[Peace-discuss] Barack Obama for U.S. Senator???

[Morton K.Brussel]

Get this! On blog of David Peterson from ZNet.

Posted by David Peterson on 9/26

  A question for Illinois State Senator Barack Obama the Democratic 
frontrunner (an absolute shoe-in, in fact) in the race to capture the 
seat in the U.S. Senate currently occupied by the Republican Peter 
Fitzgerald (the other held by the Democrat Richard Durbin): Under what 
circumstances would, say, the Government of Iran ever be justified in 
launching surgical strikes against U.S. territory?


Would it be on condition that the U.S. Government threatened to attack 
Iranian territory?  Or would the U.S actually have to launch an attack 
on Iranian territory first, before the Iranians were justified in 
attacking the United States?  But what if the U.S. Government imposed 
economic sanctions on Iran?  Or supported a foreign state that 
threatened to attack Iranian territory, even supplying this foreign 
state with the weapons it required to launch such an attack?  What if 
the U.S. militarily invaded and occupied a sovereign country that 
shared an international border with Iran?  Would this give the Iranians 
the right under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to come to the aid of the 
people resisting the American invaders, even by opening a new theater 
in the war on American soil?  Or what if, somewhere near the Iranian 
border, the U.S. maintained a terrorist organization the expressed goal 
of which was to destabilize life within Iran and, ultimately, to bring 
about a change of regime in Tehran?

  Would one of these circumstances justify an Iranian attack on U.S. 
territory?  At least two of them combined?  Three?

  How about all of them taken together?

  These are not just academic questions, I’m afraid.  Were the State of 
Illinois’ election for the U.S. Senate to be held this Sunday in late 
September, so convincing is Barack Obama’s lead in the polls that 
somewhere between six- and seven-in-ten registered Illinois Republicans 
would vote for Obama over their own party’s candidate, the unspeakable 
Alan Keyes.  (John Chase, “State GOP wrestling for identity.  Polls 
show far right failing to connect,” Chicago Tribune, Sept. 26.)
  (Between ourselves: I remain utterly mystified as to why this State’s 
Republican leadership bothered to invite this turkey, a resident of 
Maryland, of all places, to come to Illinois and replace its original 
candidate for the U.S. Senate, Jack Ryan.  The same report in the Trib 
also tells us that the “survey showed that 94 percent of the voters who 
identified themselves as Republican are white, and only 2 percent are 
Hispanic, and another 2 percent are black.  The rest declined to 
identify their race."---Alan Keyes?)

Nor do these questions for Obama come out of nowhere, either: Their 
point of departure was a face-to-face meeting that the Chicago 
Tribune‘s editorial board sponsored with Obama on this past Friday, the 
24th.

  Here’s how the Trib set the scene (David Mendell, "Obama would 
consider missile strikes on Iran" (Chicago Tribune  Sept. 25):



  Iran announced on Tuesday [Sept. 21] that it has begun converting tons 
of uranium into gas, a crucial step in making fuel for a nuclear 
reactor or a nuclear bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency has 
called for Iran to suspend all such activities.

  Obama said the United States must first address Iran’s attempt to gain 
nuclear capabilities by going before the United Nations Security 
Council and lobbying the international community to apply more pressure 
on Iran to cease nuclear activities. That pressure should come in the 
form of economic sanctions, he said.

  But if those measures fall short, the United States should not rule 
out military strikes to destroy nuclear production sites in Iran, Obama 
said.

  “The big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these 
pressures, including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed 
if they do not cooperate, at what point are we going to, if any, are we 
going to take military action?”

  Given the continuing war in Iraq, the United States is not in a 
position to invade Iran, but missile strikes might be a viable option, 
he said. Obama conceded that such strikes might further strain 
relations between the U.S. and the Arab world.

  “In light of the fact that we’re now in Iraq, with all the problems in 
terms of perceptions about America that have been created, us launching 
some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be 
in,” he said.

  “On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of 
nuclear weapons is worse. So I guess my instinct would be to err on not 
having those weapons in the possession of the ruling clerics of Iran. 
... And I hope it doesn’t get to that point. But realistically, as I 
watch how this thing has evolved, I’d be surprised if Iran blinked at 
this point."


  Obama also expressed some thoughts on Pakistan.  “Obama said that if 
President Pervez Musharraf were to lose power in a coup,” the Trib 
reported, “the United States similarly might have to consider military 
action in that country to destroy nuclear weapons it already 
possesses.  Musharraf’s troops are battling hundreds of well-armed 
foreign militants and Pakistani tribesmen in increasingly violent 
confrontations.”

  And Obama had an intriguing (to say the least) take on the nature of 
the wars the Americans have been fighting:

  Obama said that violent Islamic extremists are a vastly different 
brand of foe than was the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they 
must be treated differently.

  “With the Soviet Union, you did get the sense that they were operating 
on a model that we could comprehend in terms of, they don’t want to be 
blown up, we don’t want to be blown up, so you do game theory and 
calculate ways to contain,” Obama said. “I think there are certain 
elements within the Islamic world right now that don’t make those same 
calculations.

  “... I think there are elements within Pakistan right now--if 
Musharraf is overthrown and they took over, I think we would have to 
consider going in and taking those bombs out, because I don’t think we 
can make the same assumptions about how they calculate risks."


  Now.  I can’t tell you exactly where in all of this Barack Obama’s own 
voice fades out (except for the actual quotes, that is), and where the 
Chicago Tribune‘s rendition of Obama’s voice fades in.  The Trib‘s 
opening paragraph about Iran and the International Atomic Energy 
Agency---that the IAEA “has called for Iran to suspend” its uranium 
enrichment activities---is accurate on its face but worthless as 
history.  It tells us nothing about which state drives the IAEA’s 
agenda with respect to Iran.  Much less why.  Nor what the actual 
findings of numerous IAEA investigations of Iranian facilities have 
been.  Nor how other states, both regional and global (i.e., Israel and 
the United States), conduct their affairs towards Iran.

  But working from the presumption that the Chicago Tribune faithfully 
reported Barack Obama’s views on these issues, what we find in the next 
U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois is a man who is very much a 
creature of American Power; who regards America’s threat or use of 
violence not to be inherently menacing or problematic, but rather 
potentially good and just and necessary for the advancement of 
God-only-knows what kind of world order; and for whom the rights of 
other peoples and states are dissoluble according to the dictates of 
American Power.  Indeed.  For whom other peoples and states are looked 
down upon as evidence of their cultural or civilizational inferiority, 
and obstacles to the kind of world the Americans want.  A world which, 
judging by Obama’s session with the Trib, is governed not by the rule 
of law but by the force of American arms. 

  For creatures of American Power, the only question that ever arises 
is, When is it okay for the Americans to do something violent and 
murderous to others?  While other, perfectly reasonable 
questions---such as, When is someone else justified in doing something 
violent and murderous to the Americans?---never arise.  Remain 
off-limits.  Are strictly unaskable. 

  From my point of view, someone who takes the positions that Barack 
Obama expressed to the Chicago Tribune during last Friday’s meeting 
with its editorial board is unfit to serve in any high office of a 
state as powerful, as dangerous, and as menacing to the rest of the 
world as the United States is today.

  Come the first Tuesday in November, Obama will win one of Illinois’ 
two seats in the U.S. Senate by a landslide. 

  God help the world.

"Barack Obama’s Speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations,” 
July 12, 2004

“Obama would consider missile strikes on Iran,” David Mendell, Chicago 
Tribune, September 25
“State GOP wrestling for identity: Poll shows far right failing to 
connect,” John Chase, Chicago Tribune, September 26

  “Future of Iran opposition group held in Iraq hangs in balance,” 
Mohsen Asgara and Gareth Smyth, Financial Times, July 14, 2004
  “Dissident Iranian group given special status by U.S.,” Joanne 
Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, July 27, 2004
  “Iranian Exiles, On U.S. Terror List, Now Seeking Refugee from Iraq,” 
Farah Stockman, Boston Globe, July 28, 2004
  “Why the US granted ‘protected’ status to Iranian terrorists,” Scott 
Peterson, Christian Science Monitor, July 29, 2004
  “U.S. decision to protect exiled Iranian terrorists fuels speculation 
Pentagon is planning a new war,” Bruce Garvey, Ottawa Citizen, August 
3, 2004
  “Board Rules 4 Iranians Not a Threat,” H.G. Reza, Los Angeles Times, 
August 25, 2004

“Eying Iran Reactors, Israel Seeks U.S. Bunker Bombs,” Reuters, 
September 21, 2004

  Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic 
of Iran (GOV/2004/60), IAEA, September 1, 2004
Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic 
of Iran (Resolution GOV/2004/79), IAEA Board of Governors, September 
18, 2004

  The “FTO List” and Congress: Sanctioning Designated Foreign Terrorist 
Organizations (RL32120), Audrey Kurth Cronin, Congressional Research 
Service, October 21, 2003
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