Michael Moore's response to Obama escalation (12.2.09)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivb02lDaWhE[/youtube]
Afghani man being "opti-identified" by a US soldier. The increase in troop level will not solve any issues of importance in the region, except deepen the destruction. All for the control of Central Asia oil reserves and strategic forward posts to keep Russia and China militarily off balance. (These objectives are never talked about in the mainstream media.)
Dateline: 12/01/2009 [print_link] Afghan children: More death, destruction and disturbances are on the way. “It is now official. War is peace if you market it well enough.” As Barack Obama prepares to accept the Nobel Prize for Peace, he is also preparing to escalate war. He and the system he so loyally represents have little else to offer Americans or the rest of the world. Just in case there is anyone who didn’t get the memo, the announcement came straight from West Point. Obama is outdoing his predecessor George W. Bush by using soldiers and military installations as photo opportunity backdrops. The message is clear. There is no commitment to do anything else but keep the war machine humming. While most Americans focus on the latest marketing extravaganza executed by team Obama, nations in the rest of the world do as much as they can to fight imperialism. The useless corporate media inspire handwringing over Iran’s decision to build more nuclear enrichment facilities, but the more important news about Iran is ignored. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made official visits [1] to Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela to strengthen trade agreements with those nations, and to talk about ending the supremacy of the dollar [2]. Barack Obama didn’t like it very much, but no one in these countries seemed to care about the Nobel laureate’s two cents worth of opinion. He sent a letter to Brazilian president Lula, admonishing him for welcoming Ahmadinejad. In case Obama didn’t get this memo, Ahmadinejad is not a pariah everywhere on earth, no matter how much American press and politicians fume and fuss. No one cared about what the president wanted and Ahmadinejad’s itinerary remained unchanged. “In case Obama didn’t get this memo, Ahmadinejad is not a pariah everywhere on earth.” These nations that are seldom noticed are playing a larger role in world affairs than the average American could possibly imagine. Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia are not sticking their fingers in America’s eye merely out of spite. They want to be free of “dollar hegemony” and they are backing up their words with action. They have in fact begun using their own currency in an effort to escape American control of their destinies. While Americans giddily applaud the latest Team Obama marketing extravaganza, the world takes its cues less and less from Uncle Sam. We in the U.S. are left in a state of disinformation so complete that we rarely know what the rest of the world is doing. Americans fail to understand that when most other nations think about our country, it is about ways to escape from its clutches. Military prowess seems to be the only power the United States has left. It apparently has no ability to help its own people. One in four homeowners are “underwater” on their mortgages, owing more to the bank than their homes are worth. The Obama administration has done nothing about this human and economic catastrophe. One in eight Americans receive food stamps, a staggering 49 million people in need of some assistance to keep food on the table. The record number of bank failures, the precarious state of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the lack of health care for millions are likewise left unaddressed. War is always on the table and is never rejected. “When most other nations think about our country, it is about ways to escape from its clutches.” Obama is George W. Bush with a higher IQ and a better vocabulary. He knows just what words to use in order to get away with murder. The war effort will not be open ended: we are fighting terrorism, we will help the Afghan people and so on. Just a few thousand more civilian deaths and then Johnny can come marching home again. It is easier to like the imperialist who speaks well. Obama has snob appeal and that is enough reason for millions of people who should know better to give him a pass, even as he asserts the right to keep killing human beings. If Barack Obama is not greeted by protesters in Oslo then the world is indeed in a very bad place. It is now official. War is peace if you market it well enough. The marketing creation that is Obama can get away with murder or just about anything else. The peace prize committee should stick to honoring dissidents living under house arrest. It is difficult to fathom how the man in charge of a military budget larger than that of the rest of the world combined can get a prize for peace making. Perhaps the committee can take the prize back. It would be a controversial and difficult thing to do, but no worse than sullying their formerly good names with a bizarre and shameful decision they will surely regret. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com. Source URL: http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-peace-prize-war Links: [1] http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KK26Ak02.html [2] http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091125/wl_afp/venezuelairandiplomacyus
By Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report Dateline: 12/02/2009 [print_link] Villagers seen from inside a U.S. Army armored vehicle belonging to 1st Platoon, Able Troop 3-71 Cavalry Squadron, as it enters the village of Baraki Rajn, Baraki Barak district, Logar province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. President Obama has reached a watershed in his presidency: he has devolved to the intellectual level of George Bush, while retaining his world class powers of speech. History may remember Obama as just another vapid but predatory imperialist president who happens to be…superficially eloquent. Unfortunately, the clarity of Obama’s diction is not matched by coherence of policy. Af-Pak is at least as whack as Bush’s Iraq. Barack Obama’s oratorical skills have turned on him, revealing, as George Bush’s low-grade delivery never could, the perfect incoherence of the current American imperial project in South Asia. Bush’s verbal eccentricities served to muddy his entire message, leaving the observer wondering what was more ridiculous, the speechmaker or the speech. There is no such confusion when Obama is on the mic. His flawless delivery of superbly structured sentences provides no distractions, requiring the brain to examine the content – the policy in question – on its actual merits. The conclusion comes quickly: the U.S. imperial enterprise in Afghanistan and Pakistan is doomed, as well as evil. The president’s speech to West Point cadets was a stream of non sequitors so devoid of logic as to cast doubt on the sanity of the authors. “[T]hese additional American and international troops,” said the president, “will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011.” Obama claims that, the faster an additional 30,000 Americans pour into Afghanistan, the quicker will come the time when they will leave. More occupation means less occupation, you see? This breakneck intensification of the U.S. occupation is necessary, Obama explains, because “We have no interest in occupying your country.” “The U.S. imperial enterprise in Afghanistan and Pakistan is doomed, as well as evil.” If the Americans were truly interested in occupying Afghanistan, the logic goes, they would slow down and stretch out the process over many years, rather than mount an 18-month surge of Taliban-hunting. The Afghans are advised to hold still – the pulsating surge will be over before they know it. At present, of course, the Americans have assumed all “responsibility” for Afghanistan – so much so that President Hamid Karzai only learned about Obama’s plans earlier on Tuesday during a one-hour tele-briefing. This is consistent with Obama’s detailed plans for Afghan liberation, under U.S. tutelage. The president is as wedded to high stakes testing of occupied peoples as he is for American public school children. “This effort must be based on performance. The days of providing a blank check are over,” said the Occupier-in-Chief. He continued: “And going forward, we will be clear about what we expect from those who receive our assistance. We will support Afghan Ministries, Governors, and local leaders that combat corruption and deliver for the people. We expect those who are ineffective or corrupt to be held accountable.” Such rigorous oversight of their country’s affairs should keep Afghan minds off the fact that they have been fighting to remain independent of foreign rule for centuries, if not millennia. If Obama is right, Afghans might also be distracted from dwelling on the question of who their “Ministries, Governors, and local leaders” are answerable to – the Afghan people or the Americans? “Obama advises Afghans to be patient and trusting regarding their sovereignty.” Although President Obama is anxious to bring U.S. troop levels above 100,000 as quickly as possible, he advises Afghans to be patient and trusting regarding their sovereignty. “It will be clear to the Afghan government, and, more importantly, to the Afghan people, that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country.” That is, it will become clear in the fullness of time, but hopefully no later than 18 months after the planned surge begins. If all goes well, the Taliban will be dead or nearly so, and the non-Taliban Afghans will be prepared to begin assuming “responsibility for their own country.” If not, then the Americans will be forced to continue as occupiers – reluctantly, of course, since, as the whole world and the more intelligent class of Afghans know, the Americans “have no interest in occupying your country” – unless they have to. Should the Afghans become confused about American intentions, they might consult with their Pakistani neighbors, for whom President Obama also has plans. “[We] have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe-haven for terrorists whose location is known, and whose intentions are clear,” the president declared. “America is also providing substantial resources to support Pakistan’s democracy and development. We are the largest international supporter for those Pakistanis displaced by the fighting.” Obama did not mention that it was the Americans that coerced and bribed the Pakistani military into launching the attacks that displaced over a million people in the Swat region and hundreds of thousands more in border areas. How nice of them to join in humanitarian assistance to the homeless. The Pakistanis, like the Afghans, were assured the Americans will not abandon them to their own, independent devices. Said Obama: “And going forward, the Pakistani people must know: America will remain a strong supporter of Pakistan’s security and prosperity long after the guns have fallen silent, so that the great potential of its people can be unleashed.” Some Pakistanis might consider that a threat. According to polling by the Pew Global Attitudes Project [1], only 16 percent of Pakistanis held a favorable view of the United States in 2009. Actually, that’s a point or two higher than U.S. popularity in Occupied Palestine (15 percent) and Turkey (14 percent), the only other Muslim countries on the Pew list. Not to worry. Obama knows things that escape the rest of us. For example, the fact that “we have forged a new beginning between America and the Muslim World – one that recognizes our mutual interest in breaking a cycle of conflict, and that promises a future in which those who kill innocents are isolated by those who stand up for peace and prosperity and human dignity.” Which means, we can expect those polling numbers to start going up, soon. “Only 16 percent of Pakistanis held a favorable view of the United States in 2009.” When Obama isn’t launching bold initiatives and “new beginnings,” he’s busy taking care of U.S. imperial business as usual. Obama is most proud that the U.S. spends more on its military than all the rest nations of the planet, combined. “[T]he United States of America has underwritten global security for over six decades,” he told the cadets, “a time that, for all its problems, has seen walls come down, markets open, billions lifted from poverty, unparalleled scientific progress, and advancing frontiers of human liberty.” Others might not view the rise of U.S. hegemony in such a positive light. But they are wrong, said the president. “For unlike the great powers of old, we have not sought world domination. Our union was founded in resistance to oppression. We do not seek to occupy other nations. We will not claim another nation’s resources or target other peoples because their faith or ethnicity is different from ours.” In Obama’s worldview, it’s the thought that counts. Americans don’t seek world domination; it just comes to them. “We do not seek to occupy other nations,” they leave us no choice. If it were not for American concern for the welfare of all the world’s people, the U.S. would not maintain 780 military bases in other people’s countries. Obama has certainly matured as an American-style statesman in his nine and a half months in office. As a TV Native American might say, “Black man in white house speak like forked tongued white man.” Only better. [2]. Source URL: http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obamas-af-pak-whack-bushs-iraq Links: By DAVE ZIRIN November 30, 2009 [print_link] Tiger with wife Elin and baby. Domestic bliss. Today, Tiger Woods, the famous, wealthy and most PR-conscious athlete on earth, finally finds himself subject to scrutiny. But, similar to Clinton’s scandal, his scandal has more to do with his personal life than more substantive issues. The media has staked out his Isleworth home for round-the-clock coverage about a bizarre “car accident” this past week involving his wife, a fire hydrant and a golf club. The questions being posed are as breathless as they are weightless: “Were Tiger’s facial lacerations the result of the car crash, or an attack from his wife, Elin?” “Is this about the rumored ‘other woman’ in New York City?” “Did Elin Woods smash the rear of his car with a golf club to rescue Tiger, or was she smashing up the car as he pulled away?” One last question: Who the hell cares? Granted, there is a “man bites dog” aspect to this story. In Woods’s roughly fourteen years in the public eye, he has never even been caught littering. His image has been cemented as a man of ungodly intensity. This squeaky-clean reputation has helped Woods become the richest athlete in history. His career course earnings are $92 million. When you factor in advertisements, corporate appearances and other off-course aspects of “Tiger Inc.,” it makes sense that Tiger Woods is America’s first athlete to reach billionaire status. As the saying goes, behind every great fortune is a great crime. Following his car “accident,” Woods’s agent says it’s unclear whether he will attend his foundation’s Chevron World Challenge Golf Tournament. In 2008 Chevron entered a five-year relationship with Tiger Woods’s foundation under the guise of philanthropy. But if Woods had a shred of social conscience, this partnership never would have existed. Lawsuits have been issued against Chevron for dumping toxic waste all over the planet. Alaska, Canada, Brazil, Angola and California have all accused Chevron of dumping. Even worse, Chevron has a partnership with Burma’s ruling military junta on the country’s Yadana gas pipeline project, the single greatest source of revenue for the military, estimated at nearly $5 billion since 2000. Elin Nordegren Woods. Apparently couldn't keep Woods from straying. Then there is Dubai, site of the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course. Located at the southern coast of the Persian Gulf, Dubai has been a symbol of economic excess and, most recently, economic collapse. It has been called an “adult Disneyland”–complete with indoor ski resorts and unspeakable human rights violations. As Johann Hari wrote in the Independent, it is a city that has been built over the past thirty years by slave labor. Paid foreign laborers work in more than 100-degree heat for less than $3 a day. Dubai also has a reputation as ground zero of the global sex trade. The project cost $100 million, and Woods said nary a word about his benefactor’s practices. This is business as usual for Woods who would sooner swallow a five-iron than take anything resembling a political stand. Now that Woods appears to have been involved in a domestic dispute, the media are wondering if there is “another Tiger.” They are desperate to pillory the man for his personal problems. It would be more appropriate if they took this opportunity to scrutinize him for the right reasons. Woods has every right to keep his personal problems personal. But when he makes deals that benefit dictatorships and unaccountable corporations, all in the name of his billion-dollar brand, he deserves no privacy. About Dave Zirin Dave Zirin is sports editor. He is the author of Welcome to the Terrordome: the Pain Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket) and A People’s History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated.com and The Progressive. He is the host of Sirius/XM’s Edge of Sports Radio. more… Editor’s Note; For a full discussion of this complicated issue, please see our posts at: Capitalism, Carbon Trading and Copenhagen https://www.greanvillepost.com/?p=1913 and https://www.greanvillepost.com/?p=1936Freedom Rider: The Peace Prize War
By Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
Obama's Af-Pak is as Whack as Bush's Iraq
In true Orwellian fashion, “More occupation means less occupation.”Only a nation thoroughly brainwashed and politically demobilized could accept passively this level of chicanery.
[1] http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=264
[2] mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com
[3] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obamas-af-pak-whack-bushs-iraq&linkname=Obama’s Af-Pak is as Whack as Bush’s Iraq
Tiger Woods Deserves Your Scrutiny
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