(10-31-2007) Bono: The Rolling Stone Interview - Rollingstone.com*
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Carek1230
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Rachel D.
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They had a perfectly good opportunity to ask about music and the new album, but they kept bringing up politics, politics, politics. I guess that's what this "music" magazine cares most about now. Way to go, Rolling Stone, as usual. 
last unicorn
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^ Yes, I was wondering about that, too. That seems to be the only thing the writer was interested in. It's a shame. On the other hand, I liked the parts of the interview that dealt with music and Bono's thoughts about being in U2. I see this interview more like an obligation RS had to fulfill for their anniversary edition. Nothing new is said at all. At least, there is a cool photo.
I'm very upset at Bono constantly giving the benefit of the doubt to a reprehensible guy like Bush (in bold is the Rolling Stone reporter):
"Isn't it cheaper and smarter to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later?"
We seem to be headed in exactly the opposite direction. Maybe it was possible to think that way right after 9/11, but that opportunity was squandered.
When the French have you on the cover of their most treasured newspaper with the headline WE ARE ALL AMERICANS, something has been stirred! [Laughs]
But this administration destroyed that. I know that you have to deal with a lot of these people. . .
There was a plan there, you know. I think the president genuinely felt that if we could prove a model of democracy and broad prosperity in the Middle East, it might defuse the situation. I don't believe that, and in the capacity I had, I told them that."
Bush never honestly believed that. If he honestly cared about the Muslims and Christian Arabs of the Middle East, he wouldn't have gone into this with no plan. He would never have risked his daughters in such a plan. This is crap and Bono needs to realize that there are convenient assumptions and plans you have for people you don't really care about and then plans and assumptions you test you make to actually take care of people you love; in the latter case, you take the time to fully understand the problem and you make sure everything is as certain as possible.
Bush didn't care about the masses at home (in the wake of Katrina and among the millions of poor he writes off as lazy) or abroad. He's a megalomaniac and a bully, and I'm disappointed in Bono's attitude of appealing to immature Americans' cheap nationalism of constantly giving these scum the benefit of the doubt. It was mostly about America's future strategic oil supply and profits (including allowing corporations to exploit Iraqi oil instead of pledging profits to help Iraq) and insider deals (Haliburton) and doing things on the cheap (whether it be supplying troops with proper tools or health care for poor kids). I never believed this kind of conspiracy theory 7 years ago, but I see it's true. America can be colonial and brutal and cruel.
Even on civil rights issues and the plight of the black American community about which Bono has long cared, the Bush administration and Republican National Committee have worked to disfranchise the poorest among the black community to help in elections. They've furthered the economic impoverishment of that community and drained away needed funds so the rich can get richer. These people are against civil rights! They just work at unofficial levels of economic differentiation instead of through legalisms and formalities. Bush isn't outrightly racist, but, with a legacy of such discrimination, poverty is virtually synonymous with the black community. He's operationally racist just as Ronald Reagan was. Doesn't Bono realize this?!
I'm very upset with Bono! The idealist who spoke truth to power has now become a shameful apologist. It's one thing to focus on Africa, but don't make excuses for these people who don't give a damn about those outside their social circle. Bush didn't need to be president. He wanted it for egotistical reasons and is lazy and uncaring at it, when someone else might have done the work and surrounded himself with people other than "yes" men. He deserves whatever hell is coming to him, and he should be sent right over to Abu Graib to be treated like all the others who've suffered there, and Mr. Bush would have nothing to worry about; after all, "we don't torture people!"
"Isn't it cheaper and smarter to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later?"
We seem to be headed in exactly the opposite direction. Maybe it was possible to think that way right after 9/11, but that opportunity was squandered.
When the French have you on the cover of their most treasured newspaper with the headline WE ARE ALL AMERICANS, something has been stirred! [Laughs]
But this administration destroyed that. I know that you have to deal with a lot of these people. . .
There was a plan there, you know. I think the president genuinely felt that if we could prove a model of democracy and broad prosperity in the Middle East, it might defuse the situation. I don't believe that, and in the capacity I had, I told them that."
Bush never honestly believed that. If he honestly cared about the Muslims and Christian Arabs of the Middle East, he wouldn't have gone into this with no plan. He would never have risked his daughters in such a plan. This is crap and Bono needs to realize that there are convenient assumptions and plans you have for people you don't really care about and then plans and assumptions you test you make to actually take care of people you love; in the latter case, you take the time to fully understand the problem and you make sure everything is as certain as possible.
Bush didn't care about the masses at home (in the wake of Katrina and among the millions of poor he writes off as lazy) or abroad. He's a megalomaniac and a bully, and I'm disappointed in Bono's attitude of appealing to immature Americans' cheap nationalism of constantly giving these scum the benefit of the doubt. It was mostly about America's future strategic oil supply and profits (including allowing corporations to exploit Iraqi oil instead of pledging profits to help Iraq) and insider deals (Haliburton) and doing things on the cheap (whether it be supplying troops with proper tools or health care for poor kids). I never believed this kind of conspiracy theory 7 years ago, but I see it's true. America can be colonial and brutal and cruel.
Even on civil rights issues and the plight of the black American community about which Bono has long cared, the Bush administration and Republican National Committee have worked to disfranchise the poorest among the black community to help in elections. They've furthered the economic impoverishment of that community and drained away needed funds so the rich can get richer. These people are against civil rights! They just work at unofficial levels of economic differentiation instead of through legalisms and formalities. Bush isn't outrightly racist, but, with a legacy of such discrimination, poverty is virtually synonymous with the black community. He's operationally racist just as Ronald Reagan was. Doesn't Bono realize this?!
I'm very upset with Bono! The idealist who spoke truth to power has now become a shameful apologist. It's one thing to focus on Africa, but don't make excuses for these people who don't give a damn about those outside their social circle. Bush didn't need to be president. He wanted it for egotistical reasons and is lazy and uncaring at it, when someone else might have done the work and surrounded himself with people other than "yes" men. He deserves whatever hell is coming to him, and he should be sent right over to Abu Graib to be treated like all the others who've suffered there, and Mr. Bush would have nothing to worry about; after all, "we don't torture people!"
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