[Peace-discuss] Obama on Iraq

[Morton K. Brussel]

This comes from an Alex. Cockburn article in Counterpunch. The full  
article to be found in:

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=9284

We all need to call him on this. He's like a flag in the wind, and a  
windshift could shift him.  --mkb


…Listen to any prominent Democrat senator, like Kerry or Clinton or  
Feingold or Obama and you get the same adamant refusal to go beyond  
the savage characterization by Glenn Ford and Peter Gamble of the  
Black Commentator, of Obama's address to the Council on Foreign  
Relations:

"U.S. Senator Barack Obama has planted his feet deeply inside the  
Iraq war-prolongation camp of the Democratic Party, the great swamp  
that, if not drained, will swallow up any hope of victory over the  
GOP in next year's congressional elections. In a masterpiece of  
double-speak before the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations,  
November 22, the Black Illinois lawmaker managed to out-mush-mouth  
Sen. John Kerry - a prodigious feat, indeed.

"In essence, all Obama wants from the Bush regime is that it fess up  
to having launched the war based on false information, and to  
henceforth come clean with the Senate on how it plans to proceed in  
the future. Those Democrats who want to dwell on the past - the  
actual genesis and rationale for the war, and the real reasons for  
its continuation - should be quiet.

" 'Withdrawal' and 'timetables' are bad words, and Obama will have  
nothing to do with them.

"Of course, the 'insurgents' are not a 'faction,' and must therefore  
be defeated. On this point, Obama and the Bush men agree: 'In sum, we  
have to focus, methodically and without partisanship, on those steps  
that will: one, stabilize Iraq, avoid all out civil war, and give the  
factions within Iraq the space they need to forge a political  
settlement; two, contain and ultimately extinguish the insurgency in  
Iraq; and three, bring our troops safely home.'

"Nobody in the White House would argue with any of these points.  
Point number two in Obama's 'pragmatic' baseline is, the containment  
and elimination of the 'insurgency.' Of course, one can only do that  
by continuing the war. Indeed, it appears that Obama and many of his  
colleagues are more intent on consulting the Bush men on the best  
ways to 'win' the war than in effecting an American withdrawal at any  
foreseeable time.

"They want 'victory' just as much as the White House; they just don't  
want the word shouted at every press conference."

The Black Commentator concludes its excoriation of Obama and his  
fellow Democrats with these words:

"By late summer of 2006, when voters are deciding what they want  
their Senate and House to look like, if the Democrats have not caught  
up to public opinion to offer a tangible and quick exit from Iraq,  
the Republicans will retain control of both chambers of congress.

"All that will be left in November is mush from Kerry, Hillary,  
Biden, Edwards - and Obama's - mouths."
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