Global Courant 2023-04-25 11:14:32
Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., nearing the start of his April 19 announcement to run for US President for the Democratic Party, spoke this words:
“Fifty-five years ago last month, as a 14-year-old boy, I sat behind my father as he…in a Senate caucus room in Washington, DC, announced his campaign for president of the United States. And my father was in the same, in many ways, the same position that I am in today.
“He ran against a chairman of his own party. He was running against a war. He was running against – he was running at a time of unprecedented polarization in our country.”
In this way, the son immediately tells us that he is “running into a war,” Joe Biden’s vicious US proxy war against Russia using Ukrainians as cannon fodder.
He reminded us that his father had very little chance of winning and that he thought he was likely to lose. But on June 6, 1968, the day of his assassination, RFK Sr. had won the primaries in California, an urban state, and South Dakota, a rural state.
The son tells us that his candidacy should not be written off lightly. RFK Jr was voting at 14% among Biden voters even before he announced it. And almost 44% of Democrats wants someone other than Biden, with only 25% wanting him to run in 2024.
A video of the full two-hour speech, impressive in many ways, can be found here and a copy here. Kennedy did not read from a prepared text. though the speech seemed to have been carefully outlined. It had a refreshing air of informality. And it deserves careful listening.
Many of the points in the speech are summarized in the “Peace” section of RFK Jr.’s campaign website, Kennedy 2024.com, as follows:
“Annual defense-related spending (by the US) is nearly $1 trillion. We maintain 800 military bases around the world. The peace dividend that was to come after the fall of the Berlin Wall was never paid off. Now we have another chance.
“As president, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will begin the process of dissolving the empire. We will bring the troops home. We will stop piling up unpayable debts to fight one war after another.
“The army will return to its role of defending our country. We will end the proxy wars, bombings, covert operations, coups, paramilitaries and everything else that has become so normal that most people don’t know it’s happening. But it happens, a constant drain on our strength. It’s time to come home and restore this land.
“When a warlike imperial nation disarms on its own accord, it sets a template for peace everywhere. It is not too late for us to voluntarily let go of the empire and serve peace instead, as a strong and healthy nation.”
And about Ukraine:
“In Ukraine, the main priority is to end the suffering of the Ukrainian people, victims of a ruthless Russian invasion, as well as victims of US geopolitical machinations dating back to at least 2014.
“We must first get it clear: is our mission to help the brave Ukrainians defend their sovereignty? Or is it to use Ukraine as a pawn to weaken Russia? Robert F Kennedy will pick the first. He will find a diplomatic solution that will bring peace to Ukraine and return our resources to where they belong.
“We will offer to withdraw our nuclear-armed troops and missiles from Russia’s borders. Russia will withdraw its troops from Ukraine and guarantee its freedom and independence. UN peacekeepers will guarantee peace in the Russian-speaking eastern regions.
“We will end this war. We will end the suffering of the Ukrainian people. That will be the beginning of a broader program of demilitarization of all countries.
“We must stop seeing the world in terms of enemies and adversaries. As John Quincy Adams wrote, ‘Americans don’t go abroad for monsters to destroy.’”
Those are strong words and realistic categories like “empire,” “proxy wars,” “coups,” “geopolitical machinations dating back to 2014,” all ugly imperial facts alluded to euphemistically or not at all in the mainstream media.
This is a candidacy that cannot be ignored or reduced to just the pros and cons of mRNA vaccines or the Kennedy family bickering over the candidacy, as the mainstream media has done. For example on the short back page CoverageThe New York Times, the main mouthpiece of the imperial establishment, there is no question of a war with another nuclear power now hovering over the heads of the Americans.
This is not to say that we should accept all of RFK Jr.’s words at face value. But given the current enthusiasm for war in every corner of the Democratic Party’s political establishment and among much of its base, it’s hard to see his candidacy as opportunistic.
He even goes so far as to praise China’s Belt and Road Initiative, comparing that spending to America’s for endless wars, a taboo subject among the US political establishment, to say the least.
RFK Jr’s candidacy deserves to be treated skeptically like all candidacies, but not cynically. Are speech deserves a respectful hearing.
This article first appeared on Antiwar.com.
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