[Peace-discuss] Re: Obama on "War on Terror"

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Friends,
I too have heard Obama say more enlightened things quite recently... and the MSM is on record as saying that Obama has effectively killed the "War on Terror" by closing Gitmo... 
 
Nevertheless, as Moyers' guests pointed out, Obama did NOT stop the drone from attacking Pakistan, nor has he taken action (other than sending Mitchell to the general region, an apparently good thing) e g calling off future attacks, recalling troops deployed there, putting deployment of more and more troops on hold...
 
I had a different reaction from John's to Moyers' show tonite (which I hope you all will see, if you haven't already). http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01302009/watch.html
 
Instead of depressing me, it made me very grateful that the word is finally really out there -- calmly, knowledgeably, intelligently and clearly articulated on PBS in prime time -- where Obama's advisors et al, are guaranteed to see it... discuss it... and I'm sure (at the very least) consider the merits of what was said. 
 
I don't think -- as suggested by the guests -- that Obama has to go into a long apologetic explanation for changing course. He simply has to begin to implement a political solution to a political problem NOW, and other things will of course have to change to reflect that.
 --Jenifer

--- On Fri, 1/30/09, Morton K. Brussel <brussel at illinois.edu> wrote:

From: Morton K. Brussel <brussel at illinois.edu>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Re: Obama on "War on Terror"
To: "John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
Cc: "Ron Szoke" <r-szoke at illinois.edu>, "Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>, "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>
Date: Friday, January 30, 2009, 10:45 PM


That Moyers or his guests used that phrase does not contradict what I've said. 
--mkb




On Jan 30, 2009, at 10:19 PM, John W. wrote:



On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 9:37 PM, Morton K. Brussel <brussel at illinois.edu> wrote:


The reports I've seen were recent. There could well have been a change…
Or they may have overstated. --mkb

Unfortunately Carl seems to be right on this one.  I just got done watching Bill Moyers.  Half of the show was devoted to a discussion of Obama's perspective on the "War on Terror"; the recent (continuation of) bombing of civilians in Pakistan by drones since he took office; a comparison of McNamara's advice to LBJ about "bombing the North Vietnamese into submission" with the current strategy in AfPak; the obvious historical fallacy/folly of trying to impose a military solution on a political problem; etc.  It's very discouraging.


 



On Jan 30, 2009, at 8:26 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:


Friday , September 05, 2008

O'REILLY: OK. Let's start with national security. Do you believe we're
in the middle of a War on Terror?

OBAMA: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: Who's the enemy?

OBAMA: Al Qaeda, the Taliban, a whole host of networks that are bent on
attacking America, who have a distorted ideology, who have perverted the
faith of Islam, and so we have to go after them.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,417563,00.html

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