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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:54 am Post subject: Obama the Hawk? |
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The nomination of Barack Obama, which, according to one breathless commentator, "marks a truly exciting and historic moment in US history", is a product of the new delusion. Actually, it just seems new. Truly exciting and historic moments have been fabricated around US presidential campaigns for as long as I can recall, generating what can only be described as bullshit on a grand scale. Race, gender, appearance, body language, rictal spouses and offspring, even bursts of tragic grandeur, are all subsumed by marketing and "image-making", now magnified by "virtual" technology. Thanks to an undemocratic Electoral College system only those who both control and obey the system can win. This has been the case since the truly historic and exciting victory of Harry Truman, the liberal Democrat said to be a humble man of the people, had already proved how tough he was by obliterating two cities.
Understanding Obama as a likely president of the United States is not possible without understanding the demands of an essentially unchanged system of power: in effect a great media game. For example, since I compared Obama with Robert Kennedy in these pages, he has made two important statements, the implications of which have not been allowed to intrude on the celebrations. The first was at the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the Zionist lobby, which, as Ian Williams has pointed out, "will get you accused of anti-Semitism if you quote its own website about its power". Obama had already offered his genuflection, but on 4 June went further. He promised to support an "undivided Jerusalem" as Israel's capital. Not a single government on earth supports the Israeli annexation of all of Jerusalem, including the Bush regime, which recognises the UN resolution designating Jerusalem an international city.
His second statement, largely ignored, was made in Miami on 23 May. Speaking to the expatriate Cuban community � which over the years has faithfully produced terrorists, assassins and drug runners for US administrations � Obama promised to continue a 47-year crippling embargo on Cuba that has been declared illegal by the UN year after year
Again, Obama went further than Bush. He said the United States had "lost Latin America". He described the democratically elected governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua as a "vacuum" to be filled. He raised the nonsense of Iranian influence in Latin America, and he endorsed Colombia's "right to strike terrorists who seek safe-havens across its borders". Translated, this means the "right" of a regime, whose president and leading politicians are linked to death squads, to invade its neighbours on behalf of Washington. He also endorsed the so-called Merida Initiative, which Amnesty International and others have condemned as the US bringing the "Colombian solution" to Mexico. He did not stop there. "We must press further south as well," he said. Not even Bush has said that.
It is time the wishful-thinkers grew up politically and debated the world of great power as it is, not as they hope it will be. Like all serious presidential candidates, past and present, Obama is a hawk and an expansionist. He comes from an unbroken Democratic tradition, as the war-making of presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton demonstrates. Obama's difference may be that he feels an even greater need to show how tough he is. However much the colour of his skin draws out both racists and supporters, it is otherwise irrelevant to the great power game. The "truly exciting and historic moment in US history" will only occur when the game itself is challenged. |
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Oh well, at least Nader is running again.  |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:32 am Post subject: |
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| It is time the wishful-thinkers grew up politically and debated the world of great power as it is, not as they hope it will be. |
Exactly. I have urged such people along these lines for years now.
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| Like all serious presidential candidates, past and present, Obama is a hawk and an expansionist... |
All "serious" American presidential candidates and presidents have been hawks and expansionists? Nonsense. Basura.
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| The "truly exciting and historic moment in US history" will only occur when the game itself is challenged. |
�Viva the revolution!, blah, blah, blah. Let him pick up an AK, head for the hills, and challenge "the game" if he truly feels this way.
Nothing more wussyish than so many armchair leftist revolutionaries and their easy, consequence-free, angry talk. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
Nothing more wussyish than so many armchair leftist revolutionaries and their easy, consequence-free, angry talk. |
It is Lewrockwell.com. They are rightist revolutionaries.
Obama will be president of the United States, not the United Nations. I like the dude, but he exists in a world governed by realist politics and strategic/national interests. We ought not be too idealistic about him. I suspect he will put a quick end to torture, renditions, illegal detentions and the rest of the more disgusting behavior of the Bushies. I seriously doubt new military action would be a feature of his tenure. But you never know.
And when he does behave as the leader of a nation and not an NGO there will be cat-calls from the global peanut gallery (see Quaddifi's recent comments) about how he is an Uncle Tom, or more likely, an Uncle Ari, bowing before his nefarious Jewish overlords. All this talk about how he will significantly repair America's image abroad totally misses the fact that most of 'abroad' is certifiably nuts. Most of the globe will find many reasons to dislike him, and I'm sure that a huge % of those reasons will be conspiratorial, racial, religious and most of all due to his nationality.
But I think he'd make a good president. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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Rightist revolutionary-wannabes? Is "Lew Rockwell" like Michigan Militia and Timothy McVeigh and co.? Even worse.
They idealize Obama, dislike hawks, and oppose the Cuban embargo...? Weird. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
Rightist revolutionary-wannabes? Is "Lew Rockwell" like Michigan Militia and Timothy McVeigh and co.? Even worse.
They idealize Obama, dislike hawks, and oppose the Cuban embargo...? Weird. |
Dunno. I think Lew Rockwell is just a cantankerous old fart. |
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 1:50 pm Post subject: ... |
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| His second statement, largely ignored, was made in Miami on 23 May. Speaking to the expatriate Cuban community � which over the years has faithfully produced terrorists, assassins and drug runners for US administrations � Obama promised to continue a 47-year crippling embargo on Cuba that has been declared illegal by the UN year after year |
Obama's plan for Cuba is to go and negotiate more freedoms for its citizens in exchange for a lift of the embargo, not just to sit and leave things as they are. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:11 pm Post subject: |
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| He comes from an unbroken Democratic tradition, as the war-making of presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton demonstrates. |
...in stark contrast to the peace-loving Reagan and the Bushes. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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| the war-making of...in stark contrast to the peace-loving... |
Where is Orwell when we need him? |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject: Re: ... |
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| Nowhere Man wrote: |
| Quote: |
| His second statement, largely ignored, was made in Miami on 23 May. Speaking to the expatriate Cuban community � which over the years has faithfully produced terrorists, assassins and drug runners for US administrations � Obama promised to continue a 47-year crippling embargo on Cuba that has been declared illegal by the UN year after year |
Obama's plan for Cuba is to go and negotiate more freedoms for its citizens in exchange for a lift of the embargo, not just to sit and leave things as they are. |
I hope you're right. Just that certain statement have me concerned.
Anyway some people have mentioned LewRockwell. It is a libertarian website that supports Ron Paul. |
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