Monday, July 06, 2009

CNN's Castellanos Mired in 20th Century Cold War

Heard on CNN from their regular right wing Cuban-American contributor, Alex Castellanos:
"President Bush looked into Putin's soul, and President Obama blinked. The less Russia has to worry about nuclear deterrence, the more aggressive they will become on their Western Front."
What? In the space of a couple of sentences, this right wing agitprop talking head managed to interject three Cold War clichés: Obama "blinked" (Cuban Missile Crisis), "nuclear deterrence," aka MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), and "aggressive on their Western Front," which conjures up all sorts of Cold War imagery of an aggressive Russian bear surrounded by a wall of satellite states. It's worth noting that Castellanos is an old school right wing Cuban-American. These types are UberHawks who still believe the U.S. would be justified in invading Cuba.

The neocons count on the short attention span of the American people. Lest we forget, this kind of talk is what got us into Iraq. Who can remember when the neocon lunatics were drafting white papers in the 90s calling for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, based on the flimsiest of pretexts? Despite their sometime halfhearted mea culpas, the neocons remain true believers. We're bogged down in the quagmire of Iraq, thanks to the neocons, and now Castellanos invokes Cold War fantasies of a resurgent Russia with the old battle lines drawn. Never mind that Russia and the U.S. concluded an agreement to allow U.S. military aircraft ferrying weapons and supplies to Afghanistan to fly over Russian territory.

Neocons such as Castellanos are certifiably insane. Haven't they done enough when they were making disastrous foreign policy in the Bush White House? Now Castellanos is sniping from the sidelines making absurd Cold War statements -- one more reason to hate CNN.

The last of the 20th Century Cold Warriors, Robert MacNamara, is dead. He spent his waning days a tortured, pathetic soul trying to justify his tragic mistakes in Vietnam.

Get with the program, Castellanos. In case you've been sleepwalking for the past 40 years, this is the 21st Century. Really, it is.

1 comment:

Patricia J. Esposito said...

Wish he and others like him could hear you and actually learn something. The kind of people who conceived of the MAD theory and support it now, despite what history teaches, defy logic. I'm not sure it's possible for them to hear anything but what's madly driving their fear-infested brains.