ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

By thebeerdoctor

It is hard for some to imagine, but Senator Barack Obama may turn out to be the perfect candidate for the neo-conservative agenda. His recent speech at the AIPAC conference revealed a harder line than that of Vice President Dick Cheney, when it comes to the Middle East. He offered this caveat: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”

That is a very dangerous sore to pick if there is going to be any hope for any kind of peace. A complete denial of the Palestinians to East Jerusalem has been a point of contention for decades. Why did Obama say this? Was it to prove to this hawkish Zionist advocate group that he totally gets their agenda?

“Let me be clear, said Senator Obama, “Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non negotiable.”

Sacrosanct? Last time I heard that phrase was back in the 1980’s, when General Alexander Haig said that about the defense budget. What a twisted notion our political leaders have about the security of the United States. Both of the main parties think it is perfectly acceptable to tie our destiny to another country, supposedly as a defensive posture, but in reality it is just a means to continue the armaments industries. As Senator Obama said: “As president, I will implement a Memorandum of Understanding that provides $30 billion in assistance to Israel over the next decade–investments to Israel’s security that will not be tied to any other nation.”

$30 billion over a decade? That’s $3 billion dollars a year. An increase in American largese that underlines the fact that the United States government is simply not interested in avoiding foreign entanglements. Exporting more weapons sows the seeds of future conflicts, which alas, is the most hideous cynical reason of all.

Senator Obama claims he wants to end the war in Iraq, but does he really? The plan to build fifty permanent bases there, already in the works, will undoubtedly continue, no matter who is elected president. That iron triangle that John McCain used to speak of, is being embraced in a truly bipartisan way. The privatization of the military will also continue. Senator Obama refuses to endorse H.R. 4102, the Stop Outsourcing Security Act. A brief exchange with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, revealed that the junior Senator from Illinois has not only a talent for lofty rhetoric, but also equivocation:

Sen. Barack Obama: Here’s the problem. We have 140,000 private contractors right there, so unless we want to replace all of or a big chunk of these with US troops, we can’t draw down the contractors faster than we can draw down our troops. So what I want to do is draw–I want them out in the same way we make sure that we draw out our own combat troops, alright? I mean, I–

Amy Goodman: Not a ban?

Sen. Barack Obama: Well, I don’t want to replace these contractors with more US troops, because we don’t have them, alright? But this was a speech about the economy.

Amy Goodman: The war is costing $3 trillion, according to Stiglitz.

Sen. Barack Obama: That’s what–I know, which I made a speech about last week. Thank you.

On the Barack Obama web site it states: “Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq.”

This all sounds well and good, until you get to the next sentence: “He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.”

Enough is enough. Despite the pageant thrills of electing the first black President, when you examine the double speak on foreign policy, you’ll find that any rumors about correcting the military-industrial-congressional complex are greatly exaggerated, to say the least. How ironic that Senator Obama used the phrase from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the fierce urgency of now, to explain the reason for his presidential campaign. It should always be remembered that Dr. King used those words in a speech denouncing the Vietnam War. It would have been grand if Senator Obama would have applied some of those peace and justice principles, when he addressed the AIPAC conference. But that is asking too much. He looks good. He talks well. But he is really just a politician. If elected, he may bring about some domestic reform and just might restore some our stolen liberties. But his pandering about Iran being a threat to us, even makes that seem dubious. Obama supporters who denounced Senator Clinton before she quit, use to say: She’ll say anything in order to get elected. Senator Obama’s performance at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, proved him to be the same.