[Peace-discuss] Obama's foreign policy

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Obamaniacs -  a simpler term I've seen recently is "Obots".

C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> [My comment, written in haste, was more garbled than usual.  I've 
> corrected it
> below.  --CGE]
>
> Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>> I've rarely seen an account in which I'm so much in accord. Good old 
>> Bill Blum! I hope we can get him here sometime.
>>
>> --mkb
>>
>> On Feb 3, 2009, at 4:16 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>
>>> [A brilliant account -- and perfectly obvious, were it not occluded 
>>> by those Blum calls Obamaniacs.  Unfortunately, they're out in force 
>>> now, frantically trying to explain away the meaning of Obama's 
>>> initial executive
>>> orders on continuing the war on terror, as it was revealed in an LA 
>>> Times article last week. See, I'm sorry to say, 
>>> <http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/02/renditions/index.html>.] 
>>>
>>>
>>> The Anti-Empire Report  by William Blum February 3rd, 2009
>>> www.killinghope.org
>>>
>>> Change (in rhetoric) we can believe in.
>>>
>>> I've said all along that whatever good changes might occur in regard 
>>> to non-foreign policy issues ... the Obama administration will not 
>>> produce any
>>>  significantly worthwhile change in US foreign policy; little done 
>>> in this area will reduce the level of misery that the American 
>>> Empire regularly brings down upon humanity. And to the extent that 
>>> Barack Obama is willing to clearly reveal what he believes about 
>>> anything controversial, he appears
>>>  to believe in the empire.
>>>
>>> The Obamania bubble should already have begun to lose some air with 
>>> the multiple US bombings of Pakistan within the first few days 
>>> following the inauguration. The Pentagon briefed the White House of 
>>> its plans, and the White House had no objection. So bombs away — 
>>> Barack Obama's first war crime. The dozens of victims were, of 
>>> course, all bad people, including all
>>>  the women and children. As with all these bombings, we'll never 
>>> know the names of all the victims — It's doubtful that even Pakistan 
>>> knows — or what
>>>  crimes they had committed to deserve the death penalty. Some poor
>>> Pakistani probably earned a nice fee for telling the authorities that
>>> so-and-so bad guy lived in that house over there; too bad for all the
>>> others who happened to live with the bad guy, assuming of course 
>>> that the
>>> bad guy himself actually lived in that house over there.
>>>
>>> The new White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, declined to 
>>> answer questions about the first airstrikes, saying "I'm not going 
>>> to get into these matters."1 Where have we heard that before?
>>>
>>> After many of these bombings in recent years, a spokesperson for the 
>>> United
>>>  States or NATO has solemnly declared: “We regret the loss of life.” 
>>> These are the same words used by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 
>>> a number of occasions, but their actions were typically called 
>>> “terrorist”.
>>>
>>> I wish I could be an Obamaniac. I envy their enthusiasm. Here, in 
>>> the form of an open letter to President Obama, are some of the 
>>> "changes we can believe in" in foreign policy that would have to 
>>> occur to win over the non-believers like me.
>>>
>>> Iran
>>>
>>> Just leave them alone. There is no "Iranian problem". They are a 
>>> threat to no one. Iran hasn't invaded any other country in 
>>> centuries. No, President Ahmadinejad did not threaten Israel with 
>>> any violence. Stop patrolling the waters surrounding Iran with 
>>> American warships. Stop halting Iranian ships to check for arms 
>>> shipments to Hamas. (That's generally regarded as an act of war.) 
>>> Stop using Iranian dissident groups to carry out terrorist attacks
>>>  inside Iran. Stop kidnaping Iranian diplomats. Stop the continual 
>>> spying and recruiting within Iran. And yet, with all that, you can 
>>> still bring yourself to say: "If countries like Iran are willing to 
>>> unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us."2
>>>
>>> Iran has as much right to arm Hamas as the US has to arm Israel. And 
>>> there is no international law that says that the United States, the 
>>> UK, Russia, China, Israel, France, Pakistan, and India are entitled 
>>> to nuclear weapons,
>>>  but Iran is not. Iran has every reason to feel threatened. Will you 
>>> continue to provide nuclear technology to India, which has not 
>>> signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while threatening Iran, 
>>> an NPT signatory,
>>>  with sanctions and warfare?
>>>
>>> Russia
>>>
>>> Stop surrounding the country with new NATO members. Stop looking to 
>>> instigate new "color" revolutions in former Soviet republics and 
>>> satellites. Stop arming and supporting Georgia in its attempts to 
>>> block the
>>>  independence of South Ossetia and Abkhasia, the breakaway regions 
>>> on the border of Russia. And stop the placement of anti-missile 
>>> systems in Russia's neighbors, the Czech Republic and Poland, on the 
>>> absurd grounds that it's to ward off an Iranian missile attack. It 
>>> was Czechoslovakia and Poland that the Germans also used to defend 
>>> their imperialist ambitions — The two countries were being invaded 
>>> on the grounds that Germans there were
>>>  being maltreated. The world was told.
>>>
>>> "The U.S. government made a big mistake from the breakup of the 
>>> Soviet Union," said former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev last 
>>> year. "At that time the Russian people were really euphoric about 
>>> America and the U.S. was
>>>  really number one in the minds of many Russians." But, he added, the
>>> United States moved aggressively to expand NATO and appeared gleeful at
>>> Russia's weakness.3
>>>
>>> Cuba
>>>
>>> Making it easier to travel there and send remittances is very nice 
>>> (if, as expected, you do that), but these things are dwarfed by the 
>>> need to end the
>>>  US embargo. In 1999, Cuba filed a suit against the United States for
>>> $181.1 billion in compensation for economic losses and loss of life 
>>> during
>>> the almost forty years of this aggression. The suit held Washington
>>> responsible for the death of 3,478 Cubans and the wounding and 
>>> disabling of
>>> 2,099 others. We can now add ten more years to all three figures. The
>>> negative, often crippling, effects of the embargo extend into every 
>>> aspect
>>> of Cuban life.
>>>
>>> In addition to closing Guantanamo prison, the adjacent US military 
>>> base established in 1903 by American military force should be closed 
>>> and the land returned to Cuba.
>>>
>>> The Cuban Five, held prisoner in the United States for over 10 
>>> years, guilty only of trying to prevent American-based terrorism 
>>> against Cuba, should be released. Actually there were 10 Cubans 
>>> arrested; five knew that they could expect no justice in an American 
>>> court and pled guilty to get shorter sentences.4
>>>
>>> Iraq
>>>
>>> Freeing the Iraqi people to death ... Nothing short of a complete 
>>> withdrawal of all US forces, military and contracted, and the 
>>> closure of all US military bases and detention and torture centers, 
>>> can promise a genuine end to US involvement and the beginning of 
>>> meaningful Iraqi sovereignty. To begin immediately. Anything less is 
>>> just politics and imperialism as usual. In six years of war, the 
>>> Iraqi people have lost everything of value in their lives. As the 
>>> Washington Post reported in 2007: "It is a common refrain among 
>>> war-weary Iraqis that things were better before the U.S.-led 
>>> invasion in 2003."5 The good news is that the Iraqi people have 
>>> 5,000 years experience in crafting a society to live in. They should 
>>> be given the opportunity.
>>>
>>> Saudi Arabia
>>>
>>> Demand before the world that this government enter the 21st century 
>>> (or at least the 20th), or the United States has to stop pretending 
>>> that it gives a damn about human rights, women, homosexuals, 
>>> religious liberty, and civil
>>>  liberties. The Bush family had long-standing financial ties to 
>>> members of the Saudi ruling class. What will be your explanation if 
>>> you maintain the status quo? Haiti
>>>
>>> Reinstate the exiled Jean Bertrand Aristide to the presidency, which 
>>> he lost when the United States overthrew him in 2004. To seek 
>>> forgiveness for our sins, give the people of Haiti lots and lots of 
>>> money and assistance.
>>>
>>> Colombia
>>>
>>> Stop giving major military support to a government that for years 
>>> has been intimately tied to death squads, torture, and drug 
>>> trafficking; in no other
>>>  country in the world have so many progressive candidates for public
>>> office, unionists, and human-rights activists been murdered. Are you
>>> concerned that this is the closest ally the United States has in all of
>>> Latin America?
>>>
>>> Venezuela
>>>
>>> Hugo Chavez may talk too much but he's no threat except to the 
>>> capitalist system of Venezuela and, by inspiration, elsewhere in 
>>> Latin America. He has
>>>  every good historical reason to bad-mouth American foreign policy, 
>>> including Washington's role in the coup that overthrew him in 2002. 
>>> If you can't understand why Chavez is not in love with what the 
>>> United States does
>>>  all over the world, I can give you a long reading list.
>>>
>>> Put an end to support for Chavez's opposition by the Agency for 
>>> International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy, and 
>>> other US government agencies. US diplomats should not be meeting 
>>> with Venezuelans
>>>  plotting coups against Chavez, nor should they be interfering in
>>> elections.
>>>
>>>
>>> Send Luis Posada from Florida to Venezuela, which has asked for his 
>>> extradition for his masterminding the bombing of a Cuban airline in 
>>> 1976, taking 73 lives. Extradite the man, or try him in the US, or 
>>> stop talking about the war on terrorism.
>>>
>>> And please try not to repeat the nonsense about Venezuela being a 
>>> dictatorship. It's a freer society than the United States. It has, 
>>> for example, a genuine opposition daily media, non-existent in the 
>>> United States. If you doubt that, try naming a single American daily 
>>> newspaper or TV network that was unequivocally against the US 
>>> invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Panama, Grenada, and 
>>> Vietnam. Or even against two of them? How about one? Is there a 
>>> single one that supports Hamas and/or Hezbollah? A few weeks ago, 
>>> the New York Times published a story concerning
>>>  a possible Israeli attack upon Iran, and stated: "Several details 
>>> of the covert effort have been omitted from this account, at the 
>>> request of senior
>>>  United States intelligence and administration officials, to avoid 
>>> harming continuing operations."6
>>>
>>> Alas, Mr. President, among other disparaging remarks, you've already 
>>> accused Chavez of being "a force that has interrupted progress in 
>>> the region."7 This is a statement so contrary to the facts, even to 
>>> plain common sense, so hypocritical given Washington's history in 
>>> Latin America, that I despair of you ever freeing yourself from the 
>>> ideological shackles that have bound every American president of the 
>>> past century. It may as well be inscribed in their oath of office — 
>>> that a president must be antagonistic toward any country that has 
>>> expressly rejected Washington as the world's savior. You made this 
>>> remark in an interview with Univision, Venezuela's leading, 
>>> implacable media critic of the Chavez government. What
>>>  regional progress could you be referring to, the police state of 
>>> Colombia?
>>>
>>>
>>> Bolivia
>>>
>>> Stop American diplomats, Peace Corps volunteers, Fulbright scholars, 
>>> and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, from spying and 
>>> fomenting subversion inside Bolivia. As the first black president of 
>>> the United States, you could try to cultivate empathy toward, and 
>>> from, the first indigenous president of Bolivia. Congratulate 
>>> Bolivian president Evo Morales on winning a decisive victory on a 
>>> recent referendum to approve a new constitution which enshrines the 
>>> rights of the indigenous people and, for the first time, institutes 
>>> separation of church and state.
>>>
>>> Afghanistan
>>>
>>> Perhaps the most miserable people on the planet, with no hope in 
>>> sight as long as the world's powers continue to bomb, invade, 
>>> overthrow, occupy, and
>>>  slaughter in their land. The US Army is planning on throwing 30,000 
>>> more young American bodies into the killing fields and is currently 
>>> building eight new major bases in southern Afghanistan. Is that not 
>>> insane? If it makes sense to you I suggest that you start the 
>>> practice of the president accompanying the military people when they 
>>> inform American parents that their child has died in a place called 
>>> Afghanistan.
>>>
>>> If you pull out from this nightmare, you could also stop bombing 
>>> Pakistan. Leave even if it results in the awful Taliban returning to 
>>> power. They at least offer security to the country's wretched, and 
>>> indications are that the current Taliban are not all fundamentalists.
>>>
>>> But first, close Bagram prison and other detention camps, which are 
>>> worse than Guantanamo.
>>>
>>> And stop pretending that the United States gives a damn about the 
>>> Afghan people and not oil and gas pipelines which can bypass Russia 
>>> and Iran. The US has been endeavoring to fill the power vacuum in 
>>> Central Asia created by
>>>  the Soviet Union’s dissolution in order to assert Washington's 
>>> domination over a region containing the second largest proven 
>>> reserves of petroleum and natural gas in the world. Is Afghanistan 
>>> going to be your Iraq? Israel
>>>
>>> The most difficult task for you, but the one that would earn for you 
>>> the most points. To declare that Israel is no longer the 51st state 
>>> of the union would bring down upon your head the wrath of the most 
>>> powerful lobby in the world and its many wealthy followers, as well 
>>> as the Christian-fundamentalist Right and much of the media. But if 
>>> you really want to see peace between Israel and Palestine you must 
>>> cut off all military aid to Israel, in any form: hardware, software, 
>>> personnel, money. And stop telling Hamas it has to recognize Israel 
>>> and renounce violence until you tell Israel that it has to recognize 
>>> Hamas and renounce violence.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> North Korea
>>>
>>> Bush called the country part of "the axis of evil", and Kim Jong Il 
>>> a "pygmy" and "a spoiled child at a dinner table."8 But you might 
>>> try to understand where Kim Jong Il is coming from. He sees that UN 
>>> agencies went into Iraq and disarmed it, and then the United States 
>>> invaded. The logical conclusion is not to disarm, but to go nuclear.
>>>
>>> Central America
>>>
>>> Stop interfering in the elections of Nicaragua, El Salvador and 
>>> Guatemala, year after year. The Cold War has ended. And though you 
>>> can't undo the horror perpetrated by the United States in the region 
>>> in the 1980s, you can
>>>  at least be kind to the immigrants in the US who came here trying to
>>> escape the long-term consequences of that terrible decade.
>>>
>>> Vietnam
>>>
>>> In your inauguration speech you spoke proudly of those "who have 
>>> carried us
>>>  up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom ... For us, 
>>> they fought and died, in places like ... Khe Sanh." So it is your 
>>> studied and sincere opinion that the 58,000 American sevicemembers 
>>> who died in Vietnam,
>>>  while helping to kill over a million Vietnamese, gave their life 
>>> for our prosperity and freedom? Would you care to defend that 
>>> proposition without resort to any platitudes?
>>>
>>> You might also consider this: In all the years since the Vietnam War 
>>> ended,
>>>  the three million Vietnamese suffering from diseases and deformities
>>> caused by US sprayings of the deadly chemical "Agent Orange" have 
>>> received
>>> from the United States no medical attention, no environmental 
>>> remediation,
>>> no compensation, and no official apology.
>>>
>>> Kosovo
>>>
>>> Stop supporting the most gangster government in the world, which has 
>>> specialized in kidnaping, removing human body parts for sale, heavy 
>>> trafficking in drugs, trafficking in women, various acts of 
>>> terrorism, and ethnic cleansing of Serbs. This government would not 
>>> be in power if the Bush administration had not seen them as 
>>> America's natural allies. Do you share that view? UN Resolution 
>>> 1244, adopted in 1999, reaffirmed the sovereignty and territorial 
>>> integrity of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to which 
>>> Serbia is now the recognized successor state, and established that 
>>> Kosovo was to remain part of Serbia. Why do we have a huge
>>>  and permanent military base in that tiny self-declared country?
>>>
>>> NATO
>>>
>>> From protecting Europe against a [mythical] Soviet invasion to 
>>> becoming an occupation army in Afghanistan. Put an end to this 
>>> historical anachronism, what Russian leader Vladimir called "the 
>>> stinking corpse of the cold war."9. You can accomplish this simply 
>>> by leaving the organization. Without
>>>  the United States and its never-ending military actions and 
>>> officially-designated enemies, the organization would not even have 
>>> the pretense of a purpose, which is all it has left. Members have 
>>> had to be bullied, threatened and bribed to send armed forces to 
>>> Afghanistan.
>>>
>>> School of the Americas
>>>
>>> Latin American countries almost never engage in war with each other, 
>>> or any
>>>  other countries. So for what kind of warfare are its military 
>>> officers being trained by the United States? To suppress their own 
>>> people. Close this school (the name has now been changed to protect 
>>> the guilty) at Ft. Benning, Georgia that the United States has used 
>>> to prepare two generations
>>>  of Latin American military officers for careers in overthrowing
>>> progressive governments, death squads, torture, holding down 
>>> dissent, and
>>> other charming activities. The British are fond of saying that the 
>>> Empire
>>> was won on the playing fields of Eton. Americans can say that the 
>>> road to
>>> Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and Bagram began in the classrooms of the 
>>> School of
>>> the Americas.
>>>
>>> Torture
>>>
>>> Your executive orders concerning this matter of utmost importance 
>>> are great
>>>  to see, but they still leave something to be desired. They state 
>>> that the new standards ostensibly putting an end to torture apply to 
>>> any "armed conflict". But what if your administration chooses to 
>>> view future counterterrorism and other operations as not part of an 
>>> "armed conflict"? And no mention is made of "rendition" — kidnaping 
>>> a man off the street, throwing him in a car, throwing a hood over 
>>> his head, stripping off his clothes, placing him in a diaper, 
>>> shackling him from every angle, and flying him to a foreign torture 
>>> dungeon. Why can't you just say that this and all other American use 
>>> of proxy torturers is banned? Forever.
>>>
>>> It's not enough to say that you're against torture or that the 
>>> United States "does not torture" or "will not torture". George W. 
>>> Bush said the same on a regular basis. To show that you're not 
>>> George W. Bush you need to
>>>  investigate those responsible for the use of torture, even if this 
>>> means prosecuting a small army of Bush administration war criminals.
>>>
>>> You aren't off to a good start by appointing former CIA official 
>>> John O. Brennan as your top adviser on counterterrorism. Brennan has 
>>> called "rendition" a "vital tool" and praised the CIA's 
>>> interrogation techniques for providing "lifesaving" intelligence.10 
>>> Whatever were you thinking, Barack?
>>>
>>> Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi
>>>
>>> Free this Libyan man from his prison in Scotland, where he is 
>>> serving a life sentence after being framed by the United States for 
>>> the bombing of PanAm flight 103 in December 1988, which took the 
>>> lives of 270 people over Scotland. Iran was actually behind the 
>>> bombing — as revenge for the US shooting down an Iranian passenger 
>>> plane in July, killing 290 — not Libya, which the US accused for 
>>> political reasons.11 Nations do not behave any more cynical than 
>>> that. Megrahi lies in prison now dying of cancer, but still the US 
>>> and the UK will not free him. It would be too embarrassing to admit 
>>> to 20 years of shameless lying.
>>>
>>> Mr. President, there's a lot more to be undone in our foreign policy 
>>> if you
>>>  wish to be taken seriously as a moral leader like Martin Luther 
>>> King, Jr.:
>>>  banning the use of depleted uranium, cluster bombs, and other 
>>> dreadful weapons; joining the International Criminal Court instead 
>>> of trying to sabotage it; making a number of other long-overdue 
>>> apologies in addition to
>>>  the one mentioned re Vietnam; and much more. You've got your work 
>>> cut out for you if you really want to bring some happiness to this 
>>> sad old world, make America credible and beloved again, stop 
>>> creating armies of anti-American terrorists, and win over people 
>>> like me.
>>>
>>> And do you realize that you can eliminate all state and federal 
>>> budget deficits in the United States, provide free health care and 
>>> free university
>>>  education to every American, pay for an unending array of worthwhile
>>> social and cultural programs, all just by ending our wars in Iraq and
>>> Afghanistan, not starting any new ones, and closing down the Pentagon's
>>> 700+ military bases? Think of it as the peace dividend Americans were
>>> promised when the Cold War would end some day, but never received. How
>>> about you delivering it, Mr. President? It's not too late.
>>>
>>> But you are committed to the empire; and the empire is committed to 
>>> war. Too bad.
>>>
>>> Notes
>>>
>>> 1. Washington Post, January 24, 2009 ↩ 2. Interview with al Arabiya 
>>> TV, January 27, 2009 ↩ 3. Gorbachev speaking in Florida, South 
>>> Florida Sun-Sentinel, April 17, 2008 4. 
>>> http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/polpris.htm ↩ 5. Washington Post, 
>>> May 5, 2007, p.1 ↩ 6. New York Times, January 11, 2009 ↩ 7. 
>>> Washington Post, January 19, 2009↩ 8. Newsweek, May 27, 2002 ↩ 9. 
>>> Press Trust of India (news
>>>  agency), December 21, 2007 ↩ 10. Washington Post, November 26, 2008 
>>> ↩ 11. http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/panam.htm ↩
>>>
>>> –
>>>
>>> William Blum is the author of:
>>>
>>> * Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2 
>>> * Rogue
>>>  State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower * West-Bloc Dissident: A
>>> Cold War Memoir * Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American 
>>> Empire
>>>
>>>
>>> Portions of the books can be read, and signed copies purchased, at 
>>> www.killinghope.org
>>>
>>> Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website.
>>>
>>> To add yourself to this mailing list simply send an email to 
>>> bblum6 at aol.com
>>>  with "add" in the subject line. I'd like your name and city in the
>>> message, but that's optional. I ask for your city only in case I'll be
>>> speaking in your area.
>>>
>>> (Or put "remove" in the subject line to do the opposite.)
>>>
>>> Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission. I'd 
>>> appreciate it if the website were mentioned.
>>>
>>> ###
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
>