If you’ve paid attention to the presidential campaign season, you’ve no doubt been entertained by the string of embarrassments and gaffes: Rick Perry blows the voting age! Herman Cain can’t remember what to say about Libya! Mitt Romney talks about the upside of a murderous dictatorship!
Wait–what?
In the November 22 debate, Romney gave this answer to a question about what to do about Pakistan:
We don’t want to just pull up stakes and get out of town after the enormous output we’ve just made for the region. Look at Indonesia in the ’60s. We helped them move toward modernity. We need to help bring Pakistan into the 21st century, or the 20th, for that matter.
That’s an astonishing comment–and one that was hardly noticed in the corporate media.
To people who were paying attention, Romney would seem to have been praising the reign of Indonesian dictator Suharto, who took power in the mid-’60s. As Ed Herman wrote in Extra! (9-10/98):
Suharto’s overthrow of the Sukarno government in 1965-66 turned Indonesia from Cold War “neutralism” to fervent anti-Communism, and wiped out the Indonesian Communist Party–exterminating a sizable part of its mass base in the process, in widespread massacres that claimed at least 500,000 and perhaps more than a million victims. The U.S. establishment’s enthusiasm for the coup-cum-mass murder was ecstatic (see Chomsky and Herman, Washington Connection and Third World Fascism); “almost everyone is pleased by the changes being wrought,” New York Times columnist C.L. Sulzberger commented (4/8/66).
Suharto quickly transformed Indonesia into an “investors’ paradise,” only slightly qualified by the steep bribery charge for entry. Investors flocked in to exploit the timber, mineral and oil resources, as well as the cheap, repressed labor, often in joint ventures with Suharto family members and cronies. Investor enthusiasm for this favorable climate of investment was expressed in political support and even in public advertisements; e.g., the full-page ad in the New York Times (9/24/92) by Chevron and Texaco entitled “Indonesia: A Model for Economic Development.”
The Progressive‘s Matt Rothschild called Romney’s answer the “most outrageous comment of the whole debate,” noting that the “new leadership” he referred to was a dictator “who killed between 500,000 and 1 million of his own citizens with the help of the CIA. A little follow up from Wolf Blitzer would have been nice there.”
One of the only other journalists to catch this was Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor, who spent a decade reporting from Indonesia. As Murphy wrote,the 1960s saw
the systematic destruction of Indonesia’s nascent democratic institutions and political parties (which had already been taking a beating under Sukarno); state repression of opponents with torture, targeted killings and long jail terms; and a military-backed dictatorship that persisted until a popular uprising in 1998 pushed Suharto, finally, from power.
The first sentence of Murphy’s piece was “I don’t generally write about U.S. politics.” Indeed. Hundreds of journalists who spend every day writing about U.S. politics apparently did not find it newsworthy that Romney endorsed a bloody dictatorship.
When you have a complicit media that will see no evil and hear no evil, it really doesn’t matter whether what you speak is evil, does it?
For America’s (indeed, the West’s) corporate media to ignore a Western politician endorsing Suharto is unsurprising, but you think they’d at least bat an eyelid over the vile white-man’s-burden implication of “Look at Indonesia in the ’60s. We helped them move toward modernity.” even if they fail to acknowledge that this movement to “modernity” was occasioned by a genocidal massacre.
It reminds me of the line from Romney’s bowing out speech in 2008, the implications of which the press cheerfully ignored, indeed whitewashed.
Mountain over a mole hill.If he were to say since WW2 we helped move Russia away from Communism toward Democracy, he would be correct.By saying that- he is not supporting Stalin or any Russian leaders up and beyond Putin,though you could say he was.
Im sure if you asked Mitt if he is endorsing Suharto’s treatment of his country you would get a resounding no.This is like those polito commercials that pull things out of context ,and run with it.
@michael e: Then why not ask Romney that very question you propose and see how resounding his “no” is? That’s what this piece is about: taking the media to task for not following up. Notice: “A little follow-up from Wolf Blitzer would have been nice there.”
As for pulling this outta context: I disagree. Romney said what he said. He coulda qualified it so as to seem to not be endorsing US backing of a brutal dictatorship. He coulda explained more or clarified. He didn’t. That makes it fair game for interpretation in my book. Interpretation is speculative by its nature, so Romney can put out a definitive statement in a press conference if he wants and that’d end the issue– at least for me. The ball’s in his court. If he doesn’t like the interpretation being given it by FAIR and others, he can amend and explain. That’d end it– at least for me, anyway.
Yeah John I guess i agree with that analysis.I just don’t want to go the extra mile that this is some smoking gun.
Wolf Blitzer wouldn’t know his ass if it came up and bit him on his ass.
In a country where 85% of the people couldn’t find Indonesia on the map and can’t identify either Suharto or Sukarno, the political leadership and the press corps shouldn’t be expected to treat issues responsibly or rationally unless it serves their own purposes.
Our national ignorance regarding the histories of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran (among many other countries) in combination with our Exceptional Arrogance, have allowed this country to waste our national treasury and the blood of millions of US and foreign troops and collateral damage (i.e. unlucky people who live where we kill) in wars of aggression (war crimes under Principal VI of the Nuremberg Principles) while justifying the crimes as containment of communism, terrorism or protection of Israel.
The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance.
Steve I agree that our national understanding(average joe) of geopolitics is weak.But are you saying our state dept. that is charged with informing our president of these thing,suffers from the same weakness as the average citizen?Beyond public opinion THAT is the conduit to the decision making process.
Michael
Do you think that the performance of the State Department in the area of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan (to cite only a few recent examples) reflects a rational, informed, and realistic national policy?
I don’t doubt that there are experts in the State Department…but, I also am certain that Mrs. Clinton makes her decisions based on her party’s political and business biases, with as little concern for the impact on the people in the affected countries as her predecessors in that office.
This administration, like the previous one (and the next one), can get away with anything they desire, because the populace is overwhelmingly ignorant, prejudiced and uninvolved in our relations with other countries. The sole exception is Israel, where there is but one acceptable side to our foreign policy.
Whatever one’s politics might be, there’s little doubt that foreign policy decisions are made based primarily on the economic interests of the current administration…with dire consequences for people all over the planet.
Steve that is one hell of a charge.To answer your first question I honestly don’t know.What we see(are allowed to see)simply does not give us enough information to make that call.We are in effect “ignorant”of the decision making process.Recently Bush was asked a national security issue question involving Pakistan.He answered by saying “i have no idea -I am out of the loop”.But your charge involving Hilary and her dept., past present and future is heavy stuff.I have not heard it put so.It probably IS the monster in the room.Why is this never discussed?Is the state dept so compromised as to be nothing more that a projecting arm of the presidents will?
Remember East Timor?
::::To answer your first question I honestly don’t know.::::
Then how do you know it’s a “hell of a charge”?
:::What we see(are allowed to see)simply does not give us enough information to make that call.:::
We get to see plenty if we don’t depend on the corporate scumbag media. That’s why people like FAIR know just how dishonest the media has been for decades now. Look up El Mozote sometime. Look up Contra/Crack right on this site. You’ll soon realize that a lot of people know how many decisions made by our government officials are purposely ignored or downplayed in our corporate scumbag media.
:::We are in effect “ignorant”of the decision making process.:::
Only if we depend on the corporate scumbag media.
:::Recently Bush was asked a national security issue question involving Pakistan.He answered by saying “i have no idea -I am out of the loop”.::::
You can bet that Bill Clinton isn’t out of the loop, and, no, it’s not because he’s married to Hillary. If you don’t understand why he would be informed DESPITE HER, then you’ve been suckling at the corporate scumbag media teat too long.
:::But your charge involving Hilary and her dept., past present and future is heavy stuff.:::
It’s reality.
:::I have not heard it put so.:::
Have you seen evidence of rational decision-making from our State Department since 2000?
I mean, the people at FAIR and most of the left predicted everything that would happen with invading Iraq. EVERYTHING. Did it occur to you why we knew what would go wrong, and Colin Powell DIDN’T?
BTW, you’re on FAIR and you’ve never read any of their archives that would inform you that, yes, partisanship is the name of the game with foreign policy?
Strange, that.
:::It probably IS the monster in the room.:::
It is, indeed.
:::Why is this never discussed?:::
Because the people who own the media are the same people who are, or dependent on, the people who decide these things.
:::Is the state dept so compromised as to be nothing more that a projecting arm of the presidents will?:::
Compromised? Partisanship is built into the system, silly!
Presidents appoint Secretaries of State and other assorted cabinet positions, to get their people into the department to shape policy the President’s way. If what mattered was expertise, then Presidents would keep their predecessors’ people in the same position, don’t you think?
America and Europe are serial genocidists and they are not about to stop. If Romney made a gaffe his statement reflects the real priorities of the power class. Remember Albright’s a half million Iraqi kids killed being ‘worth it’? Was it? The article questioning deaths for Iraq is also way too gentle: the respectable estimates figure another half millions kids killed.
I am surprised at FAIR for suggesting that this is a ‘gaffe’ when what it probably is is part of a normalising roll out to make genocide acceptable. Expect more ‘gaffes’.
Sometimes you can focus on the twists and turns of propaganda so much that analysis turns into rhetoric.
Aquaria Clinton recently said what he misses most about NOT being the president is that you loose the constant flow of information that is both addicting and so important to understand the big picture.Without that he said you become like everyone else.In the dark as to what happens as the world sleeps.Notice he seldom questioned Bush or BAMs foreign policy calls.I do not know if his wife is able to brief him.My guess would be only to a degree.As far as your belief the Libs(FAIR) called the wars….bullshit! I have seldom seen FAIR take any stance that actually lays it on the line moving forward.They are good at monday morning quarterbacking and cherry picking issues. But To say they had a grasp of the geopolitical and intel, that begat these wars is nonsense.They are simply part of the retreat,defeat,and surrender crowd .Knee jerking a simple answer to every foreign policy issue with one word,,,,DONT!.Better put IF AMERICA IS WRONG- WE WERE RIGHT.That would include any issue under the sun.Your opinions are those we always hear coming from the left.And your idea that the state dept and Hilary are so compromised as to make her nothing more than an errand girl is…… “a hell of a charge’.She could step down tonight if she was in hard disagreement with BAM.She is not a slave.No law holds her.Appointed is just that and nothing more.I should keep a list of the people Libs think are in on the great conspiracy.The press,corporations,the state dept.On and on you go.Everyone and everything but you.Ever occur yo you that it is YOUR mentality that breeds this feeling in America and little else?Something to ponder.Oh well this coming November we get to see what it is like without you at the helm.
Say it like a mantra………IF AMERICA IS WRONG WE WERE RIGHT.
the article’s about genocide and michael e talks crap for 8 hours – the pay must be good
sorry to repeat but a frequent tactic of shills is to follow someone who has a point with mind-numbing BS. so…
America and Europe are serial genocidists and they are not about to stop. If Romney made a gaffe his statement reflects the real priorities of the power class. Remember Albright’s a half million Iraqi kids killed being ‘worth it’? Was it? The article questioning deaths for Iraq is also way too gentle: the respectable estimates figure another half millions kids killed.
I am surprised at FAIR for suggesting that this is a ‘gaffe’ when what it probably is is part of a normalising roll out to make genocide acceptable. Expect more ‘gaffes’.
Sometimes you can focus on the twists and turns of propaganda so much that analysis turns into rhetoric.
Passion fruit I may talk crap for eight hours but lets see if you can talk about how special this country is for ten seconds.Better yet- five things that make this country extraordinary among nations.If you can’t don’t feel bad.Your president was stumped by that one.
michael e, the subject is genocide – not how great america is for doing it.
but you seem to be genuinely deluded and/or deranged
so may i refer you to this article about how great america is: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29902.htm
Passion fruit
I ask you to say something good about America and you send me an article called SO THIS IS HOW LIBERTY DIES.Classic I am laughing my ass off.Don’t tell me now….let me guess…… you are a liberal right?Most miserable,disempowering group on the face of the earth.And the article is NOT about genocide.It is a sideways swipe about how Mitt SEEMS to agree with it.Then numskulls jump on board agreeing that AMERICA in fact seems to agree with it.My answer was “hey Poindexter”calm your jets.Before you go off on some diatribe that works all the natives(liberals) up to a lather try to break cycle.Take a deep breath and say something nice about this great land of ours.Stand up AGAINST this nonsensical harangue once in a blue moon.And that was the best you could do?Oh boy
michael e
what’s a frothing-at-the-mouth-fascist illiterate like yourself doing hanging around on a liberal site, anyways?