Our Lost Howard Beale Moments

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Front Page Magazine: Our Lost Howard Beale Moments

August 2, 2013 By Bruce Thornton

Remember Howard Beale, the deranged anchorman from Network? During one broadcast he tells the viewers to turn off their televisions, go to the window, and yell, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” In one of the iconic scenes from American movies, thousands of New Yorkers stick their heads out into the rain and scream their frustration over a corrupt political culture of lies, incompetence, and hypocrisy.

 

But of course, indifference to Abedin’s unsavory connections is small beer compared to the indifference to Obama’s courtship of the Brotherhood, just one dimension of his criminally incompetent foreign policy. Let’s recap his Egyptian disaster: we collude in the overthrow of the vicious but reliable Hosni Mubarak, replace him with the Muslim Brotherhood, give them international legitimacy and taxpayer cash, then when their overreaching and bungling rouse up the people against them, we stand by dazed and confused as another military strongman takes over. Meanwhile, as Syria burns, Russia flexes its geopolitical muscles, the Libya we “liberated” provides weapons to jihadists, Iran keeps the centrifuges spinning, Lebanon and Jordan descend into chaos, Iraq explodes into sectarian violence as its leadership snuggles ever deeper into Iran’s embrace — while all this is going on, our Inspector Clouseau of a Secretary of State wastes time and American prestige getting the Palestinians to talk about holding “peace talks,” and bullying our closest ally in the region, Israel, into releasing the murderers of women and children. There’s another Howard Beale moment.