Friends, Obama, who modestly claims that he leads the free world, has proudly announced that hostilities in Iraq are now over and all the troops are coming home. All the troops that is except for the 50,000 troops that are staying there to hold the hands of the Iraqis as they try to return their destroyed, divided country to the prosperous, thriving place it was before the liberating American invasion.
One American came home from Iraq some time ago. Major Tammy Duckworth lost both legs in Iraq when the helicopter she was piloting was attacked in 2004. She ran for senator from Illinois unsuccessfully in 2006 and subsequently became head of veterans affairs for the state of Illinois. President Obama nominated her to become the assistant secretary of veterans affairs in his government. This, of course, won’t return her legs or allow her to dance.
As well as the 4,000 plus dead and the 30,000 plus wounded like Tammy, the Bush-Obama exercise in Iraq has been a complete failure with Iraq still unable to decide who will govern it and still unable to stop suicide bombings and corruption. This reality contrasts with the Obama spin that suggests success in Iraq!
This photograph shows Obama in another role. He is genuflecting at the Wailing Wall in Israeli-controlled Jerusalem. He is wearing a yarmulke or Jewish skullcap to show his strong affiliation with Israel who he, and a succession of Presidents, have supplied with untold amounts of arms and money and support for the various atrocities and human rights abuses which the Israelis frequently carry out.
The President is currently hosting peace talks between Israel and Abbas, the unelected Palestinian President whose term has expired. To show his neutrality, Obama condemned as “senseless slaughter” the ambush that killed four Israeli settlers Tuesday in the occupied West Bank (see my last post).
Of course, if I recall correctly, he did not condemn the killing of nine peace activists on the Turkish ship in the Aid Flotilla by IDF commandos recently. Neither does he condemn the frequent attacks by Israel against Gaza which regularly kill civilians and so-called militants (also known as freedom fighters).
Obama once had an enormous cache of goodwill both in America and around the world. He promised much. He has delivered little. He now tells lies regularly. His words sound more and more hollow. People are tiring of him. People are beginning to see through him.
Obama-led America is no longer the leader of the Free World despite its claims.
It has become a vision-less, immoral, duplicitous world bully.
David -
I was one of those who fell for the slick and cynical campaign promises of Barry the Liar. In his recent speech he mentioned the heavy price that the U.S. has paid by being in Iraq. I don’t recall him mentioning the extraordinary price that the Iraqis have paid. We have lost approximately 4,500 lives and tens of thousands wounded and maimed such as Major Duckworth. The Iraqis have lost at least hundreds of thousands dead (probably more) and have millions in exile. The country is described by reliable intelligence officials and reporters as being a wreck. All of this for a TRILLION dollars and the hatred of much of the world. But to the warmongers it is not really a problem. It is in their interest to keep the war machine going. It is just so damn lucrative! And people like Major Duckworth are merely collateral damage.
David, I am disgusted and horrified that my country learned absolutely NOTHING from Vietnam, except how to keep the press at bay so that the truth and the horrors of this invasion and occupation would not be widely known. I mean, we even bring the caskets in by night to avoid photographs!
I fear that Martin Luther King, Jr. was right when he said that a country that continues these kinds of obscene policies while ignoring the needs of it’s citizenry has committed spiritual death. As cynical as I became about U.S. foreign policy after the Nixon years I have to confess that I never believed that my country could sink this low. I also believe that these “resource wars” and wars of geopolitical control will continue. We are bankrupting ourselves economically and spiritually by these actions and now we will probably elect more Republicans this Fall which will make it even worse.
This is a very dark time for the United States and there is little hope that it will get better in the forseeable future. We claim to be such a loving, tolerant, Christian nation. I don’t see much of that but I do see that we just haven’t come to understand the basic truth that you reap what you sow. That is true for people AND nations.
Reply
if things weren’t right in 1516 when sir thomas more published ‘utopia’, i don’t think things will get any better now……………
call me a cynic if you want to………….
Reply
Bruce, I too have been bitterly disappointed by Obama. I thought he would bring the change the America needed but quickly he fell into line just like all the other Presidents.
The Jewish lobby, the Corporate lobby, the Christian lobby, the Nationalist lobby, the Wealthy lobby, all pushed him. They were assisted by the MSM whose only interest is profit, that and the advancement of Israel and the capitalist agenda.
The resource and geopolitical wars will continue because America is hooked on war just like it is hooked on drugs and materialism. America promised so much yet delivered so little.
Coco, the world is full of cynics. What we need is more hopeful ones!
Reply
David- You are too kind! Obama was molded by those in power. AIPAC was a major contributer to the Obama campain. That “Hope and Change” thing Worked real well after 8 years of Bush. Millions were decieved, (Myself). We needed CHANGE, that was our HOPE. This is the worst nightmare. America has lost it’s credibility with the world at large. It’s possible things are working on many levels. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but just maybe we’ll be alright. There is obviously a karmic debt greiviously bearing on the U S A.
Reply
David
At least the Neo-Con ideology has been severly defeated by the claytons withdrawal of Iraq.
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2999630.htm
But that will never excuse the fact there was an illegal invasion and occupation which rode on the back of crippling sanctions.
Reply
Bruce Reply:
September 3rd, 2010 at 12:24 pm
I wish I could say that the Neocons have been soundly defeated but that isn’t the case. In fact, they are now coming out from under their rocks and saying that they deserve to be congratulated for what they did concerning Iraq! One of their most shameless hacks, Bill Kristol, has bee making the rounds with this nonsense. And, to make matters worse, one of their most contemptible representatives, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, has said that he is considering running for President! This is the idiot who said that they could remove the top ten stories of the U.N. building in New York and it wouldn’t make any difference in how it functioned. Also, remember that Robert Gates, our current Secy. of Defense is basically a Neocon as well. He is leaving but I can’t imagine that Barry the Liar will replace him with anyone more enlightened. I suspect that there are still plenty of people in the U.S. government who regard the Project for a New American Century as their guiding document.
Reply
David G Reply:
September 4th, 2010 at 2:12 am
Bruce, John Bolton is clearly the Anti-Christ! He needs to be put in a padded cell along with the other neo-cons before he can do more harm.
Reply
Grace Reply:
September 5th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
No John Bolton! I saw a piece on him – about a woman he had stalked and harrassed. Then again, Swartzanegger harrassed women and look at him now!
I am so disgusted with the way things are currently. I come from old school California. The place where we helped create laws to protect the most vulnerable in society.
Reply
It is amazing that the corporate media points to the bombed out Iraq of May 2003 and announces that the Iraq of today is better.
The Iraq of today is a shattered society. The cradle of civilization has been stripped, beaten and destroyed, including the museums and archaeologist sites that documented its history.
Although the US systematically destroyed the infrastructure of Iraq in the 1990s and in the invasion, the Iraqis managed to keep the electricity, water and sewage plants functioning much better than they have today.
In 2003, Iraqis were much better integrated as a society, with mixed marriages and neighborhoods.
Remember that the “civil war” didn’t start until 2005, when the architect of the “Salvador Solution” was sent to Iraq to stir up religious tensions. Death squads were started and mosques and religious gatherings were attacked.
Now, entire neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed, families have been broken up, Fallujah in particular has been destroyed, over 1,000,000 people are dead, 4,000,000 have been driven from their homes.
With less people to kill and oppress, violence has dropped. And we’re supposed to celebrate this as progress?
This is sick and wrong.
A shattered society, with basic services destroyed and non-functioning. An people who sit on top of immense pools of oil who have little fuel. A secular society turned into a fundamentalist hell.
And the Liar in the White House makes a speech congratulating the previous Liar and the paid thugs in uniform for the great job they did?
I am disgusted.
Reply
While there will be “only” 50,000 US troops in Iraq there are 190,000 contractors paid for by the US in Iraq with more arriving every day. The contractors (who were once called mercenaries) are much better paid, therefore costing taxpayers of the future more money, they are also much more out of control and danergous to the citizens of Iraq.
Even if all offical US troops leave Iraq the contractors will remain because the US government is never going to leave all that oil in the hands of anyone they cannot control. The US got rid of Saddam when he would no longer do as he was told and it will happen again if our puppet leaders get ideas they shouldn’t.
Then even more innocents will die to supply our greedy need for oil and power.
Obama’s entire campaign was a huge lie!
Too many people will now embrace republican/tea party lies and the entire mess will continue to get worse while a tiny percent of the super rich walk away with billions fo dollars and the poor still continue to suffer.
Reply
Disgusting…on so many levels. As mentioned before by others….no one hears of the Iraqi lives lost…the babies being born with physical impairments due to the use of depleted uranium… There is no difference these days in Western politics…no difference in who we vote for…we all end up getting the pro-capitalist Zionist war mongers! It’s actually laughable that people believe that the withdrawal comes after a ‘successful and peaceful war’…what an oxymoron.. I’m sure this so called withdrawal has nothing to do with the huge construction/security etc contracts being undertaken by big name Western companies…whose shareholders conveniently happen to be the policy makers & lobbyists…
Reply
Eeeeww, we are leaving high paid thugs in place. Lest the Iraqis get any wise ideas! It was the mercenaries that incited the Fallujah massacre and DU desecration. Now complete with eye scan Id’s for locals, and deformed babies for a billion year half-life. Wow.
This is the problem: The Fockers in charge. When the “unspeakable” occurs – nobody knows how to even talk about it. We must move past this roadblock. We must be willing to put into context, the unspeakable.
Peace all.
Reply
76-water, your mention of a ‘karmic debt’ is an interesting one. Since Vietnam, America has been increasing its debt!
Kemosobi, a Clayton’s Withdrawal describes it perfectly. Obama is fooling no one!
Wagelaborer, the destruction of Iraq proves conclusively that war is no way to solve problems between nations. It also proves that America is no longer a world leader but a terrorist nation.
Jeannie, Obama’s campaign was a huge lie. Given that there’s only the Democrats and the Republicans to vote for, America is caught in a cage of its own making. A new political force needs to rise up but the question is: will it be fascist?
Billykat, we got rid of Royalty and the Church and, for a time, we were free. A new version of Royalty has emerged, one based on wealth and political power and militarism. It is just as corrupt!
Grace, most of what is happening in this world is already unspeakable. The violence, the corruption, the inequality, the injustice, all of it dirties everyone, diminishes everyone, reduces everyone to the LCD.
Humans, collectively, are disgusting!
Reply
Very true David…i just wonder what life would have been like if money wasn’t around…or are humans so disgusting that we would have still had greed and hunger for control within us…
Reply
David G Reply:
September 3rd, 2010 at 7:09 am
Money is but the medium of exchange, Billykat. Once it was gold. Now we use paper and cheap metals. As money has been devalued, so have we!
Reply