The upshot for us, dear reader, is only that it behooves us to listen carefully to the few Ray McGoverns of the world and then to do our best to spread their gospel. So, listen to Ray, my friends. Listen to Greg Palast and Amy Goodman. Listen to Rob Kall and Bob Parry, and then speak up.
We can't expect heroes like Barak Obama or Dennis Kucinich to be able to take the presidency and then make the necessary changes. They are too vulnerable. They are too easily taken the way of JFK, and once in office, they must realize it immediately. At that point they have to choose, as Obama may already have done, between pushing against the system until they are taken out or moving incrementally enough to accomplish small changes but not seriously affect the status quo.
The change must come from the people and it must come through the Congress. What a disturbing thought that is! But Ray McGovern has the right of it. The Congress must pull the teeth of the CIA because nothing else short of revolution can do it. Only Congress has the legal authority to pull the rug out from under our rogue intelligence community.
If, as Ray advocates, Congress were to remove from the CIA all power to conduct and support guerilla warfare, to assassinate "enemies" and to topple "opposition" governments around the world ala Iran, Guatemala, etc., they would only be taking back the powers granted them by the founding fathers. The same applies to the presidential ability to take us to war.
This is where the efforts of the American peace movement should be focused. We can stand on corners and shake signs against war all we want. At that level we are no threat to anyone. Our only hope is to elect to Congress men and women of progressive stripe who understand that the real risk to national and international security lies behind the scenes within our own government's intelligence community and who are committed to excising that malignancy.
Listen to Ray McGovern and people like him who speak the truth to power, but don't expect those voices to cause the necessary change.
The only saving grace America - or any other government (think Tiananmen Square) - still possesses is that if enough citizens are committed enough to sacrifice themselves, they can still have an effect on national policies.
In the Kennedy's era, a cosmic effect was achieved through the synergy of Martin Luther King, Pope John Paul, Malcolm X, JFK, RFK and even - well behind the scenes - Nikita Kruschev, as well as thousands of citizens and dozens of citizen leaders willing to take to the streets to support and espouse the cause. Today we lack that synergistic effect, but are in desperate need of it.
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