Clinton, Genocide and a Campaign Gaffe

The Barack Obama campaign is about to pay a very high price for the inopportune words of one of its most distinguished foreign policy advisors. The dazzlingly brilliant journalist, Pulitzer-prize winning author, and Harvard professor, Samantha Power, has been forced to resign from the campaign after she recklessly told a reporter that Hillary Clinton is a "monster."

In the pungently hypocritical game of American politics, this is just something outside the rules. Whether it's true, or not, matters little. Nor does it matter that the object of Power's derision has just finished spending millions on TV ads implying that Obama would be responsible for the countless deaths of millions of American children sleeping at 3 a.m. Tut, tut. Nothing monstrous about that.

Power was rightfully awarded the Pulitzer for her finely written and downright horrifying book "A Problem From Hell" which, in macabre detail, describes the calculated indifference of the Clinton administration when 800,000 Rwandans were being systematically butchered. The red phone rang and rang and rang again. I don't know where Hillary was then. But her husband and his entire experienced foreign policy team - from the brass in the Pentagon to the congenitally feckless Secretary of State Warren Christopher - just let it ring.

And as more than one researcher has amply documented the case, the bloody paralysis of the Clinton administration in the face of the Rwandan genocide owed not at all to a lack of information, but rather to a lack of will. A reviewer of Power's book for The New York Times, perhaps summed it up best, saying that the picture of Clinton that emerges from this reading is that of an "amoral narcissist."

Former Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who commanded the UN forces in Rwanda at the time of the genocide, tells us a similar story in his own memoir. General Dallaire recounts how, at the height of the Rwandan holocaust, he got a phone call from a Clinton administration staffer who wanted to know how many Rwandans had already died, how many were refugees and how many were internally displaced. Writes Dallaire: "He told me that his estimates indicated that it would take the deaths of 85,000 Rwandans to justify the risking of the life of one American soldier." Eventually, ten times that many would die. And our response? A handful of years later, at a photo-op stopover in Kigali airport, Bill Clinton bit his lip and said he was sorry.

Therein resides the richest and saddest irony of all. Samantha Power has actually lived the sort of life that Hillary Clinton's campaign staff has, for public consumption, invented for its candidate. Though not quite 40 years old, Power has spent no time on any Wal-Mart boards but has rather dedicated her entire adult life rather tirelessly to championing humanitarian causes. She has spoken up when others were silent. She took great personal risks during the Balkan wars to witness and record and denounce the carnage (She reported that Bill Clinton intervened against the Serbs only when he felt he was losing personal credibility as a result of his inaction. "I'm getting creamed," Power quoted the then-President saying as he fretted over global consternation over his own hesitation to act).

We gave Power the Pulitzer for exposing the, well, monstrous indifference of the Clinton administration as it stared unblinkingly and immobile into the face of massive horror. But we give her a kick in the backside and throw her out the door when she has the temerity to publicly restate all that in one impolite word. Monstrous, indeed.

Read more coverage and reaction to Samantha Power's resignation

Comments

[hoodrat]

Orikinla, sister girl in America, we know that to stop criminals from operating, sometimes it only takes the notion of "eyes on", that we're watching. But those are the reasons(or­iginally), that Americans volunteer for military service - to help those who can't help themselves, both home and abroad. The former Prez. C's administration knew about Rwanda, and Bosnia, and the minimal response there was due to him meddling in the Middle East, and defending his integrity at home over dumb shit. No, neither POTUS was responsible for starting the genocides, but they had the info, and could've put a severe dent in the overall violence. I would've gladly laid my life down for your siblings, that's what warrors do. And when used correctly, a necessary evil. Love your strength, my lady.....

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Great post as always! Right on the money. Seems like when you call certain politicians out on their behavior and their record, you get punished for speaking the truth.

Interestingly enough Senator Clinton wrote a blog on this very site, touting the founder of the Children's Defense Fund and acting like she is still part of that legacy, in her pitch to claim that child poverty is some kind of burning and genuine concern. The founder of the Children Defense Fund does not support HRC. Here's how Hillary Clinton betrayed the Children's Defense Fund for Political Gain:

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/034

[ailbhe]

Why are Americans so obsessed with interfering with other people's internal affairs? You are not responsible for what other people do to each other, if you want to help people clean up your own country and help your neighbours in Haiti who are eating dirt while you waste billions you don't have on expanding your empire into Africa!

The best thing Clinton did was ignore Rwanda, they got the slaughter out of their system and so horrified by what had happened the Rwandan people united to rebuild the country through their own efforts. They have taken responsibility for themselves, they will never allow it to happen again.

Had the US sent troops, the war would be continuing to this day, millions would have died and there would be no hope for democracy or freedom. They would have ended up worse than Iraq!

Sacrificing soldiers lives to other peoples civil wars on the other side of the world in the name of humanitarianism, may give preening liberals a wonderful sense of moral superiority and a feeling of doing something good, in reality there is no difference between this and Bush with his great 'mission' to spread democracy and freedom. That only happens in the fanatasist's head!

Americans have the silly notion that it does not matter what you do so long as it looks good, makes you feel good about yourself and the intentions can be protrayed as good!

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, foreign intervention is usually disasterous. Especially if you are invading a country whom do not share language, culture, religion and ethnicity.

[KAP08]

Roland Martin, on the CNN blog, said Obama should:
"...jump right in her face on the foreign policy front. She claims she was integrally involved in the release of Kosovo refugees and the Irish peace talks. Fine. So demand to know why if she was so involved in foreign policy, the Clinton administration failed in Rwanda and had a horrible plan on Somalia? There were clear international failures during the eight years of President Bill Clinton, and she needs to be forced to say what she did and didn't do. Obama has used the cherry picking argument, but has been weak in selling it. Nail it to try to nail her."
Obama needs to remember that when he has to fight - not for himself and self glory, as HRC runs - but to really make a difference for all of us...perhaps that reminder will make him less reluctant to take punches against HRC.

[CTtransplant]

Obama/Power...now THAT's a ticket I would be HAPPY with!!!!

[GLaB]

"Susan Rice, Clarke's co-worker on peacekeeping at the NSC, also feels that she has a debt to repay. "There was such a huge disconnect between the logic of each of the decisions we took along the way during the genocide and the moral consequences of the decisions taken collectively," Rice says. "I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required.""

re Anthony Lake: "He does not understand how, after 800,000 people were killed, he could have felt angry but not at all responsible. "What's so strange is that this didn't become a 'how did we screw this up?' issue until a couple years later," he says. "The humanitarian-aid mission did not feel like a guilt mission."

Since senior officials in the U.S. government hadn't felt responsible when the killings were actually happening, it should not be altogether surprising that most didn't feel responsible after the fact. With the potential for an American military presence dismissed out of hand, Rwanda policy was formulated and debated heatedly by U.S. officials further down the chain. Because Lake never took control of the policy, the sense of responsibility he eventually acquired, although genuine, seems superimposed. He has an academic understanding that under the principle of command responsibility, those at the top must answer even for policies they do not remember consciously crafting. But lurking at the margins of Lake's consciousness seems to be an awareness that in light of press coverage at the time, he must have simply chosen to look away. "

[GLaB]

Marc Cooper,

Something tells me you haven't even read the book:

DESCRIPTIOM OF A PROBLEM FROM HELL BY SAMANTHA POWER

http://www.politicos.co.uk/books/25184/Samantha-Power/A-Problem-from-Hell/

"This is a shattering history of the last hundred years of genocide that itemizes in authoritative, persuasive manner exactly what the West knew when and what it chose to do, and what not to do, in the light of that knowledge. The United States has never in its history intervened to stop genocide and has in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred. In this interrogation of the last century of American history and foreign policy, Samantha Power draws upon declassified documents, private papers, unprecedented interviews and her own reporting from the modern killing fields to tell the story of American indifference and American courage in the face of man's inhumanity to man. Tackling the argument that successive US leaders from Wilson to Bush were unaware of genocidal horrors as they were occurring - against Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Kurds, Rwandans, Bosnians - during the past century, Samantha Power seeks to establish precisely how much was known and when, and proposes that much human misery and tragedy could readily have been averted. It becomes clear that the failure to intervene was usually caused not by ignorance or impotence, but by considered political inaction. Several heroic figures did work to oppose and expose ethnic cleansing as it took place, but the quiet majority of American politicians chose to do nothing, as did the American public. The author aims to make a powerful case for why America, as both sole superpower and global citizen, must make such indifference a thing of the past. "

[KDH]

Where was Susan Rice? I don't recall her screaming from the highest mountain, for the U.S. to intervene in Rwanda.

[Maezeppa]

Mr. Cooper - can you please produce any articles or correspondence written during the Clinton Administration expressing your outrage at their inaction?

It is regrettable that action was not taken, yes. That is indisputable, but many at the time didn't find it worth concerning themselves with but do now because they don't want Senator Clinton to win the election.

[WarrenPeace]

During 8 years of HRC's 35 years of claimed "experience," she strongly supported NAFTA. And yet, she conventiently forgot these 8 years during the Ohio campaign and the Ohio debate and during her shrieking "Shame on you."

HRC supported NAFTA; she said so clearly in her own writing (not a speech, but in her own published work). She then lied about her unwavering NAFTA support to win votes in Ohio -- and had the audacity to accuse Senator Obama of great shamefulness when he pointed out the truth.

I say that kind of duplicitous behavior is monstrous.

[BubbaC33]

What a shame the demonstrably provable facts do not support your attack.

[cmolsen]

I agree. The facts don't show that she forgot anything. She simply lied.

[midtown]

Thanks, Marc. You make a much better case than the Clinton campaign workers spending their weekend writing untenable and unsupported drivel about their candidate that cannot be supported by adequate research.

[loper2008]

Yes, I was sad she made these comments because I think she was probably the most truly progressive person on Obama's foreign policy team. That being said, I completely understand why he had to let her leave. I just hope that once he is president he rehires her, assuming she has learned that she cannot be quite so frank in her feelings and survive in politics.

[TommyMcCarthy]

While the bloodletting beween Tutsi and Hutu in Rwanda/Birundi took place over many decades.....what is commonly referred to as "The Rwandan Genocide" took place in just under 100 days.........and was largely perpatrated by two militia groups.

Early reports of the SCALE of the atrocoties were (wrongly, as it turns out) greeted with skepticism in the European, and American press and councils-of-state.

American public opinion was (understan­dably)....­. firmly opposed to the U.S. becoming involved in that nation's tragic civil war......coming not long after the "Blackhawk Down" debacle in Mougadishiu, Somalia....in which U.S. Marines and Airborne Rangers were cut off, and overwhelmed, thier burned and mutilated corpses dragged through the streets by cheering crowds while being broadcast live on international television.

Former President Clinton has since publicly apologized for his failure to act.
He has further stated that he should have ignored public opinion,........ and expressed his belief that , had he sent a force of only 5000........... as many as half a million innocent lives could have been saved........and called his failure to do so "the greatest single regret of my Presidency"

Regards...­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­.......

[midtown]

The Tutsis were at fault.

[Nic]

Power is "dazzlingly brilliant journalist, Pulitzer-prize winning author, and Harvard professor," and yet didn't know when to shut up. Genocide goes on every where in the world, and now it's HRC fault? WTF are YOU doing about it?

[indie17]

Another briliant Clinton supporter comment. Thanks for the kind words.

[silenttristerosempire]

I'll start by not voting for Hillary. And you?

[upstander18]

I totally look up to Samantha Power!!

[MPeter]

MSM lied for Billary. Obama took Texas. Here are the numbers. Check them out.

UPDATE 4: MSM Finally Admits Obama Won Texas
by MaverickModerate
Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 09:52:50 AM PDT
So far it's just NPR but it's a start. The are finally admitting what was evident late Tuesday night. With 41% of the Texas caucus vote in, Obama's 12 point lead (56/44) is insurmountable.

NPR is reporting a net 3 delegate lead for Obama once all is said and done.

MaverickModerate's diary :: ::
This is how this works, first there is the TX primary:

Clinton won the primary with 51 percent of the popular vote to Obama's 47 percent, according to the Associated Press. Those results earned her 65 delegates to Obama's 61 delegates.
Followed by the TX caucuses:

The state Democratic Party estimates that Obama will come out ahead: 37 pledged delegates to Clinton's 30 delegates
Clinton: 65 + 30 = 95
Obama: 61 + 37 = 98

[KDH]

Also WTF did Susan Rice, who is a Obama's adviser, do about it. She played a significant role in dealing with Rwanda. I don't recall her yelling and screaming to do something. I can see where this is heading. I remember a bunch of idiot black mask college kid punks, rioting and raising hell, because Madelaine Albright refused to intervene in East Timor, Indonesia. That will be next on the progressive, ingrate, degenerate's Hillary hit list. This is starting to look like tactics employed by rank armatures in desperation. I guess preventing genocide in Iraq is not o.k., but saving the rest of the whole world is. That's the mentality of do-gooder, know better than anyone else, holier than thou, progressives. Most of them are over achievers who were career students with so much education, it's swelled their brains. The rest are just blind idiot followers, with no brain at all.

[outnow]

Nice post!

There were two sides to the "good war" in Bosnia led by NATO. There were no mass graves found afterwards.

In his recent book "Unholy Terror, Bosnia, Al-Qa'ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad, " John R. Schindler who served for nearly a decade with the National Security Agency much of that time in Bosnia and with the Allied Command, makes the case that Bill Clinton illegally aided jihadists, misrepresented the Bosnian conflict using the MSM, covering up the aid illegally provided to jihadists, aided bin Laden by providing his organization a base of operations in Bosnia which furthered the 9-11 plot, and provided millions of dollars of weapons and training to the mujahadin.

John R. Schlindler is a professor of strategy in the Naval College and a former NSA intelligent analyst working on the scene.

The question is why did Bill Clinton secretly aid these terrorists and circumvent the United Nations setting a bad precedent? He could have aided in stopping the slaughter in Rawanda and elsewhere.

NATO needed to be "saved." But millions of people did not. We supported the Afghanistan mujahidin and the Bosnian mujahidin and bin Laden capitalized on that support. Two of the 9-11 pilot hijackers were experienced in the Bosnia conflict as was Khalid Sheikh Muhamammad, the mastermind of 9-11.

I ask: "What's up with that?" Wes Clark is not to blame for setting the policy. Washington used the global jihad movement to fight a dubious war in Bosnia, in collaboration with unlikely allies in Tehran. Instead of using diplomatic and perhaps military means to end the conflict, the Clinton Administration aggressively backed the Bosnian Muslims, ensuring the war's outcome and the victory of anti-Western forces along with the worst of the Izerbegovic government, according to Schindler

[midtown]

THANK YOU, outnow, FOR TELLING THE TRUTH. I followed that war in enormous detail. What you are saying is the g.d. truth. THank you, thank you, thank you.