[lbo-talk] Re: Blaming the lobby

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>Carrol Cox wrote:
>
>>Hence the lobby can have great influence (defeating Finley -- who
>>incidentally probably was anti-semitic), but it would lose that
>>influence were it not supported by the cultural and political power of
>>the u.s. ruling class.
>
>Exactly. There's a weird unstated assumption among the hijack crowd - 
>"Congress is Israeli-occupied territory," etc. - that US foreign policy 
>would be humane and decent if The Lobby hadn't bullied and tricked 
>Washington into pursuing a flawed policy. This of a government that thought 
>nothing of killing three million Indochinese.

That looks like a forced binary to me, Doug.  This isn't either/or.  The US 
has amply demonstrated the capacity for global brutality over the decades, 
but in this instance it seems obvious that the Israel lobby was a strong 
catalyst in actuating that potential.

Carl