A Real News Network interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the more influential advisers on US foreign policy over the past 50 years. He was born and partially raised in Poland by parents in the Polish aristocracy. His father was in that country's diplomatic service and served in several Polish embassies until his final post in Canada as ambassador. Soon his country was overrun by both Soviet and German invasions in 1939. Brzezinski's life lead him to be a student and professor at Harvard University where he taught for several years, and then on to Columbia University and became known as an expert on Eastern European political affairs and what is known as "the Great Game." In other words, he identifies with ruling class perspectives and the political games they play on the world stage.
The language he uses reflects this kind of thinking. His unrelenting hatred of the Soviet Union, and now Russia, has informed his views on US relations with that country. He was the main architect behind the US sponsorship of the Mujaheddin and Obama bin Laden in their fight against the Soviet Union.
I think that, while listening to this interview, one should pay particular attention to the words he uses to disguise and legitimatize a foreign policy that advocates domination, or the use of force, over other counties. He uses terms like engagement to mean domination, and when the skillful interviewer translates "engagement" to domination, he replies that domination merely means "the ability to manage." In his circumlocutions about what our policy in the region should be, he vaguely suggests that we need to be "engaged" there so that we can "manage" the resources of the region and so that they don't fall into the hands of some other power. Later he says, "The fact is that to some extent our participation in the Eurasian game is also a source of stability and prevents eruptions that could affect us very directly or our immediately friends very directly."
It is people like him who view other countries and their people like mere pawns in the Great Games that ruling people like to play, and which result in the devastated lives of so many ordinary working people.
