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Obama's Cowardly Betrayal
Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:10am | mal contends
Some forty-five years after the passage of the first civil rights legislation guided into law by JFK and LBJ, the civil rights and peace movements tower as monuments to American progress.
Through the work of ordinary citizens, today's America stands in stark contrast to the contemporary Republican Party earning itself the moniker, the White Party and its retrograde agenda bearing an unseemly resemblance to 1960s institutional racism and endless war.
The GOP conducted massive voter suppression campaigns against Obama who captured the imagination of the country, earning an earnest belief in the possibility of change, peace, and justice. Not just in words but in real-life deeds, and not just in the United States but throughout the world.
Afghanistan
Yet on foreign policy, President Obama's address to the nation Tuesday will apparently demonstrate anew that not much has changed in the national security state as Obama is insistent that America remain as the world's worst purveyor of violence. Sending more troops to Afghanistan is not what America needs or wants and one man's decision on this matter will mark history.
So what explains Obama's military escalation? A foolish political calculation? Human cowardice in the face of the military-industrial complex? A perceived irresistible array of war lobbyists? An insensitivity to the new generation of wounded veterans he will create?
The answers to these questions are not clear.
What is clear is that this former supporter of Barack Obama has lost some respect for the man and the administration that deserves the strongest condemnation and militant challenge from the American people for his cowardly betrayal.
- mal contends
Through the work of ordinary citizens, today's America stands in stark contrast to the contemporary Republican Party earning itself the moniker, the White Party and its retrograde agenda bearing an unseemly resemblance to 1960s institutional racism and endless war.
The GOP conducted massive voter suppression campaigns against Obama who captured the imagination of the country, earning an earnest belief in the possibility of change, peace, and justice. Not just in words but in real-life deeds, and not just in the United States but throughout the world.
Afghanistan
Yet on foreign policy, President Obama's address to the nation Tuesday will apparently demonstrate anew that not much has changed in the national security state as Obama is insistent that America remain as the world's worst purveyor of violence. Sending more troops to Afghanistan is not what America needs or wants and one man's decision on this matter will mark history.
So what explains Obama's military escalation? A foolish political calculation? Human cowardice in the face of the military-industrial complex? A perceived irresistible array of war lobbyists? An insensitivity to the new generation of wounded veterans he will create?
The answers to these questions are not clear.
What is clear is that this former supporter of Barack Obama has lost some respect for the man and the administration that deserves the strongest condemnation and militant challenge from the American people for his cowardly betrayal.
- mal contends
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It's a long way from "lost some respect" to your headline of "cowardly betrayal". And you haven't heard the speech yet. I also want the fastest reasonable withdrawal from Afghanistan, and while Obama's decision may turn out to be based on thinking I don't respect, it seems early to be so harsh.