Samantha Power (1970- ) has been the US ambassador to the United Nations since 2013, succeeding Susan Rice. She has long been a top adviser to Barack Obama on foreign policy. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide” (2002). She was a professor at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights.
At age nine she arrived in the US from Ireland. At age 18, between her first and second year at Yale University, she worked for CBS. It changed her life: she saw the live feed from the Tiananmen Square massacre, watching in utter shock as the Chinese army killed its own citizens.
In 1992 after Yale, she wanted to be a reporter in Bosnia. No news outlet would send her: her main experience was reporting on women’s volleyball at Yale. So she forged a letter to get the necessary press credentials.
She reported on Bosnia for US News & World Report and The Economist. There she learned what everyone learns in a genocide: the outside world does not care.
In 1994 in Rwanda it was the same thing. President Clinton’s top Africa adviser, a young Rhodes Scholar named Susan Rice, said:
“If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November election?”
She looked into other genocides – Turks killing Armenians, Hitler killing Jews, Pol Pot killing Cambodians, Saddam Hussein killing Kurds. Each time the US knew – but did nothing to stop it.
She wrote about that and won a Pulitzer Prize. Only one senator read her book and wanted to talk to her about it: Barack Obama. In 2005 they had dinner and talked for four hours. She said Obama wanted to know:
“Why do we think this about ourselves and yet do this?”
She has been his sounding board on foreign policy ever since.
Kenneth Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch:
“She is clearly the foremost voice for human rights within the White House and she has Obama’s ear.”
In 2011 she pushed for bombing Libya to save Benghazi from a bloodbath at the hands of Qaddafi.
In 2013 she pushed for bombing Syria to punish Assad for using chemical weapons.
She sees US military power as a force for good in the world. She believes in American exceptionalism – which means she is morally blind.
You see that in her book – it is mostly about crimes by state enemies. Out of 575 pages, Native Americans and East Timor each get one sentence. Cambodians killed by Pol Pot are worthy victims. Those killed by US bombers are not. Sudan is curiously absent.
And so it is at the UN: she condemns Russia, for example, but not Israel. She has long been Obama’s point person on providing cover at the UN for Israel’s crimes, from the Goldstone Report to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla to Israel’s repeated bombing of Gaza (which she blames on Gaza).
The New Yorker wonders if power will destroy her moral compass. It was destroyed long ago.
See also:
Wow, thats an unattractive white woman; please pass the eye bleach.
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Notice the pattern of unwillingness to highlight or acknowledge America’s crimes.
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“So she forged a letter to get the necessary press credentials.”
“She sees US military power as a force for good in the world.”
“In 2013 she pushed for bombing Syria to punish Assad for using chemical weapons.”
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Seems like just another TYPICALLY CLUELESS white female… so what’s new here? She’s just another hired stage actor (of thousands) with a role to play in this neo-modern political production that pretends that the occupants of the WHITE house are actually the ones calling the shots.
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What does this say about Obama?
Certainly he knows about America and its past.
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Another great and terrific hire by the America….. Not necessarily Obama.
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She probably thinks she is doing good, but has come up in a broken system. Sometimes only those from afar can see the inequities, yet are unable to do anything about them.
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@Dave
That is very much possible. So the question becomes how exactly do you fix a broken system?
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sharina
Notice the pattern of unwillingness to highlight or acknowledge America’s crimes.
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Without those crimes YOU would have a much lower standard of living.
Have you ever carried water on your head?
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@thwack
What really makes you think I would have an issues with this “lower standard of living”? I have yet to see the good in this “higher standard” past a longer life. Those type of scare tactics don’t work on me. Keep it moving.
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So, using a similar moral reasoning, what should we push for to remedy the torture practices the US uses? Bombing the US? What is the different option using moral blindness vs. appealing to another moral authority?
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Insightful post. Wow and her last name is “Power” seems kind of ironic.
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sharinalr
@thwack
What really makes you think I would have an issues with this “lower standard of living”?
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Have you ever carried water on your head?
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@ Thwack
When my grandparents still owned their farm I did. No big deal to me. Simpler and much happier life. Taught value of hard work. So back to what I asked “What really makes you think I would have an issues with this “lower standard of living”?”
And I have no interest in play the question game. So if that is what you are looking for then again….keep it moving.
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@Jefe
“So, using a similar moral reasoning, what should we push for to remedy the torture practices the US uses? Bombing the US”—These are good questions and honestly I don’t think I have an answer for them, but I feel there needs to be a remedy in place. I wonder what power the UN has to implement a remedy. I feel they should be given the power to deal with such abuse in certain governments when the governments refuse to deal wit them.
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sharinalr
@ Thwack
When my grandparents still owned their farm I did. No big deal to me.
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Yeah, I guess having a short neck helps.
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^^^ you went through all that just to have no point? *shrugs*
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You went thru all that just to tell a lie?
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@Thwack
A lie according to who? You who thinks he knows me and my life? Good luck with that. 😉
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[…] Source: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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Can you fix a system that works as intended? At that point, you have to think about replacing the system in its entirety with a completely different system.
Hey thwack, I know picking at sharina seems to be your thing and all, but didn’t someone already tell you to knock it off at some point? It’s unsightly and it derails the hell of out of the comments section.
In light of the above, I’d also like to hear your thoughts on Dick Cheney’s unrepentant support of torture as a legitimate counterterrorism strategy.
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@Black Santa Claus
It just reaffirms that I have to continue to ignore him, as he refuses to have any type of civil conversation unless you are agreeing or praising his words. *shrugs*
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Hey thwack, I know picking at sharina seems to be your thing and all, but didn’t someone already tell you to knock it off at some point? It’s unsightly and it derails the hell of out of the comments section.
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People who lie must be held to account by those who have the will and ability to do so.
Better I do it than wait for white people.
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^^^^thwack
Considering I have mention my family farm on here before, it really is only a lie because you believe it to be. You also believed I was single among other things that turned out to be false.
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