{"id":345159,"date":"2018-01-24T00:53:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T23:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/wapo-editor-blames-lack-of-us-leadership-for-famine-caused-by-us-leadership\/"},"modified":"2018-01-24T00:53:28","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T23:53:28","slug":"wapo-editor-blames-lack-of-us-leadership-for-famine-caused-by-us-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/wapo-editor-blames-lack-of-us-leadership-for-famine-caused-by-us-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"WaPo Editor Blames Lack of US Leadership for Famine Caused by US Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WaPo:<\/p>\n

Washington Post<\/strong>‘s Jackson Diehl (1\/21\/18<\/a>): “It\u2019s getting easier for regimes to commit \u2014 and get away with \u2014 crimes against humanity.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAmerican leadership\u201d is one of a long list of vague, seemingly benign pseudo-concepts our media throw around to justify increased spending on soft power and military adventurism. It\u2019s a difficult concept to pin down, but it\u2019s almost always presented as something the United States is \u201cfailing\u201d to do when it doesn\u2019t \u201cengage\u201d the world with enough war, sanctions or arbitrarily applied human rights scolding.<\/p>\n

Lamenting a \u201clack of American leadership\u201d is, therefore, a time-honored Serious Person cliche for those operating at major US papers, and one Washington Post <\/b>deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl phoned in Sunday with his op-ed \u201cGenocide, Famine and a Democratic Retreat\u2014All After One Year of US Inaction\u201d (1\/21\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The piece began with a bizarre inversion of reality:<\/p>\n

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Maybe it\u2019s just a coincidence, but as the United States has retreated from international leadership in the past decade, several toxic global trends have gained momentum. Democracy is steadily retreating, according to Freedom House, whose annual study documents a decline for the 12th consecutive year. Famine is threatening more people than ever: Tens of millions are at risk of starvation in countries such as Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s unclear exactly what \u201cinternational leadership\u201d is supposed to mean here, besides being inversely correlated with Bad Things happening. The piece is a broadside against both former President Obama and Donald Trump for \u201csteadily retreating,\u201d but the most serious Bad Thing he cites as a result of a lack of American leadership, the famine in Yemen, is a direct result of \u201cAmerican leadership.\u201d Obama and Trump have logistically<\/a> and politically<\/a> supported the Saudi-led bombing and blockade of Yemen that caused the famine.<\/p>\n

But Diehl\u2019s not honestly engaging with the world as it is; his job is to advance the premise that the US has both the right and the moral duty to dictate the affairs of other countries. Diehl did the same cynical reality-inversion last June (FAIR.org<\/b>, 6\/26\/17<\/a>), when he not only ignored the US\u2019s role in creating the Yemen famine, but painted them as the heroes coming to the rescue.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Diehl cites \u201cthe tragedy of Syria\u201d in Sunday\u2019s piece as a result of a lack of American leadership, without mentioning the American leadership of the CIA\u2014along with American leadership allies Saudi Arabia<\/a>, Turkey<\/a>, and Qatar<\/a>\u2014helped fund, train and arm groups<\/a> in that conflict, thus fueling the \u201ctragedy.\u201d Also omitted was the ongoing role of \u201cAmerican Leadership\u201d in bombing seven countries<\/a>, its deadly drone program that has terrorized thousands of civilians<\/a> in Yemen and Central Asia, its continued use of offshore penal colonies<\/a> outside the scope of international law and a number of other bad things that result from the active exertion of \u201cAmerican leadership,\u201d rather than its absence.<\/p>\n

The rest of the piece is about the Trump administration’s \u201cinaction\u201d over ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Burma, but the setup is very telling. Diehl uses this ethnic catastrophe to browbeat the US for not doing enough, but really what he wants, as evidenced by his years of writing (see, e.g., FAIR.org<\/b>, 5\/2\/06<\/a>, 12\/23\/14<\/a>, 5\/17\/16<\/a>), is more meddling and intervention and bombing in general; the tragedy in Burma simply serves as a moral lubricant for an assertion of the US\u2019s superiority. To national security boosters like Diehl, \u00a0\u201cAmerican leadership,\u201d like military spending, is always in a state of inadequacy. There\u2019s never enough, we always need more. The possibility that said \u201cleadership\u201d or military spending may be causing the problems\u2014even the ones he himself cites as the most urgent\u2014rather than being their solution is simply not an option.<\/p>\n

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Messages can be sent to the Washington Post <\/strong>at letters@washpost.com<\/a>, or via Twitter<\/strong> @washingtonpost<\/a>. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.<\/em><\/p>\n

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