Obama in Bush clothing- He preaches peace, practices war
In an article titled “Obama administration pushes ahead with drone killings” (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/dron-n26.shtml), Patrick Martin, a Canadian journalist who is the Jerusalem-based Middle East bureau chief for The Globe and Mail, a national newspaper, reports that “the Obama administration is pushing ahead with plans to establish a more systematic and regular program of using unmanned drones to kill people selected by the White House for death”. Obama epitomises the ultimate in absurd standards of political denial when he refutes the truth about the devastation that drone attacks have created. He pretends that the negatives stemming from drone attacks have been minimal. Can Obama provide a rational explanation for the illegal CIA-operated killer drone attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and many other secret destinations each of which have had devastating consequences for the victims and their families?
A new study by Stanford Law School and New York University’s School of Law shows that the killer “drone strikes in Pakistan have killed far more people than the United States has acknowledged, have traumatized innocent residents and largely been ineffective.” The study calls for a re-evaluation of the practice, saying the number of “high-level” targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low – about 2%. The report says Washington is misrepresenting drone strikes as “a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer,” saying that in reality, “there is significant evidence that US drone strikes have injured and killed civilians.”
In a 29-page report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Philip Alston, the United Nations special representative on extrajudicial executions, called on the United States to exercise greater restraint in its use of drones. Alston states: “I’m particularly concerned that the United States seems oblivious to this fact when it asserts an ever-expanding entitlement for itself to target individuals across the globe. But this strongly asserted but ill-defined license to kill without accountability is not an entitlement which the United States or other states can have without doing grave damage to the rules designed to protect the right to life and prevent extrajudicial executions.”
It already looks like a ‘second-term Obama’ is going to play to the gallery by adopting lethal attacks that would even dwarf some of the military measures that Bush (Jr) undertook. Already, Obama has proved that he is a slave to the Zionist lobby when he capitulated to the Israelis when Gaza was brutally attacked.
Obama is either devoid of spine or of conviction, or is imbibed with generous doses of both. Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks characterized him as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. Ismail Salami, an Iranian writer, is even more strident. He says: “Obama is committing crimes against humanity under the guise of ‘a nice man’… he is making every brazen effort to legalize the illegal and justify the unjustifiable…As a peace Nobelist, Obama is indeed a man dressed in borrowed robes. Needless to say, those who awarded him with the peace prize should now be hanging their heads low in shame.”
Behind the camouflage of political elegance is a man to whom cruelty is combined with political slyness and opportunism. One imagined (rather unwisely) that for his second term he would choose to leave behind a legacy that would give him a page in the annals of history as a peace maker and as one who subscribed to values of justice. Not so. He wants to be like most American Presidents – macho. Although he has not uttered the words of George Bush (Jr) – “Bring ‘em’ on”, in overt and covert ways that is just what he is about. Values be damned! Every war, every intervention, and every so-called diplomatic from the USA is based on self-interest, not altruistic intent.
Yet, behind the cloak of arrogance that the US displays, is a country on the political decline. Jeremy Bowen, BBC writer, says: “Behind every decision will be the knowledge that, despite its huge military power, America’s political leverage in the Middle East is in decline. Compliant, reliable, authoritarian allies have been deposed. And a new generation that sees America as an adversary, not a friend, is being empowered.”
How will Obama face this reality? In all probability by extensive but covert support to the Syrian rebels- another proxy war. And possibly by flexing his muscles with Iran and eventually yielding to Israel’s appetite to go after Iran militarily. In the ultimate analysis, each will prove to be a counter productive move.
Obama may bring back his forces from Afghanistan but only after America has indulged in carnage and left behind ruins in that country, not because he was a good man who wanted that war to end. On the contrary, he saw that the US and its allies could never win the war in Afghanistan. Withdrawing from Afghanistan is the lie and boast that makes him a ‘peace pretender’. For certain, Obama is leaving behind proxies who will protect American interests, a militarised country, and political chaos – a condition Afghans did not deserve or ask for.
The international community must guard against a bully who will do nothing good to change the world for the better. Instead, under Obama, as with all American Presidents, we can only expect America to expand as a ‘rogue state’ with an even greater vengeance. And all because, Obama believes that the USA is supreme and has the right to rule the world. Obama has, of course, settled to be the holder of mere formal power as against real power that is ruthlessly exercised by the corporates and Zionists who dictate policy from behind the scenes. Most Americans live under an illusion that their President is the most powerful man in the world. He is a paltry tool of the most powerful men in corporate America – many of whom are Zionists too.
Ranjan Solomon