Ep. 76: The Anti-War Rebranding of Rhodes and Power and the Moral Hazard of Faux Mea Culpas

In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, two of the Obama administration's most consistently hawkish advisors, former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes and former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power have rebranded themselves as anti-war voices in a world turned upside down by Trump’s radical foreign policy and what we’ve been told is an global environment of rising "authoritarianism."

With a perfunctory “we could have done more” gesture towards accountability for their role in an administration that turned Libya into a broken state and assisted the destruction of Yemen before they move on to positioning themselves as truth-tellers on behalf of a kinder, gentler machine gun hand in the run up to a potential Warren, Sanders or Harris administration, Rhodes and Power have tested the limits of liberal amnesia.

On this episode, we take a closer look at their rebranding and what it says about the so-called “foreign policy” debate in the 2020 democratic primary and what actual accountability looks like beyond empty tweets and self-serving “I was trying to change things from the inside” revisionism.

Our guest is Dr. Shireen Al-Adeimi of Michigan State University.

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Guest

Shireen Al-Adeimi is Assistant Professor of Education at Michigan State University.

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Show Notes

When Will Obama Aides Come Clean About U.S.-Saudi War Crimes?

Sarah Lazare | October 22, 2018 | In The Times

The Blob

David Klion | October 17, 2018 | The Nation

A Fatal Abandonment of American Leadership

Ben Rhodes | October 12, 2018 | The Atlantic

Inside the White House During the Syrian 'Red Line' Crisis

Ben Rhodes | June 3, 2018 | The Atlantic

As the Saudis Covered Up Abuses in Yemen, America Stood By

Samuel Oakford | July 30, 2016 | Politico

In the Land of the Possible

Evan Osnos | December 15, 2014 | The New Yorker

Samantha Power’s Testimony Confirms Foreign Policy Orthodoxy

Zoë Carpenter | July 17, 2013 | The Nation

The Language of Power: Obama's "Humanitarian Hawk" & Israel's New Gladiator at the UN

Nima Shirazi | July 18, 2013 | Wide Asleep in America

Full Force

Samantha Power | March 3, 2003 | The New Republic

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Transcript

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

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