[Peace-discuss] Obama's killing spree

[C. G. Estabrook]

Black Agenda Report
News, analysis and commentary from the black left
*
Obama's Killing Spree*
By Margaret Kimberley
Created 05/04/2011 - 09:47

Obama is certainly living the thug life, an international gangster without 
parallel. What is to lesser humans a planet is, to Obama, a spherical theater of 
war, a free-fire zone. With two more notches in his gun, the First Black 
President is ensuring that Black Americans will be viewed as just another brand 
of ugly, violent Americans set loose on the world. And the Peace Prize winner 
will once again give a lofty, well written speech about why it makes no sense to 
be peaceful.
/
  Extrajudicial killing is now the rule, and not the exception for the United 
States./

Barack Obama was trying for a double homicide this weekend. He hoped to kill 
both Muammar Gaddafi [7] and Osama bin Laden [8] in one fell swoop. Bin Laden's 
luck ran out, but Gaddafi used up another of his nine lives and survives while 
his son and three of his grandchildren are dead, killed in a NATO attack on 
their home.

The United States government murdered members of Gaddafi's family in a blatant 
violation of American and international law. The peace prize laureate is in fact 
a typical American president, using lies and outright thuggery in order to 
promote the dictates of the American empire.

That empire is on its way out, but the final demise may take years, or decades, 
and the raw power of American military might well continue to bring devastation 
to the world. The Gaddafi family and Osama bin Laden are but the latest victims 
in the body count.

Not only were these killings assassinations and therefore illegal under American 
law, but they play a terrible role in promoting beliefs in exceptionalism and 
exceptional suffering. Judging from the gloating and celebration invoked by bin 
Laden's death, one would think that Americans were completely innocent of 
bringing bloodshed to any part of the world.

Obviously that is not true. Not only is America guilty of many crimes committed 
both within and outside of its borders, but the terrorist attacks that took 
place on September 11, 2001 became the pretext for an orgy of even greater 
numbers of killings. Thousands of Afghan civilians have died for the simple 
reason that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda planned the attacks while using that 
country as a base. The occupation of Iraq was born out of an utter and complete 
lie, a claim that Saddam Hussein was, like al Qaeda, a threat to the safety of 
Americans.

/One would think that Americans were completely innocent of bringing bloodshed 
to any part of the world.
/
The Obama administration is not quite so ham-fisted as the Bush regime, but 
Muammar Gaddafi has taken on the role played by Saddam Hussein. Just last year, 
we were assured that Gaddafi was a friend and an ally of the United States, and 
that the Reagan era attempt to kill him was a long distant memory, never to be 
repeated because Gaddafi was now on the good list of foreign policy makers.

How times have changed. Last month Obama, British prime minister Cameron, and 
French president Sarkozy issued a joint statement which said in part, "Colonel 
Gaddafi must go, and go for good." Well, killing someone certainly insures they 
are gone for good, and the three intended to make good on that threat.

Extrajudicial killing is now the rule, and not the exception for the United 
States. Not only that, but our court system, which in the pre-Bush days were 
used for terrorism trials, are now off-limits politically. When the Obama 
administration briefly planned to try Khalid Sheik Muhammad in New York, all 
hell broke loose. New Yorkers were told, falsely, that their lives would be at 
risk and their city would have to shut down. Of course, the expense would have 
been great, but it would have been possible to carry out a civilian court trial 
had the Obama administration not knuckled under to pressure to ignore the rules 
of law.

Obama, the so-called change agent, has proven to be exactly like his 
predecessors. His poll numbers are high because he killed people in a far away 
place. One of the victims was a perpetrator of a crime against Americans, but 
had the country not fallen into such a lawless state, he might have been brought 
to trial in a courtroom. The United States is now less civilized than ever, and 
even if Obama had been inclined to do so, most Americans would howl and moan at 
the prospect of bin Laden receiving true justice. It is a pity. It would have 
been wonderful indeed for the United States to make even a small attempt to live 
up to the ideals it once followed. Even the Nazi leadership were tried in open 
court.

/The United States is now less civilized than ever./

On Thursday Obama will go to the site of the old World Trade Center and make a 
speech about why he had to kill bin Laden and why it was right to do so. The 
Peace Prize winner will once again give a lofty, well written speech about why 
it makes no sense to be peaceful.
The carnival atmosphere is growing more awful by the moment. The corporate media 
(*link lies) immediately told the story of the bin Laden killing by repeating 
government lies about women used as human shields and has now descended into 
worship of the black ops, special, wonderful, very elite, calm, cool, collected 
and totally awesome troops who did the killing. CIA director Leon Panetta is 
even suggesting who should portray him in a movie. It would be easy to make fun 
of Panetta, but he knows of what he speaks. Hollywood will come calling and the 
only question remaining will be who will portray the peace prize winning killer 
president.

/Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely 
reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at 
http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. [9] Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and 
can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com. [10]

/Links:
[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/attack-libya
[2] 
http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/gaddafi-attempted-assassination
[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/obama-peace-prize
[4] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/osama-assassination
[5] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/us-hit-list
[6] 
http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/obama_free_libya.jpg
[7] http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/04/2011430224755721620.html
[8] http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2011/05/2011526196121642.html
[9] http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/
[10] 
http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Ffreedom-rider-obama%25E2%2580%2599s-killing-spree&linkname=Freedom%20Rider%3A%20Obama%E2%80%99s%20Killing%20Spree 

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