Dismantle the CIA!

When respected political commentators like Glenn Greenwald campaign against Chuck Hagel for US Secretary of Defense that suggests there might be better choices for nominees. And in that campaign they betray not just simple-minded credulity about the exercise of military power by the Pentagon but acceptance of its right to wield it in countries around the world. The entire military apparatus of the US government is beyond redemption; it is a heavily armed arsenal for colonization & tyranny (under the NDAA it is now also directed at US citizens)--& it needs to be opposed, not tinkered with to ameliorate its worst features.

But holy mother spare us when liberal commentators line up to take positions on John Brennan, the nominee for CIA chief! In the 1970s, CIA recruiters were hounded off college campuses one after the other because they are assassins, hit men, torturers, spies, & dirt balls of the first magnitude who operate outside the law. Now liberals are challenging Brennan’s nomination rather than demanding the entire rotten CIA edifice be dismantled!? Have they lost their marbles? Or just their political bearings?

At a recent anti-Brennan protest in Washington, DC, a protestor complained about Brennan’s “substandard performance as an analyst at the CIA.” Who gives a damn if his performance was substandard or top notch? There is no lesser evil nominee for CIA chief. There are no preferable choices. It’s important as hell to oppose drone strikes, torture, & assassinate; it  is another thing entirely to care who administers them. The only appropriate demand for these protests is not “No Brennan” but “Dismantle the CIA” & prosecute every single one of these dirt balls.  (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP)