Just today I found this interview on Salon.com with Samantha Power, author of possibly the most amazing piece of journalism I've ever read - A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. It basically chronicles every instance of genocide in the 20th century, while digging deep into how U.S. foreign policy reacted to the atrocities. In short, it was lackluster at best, downright inhuman at worst.
What's especially fascinating is the beginning of the book which describes the invention of the word and concept of "genocide" by the Polish attorney Rafael Lemkin. I don't think a lot of us, including myself before I read this book, even understand what genocide really means. Often this lack of understanding is used to obfuscate cases of clear genocide to justify international inaction.
Anyway, the point of the Salon article is that Power was signed on by Obama a few years ago to be his head foreign policy adviser. AWESOME! And he called her after reading the book over Christmas. SUPER AWESOME!
This is almost as good as Obama's predilection for Dunkin Donuts in terms of justifying my vote for him. I can't think of a person who'd be better suited for changing the mindset of American foreign policy than Power.
Hurray for Obamatomies!
Marc Loves It almost as much as Panda Express . . .
http://www.gbh.tv/mp3/FMB%20(Fire%20Magic%20Blood)%20-%20Obama.mp3
Posted by: Daniel | February 20, 2008 at 10:13 AM