, it is going to work.it's a form of fantasy that
we simply can't afford to continue to engage in."
Ignoring War Mongering
But part of the fantasy is ignoring that the wars are indeed working great
for some. Indeed, if Warren heard someone else say that "it is not working"
about the economy, she'd likely correct them.
Warren did at least raise the question of what "success" in the perpetual
wars might be, which is certainly better than most of official Washington.
Advocates of perpetual war "need to explain what they think winning in those
wars look like and where the metrics are," she said.
But, like most of the U.S. political establishment, Warren doesn't actually
scrutinize the underlying motives: "When you withdraw, you got to withdraw
as part of a plan, you got to know what you're trying to accomplish
throughout the Middle East and the pieces need to be coordinated," Warren
said, adding, "this is why we need allies."
What allies? France, Britain and Turkey-the traditional colonial power in
the region? Or the ever-aggressive, oppressive Israel? Or the tyrannical
Saudi Arabia?
And that's rather the point. U.S. foreign policy appears as a muddle-without
any clear statement of what is supposed to be accomplished-because its
stated goals obscure actual goals.
The idea that the U.S. establishment gets the country into wars for ulterior
financial or geopolitical reasons should be regarded as banal. Instead, it's
barely articulated at all.
Most obviously, the military contractors benefit from wars.
Weapons Versus Drugs
Indeed, the power of the euphemistically called "defense sector" would seem
to be substantially larger than the drug companies Warren focuses on.
According to OpenSecrets.org, the top five military contractors - Northrop
Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon-more than
doubled the top five companies in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector
($14.4 million vs. $7.7 million) in their outlays to politicos. For more,
see the writings of William Hartung, such as "Corporate Patriots or War
Profiteers?"
Even more critically, the U.S. establishment's geopolitical aims frequently
thrive on war. Dahlia Wasfi argued in 2015 in "Battling ISIS: Iran-Iraq war
redux" that "Obama's unofficial strategy to fight ISIS may be that of former
President Ronald Reagan's for Iran and Iraq in the 1980s: a long, drawn-out
war to strengthen U.S.-Israeli hegemony in the region." Also, see Robert
Naiman's "WikiLeaks Reveals How the U.S. Aggressively Pursued Regime Change
in Syria, Igniting a Bloodbath" and my own "Is U.S. Policy to Prolong the
Syrian War?"
Sanders: Responsive to criticism? (Gage Skidmore on Flickr)
In 2015, Sen. Bernie Sanders was actually calling for more Saudi
intervention in the Mideast. Said Sanders: The Saudis have "got to get their
hands dirty." He was criticized for this by Margaret Kimberley, David
Swanson and myself.
Now, Sanders has taken the lead in Congress in criticizing the Saudi war in
Yemen, opening the door to some alleviation of massive suffering. I wish he
would be much better still on foreign policy, but this may be serious
progress, though the ACLU has criticized the congressional resolution.
It's imperative to criticize presumable progressive politicians and parse
their words carefully. It might open the door to actual improvements in
policy, as in the case of Sanders. And in the case of Elizabeth Warren, it's
simply asking her to cease obscuring war as she clarifies economic issues.
Sam Husseini is an independent journalist, senior analyst at the Institute
for Public Accuracy, and founder of VotePact.org, which encourages
disenchanted Democrats and Republicans to pair up. Follow him on Twitter
@samhusseini.
