Politics is a fantasy – more so in the United States mass media dominated culture, a combination of pretension, willful deception, institutionalized manufactured lies and individualistic propaganda and fear mongering suspicion of the disbelief to manipulate the common folks to manage the informed herd and exploit their patriotism to serve the multiple interests of the 1% ruling few elite. Despite its ambiguous claims the liberal democracy seemed at loss to provide any sense of moral or intellectual security to the 99% masses – the political engine of the democratic legitimacy. The well paid corporate news media networks boost the self-crafted fear of wars – the agenda for continuous struggle as if peace is endangered specie even in utopian configuration. The mankind lives in One World on One Planet. War waged by aggressors in one part of the planet, is a war against the whole of the mankind. Since the elected leaders faltered to deliver peace, they must be questioned for their treacherous role-play. There is no shortage of visionary, competent and intelligent people in the Western societies. Why not nominate intelligent, honest, proactive and responsible Americans rather than wasting time and opportunities on Obama, Romney and Gingrich. Perhaps, the 99% forceful voices of the people and changing fortunes of time signaling tangible shifts in thinking and political perceptions of the Western liberal democratic functionaries fearful of the unknown forces of change, time and history will reinforce the demand to hire competent political leaders rather wasting money and efforts in electing sadistic egomaniacs persons pretending to be leaders. Those with credibility and chosen by the 99% masses could serve the interest of the people for peace, security and economic well being rather than waste money and hopes and disregard institutionalized political cynicism and bigotry – not Obama, not Mitt Romney, not Gingrich or Bush, not Cheney, not Blair – some have been fund guilty of “crimes against humanity” others are candidates in public perceptions for war crimes against humanity. At the State ofUnionaddress this week to both the Houses, President Obama sounded abstract economic remedies to the official ills and mismanagement and politically disconnect rhetoric except to enhance his self-image for re-election in 2012. He failed to explain the rationale of his current warmongering againstIranand made no mention to resolve the unilateral conflicts through negotiation and dialogue as he had originally claimed. The political and intellectual dishonesty was self explanatory as his thoughts barricaded in words and hollow rhetoric devoid of any appeal to human conscience and REASON in dealing with issues of grave importance to theUSstrategic interests. He seemed hasty, from one point to another – in between waiting for clapping sounds but embracing self-serving fantasy of oratory and power. He claimed major accomplishments killing of Osama bin Laden and continued war against long dead Al-Qaida and other unknown terrorist figures. While the ordinary American folks feel pain and anguish for their human losses for the unworthy and bogus wars on terrorism and continued financial mismanagement, Obama’s trouble is that he has gone to the dark forces of the military-industrial complex and Washington based lobbyists and worships the form of self-serving agenda and denies facilitation to the political essence of responsibility of being a people serving leader. Re-election was the motivational punch line for the State of the Union address. Robert Kagan (“Grading of Obama’s Foreign Policy”, Foreign Policy, January 30, 2012) paints a rosy picture of his win-win stories but sees the total US troop exit from Iraqas “unnecessary and unwise” and “the deep cuts looming in defense will go a long way to undermining the U.S.position in the world.” None of the current analytical trends indicate complete collapse of the working of the US financial institutions and 15 trillion official budgetary deficit and American political governance as the Republican presidential candidates would allege – moral and political decline in public perceptions that according to the CNN polls 83% American people disapprove the role and working of the Congress and Obama’s standing maintains a marginal static image. Almost four years have passed since the exciting presidential election night, President Obama signaled a major shift in American policy to “rebuild America” – a visionary outlook- a picture of tomorrow’s New America, from the Audacity of Hope to the first elected colored and intellectually viable President of a collapsed superpower effectively besieged and run down by the handful of Mujahideen challenging the US war plans in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reconstruction of a nation involves rethinking from bottom–up and change of strategic direction to make it happen. After tough lifelong struggle to acquire the White House occupancy as a popularly elected President, Mr. Obama was an actor in a soap opera stage show but consciously speaking to the well informed global audience across many continents and defying physical distances and conflicting time zones to transmit refurbished optimism out of prevalent darkness of lost America that a New America will come into being with a new zeal and best opportunities for peace, liberty and freedom away from the continued wars of greed and institutionalized corruption. Global humanity is intelligent, informed and mature enough not to long for political cynicism and dubious characterization of aims, interpretations and technical explanations. Someone as intelligent as Mr. Obama appears to be, should have known clearly what his strengths and weaknesses are, and absurdities of the people around him and how best he could have performed effectively as a new visionary President with a new colored image of considerable historic proportion at a time of a war-torn and financially bankrupt and morally exhausted American nation. After almost four years, President Obama appears to be taking the in-between seat on a rollercoaster- a new game of missing moral and intellectual credibility and engaging in a bluffing game of absurdity. As a first legal act of promised closing down the infamous Guantonmo Bay Terror prison, he failed miserably exposing a morally and intellectually weak characteristic. Obama accelerated the war activities inIraq andAfghanistan onward toPakistan. Bob Woodward calls it “Obama’s War.” Paul Craig Roberts (“The World’s Least Powerful Man – the Obama Puppet”: 01/2010), points out the Obama’s tragedy in progress:
To blame Assange of Wikileaks for the disclosures of theUSglobal atrocities is simply to transfer moral and political responsibility to the unknown. Wikileaks cannot destroyAmericabut the two bogus wars inIraqandAfghanistanhave caused theUSfinancial collapse, moral decline and political downfall. To the informed citizens of the global village, war is war and peace is peace. Wickedness and righteousness cannot be combined in one human character – one policy statement. It is unthinkable that both terms could be taken for the same meaning and purpose. War is not synonymous to peace. After one year in the office, President Obama attempted to underscore the informed intellect and optimism of the global well wishers while speaking at the Oslo Nobel Peace Prize ceremony: “to say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism; it is recognition of history.” History tells us that force has been used by various transgressors when they failed to envision their strategic aims come true through bigotry and wickedness. So President Obama needs to re-read the relevant chapters of the living history. Force is necessary when diplomacy and reason fail to produce results but none are applicable to the Obama’s Presidency. Obama came into office with the declared aim to renounce war as a means for the growth of American capitalism and the future course ofAmericaforeign policy. Yet after a short span of time in the office, he wants to justify the use of naked force and bomb the graveyards ofAfghanistanand continues to destroy the left-over human habitats inPakistan. Seemingly, an entrenched President, Obama bluntly told the audience that “peace is desirable” but that is not enough whereas the cost of the war will be that “some will kill, some will be killed.” With gruesome outlook, in moments and crossing over the unthinkable time hurdles, Obama assumed the role of a War President instead of being a Peace President. The souls of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. must have been tortured and tarnished how a President of Hope is fast changing to be a President off the people and far the people. In view of his intellectual foresights, it was improbable to imagine that a majority elected President Obama could renegade his own publicly pronounced commitment for change and ANEWAmericafor a sustainable New World Order. To transform the pacifists into optimists, to energize the depressed with new hope and motivate the soft-hearted and peace loving masses of the US, you had enliven them with a new vision when you declared the intent for a new dialogue and friendship with the Muslim world at the day of your official inauguration. You had the courage and commitment to tell the Arabian audience atCairovisit (2009) enthusiastically:
President Obama crafted the illusion of HOPE and willful bluffing strategy to talk of peace and harmony amongst varied nations and more so to your global well wishers for a New World of friendly relationship between the USand the Muslim world. It was all charged deceit and bluffing to kill the time and find new issues to reassert the American absolute authoritarianism in global affairs. Mr. President, you wanted to appear proactive and smart to talk about peace-building and bridging the generational gaps between the conflicting ethnic and religious fantasies and you did that enthusiastically in your performance at the Oslo Nobel Peace ceremony on December 10, 2009. Mr. Obama (“Son of Africa” as Ghaddafi addressed you), you knew well that America is broke in moral and political standing and that the nations of the world even some of your closest European friends do not take the US on its own words. The crippling images are outcomes of the American failed warmongering inIraq,Afghanistan andPakistan. During the election campaigns, you promised to reverse the Bush’s era violations of human rights, torture and the savagery of killings across the globe but once you were in the White House, you preferred marriage of convenience to settle down in Bush’s psychopathic behavior as business as usual. You know your talents, abilities and limitations, you have never been to any war fronts in your whole life – like George Bush, you are a drawing room decorated legal Commander-in. Chief, you have no capacity to win these wars nor a strategy to bring your troops home safely and alive. Time is ticking fast if and when you will sit face to face to your assumed enemies to workout safe exist for your fighting men. Do you think that the global humanity is totally dumb or that ignorant to believe in you and the mockery of your contentious war policy aims? According to Michael Meacher, the British Minister of Environment in PM Tony Blair Cabinet (“This War on Terrorism is Bogus”, The Guardian, Sept 6, 2003), explains that the overriding motivation for the war on terror has been the scarcity of hydrocarbon energy supplies and the US and UK will run out of sufficient supplies by 2010. Whereas, the Islamic world will control 60% of the global oil production and equally important, 95% of the remaining oil export capacity. Minister Meacher concludes that “the global war on terrorism has the hallmarks of a political myth propagated to pave the way for a wholly different agenda – TheUSgoal of world hegemony built around securing by force command over the oil supplies required to drive the whole project.” Had the President stayed on the right course for change “Yes We Can”, he would have scored high popularity standing not just within America but in global perception as an optimistic President powerful enough to mould and shape the future of the world with America leading as a power of influence, intellect and morally strong political values as was its history. One fundamental factor is often ignored by most American scholars that none of these guys waging the wars from their drawing rooms ever fought on a real war front, their advisors (including the former speech writer David Frum who indoctrinated George Bush to assert the notion of “axis of evil”) brief them to talk, but war is not about talking, it is madness of killing fellow human beings under the glued labels of hatred and animosity and nothing else. Why the intents and real purposes of the War on Terrorism are politically so secretive that none of theUSpolicy makers would dare to talk in public – the wars and the 9/11? Imagine, if the actions of President Bush were legally and politically justifiable, wasIndianot justifiable by the same legal precedent to invade theUSafter the Union Carbide’s plant gas leak had killed approximately 8,000 to 12,000 civilians in Bhopalin few minutes in1984. Aftermath of the gas leaks affected millions of others in that state. ButIndiadid not threaten theUSwith force and opted for reason to prevail over the perpetuated tragedy. Could it be that human victims of the Indian tragedy were not viewed as important and valuable as were the casualties of the 9/11 in American crafted media images? What makes terrorism of the few so intimately aligned to theUSpolitics and friends of the Bush family elite as suddenly undesirable and marked to be killed along with millions of other innocent people throughout the world? Is there a secretive puzzle and political dimension untold and unknown to the genius of the global community? “It was curious,” wrote Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four, “to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same, everywhere, all over the world … people ignorant of one another’s existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same people who … were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world.” (John Pilger, “Welcome to Orwell’s World 2010”). Obviously, in a short span of time, according to Paul Craig Roberts, President Obama has reverted to become “the World’s Least Powerful Man – the Obama Puppet” (ICH: 01/2010). Roberts explains that:
At the 2009 Cairogathering, President Obama reiterated the proactive policy aim in “change” by using diplomacy, not force to resolve the conflicts: “Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible. Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: “I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.” You were right on Mr. President, somehow the imbalanced scale of power vs. wisdom failed to materialize. The soft hearted USmasses are caught in the middle. Americais fighting with itself, with its own ideals to defy the aims and spirit of its own Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence:
The USnews media reported that for days President Obama worked on his own on the Oslo Nobel Peace speech composition. Obama must have felt lonely as the American publics do not seem to share his conviction and outlook on the continued bogus wars on terrorism. How strange that Mr. Obama was elected enthusiastically by the will and passion of the American electorates, yet, he is overriding the primary interest of his own people in prolonging the wars of aggressions across the globe. It is estimated that the US and Britainforces alone have killed three million civilians in Iraqand devastated large parts of the human habitats in Iraqand Afghanistan. Is this the on-going bloodbath of the innocent humanity not the premeditated genocide? Would President Obama assume the responsibility for the wars including the possibility of crimes committed against the humanity? One of the important features of the 21st century effective leadership is to be listening and learning enabling the leaders to be responsible to those who have expressed faith and trust in them. Would President Obama analyze his role and the policy outcomes for a navigational change? What needs to be changed by President Obama is to live upto the proclaimed hopes and commitments made to the American masses during the elections? Adam Curtis, the author and producer of the Nightmares, BBC world famous documentary on the false pretext of the War on Terrorism streamlines the facts of human affairs and political falsification: “In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different ways of achieving this. But their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered to their people. Those dreams failed. And today, people have lost faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life. But now, they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism. A powerful and sinister network, with sleeper cells in countries across the world. A threat that needs to be fought by a war on terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media.” To replace peacemaking with the nightmare of the war, President Obama offered no different discourse at the Oslo Nobel Peace Prize gathering than what Adam Curtis is reiterating to the whole world. Reconstruction of America would have involved the visionary leadership, a new THINKING to change the course and direction of the USforeign policy and warmongering and a new beginning to stop the wars of aggression in Iraq, Afghanistanand Pakistan, but these hopes were mere words, not part of the current USpolicy or rational thinking. If President Obama was serious enough to rebuildAmerica, he would need a navigational change and start THINKING anew, a different perspective to understand the prevalent realities of the world and put an end to the bloodshed carried on with active US forces and support to many self-styled illegitimate dictators and politicians in those countries implementing the American war agenda. Renee Parsons – former lobbyist for Friends of the Earth inWashington (“US Plans for Perpetual War” ICH, 01/27/2012) captioned the prevalent Obama’s naïve momentum: “With the world’s largest military force including an incomparable nuclear arsenal and a budget to match, exactly who are we protecting the Homeland from — and what condition will it be in when they arrive? If al Qaeda’s goal was to destroy the country’s quality of life, its economic prosperity or its high regard for the First Amendment and civil liberties while creating a second-rate banana republic, they have done a terrific job.” Historically, all those leaders and powers challenging the Laws of God ended up in self-defeats and got destroyed by natural causes of earthquakes, flooding and sound blasts. TheUScannot fight against God and Islam – it does not have the weapons or the capacity to achieve that goal. Paul Craig Roberts (“Drowning in Hypocrisy” paulcraigroberts.org: 01/24/2012), shares crucial knowledge-based observations and a rational context to President Obama’s excelsior across the Rubicons:
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global affairs (global security, peace and conflict resolution) and comparative Western-Islamic cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest one: Arabia at Crossroads: Arab People Strive for Freedom, Peace and New Leadership. VDM Publishers, Germany, September 2011. Comments are welcome at: kmahboob@yahoo.com) |
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