[lbo-talk] CIA and Feminism (was Alex Cockburn going the Hitchensway?)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 6/21/06, Marvin Gandall <marvgandall at videotron.ca> wrote:
>
> > On Jun 21, 2006, at 12:28 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> >
> >> The problem is that a sizable number of people -- on this mailing
> >> list, too -- appear to have begun to think that way again: the CIA as
> >> a bastion of liberalism and reasonableness, in comparison to Bush,
> >> Cheney, neo-cons, etc.
> >
> > Who "on this mailing list" actually holds that position?
> >
> > Doug
> ================================
> I think it was pretty clear from leaks in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion
> that the CIA's analysts were closer to the the
> Scowcroft-Brzezinski-Kissinger school which saw it as a dangerous adventure
> rather than the the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz one which saw it as a stage
> for an intimidating display of US power which would strengthen its global
> hegemony. The war had the opposite result, and the "ultra-right" has been
> eating crow ever since. The differences had nothing to do with one or
> another side being more "liberal" or "reasonable", just one of them being
> more realistic in its assessment of the limits to US military power, even in
> a divided and weakened country like Iraq, and the adverse "demonstration
> effect" this would have on the America's allies and opponents.

Realism wasn't the term mentioned here.  It's been said that the CIA
employees who have desk jobs are liberal, honest, progressive, etc. --
all based on such solid evidence as a few acquaintances here and
there.

The CIA, though, has to be among the whitest branches of the
government.  Racially liberal it isn't, very unlike the US military.
They prefer provincial white guys who can't speak or read relevant
languages to immigrants who are native speakers of them or even sons
and daughters of American missionaries, businessmen, teachers, etc.
who grew up abroad and still have families living there:
<http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13392191/site/newsweek/>.

Back to realism.  If liberals and leftists adopted a realist
perspective, thinking like Henry Kissingers of the Left on foreign
policy questions, it would be a dramatic improvement over the status
quo.

But the dominant ideology among liberals and leftists in the United
States is a peculiar combination of Pottery Barn idealism (i.e.,
idealism based on urban legends) on foreign policy and crackpot
realism (e.g., all things reduced to "electability" -- on top of that,
their standard of "electability" rarely matches that actually held by
the rest of America) on domestic policy.
-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>