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Samantha Power, Henry Kissinger & Imperial Delusions

by Daniel Kovalik, via Delphi Initiative

Annette Hornischer / American Academy in Berlin / Kissinger Priz

Annette Hornischer / American Academy in Berlin / Kissinger Prize / 2016 06 08


Quite revealingly, the self-proclaimed crusader against genocide, Samantha Power, was awarded the 2016 Henry A. Kissinger Prize in Berlin.  That Power would be awarded a prize named after one of the world’s great génocidaires, and that she would happily accept it, proves what many of us have believed all along – that she is more the clever apologist for U.S. crimes than a bona fide human rights advocate.
The problem with Power all along has been that her refusal to acknowledge the incontrovertible fact that the U.S., as exemplified by such figures as Henry Kissinger himself, is in reality the world leader in war crimes commission, and an active facilitator of genocide. The U.S. is not, as Power has claimed throughout her career, a force for halting such evils. However, Power has done an impressive job in advancing this myth, and in the process in perpetuating the false belief that the world would be better off if only the U.S. were more active militarily throughout the world. In so doing, Power, who is lauded as some great human rights advocate, probably does more than any other public figure to harm the cause of global human rights.
Power’s acceptance speech, entitled, “Remarks on ‘Twenty-First Century Realism’ at the Awarding of the 2016 Henry A. Kissinger Prize,” is very illustrative of the delusions Power promotes in the interest of U.S. power projection and the grave harms done by this projection.
First of all, Power, in full agreement with Kissinger, condemns what she refers to as “the rise of extremist and isolationist voices in the U.S.” who dare challenge “the internationalist assumptions that have undergirded U.S. foreign policy across party lines since the Second World War.” This statement is pregnant with meaning and deserves some dissecting.
As an initial matter, it is stunning that Power would characterize those who call for the U.S. to stop, or even slow, its aggressive, interventionist policy around the globe as “extremist” when it so clear to any rational observer that it is this interventionist policy itself which is so extremist as to be insane.
Indeed, it is hard to point to any great successes, especially in terms of human rights, that the U.S.’s post-WWII “internationalism” (I would prefer to call it imperialist aggression) achieved, and Power in her speech tellingly does not point to even one such success. And, how could she with a straight face? The innumerable U.S. interventionist adventures since WWII have done nothing to advance human rights or even national security, at least if national security means the protection of U.S. citizens like you and me.
Rather, the U.S.’s “internationalism” has consisted of overthrowing constitutional democracies in countries like Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Chile (1973), Haiti (2004), Honduras (2009), just to name a few. It has consisted of carrying out mass slaughter in an attempt to put down national liberation struggles, for example in Vietnam and in Southern Africa, costing the lives of millions. And, it has involved sewing instability throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East, in such countries as Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Power’s complete blindness to such realities – though she ironically entitles her speech, “Twenty-first Century Realism” – is hard to fathom. For example, she explains the current rise of ISIL in Iraq as the product of “the deeply sectarian, corrupt, and abusive rule of Prime Minister Maliki . . . . “   There is no mention, however, of the 1991 and 2003 military interventions in Iraq by the U.S., nor of the intervening sanctions regime, which destroyed the social fabric of that country and left hundreds of thousands of civilians, including at least half a million children, dead. No, those acts of “internationalism” apparently do not deserve even a mention in Power’s distorted view.
In addition, Power does not mention the U.S. intervention in Libya in 2011, though that was an intervention which she and her soulmates Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice played a key role in bringing about. Again, the undisputed result of this intervention has been instability in Libya and surrounding countries, such as Mali and Tunisia, and the accompanying rise of armed extremist groups in those countries. But again, this deserves no mention. Instead, Power attempts to explain the “instability roiling the Middle East” as the product of almost mystical forces beyond the purview of the U.S., thus criticizing those who would “presume that the United States had within our control to put the Arab Spring genie back in the bottle . . . .”
Power, repeating her long-time refrain which has given her the reputation as a human rights advocate, ends her speech by stating that “we no longer live in an era in which foreign policymakers can claim to serve their nations’ interests treating what happens to people in other countries as an afterthought…What happens to people in other countries matters. It matters to the welfare of our own nations and our own citizens.” Of course, there is nothing particularly profound about this statement, and it would be hard to find many who would admit to disagreeing with it.
However, as with all Power says, what is absent is any discussion about how the actions of the U.S., and of even of Power herself, has undermined the welfare of people in other countries. For example, in addition to her role in pushing for the disastrous intervention in Libya, Power has also been active in giving diplomatic cover to the U.S.-backed Saudi slaughter in Yemen which continues to this day.   Thus, in an episode quite reminiscent of those she criticizes in her Pulitzer-prize winning book, A Problem From Hell, Power helped the Saudis scuttle a resolution at the United Nations that called for an investigation into the civilian toll of the Saudi coalition war against Yemen, in which at least 6,000 civilians have been killed and 14 million civilians find themselves on the brink of starvation.   In the end, even for Power, whether “people in other countries matter” inevitably depends upon who the people are, and whether the state impacting their interests is a friend of the U.S. or not.
In short, Power is really the perfect exemplar of U.S. foreign policy.   She is a hypocrite and a phony idealist who believes her own lies about the role of the U.S., and even herself, in the world, and who does a great job of convincing the public that these lies are truth.   But sadly — like Kissinger himself who will never be able to wash the blood of the Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Chileans, Argentines and East Timorese off his hands, but who nonetheless is treated as an elder statesman — Power will most likely never be brought to account. She will continue to live out her days watching Boston Red Sox games and hanging out with the rich and powerful, while other, lesser criminals are sent to The Hague.   Regrettably, this is what passes for human rights these days . . . .


Daniel Kovalik teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

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pan283
pan283
Aug 28, 2017 1:28 AM

Non dare mention Israel – “Some call it Communism, I call it Judaism”
We are the destroyers of worlds – Oppenheimer, Jew

Eurasia News Online
Eurasia News Online
Jul 2, 2016 8:12 PM

Reblogged this on Eurasia News Online.

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
Jun 29, 2016 12:24 PM

Nor did Samantha Power mention how her mentors, the Clintons, set up a bogus non-existent country in Europe – Kosovo – by means of a war triggered by the diplomatic lies of Madeleine Allbright. Now ‘Camp Bondsteel’ is the largest American military black prison in Europe, No-one even knows who many prisoners are held there, or who they are, or on what charges. Unlike the Gitmo Garbage-Gulag, no visitors are admitted, and no-one can interview the prisoners there.
Thousands of civilians in Serbia were massacred by the Clinton Dynasty and Allbright, in bombing raids that deliberately targetted civilian targets and residential housing developments.
Neither Samantha Power or this senile old madman Kissinger want to discuss any of this.
But the blowback is coming against America mass-murder in Europe. If either of the Clintons, or their repulsive offspring set foot in Europe, they will quickly be made to realise the strength of public feeling against their vile dynasty and the stinking country they represent.

archie1954
archie1954
Jun 29, 2016 9:44 PM
Reply to  reinertorheit

You have the right of it!

archie1954
archie1954
Jun 27, 2016 11:56 PM

There were two women boasting the Rice moniker who were witches with terrible powers of death at their fingertips and who never failed to use that power for their own geopolitical purposes. There is also Victoria Nuland and Ms. Powers, all of them black widow spiders ready to feast on the dead bodies of precious little children. For what? Just what Mme. Albright was the death of a half a million Iraqi children worth? Tell me what geopolitical value the US got out of destroying these innocent lives, I really would like to know? The terrible and gross hypocrisy shown by these monsters is beyond understanding !

Al
Al
Jun 27, 2016 8:30 PM

What a sick , vile , and ugly b@tch.
she reflects on the outside what she is on the inside……and so does Kissinger.

Barbara Fix
Barbara Fix
Jun 27, 2016 5:27 PM

They’re terrorists. Trump is starting to look like one too. He meets with the thug pictured above and now Murdoch, the media terrorist. He proclaims to be the one that will free us of these demons but they’re the only ones he’ meeting with! He knows nothing about what’s been going on in the world but is getting “educated” by the terrorists we need to be free of. And all of his VP candidates are on the same team! This article: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/06/please-join-supporting-rfk-jr-u-s-president.html calls for RFK to enter the race. BTW, Iran is a huge human rights violator of it’s citizens. Nazanin Ratcliffe, a dual citizen was thrown in prison and abused for daring to visit her parent in Tehran with her baby. The family is now torn apart. Many other dual citizens and peace activists are suffering the same fate. They hold them as pawns in negotiations with other countries. Terrorism. http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Iranian-British-woman-faces-alleged-coup-charge-8189032.php. It would be impossible for a any mother to take her baby to a country she plans to overthrow.

archie1954
archie1954
Jun 29, 2016 10:04 PM
Reply to  Barbara Fix

Actually no mother, who is part of a plan to overthrow the leadership of a nation, should ever visit that nation with or without her child. I would have thought that should be fairly obvious!

Luke
Luke
Jun 27, 2016 3:27 AM

2 Corinthians 5:10 KJVS
[10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
I take comfort in that thought.
http://www.justifiedfreely.com

m
m
Jun 26, 2016 10:56 PM

Chutzpah.
I ain’t no judge of beauty, but i know ugly.
Man-o-Manischewitz that’s one ugly pair.

Alan
Alan
Jun 25, 2016 12:48 AM

So, Mrs Powers sold out, who hasn’t sold out at sometime in their lives? Mrs Powers took an oath to serve, irrespective of legalese she knew what it meant. Knowing what it means, to the population she serves and yet continuing upon her chosen support, reeks of vanity and conceit. Mrs Powers serves non but Mrs Powers.

james carless
james carless
Jun 24, 2016 2:19 PM

She should be as proud of her award as if it was the iron cross awarded by her beloved Fuehrer.

pan283
pan283
Aug 28, 2017 1:27 AM
Reply to  james carless

What BS

elenits
elenits
Jun 24, 2016 11:52 AM

The photo says it all. Think of the airbrushing THAT involved!

jag37777
jag37777
Jun 24, 2016 10:18 AM

Her book about Rwanda, which she uses as her humanitarian ‘touchstone’, is a crock of lies and propaganda.
What an evil, murderous hypocrite.

Richard Le Sarcophage
Richard Le Sarcophage
Jun 25, 2016 1:36 PM
Reply to  jag37777

Yes. In my opinion Powers represents yet a new depth of US elite Evil, and her hypocrisy is simply stupefying. But that inversion of reality, where the USA is presented as the epitome of good and morality in the Universe, is also the dogma of the entire Western political and MSM apparatuses, where a totalitarian Groupthink that allows no deviation in worship of the USA prevails. The sad reality is that the West is, and has long been, ruled by morally insane daemons, psychopaths who differ from one another only in the depth of their depravity.

archie1954
archie1954
Jun 29, 2016 10:05 PM

Wow, what a great way of expressing the truth!

falcemartello
falcemartello
Jun 24, 2016 8:40 AM

How quant . Such a befitting award and whom else would be more befitting in presenting it the one and only. the Eichmann of the modern era Kissinger. Nuremberg comes to mind maybe the Hague, even Geneva . Lets be real just like the article states the obvious . Just like her mentor and master is living his twilight years in total cover Samantha the genocidal states person will do the same. Through out History it has been the same Heck Churchill gassing the people of the Levant and Iran in the 30’s and look how western anglo-zionist history relates to that vile figure. “Considered one of Britain,s finest . Truman for dropping not one but two atomic bombs on Japan. Yesterdays news gets wrapped in todays fish

Daniel Rich
Daniel Rich
Jun 24, 2016 3:26 AM

“The United States is responsible for 41% of the world’s total military spending. The next largest in spending are China, accounting for 8.2%; Russia, 4.1%; and the United Kingdom and France, both 3.6%. . . . If all military . . . costs are included, annual [US] spending amounts to $1 trillion . . . . According to the DOD fiscal year 2012 base structure report, ‘The DOD manages global property of more than 555,000 facilities at more than 5,000 sites, covering more than 28 million acres.’ The United States maintains 700 to 1000 military bases or sites in more than 100 countries.”. . . .”
“Since the end of World War II, there have been 248 armed conflicts in 153 locations around the world. The United States launched 201 overseas military operations between the end of World War II and 2001, and since then, others, including Afghanistan and Iraq ….”
Source.
So, Samantha, stick that prize thing where it belongs…, in a very dark place.

archie1954
archie1954
Jun 29, 2016 10:07 PM
Reply to  Daniel Rich

“Very dark place” and plenty big enough to hold it!

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jun 24, 2016 2:35 AM

Reblogged this on Worldtruth and commented:
I will say it and keep saying it – the US is the greatest threat to world peace.