[Peace-discuss] What President Obama Promised in Cairo

[C. G. Estabrook]

We all learnt during the presidential campaign that Obama's promises are
slippery at best: many Americans voted for him as the "peace candidate" -- and
we've seen how that's turned out.

What can we determine about what he will do with the $100 billion that the
Congressional Democrats are arranging for him at the moment for killing people
in the Middle East for the rest of this year?  What is the US war policy in the
wake of the Cairo speech?  The following points seem clear:

[1] the killing is AfPak will be continued and increased;

[2] the maintenance of a compliant government in Iraq -- and the presence of
enough US troops to make it so -- will continue;

[3] imprisonment without trial in the vast US prison system, domestic and
foreign, will continue -- as will new imprisonments under preventive detention;
(altho' Obama says he intends to close Gitmo, it hasn't happened -- and
apparently will not make much difference to the prisoners if it does);

[4] torture continues -- there are reports that conditions at Gitmo are harsher
since Obama became president -- primarily performed by foreigners, to whom the
US delivers prisoners, while "studies" of rendition and overseas prisons
continue; (altho' Obama says that torture has been banned, so did Bush, and they
both seem to be chopping logic in a way that makes little difference to those
tortured; meanwhile Obama appoints a known torturer and assassin to run the
expanded war in AfPak);

[5] on Israel/Palestine, Obama will continue in the path of traditional US
rejectionism -- i.e., there will be no political settlement involving a truly
independent Palestinian state -- a bantustan or reservation at best; and

[6] any "distance" the USG puts between itself and the Israeli government will
be in aid of its carrot-and-stick diplomacy with Iran (where we also seem to
continue to kill people).

Those directly affected by Obama's war-making seem to have a better assessment
of the situation that the clapped-out American media -- or the liberal
celebrators of his policy:

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah: "We do not sense any real change regardless
of the language of the speech because violence in the region is practiced first
and foremost by Israel and by the US armies of occupation, and not by the people
who resist."  That's clearly true.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "The nations in the region hate
the United States from the bottom of their hearts because they have seen
violence, military intervention and discrimination.  The new US government seeks
to transform this image.  I say firmly, that this will not be achieved by
talking, speech and slogans.  They have done things that have deeply hurt the
nations in the region ... action is needed and one can not remove this deep
hatred by words, speeches and slogans."  --CGE


Robert Naiman wrote:
> U.S. policy in the broader Middle East over the next four years will be 
> judged in the region according to whether the pledges that President Obama 
> made in Cairo today are kept.
> 
> So it's important for Americans to know what those pledges were. Because when
>  right-wing voices in America try to undermine those pledges, they'll be 
> undermining U.S. national security by trying to force President Obama to 
> break faith with the Arabs and Muslims of the world to whom he made those 
> pledges today.
> 
> The text and video are here. I encourage Americans to watch the speech in 
> addition to reading the text, because in watching the speech, you also get 
> the reaction of the audience - in particular, the vigorous applause - which 
> has the effect of underscoring the pledges that President Obama made.
> 
> In what follows, I will highlight some of the President's statements on the 
> Palestinians, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and democracy, and what the President
>  said about extremist violence.
> 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/what-president-obama-prom_b_211486.html
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/4/15324/30213
>