[Peace-discuss] Obama on race (and war)

[C. G. Estabrook]

Obama's speech today <http://www.drudgereport.com/flashos.htm> should be read -- 
but with care.  It should be critiqued the way one does a movie or novel -- with 
attention not just to what is said but how it's said.  He's snake-hipping his 
way around several obstacles here -- notably those thrown up in a particularly 
disgusting column by Pat Buchanan this week <http://www.theamericancause.org/>.

Primarily it's an enactment of the Great Substitution of this year's 
presidential campaign -- identity politics elbows aside any discussion of actual 
USG policies -- and an invocation of "unity" (because there are no real 
contradictory interests in our society). Forget wars, actual and contemplated, 
and real economic distress -- the only question is, Are you a racist or a 
misogynist?

He comes out firmly against racism (what courage) but even more firmly against 
remarks by his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  He does a pretty good imitation of 
Prince Hal ditching Falstaff.  Then he turns to one of the most offensive 
mixings of politics and religion that I've heard this season -- enlisting 
Christianity in support of his accommodationist policies.

His goal is strenuously to repudiate the only insightful (or even accurate) 
things said about foreign policy by anyone in his campaign -- Rev. Wright's 
remarks. They're "a profoundly distorted view of this country," Obama says -- 
such as that "the conflicts in the Middle East [are] rooted primarily in the 
actions of stalwart allies like Israel," for shame! [Who are the "stalwart 
allies like Israel"? Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey et al., I suppose.]  Of course 
everybody knows that the pillage and murder in the Middle East come "from the 
perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam." [Remember how radical Islam 
invaded Iraq and killed a million people? Then it invaded Lebanon, then Gaza...]

Read it and weep.  --CGE