[lbo-talk] Waterboarding etc.

[shag carpet bomb]

At 02:28 AM 1/26/2009, SA wrote:
>Michael Smith wrote:
>
>>That's the hard part, about Obama. Considered as an individual -- as far 
>>as one can judge these things from seeing a guy on TV -- he seems to be 
>>thoughtful, likable, intelligent. And yet he's applied for, and obtained, 
>>a post whose job description is pretty much what CC said. Isn't it?
>
>I wonder what shadowy forces you think hired him for this job. Who wrote 
>the job description? Who gets to fire him? The Great Keeper of the Keys?
>
>
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20090112/000664.html
>
>>Much of the American radical left's approach to analyzing US foreign 
>>policy seems to be based on the idea that some all-knowing 
>>master-imperialist once wrote up a Treatise on America's True Imperial 
>>Interests and then had it locked up in a safe in the bowels of the White 
>>House. The left's job is to divine the secret contents of the Treatise on 
>>the basis of the various zigs and zags of American policy. In fact, there 
>>is no treatise and there are no "true" interests of American imperialism. 
>>There are only different people with different opinions.
>
>SA

My earlier question on that thread elicited a response that I didn't quite 
grasp. *Now* I do. You're objecting to a structualist analysis. Which would 
make sense: you're an historian, right?

I take it some readings on epistemology and history have been on the table 
lately? :)

shag