REALITY - "Mr. Change" Obama's top appointment Emanuel Rahm = even MORE pro-war than Bush!

Is Obama Screwing His Base with Rahm Emanuel Selection?

By Stephen Zunes, AlterNet
November 7, 2008.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/106189/is_obama_screwing_his_base_with_rahm_emanuel_selection/?page=entire

Rahm Emanuel facts gleaned from the above article:

* "Emanuel was a major supporter of the Iraq War resolution that
authorized the invasion of Iraq"

* "Emanuel is also a prominent hawk regarding Israel, attacking the
Bush administration from the right for criticizing Israel's
assassination policies and other human rights abuses. He was also a
prominent supporter of Israel's 2006 attacks on Lebanon, even
challenging the credibility of Amnesty International and other human
rights groups that reported Israeli violations of international
humanitarian law. Emanuel's father had emigrated from Israel in the
1950s, where he had been a member of the terrorist group Irgun, which
had been responsible for a series of terrorist attacks against
Palestinian and British civilians in mandatory Palestine during the
1940s. Emanuel himself served in a civilian capacity as a volunteer
for the Israeli army in the early 1990s."

* Emanuel "was credited with playing a major role in shifting the
Clinton administration's foreign and domestic policy agenda to the
right. Emanuel was the single most important official involved in
pushing through ... the bill ending Aid for Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC), and Clinton's draconian crime bill"

* "Emanuel has promoted pro-war and pro-business center-right
candidates against anti-war and pro-labor candidates in the
primaries"

* Emanuel "was the only one of nine Democratic members of Congress
from Illinois who backed granting Bush this unprecedented authority to
invade a country on the far side of the world that was no threat to
the United States at the time."

* "Even more disturbingly, when asked by Tim Russert on "Meet the
Press" whether he would have voted to authorize the invasion 'knowing
that there are no weapons of mass destruction,' Emanuel answered that
he indeed would have done so, effectively acknowledging that his
support for the war was not about national security, but about oil and
empire."

* Emanuel  "has also voted with the Republicans in support of
unconditional funding to continue the Iraq War and has consistently
opposed efforts by other Democrats to set a timetable for the
withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces from that country and related
Congressional efforts to end the war."

* "At a time of record budget deficits, Emanuel has been a passionate
supporter of increased spending for the Pentagon and has resisted
efforts by fellow Democrats to trim excesses in the Bush
administration's bloated military budget."

* "A major hawk regarding Iran, Emanuel has also voted against
Democratic efforts to prevent the Bush administration from launching
military action against that country and has joined the administration
in exaggerated claims about Iran's alleged nuclear threat."