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.

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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).

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"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.