Juan Cole gives Obama As and Bs on foriegn policy

Obama's foreign policy report card

I don't have time to respond point by point, but here's Cole's breakdown, and general response:

On Iraq Obama gets a B, largely because "the U.S. troop withdrawal is ahead of schedule and seems unlikely to be halted.... troop levels are down to about 120,000 from 142,000 early this year, and spending on the war has fallen, from $180 billion in 2008 to $150 billion this year."

Cole doesn't indicate which schedule Obama is ahead of. During the campaign he promised to withdraw 2 brigades a month. My understanding is that a brigade is typically composed of 3,000-5,000 troops . Also, Cole doesn't mention that the Obama admin leaned on the Iraqi govt. to postpone the planned July referendum on the status of forces agreement.

On Iran Cole gives an A for relaxing the state of tensions between the 2 govts. I think that's true but at the same time Obama is still framing the issue in terms of confronting Iran over its nuclear weapons program- which according to the recent NIE is non-existent. Iran is surrounded by hostile nuclear armed states. Why is Iran's nuclear program an issue, but Israel's nuclear arsenal is not?

On Pakistan Cole gives Obama an A for 'taking the fight to the Pakistani Taliban,' he is particularly impressed by the US supported offensives in Swat and S. Waziristan. He notes that Obama's use of drones is "unpopular in some quarters," but he raises no objections. This is however, as Jane Mayer points out, illegal. How does one get on and off the CIA's assassination list.

On Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine Obama gets "incompletes." Far too generous. These have been Obama's major initiative and they have been total failures. That's like saying a business major who did great in PE, but failed to complete Econ 101, is making satisfactory progress.

Obama's message to Wall Street: “If there are members of the financial industry in the audience today, I would ask that you join us in passing necessary reforms."

All the Populism Money Can Buy

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

"The truth of the matter is that the Obama team has managed the tricky shot of giving more bailout money to the banks than the cumulative dispensations of all previous U.S. governments, while at the same time NOT giving any significant debt relief to ruined homeowners, a huge slice of whom is poor, black and Hispanic. Obama is not seeking to reform the financial system, and it would be beyond miraculous if he did, since the contrivers of the present mess – Lawrence Summers, et al – were given a welcoming clap on the back by the new president, as he stepped into the White House and told them to get on with the job. This amazing bailout for the existing corrupt system – as if Lenin had used the October revolution to restore the Romanovs – has been engineered without significant opposition from organized labor or the left-ßliberal end of Obama’s own party."

Frank Doran, Shihan

For an atheist and an anarchist, I certainly posses the capacity to "imprint":

Interview with Frank Doran

Available Languages:

Aiki News #10 (February 1975)

Galbraith's "interest" in the "End of Iraq"

Iraq: US Diplomatic Adviser's Troubling Role in Oil Politics Helena Cobban

"In 2003, U.S. diplomatist Peter Galbraith resigned at the end of a distinguished, 24-year government career. Over the years that followed, he worked as a contract-based adviser to leaders in Iraq's Kurdish community, while also arguing passionately in public media that Iraq's Kurds should be given maximum independence from Baghdad - including full control over any new sources of oil.

But in June 2004, more quietly, Galbraith also established a small, U.S.-registered company, Porcupine, that held a five percent stake in a newly exploited oilfield in Iraqi Kurdistan, a Norwegian daily revealed last Saturday."

Obama’s Delusion

David Bromwich

If Obama declined at last to oppose Netanyahu on the settlement freeze, he will be far more wary of opposing General Petraeus, the commander of Centcom. Obama is sufficiently humane and sufficiently undeceived to take no pleasure in sending soldiers to their deaths for a futile cause. He will have to convince himself that, in some way still to be defined, the mission is urgent after all. Afghanistan will become a necessary war even if we do not know what marks the necessity. Robert Dole, an elder of the Republican Party, has said he would like to see Petraeus as the Republican candidate in 2012. Better to keep him in the field (this must be at least one of Obama’s thoughts) than to have him to run against.

Power, Illusion, and America’s Last Taboo

by John Pilger / September 2nd, 2009

The clever young man who recently made it to the White House is a very fine hypnotist, partly because it is so extraordinary to see an African-American at the pinnacle of power in the land of slavery. However, this is the 21st century, and race — together with gender and even class — can be very seductive tools of propaganda. For what matters, above race and gender, is the class one serves.

George Bush’s inner circle — from the State Department to the Supreme Court — was perhaps the most multi racial in presidential history. It was PC par excellence. Think Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell. It was also the most reactionary.

To many, Obama’s very presence in the White House reaffirms the moral nation. He is a marketing dream. Like Calvin Klein or Benetton, he is a brand that promises something special — something exciting, almost risqué, as if he might be a radical, as if he might enact change. He makes people feel good.

...

Chris Hedges, author of Empire of Illusion puts it well. “President Obama,” he wrote, “does one thing and Brand Obama gets you to believe another. This is the essence of successful advertising. You buy or do what the advertiser wants because of how they can make you feel.” And so you are kept in “a perpetual state of childishness.” He calls this “junk politics.”

The tragedy is that Brand Obama appears to have crippled or absorbed the antiwar movement, the peace movement. Out of 256 Democrats in Congress, thirty are willing to stand against Obama’s and Nancy Pelosi’s war party. On June 16, they voted for $106 billion for more war.

13,000 more US troops head for Afghanistan...

Obama quietly deploying 13,000 more US troops to Afghanistan

This brings the total number of American troops sent to Afghanistan since January to 34,000.
In January Obama was presented with a request for 30,000 more troops for Afghanistan. Ever one for compromise, he authorized 17,000. Then he quietly added 4,000, bringing the number to 21,000. Now he quietly sends an additional 13,000 while McChrystal requests 40,000-60,000 more (my take is they will float 60 to get 40, or 40 to get 20-30, the rest will simply be sneeked in the back door while we're al l fixated on the latest specatacle).

This article points out that the US has only withdrawn 23,000 troops from Iraq since Obama took office. Not only that but the July referundum on the Status of Forces was killed (or at least delayed till January). Not exactly 2 brigades a month...

Democrats Kill the Goldstone Report

Stephen Zunes, The Goldstone Report: Killing the Messenger

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill Democrats were echoing their Republican counterparts in denouncing the Goldstone report. Sixteen leading Senate Democrats joined an equal number of Republicans in signing a letter written by the Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attacking what they insisted was a "biased report." The recently appointed Democratic senator praised the State Department's efforts to quash the report, claiming that "legitimizing the report sends a dangerous message to countries defending themselves against terrorism."

The letter insisted that any legal action regarding Israeli human rights abuses must not be taken up in international fora. Instead, despite the Israeli government's long history of covering up war crimes by its armed forces, the Israeli justice system should handle the matter internally. The signatories praised what they called "the extraordinary measures taken by the Israel Defense Forces to minimize civilian casualties," acknowledged the State Department for publicly raising its significant concerns about the report, and called upon the Obama administration to "denounce the unbalanced nature of this investigation." Among the 32 signatories were such leading Democratic liberals as Carl Levin (D-MI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) , Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Russ Feingold (D-WI).

...

"A culture of impunity in the region has existed for too long," Goldstone told the UNHRC when presenting his report. "The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible war crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point." The Obama administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress are part of this problem, not part of its solution.

War and Peace

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

"With deep regret I have concluded that General of the Army Douglas MacArthur is unable to give his wholehearted support to the policies of the U.S. Government and of the U.N. in matters pertaining to his official duties. In view of the specific responsibilities imposed upon me by the Constitution of the U.S. …I have decided that I must make a change in command in the Far East. I have, therefore, relieved General MacArthur of his command.”

500,000 Troops for Pashtunistan?

"Our every action must help secure, mobilize and support the Afghan people and their government to defeat the insurgency and establish effective governance."

How to "establish effective government" in a country that has never known one, McChrystal does not say. Nor does he tell us how he would do it with an Afghan leadership made up of war lords, drug barons and a president - Hamid Karzai - who won re-election by creating hundreds of phony polling stations and stuffing ballot boxes in wholesale fashion.

The Audacity of Nope

Obama Disappoints as Middle East Peacemaker

The Audacity of Nope

By IRA GLUNTS

When I was growing up in a tough neighborhood in the Bronx, we all believed that if you were attacked and the attacker intended on using a weapon, he would show it during the initial phase of combat. Applying the same logic, I have to conclude that Obama will never use the weapon of cutting Israeli military aid or of curtailing US diplomatic support. If he intended to do so, he would have shown that weapon before now, instead of suffering the humiliation of dropping his demand for a full freeze on Israeli settlement expansion.

Is the Sky Really Falling?

Dollar Hysteria

By MIKE WHITNEY

The real reason the dollar will lose its role as the world's reserve currency is because US markets, which until recently provided up to 25 percent of global demand, are in sharp decline. Export-dependent nations--like Japan, China, Germany, South Korea--already see the handwriting on the wall. US consumers are buried under a mountain of debt, which means that their spending-spree won't resume anytime soon. On top of that, unemployment is soaring, personal wealth is falling, savings are rising, and Washington's anti-labor bias assures that wages will continue to stagnate for the foreseeable future. Thus, the American middle class will no longer be the driving force behind global consumption/demand that it was before the crisis. Once consumers are less able to buy new Toyota Prius's or load up on the latest China-made widgets at Walmart, there will be less incentive for foreign governments and central banks to stockpile greenbacks or trade exclusively in dollars.

General McChrystal Criticized for Afghanistan Comments

McChrystal described the White House strategy proposal, which Vice President Biden has been advocating in public remarks, as one that would lead to Afghanistan becoming "Chaos-istan." Asked if he would support it, the general replied, "The short answer is no." McChrystal later remarked, "Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support."

"According to sources close to the administration," reported the UK Telegraph on Monday, "Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week. The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago's unsuccessful Olympic bid."

Situation NORML 2009

Reconciling Medical Pot Use and Legalization

By FRED GARDNER

At this point DeAngelo would have the reform movement push for legalization by advocating reclassification of cannabis as an over-the-counter drug. “At dispensaries all across the country,” he concluded with a flourish, “we will stop asking for medical cannabis identification, and simply ask for adult identification. We will flip the switch at the dispensary door, and all adult Americans will have what hundreds of thousands of Californians now have: free, safe, and affordable access to cannabis.”

Banks 1, America 0

by Dean Baker

"The most recent data from the commerce department shows that the financial industry profits now account for more than 31.5% of all corporate profits. This is a higher share than at any point during the housing bubble years. Of course, it is not that hard to make profits when you get to borrow money from the Fed at almost no interest and then lend it back to the government at 3.5% interest."

Iranian Nuclear Issue

Gareth Porter: POLITICS: New Doubt Cast on U.S. Claim Qom Plant is Illicit - IPS ipsnews.net

Top Things You Think You Know About Iran That Are Not True

by Juan Cole

"Remember the Maine!"

I listened to about 5 mins of "Forum" on KQED this morning and decided to take few mins to send the host the following:

Dear Yellow Journalist,

your show is part of a systematic disinformation campaign reminiscent of
what we saw in 2002-03 (and 1964, 1898, 1848, etc...) the media always
plays a key role setting the ground for American aggression- whipping up
the 'spirit of mars,' if you will. You could at least have give some
recognition to Juan Cole's recent piece on "what you think you know
about Iran." The facility was not secret and the Iranians disclosed it
first. Cole points this out, and Gareth Porter's reporting details it.
When was the last time Iran started a war? Not since it was Persia....
When was the last time the US or Israel started a war? The idea that MAD
does not work with Iran because Iran is 'not a rational actor' draws on
a racist logic. See Cole on this. You could at least start with some
valid premises if you wanted to be seen as a truly 'middle-brow' yellow
journalist.

I tune in to this show every few months for a few minuets, and then I'm
reminded of why I never listen.

You're a joke and you will be remembered as such.

Gilad Aztmon: Vengeance, Barbarism and Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds

Gilad Aztmon: Vengeance, Barbarism and Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds

Basterds as critique of Zionism?

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Revenge Fantasy: Tarantino Scalps His Audience

By HARRY BROWNE