future of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

[bloodyminded]

AIPAC which is given much credit for its mythical influence doesn't have as much as you would think. When it is able to influence foreign policy it is only because it lines up with sufficient military industrial lobby interests that precede it in power and influence. Its strategy is top try get Israeli foreign policy to match and conform to the military lobby's interests not the other way around. It wishes it had the power some think it does.

I tend to agree. I think the lobby's influence has been overstated. It has some influence, I imagine...probbaly roughly commensurate with othe rlobbies of the same size. But it's not running U.S. policy. As you say, it's interests are, at least in a general sense, currently aligned with US policy...not the other way around.

I'd even suggest that the idea of the Israeli lobby influencing the US "against its own interests" is really based on a continually-used myth: that US foreign policy would be wise, benign, enlightened--just naturally, I guess--if it weren't for certain baleful influences. Like Israel.

I'm not buying it. IF there's a Boss Man in that relationship, it is the United States.

[bloodyminded]

Let's see if he's able to pull it off again! Right now, the progressive left in the United States is badly divided between those who decided early that Obama was a sellout....Thom Hartmann and Cenk Uygur, come to mind, and there has been a steady trickle of disillusioned leftwing pundits and bloggers over the last two years,

And the Greenwalds and Zinns etc were informing everyone before the election that the euphoria could never be matched by reality, and that Obama would be a typical Democrat, bound by the usual institutional forces.

For those who think everyone was a true believer in the early days, here's Chomsky five months before the election:

Hope, Change, Unity...that means "fill in the blanks with whatever you like." And that's the point of the marketing campaign. It's very effective. McCain's is scarcely different, by the way.

Edited February 12, 2011 by bloodyminded