Monday, January 08, 2007

UN Post-Partisan Depression

Now that the Democrats have taken over Congress and have clearly stated that they will not support to keep the unelected US representative to the United Nations, John Bolton in his post, word is that George W. Bush had decided to nominate his non mustachioed clone,  Zalmay Khalilzad. As you may recall, Khalilzad was a counselor to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (who did a bang-up job) and in 2003 was appointed to be US Ambassador to Afghanistan, where he was accused of swaying the elections to obtain a victory for Hamid Karzai. Both men had given early suppport to the Taliban regime and were advisors to Unocal on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline. Karzai had worked under former US Deputy of Defense and now leader of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, of whom Mr. Khalilzad was also a protege.

In 1998, a letter was sent to President Bill Clinton urging him to attack Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein. This letter was issued by the Project for a New American Century and was signed by, among others, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, and Zalmay Khalilzad. PNAC is an organization dedicated to US global domination using military force and its memberships consist of some the most powerful people in the US government and media (The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol and the Washington Post's Rober Kagan are members). While refraining from attacking Iraq, Clinton chose to instead focus on quashing the efforts al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden.

After a scandalous extra-marital affair that rocked the whitehouse which lead to impeachment hearings, Clinton's term expired and was replaced by the judicially appointed George W. Bush. In a package deal, the citizens of this country were bestowed with his extended family, the good ol' boys of PNAC. As we know, patience and loyalty within the Bush family often pays off and in 2005 Khalilzad was given the role of US Ambassador to Iraq.

For more information, please see:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Zalmay_Khalilzad

Can we really trust that someone with the resume that this individual possesses be a fair-minded representative of our nation? Can we also assume that he will work with others to do what is not only in the best interests of the United States, but for the world as a whole? I believe that the naivete of most of the American people and the underhandedness of a few have not served us well. Isn't it time we moved in a new direction?




2 comments:

Tahoma Activist said...

Hell no we can't trust Kalilzad. And Al Franken is a freakin idiot for saying he "likes" this guy. This guy is a total tool of the right-wing devastation of Iraq, and will continue the nightmare that is the diplomacy that Bolton was so good at.

TKelly said...

Did Al really say that? Was he referring to him on a political level or on a personal one? While the two aren't far removed, I can say that, while I never would have voted for Bob Dole, I do find him to be somewhat amusing on his own.

I love Al Franken, but maybe Zalmay Khalilzad should go with him on his next trip to Iraq to entertain the troops. I'm sure the locals would love to talk to him!