Howard Dean Hype
The Pro-War Views of an "Anti-War" Candidate
Revolutionary Worker #1225, January 18, 2004, posted
at rwor.org
Millions of people simply can't stand George W. Bush. The mainstream media
has been calling this "the hate factor." Lots of people think this
White House is a scary and arrogant place, packed with corporate madmen who
are screwing up the world. And they really think such people should be kept
far away from power. And of course, they have good reasons for thinking that.
And many of these same folks have been furious at the "me too" Democratic
Party establishment--which has done as little as possible to actually oppose
the heavy moves of the Bush administration. And they are right here too.
After 9/11, after the White House declared endless war and permanent emergency,
the Democratic Party (with very few exceptions) basically saluted and fell in
line--sometimes mumbling a few feeble complaints. And this included most of
today's Democratic Presidential contenders, including Senators John Kerry, Joe
Lieberman, John Edwards and General Wesley Clark.
The Democrats in Congress voted heavily to give George Bush war powers to attack
Iraq. They voted heavily for the Patriot Act that has torn huge holes in civil
liberties within the U.S. They went along when the White House launched a predatory
war based on a cascade of crude and flimsy lies.
Millions of people, including a huge chunk of the Democratic Party base, feel
robbed of a way to speak out against everything Bush now represents.
This angry mood has give a huge boost to the campaign of Governor Howard Dean
of Vermont, who is emerging as a front-runner on the eve of the coming New Hampshire
primary and Iowa caucuses.
Dean's Record in Vermont
Politically, Dean has always been a conventional and rather conservative Democrat
with some liberal stands on important social issues.
Dean comes from a prominent family of Wall Street stockbrokers (yes, the Deans
in Dean-Witter). His administration in Vermont was known as "pro-business"--Green
Party activists there list ways in which Dean supported new suburban and tourist-based
"sprawl" in the Green Moun- tains. As governor, he was known for opposing
environmental regulations on issues like mining and poultry mega-farms. He opposed
the Kyoto Accords for limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Dean has been a strict "lock 'em up" politician who cut funding for
public aid lawyers. He strongly supports the "war on drugs" and continued
criminalization of drugs. He even opposes allowing marijuana use for medicinal
purposes.
As governor, he supported the state law legalizing gay civil marriages in the
face of a rightwing hysteria. Dean is a doctor who supports keeping the current
legal status of abortion-with-restrictions. His opponents in both the Democratic
and Republican parties are scrambling to uncover whether Dean ever, personally,
helped women by performing abortions. (The fact that this is considered an automatic
disqualification for office tells a lot about the power of reactionary politics
in both of the official political parties.)
Pandering to Racism
On the campaign trail, Dean portrayed himself as a man willing to talk about
the tough issues--saying he is the only Democrat who dares to "speak about
race to white people." He then went on to say that he wanted the vote of
Southern white guys who display the confederate flag on the back of their pickup
trucks.
Well, this way of "speaking about race to white people" is
not a new one!
Though Dean later said he was misunderstood. His explanation was that he believes
the Democratic Party should focus on things that even racist white people could
unite with (meaning issues like "jobs").
Running for governor Dean opposed the death penalty, but now, running for president,
he is for state executions, saying, "When someone gets put to death
for a heinous crime, I don't feel the least bit conflicted about that."
This seems to ignore that poor and Black people often get convicted of such
crimes by a racist and rigged court system.
Radicals in Vermont remember well how he denounced demonstrators against the
execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal as "a bunch of hoods running around our streets."
Built into all of this is the current Democratic Party gospel that the issues
of equality and anti-racism in modern America should be shoved permanently to
the back burner.
Dean's reference to slavery's flag is often described as a "gaffe"--but
there is no reason to suspect that it was not a very calculated move. Dean is
facing crucial primary races in Southern states like South Carolina (where Bush
also made hay by upholding the confederate flag)--and Dean is operating within
a political system that demands that its presidential candidates (especially
the Democrats) prove publicly that they are not "panderers"
to the interests of Black people.
Governor Clinton made a point of publicly slapping down Black rapper Sister
Souljah in his 1992 race for president--and Dean has now had his own defining
"Souljah Moment."
Dean's remark on the Dixie flag, and his later explanations represent
a demand that everyone accept (coexist with and "pander" to)
extreme and reactionary politics on the oppression of Black people--all, naturally,
in the name of "beating Bush" at the ballot box.
Some Questions: What are the chances of carrying out real change through
a political system that is constructed to require such "Souljah
Moments" from those seeking top power?
And if progressive people accept Dean's logic (in the name of "beating
Bush") what injustices would they be accepting with their silence?
In the name of bourgeois political alliances with corporate business and racist
Southern "Bubbas"--what more important alliances and possibilities
would all this be betraying?
Dean on How to Win the War He Doesn't Like
On the campaign trail, Howard Dean denounces George W. Bush for the way Bush
launched war against Iraq. Dean points out that Bush and his circle lied, crudely,
to justify this war. And Dean points out that the war is not going well. And
these criticisms have helped Dean leapfrog over the other Democrats.
But a close look shows that Dean denounces the way this war was planned
and launched--but not the war itself. Senator John Kerry (a Dean rival) has
recently been reminding the world that on October 6, 2002, Dean endorsed the
Biden-Lugar Senate proposal granting Bush war powers to attack Iraq. (This is
not the proposal that was ultimately passed and which Kerry voted for.)
In a typical speech Dean now says (Dec. 15, 2003),
"The difficulties and tragedies we have faced in Iraq show that the
administration launched the war in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with
inadequate planning, insufficient help, and at unbelievable cost. An administration
prepared to work with others in true partnership might have been able, if
it found no alternative to Saddam's ouster, to then rebuild Iraq with far
less cost and risk."
Now Dean continually calls for continuing this war to victory over any
resistance.
On July 2, National Public Radio's Bob Edwards asked Dean: "What would
you be doing differently in postwar Iraq?"
Howard Dean answered:
"Now that we're there we can't leave. We cannot allow chaos or a
fundamentalist regime in Iraq because it could be fertile ground for al Qaida.
First thing I would do is bring in 40 to 50,000 other troops. I'd look to
Arab countries, Islamic countries who are our allies, NATO, the United Nations.
General Shinseki, before we went in, said that we did not have enough troops.
The administration ignored that advice. It turned out to be true. It was a
bad thing the administration ignored their own military expertise. We need
those troops. We're not keeping order in Iraq. And it seems to me that what
we need is some expertise from people who know how to police countries that
are in some chaos and who understand how to administer and build the institutions
of democracy. We're going to be there for a long time in Iraq. We can't leave."
Dean repeatedly says "Our troops need to come home" but adds "We
can't pull out responsibly."
This means Dean's "exit strategy" is essentially the same as the
one advocated by President Bush or General Wesley Clark: replace some of the
U.S. troops by Iraqi and allies' troops under U.S. command. And since no else
one is expected send troops to fight a losing war--this approach inevitably
means using U.S. troops first to crush the Iraqi resistance to occupation.
Dean's plan for Iraq is to dig in for a long time, send in more troops, defeat
the Iraqi resistance, strengthen the U.S. occupation, and impose a pro-U.S.
government.
This is a stand that says launching the war was a mistake for U.S. imperial
interests, but that those same interests now demand staying and winning the
war.
This is not an anti-war stand. It is a pro-war stand--even if it comes along
with angry and mocking denunciations of Bush.
Dean on How to Best Run an Empire
"I seek to restore America's rightful place in the world and its
moral leadership in world affairs. We remain the sole superpower in the world..Our
foreign and military policy must be about the notion of America leading the
world, not America against the world."
Howard Dean, policy statement on campaign
website
"Dean suggested that on some issues, the difference between Bush
and himself was more of tone and temperament."
Washington Post , December 14, 2003
On a fundamental and defining level, Dean supports expanding and exercising
U.S. domination over other countries in the world--including by force. His critique
of the Bush clique is that they have pursued this goal badly, leaving the U.S.
more isolated in the world, instead of more dominant.
In his December 15 speech (and in many others) Dean lists how he supported
all the recent wars launched by the U.S., including the first Gulf War, the
NATO war on Yugoslavia, and Bush's invasion of Afghanistan.
In June 1998, he also defended then-President Clinton's unilateral bombing
of Iraq saying, "I don't think we could have built an international coalition
to invade or have a substantial bombing of Saddam."
Dean adds that "As president, I will never hesitate to deploy our armed
forces to defend our country and its allies, and to protect our national interests."
He supports the concept of "preemptive attack," saying on his campaign
website, "There is also no doubt that a sovereign state has a right to
fight a preemptive war against an imminent threat to its vital national security
interests." His critique of the Bush Doctrine is that it extends this "right"
to wage "preemptive war" to include cases of more distant potential
threat.
In a major foreign policy statement ( Washington Post , December 21,
2003) Dean said he supported making demands on North Korea in talks "backed
by the threat of force." Dean opposes ending the cruel embargo on Cuba.
In the details of his online position papers, Dean opposes cutting the
U.S. military budget (which has swollen to truly grotesque and criminal proportions
in order to threaten the world with military superiority). And Dean proposed
increasing the budget for "Homeland Security," which brings
the promise of increased surveillance, border militarization, police activity
and "security" hysteria in our lives. At the same time, he calls for
reconsideration of some provisions of the Patriot Act that gives sweeping new
police powers to federal agents.
In many ways, what stands out is how little his positions differ from
the Bush policies:
Dean strongly supports Israel, and says that his views on Palestine are closest
to the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (the conservative Zionist lobbying
group close to Israel's rightwing expansionist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon).
Dean supports Israel's death squad attacks on Palestinian forces. "I've
been very clear: I support the targeted assassinations," he said. "These
are enemy combatants in a war; Israel has every right to shoot them before they
can shoot Israelis." He denounces countries like Iran for "supporting
Palestinian terrorism."
Dean added he supports the Israeli move to fence off Palestinian areas on the
West Bank, based on "the original maps of the fence I saw when I was over
there a year and a half ago.I think the fence is a security matter."
Dean supports U.S. and Israeli moves to depose Arafat as Palestinian leader
and president. "I do not think we will get to peace in the Middle East
as long as Arafat is in power," Dean said, "This is an area I agree
with the President on." ( Jewish Week , October 2003)
The differences are so small that Dean lavishes praise on Bush's Secretary
of State Colin L. Powell (a prominent architect of the war on Iraq). Dean's
aides even talk of keeping Powell as Secretary of State in a Dean White House!
Dean does of course have a criticism. He says ( Washington Post , Dec.
21) "I believe the United States must exercise leadership by working with
allies and partners to advance common interests, rather than advancing our power
unilaterally. My program is clear. First, we must strengthen our military and
intelligence, ensure that our troops have the best training and equipment and
keep our promises about pay and benefits. Second, we must rebuild our alliances,
badly damaged by the current administration."
It is important to understand what this means, and what it doesn't mean.
This does not mean that Dean rejects all unilateral military attacks, or thinks
that the U.S. should subordinate itself to international alliances or institutions.
It means that he, like many throughout the U.S. ruling class, think that the
U.S. has been unnecessarily isolated by its recent moves.
Dean and the rest of the Democratic Party are generally calling for a more
"muscular multi- laterialism"--where the U.S. finds the ways to get
other powers more actively involved in imposing and maintaining a U.S-dominated
world order. Dean (and most other Democrats) argue that the U.S. needs to
find more ways of shifting and sharing the burden of war and empire by making
some accommodations. Dean's arguments bring to mind the Soviet observation before
World War 2 that U.S. and British ruling classes always want someone else to
"pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them."
Meanwhile, powerful parts of the Bush team have insisted that the U.S. military
superiority is great enough that the U.S. does not need to make any significant
accommodation to other world powers.
This is a debate among imperialists over how best to rule their empire.
Possibilities of Resistance and Co-optation
Fred Barnes, one of those cold-blooded Republican attack dogs on TV, recently
wrote that 2004 will be a year where "the war on terrorism, and the outcome
in Iraq, hang in the balance." The worst thing of all, he writes, would
be if this coming year were "brimming with bitter assaults on the very
idea of an assertive, morality-based American role in the world." Barnes
openly calls on the whole political establishment (including the Clintons, who
Barnes hates) to help prevent this from happening.
This gives a sense of the fear, in powerful places, of what could happen in
the months ahead.
Official American politics encourages everyone to project their views
and hopes on one or another candidate. And some people have come to imagine
Dean's campaign as a way to oppose the war in Iraq and stand against the aggressive
policies of the U.S. government. Dean has obviously encouraged this, portraying
himself as a fighter with angry criticisms of the Bush regime.
But there is an old Maoist saying to be careful you don't climb onboard a pirate
ship, just because it is flying a friendly flag.
New Republic columnist Franklin Foer wrote (December 23, 2003): "Talk
to sensible Howard Dean supporters these days, and they'll tell you that the
former governor's campaign to date has been a grand sleight of hand. Sure, it
has harnessed Bush hatred and antiwar fervor. But the real Dean isn't a frothing
lefty like his supporters; he's a closet centrist. Once he finishes exploiting
the left's anger to seal the nomination, he will reveal his true self, elegantly
pivoting to the middle."
If a President Dean replaced a President Bush--the heights of U.S. power would
still be dedicated to empire and military domination, and they would even still
be committed to some of the specific aggressive and unjust policies involved
in conquering Iraq and waging an endless war on the world (in the name of a
"war on terrorism").
A question: What would it mean--to the growth of a powerful resistance
movement in the months ahead--if the energies and resources of antiwar forces
get subordinated to a Democratic electoral program that is so fundamentally
pro-war and pro-imperialist?
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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