Yeah, I read both of John Pilger's pieces and he reminds me of Lyndon LaRouche... He makes some sense and then blows the crap outta his credibility by repeating screwed up stuff...
First of all, if RFK was that much in support (privately) of the Vietnam War then it's strange that the only person who seems to know this is John Pilger...
But a little closer to home... Pilger's statement that Obama has threatened to bomb Pakistan couldn't have been better written by John McCain's PR team... This isn't what Obama said...
When I catch someone lieing I find it hard to believe the rest of the stuff they say and I think that John Pilger has, at the very least, stretched the truth beyond recognition in the 2 examples I have given...
Now, to wit:
Do I know that Obama is the stelth candidate who will be the 2nd coming or FDR??? I don't know??? Probably not but my gut feeling is that he can help the country at this point in time by restoring some level of civility... The US has become a very uncivilized nation and we ain't gonna change anyhting if we can't "get along" a tad better... Obama will do that better than McCain since McCain hasn't done anything but use the same ol' dirty tricks on Obama and Obama has, for the most part, held himself to a higher standard...
Now back to Pilger... I'm sure he's a regular guy and all but hie asserions that the US is in the middle of half a dozen secret wars is a tad hard to buy...
So, bottom line... There are tons of cynicism out there and Pilger is, IMO, playin' to the cynics... Hey, I'm a cynic so I can understand what he's up to but I am also a pragmatist on looking at the best-case-scenerio for the next administartion and it ain't gonna be pretty... The US has been all but buried by Bush and his corrupt cronies and Bush and Co. may have done so much famage that it may take a couple decades to fix their messes...
As for the last gasp for liberalism??? Yeah, okay... Maybe, maybe not... Depends on definitions... If liberal means endless wars and nation building then count me out... That might have beeen liberal at one point in time but it ain't liberal now... If liberal mean talkin' with yer adversaries then, yeah, that form of liberalism might be around for a long, long time as war is no longer a luxary this planet can afford to wage...
Yeah, guess it boils down to credibility and definations with Pilger and I'll confess to having never heard of the guy but from reading the two op-eds that you posted I think the guy needs to quit catering to the cynics...