Samantha Power, The education of an idealist

I acknowledge that I read this book with a revulsion, probably unparalleled since I had to research Goebbels' speeches for my essays. This revulsion was amplified by the recognition that people totally devoid of any sense of humanity or remorse can demonstrate significant intellect and/or unusual strength of character. They even can be doting parents and trusted friends. Not all of them are bumbling idiots or psychopaths. [1] This obviously reflected on the tone and substance of my review.

Correct name of this book should be "Whore of the Empire" as a pun on "Putain de la Republique", French memoirs of a lobbyist, a former swimsuit model who lubricated passage of legislation in the French Assemblee National in more ways than one. About as idealistic as Kissinger, Samantha Power is a model of a ruthless social climber, though some of this climbing had necessarily to be horizontal.

Disclaimer: the text in italics below is not supported by any facts. It is a pure conjecture by the author. Judging by baroque whimsy and "low cunning" (expression borrowed from Tywin Lannister) of this project, it was probably concocted by Robert Gates who cooked up many things, among them to christen (pun intended) rebellion against Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as "jihad". It helped hasten the downfall of the Soviet Empire but also gave birth to Sunny fundamentalism and, ultimately, to the 9/11 tragedy and to the spread of jihadist plague we currently observe. 

Probably, to circumscribe the interest of high-ranking diplomats, military officers and CIA officials in a local talent, from some time on, they were accompanied by attractive female company usually under the guise of "war correspondents". While I have no proof of that, the story of Paula Broadwell, meteoric rise of Fiona Hill--from a daughter of a Scotch miner to Harvard and then to the pinnacle of Department of State--and a cryptic remark of a well-informed correspondent of the New Yorker that whatever foreign policy knowledge Samantha Power have had, she acquired from the wife of Richard Holbrook (obviously, Morton Abramowitz was her mentor in other things) provide enough clues for me. How else an academically challenged daughter of alcoholic immigrant father and stepdaughter of another alcoholic bum achieved a meteoric career, through the series of appointments, to assure which for his offspring, even a Chairman of some Senate Committee would have to apply all his influence? 

Samantha Power was an architect of "Arab Spring" in the Obama Administration, i.e. overthrow of the remaining secular regimes in the Middle East generously financed by Saudi Arabia. It turned Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen  into bloodbaths--and was only stopped in Egypt by the military dictatorship and in Syria--by the Russian aid. Of all that, Samantha Power feels no remorse. Libyan fiasco, except the laments for the deaths of the US Ambassador and accompanying CIA operatives--luckily she does not call them "diplomats" or "defense contractors" as is the present habit of NYT and CNN at Benghazi--takes exactly two paragraphs. The fate of tens of thousands of Libyans killed after the violent overthrow of Khaddaffi cannot interest her less. And yet, she pushes all the right buttons with women's rights. How much they benefited in Libya from its partition by the tribal militias, in Syria--from occupation by An Nusra and ISIS? In Egypt with overthrow of Mubarak and his replacement by Islamic Brotherhood's proteges of Samantha?  Her cynicism and imperviousness to human suffering matches her younger mentor, Holbrook.

Among other proponents of her UN nomination was another humanist and children-lover, Derschowitz [2] and all the usual bunch: McCain--never saw the war he didn't want to fight, his equally belligerent girlfriends Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham and smaller fish, like Max Boot. 

What is also amazing is given that tongue of the Bard is her native language, Yale and Harvard education and her jobs as a correspondent and at the State Department, how limited her vocabulary is, how uninventive the syntax and how frequently she resorts to f-word. Her social station, as Trumps' went through the roof, but her manners in the UN and capacity for expressive thought remained at the level of "alpha girl" of a provincial middle school.

[1] I take my observation that SP is not a psychopath back. She was appointed as a head of USAid by President Biden and voila--there is a civil war in Ethiopia between Tigre and Amhari. Her political mentor Holbrook--a certifiable psychopath--taught her (according to "New Yorker") to instigate a civil unrest and then use "human rights" as a pretext to intervene. I suppose that the sexual mentoring went the other way around.

P.S. It is an interesting question for a psychopathologist: why powerful ex-whores become pious and bloodthirsty--Empress Theodora, Dowager Empress Cixi come to mind. And powerless--like Aileen Wuornos? A riddle to me. 

[2] "What is the difference between pedagogy and pedophilia? Pedophiles, unlike pedagogues really love children". 

 

No-drama 'Bama