The Try-Works

The RAIMD protest went off swimmingly at CU. The gentlefolk at RAIMD even managed to get a few folks to pledge to ask Madeleine Albright by what moral calculation she decided the extermination of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi babies was worth the cost of US foreign policy, and one of them came through.

And, believe it or not, she apologized.

Not, of course, for her culpability in the murder of said babies, but for, y’know, mentioning it in public.

From the Campus Press:

In a question and answer session after Albright’s speech, a young man directly asked Albright to comment on the issue. The former secretary of state responded saying that she cannot justify the death of 500,000 children. She said sanctions always exclude food and medical supplies, and the fault falls on the head of Saddam Hussein, who denied the supplies Iraqi children.

Albright expressed regrets for her comment on 60 Minutes.

“It was the dumbest statement I’ve ever made,” Dr. Albright said. “And if there’s anyone in this audience who has never said anything they regret, I think you should stand now. It is something I regret deeply.”

Kate O’Flaherty, a junior environmental studies major, said she enjoyed the speech.

“I thought she did an excellent job,” O’Flaherty said. “And I was impressed when she admitted when she made mistakes.”

The speech was sponsored by the Distinguished Speakers Board, a board comprised of students and a staff adviser. Brittany Gibson, a senior environmental affairs major, acts as the secretary and public relations contact for the board.

“I think she’s a very wise woman,” Gibson said of Albright. “She’s been through a lot of conflicts in the 90s that are playing the consequences out now. And so it’s really interesting for us to get a perspective of a woman in a male-dominated field, and issues that we are going to start to deal with as emerging citizens participating outside of college.”

Albright ended the night by reiterating her commitment to human lives.

“I believe that the only way to deal with the issues we have in the world is to recognize the importance of the individual, and to make clear that every life counts,” Albright said.

Keep reading.

You’ll note that Ms. Albright doesn’t, as ever, dispute the death count. Nor does she pretend the deaths were caused by anything but the sanctions. She just plays up Hussein’s inarguable role, kinda forgetting her own. It’s the kind of horseshit which makes one wonder how the poor dear manages to keep her head from fucking exploding due to the pathological cognitive dissonance evidenced by her last line.

Her line of argument seems to run as follows: “well, Saddam Hussein was murdering his own people, how could we not help him?” It takes a special kind of moral retard to arrive at that kind of logic. I don’t imagine myself, for instance, ever walking down the street, spotting a rape in progress, and arriving at the conclusion that the only thing that makes sense is to run over and help hold the victim down.

Update: The journalist mangled my quote, by the way. What I wanted to know was if Madeleine was reading Mein Kampf or channeling Pol Pot when she arrived at her conclusion.

Update II: The best line of the night came from one of the talented RAIMD rabble-rousers, who warned a couple bringing their kid into the speech: “Don’t go in there! There’s a child-murderer in that building! Might yet be 500,000 and one!”

Seems Mad Dog Madeline ain’t just touring the country for shits and grins, she’s stumping for Hillary.

Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, rallied support for democratic presidential nominee Sen. Hillary Clinton Wednesday in Lewis Laboratory.

“I’m here to support Hillary in Pennsylvania because this is not only the Keystone State, but it is also the key to what is about to happen in the upcoming presidential election,” Albright said.

Albright, who was once the highest ranking female official in the U.S., said whoever wins the presidential election will face many difficult tasks.

“The world is a mess,” she said. “I’ve never seen things so bad.”

The rest.

Okay, one of you anyway: why I love Ward Churchill’s 9/11 essay, with some Thoreau thrown in.

All in the context of Madeleine Albright, of course.  Don’t miss the fun.

Don’t miss the fun.

RAIMD’s holding a party. If their Newmont Mining protest is any indication, I wouldn’t miss it for all the Evan Williams in Williamsland.

On April 16th, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright will be speaking at the University of Colorado- Boulder. Under Bill Clinton, Albright championed the policy of UN enforced starvation upon the nation of Iraq. On national television she later admitted that the United States, through UN sanctions, killed half a million Iraqi children. In her own words such a cost in human life was, “worth it.”

Coming at a time when activists will shortly be protesting the Democratic National Convention, this appearance by Albright is a excellent opportunity to point out the destructive imperialistic nature of the Democrats.

We call on local activists to mount a protest of this engagement, both as a militant warm-up for the DNC and to let Madeleine Albright and similar war criminals know that their presence in the Denver/Boulder area is opposed. Show up pissed off and ready to be heard. This appearance by Madeleine Albright will not go unchallenged.

When: April 16th, 6:00 pm

Where: Main entrance to the Coors Event Center, 1111 Broadway St., Boulder

Bring signs, puppets, drums, extended middle fingers- whatever you need to make your point.

Keep reading.