Jeremiah 8:11
When
the prophet Jeremiah wrote those words, he could have been describing
the public-relations strategy of the current US government. Barack
Obama won the presidency and the hearts of billions around the world
by pledging to bring peace. His humanitarian rhetoric promised a new
era in American foreign policy, away from armed confrontation and
towards cooperation. But since taking office he has increased combat
forces in Afghanistan, expanded our air strikes in Pakistan, shifted
the fighting in Iraq onto hired mercenaries and local soldiers, and
pledged his "full support" to the "heroic" CIA.
Obama doesn't want to end the war, he wants to fight it smarter,
cutting our losses in some areas while stepping up attacks in others,
aiming to salvage a partial victory. The new commander in chief has
scaled down the grandiose goals that launched the war, replacing them
with a fallback battle plan for maintaining some control over the
Iraqi and Afghan governments,
oil supplies, and pipeline
routes.
So the war continues, now with less press coverage
because when mercenaries and local soldiers die, it barely makes the
news. The war continues because millions of Iraqis and Afghans refuse
to accept US hegemony and are willing to die to defeat it. The war
continues with no end in sight because Obama refuses to abandon this
drive for hegemony.
He refuses not because he's evil but
because too much is at stake. A defeat in this strategic area would
be devastating. Many of the privileged leases that US petroleum
companies own on Mideast oil would be canceled. These favorable
leases help keep fuel and petro-chemical prices comparatively low in
the USA. Without them, prices would soar, eliminating much of our
economic advantage. The loss of this competitive edge would mark the
decline of American dominance. It would be particularly disastrous
for the US military, which is the world's largest consumer of oil. We
would become one player among several, no more powerful than the
European Union, Russia, China, or India. Obama knows that any US
president who moved in such an egalitarian direction would be out of
office very soon.
The corporate elite backed him because he
could calm the waters of discontent and create superficial changes
that would allow them to maintain their power. His eloquence and
charisma revived hope in America. We want so much to believe him that
we overlook that he's still killing thousands of our fellow human
beings. Obama is proving to be the ultimate cosmetic change. His
performance is another American triumph of image over actuality.
These betrayals of democracy show that our government doesn't really represent us but rather the business interests. If they need cheap oil, the president and congress will make war to get it for them, with time-out every few years for some campaign rhetoric about peace. It's obvious now that their rhetoric is lies. Obama's morphing into a war president makes it clear that expecting "change you can believe in" from the Democratic Party is a delusion.
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"The Morphing of Obama" is the introduction to the book RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War, which presents the first-person experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists in the USA, Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Recently released by Trine Day, it's a journey along diverse paths of nonviolence, the true stories of people working for peace in unconventional ways. Other chapters are posted on OpEdNews and on a page of the publisher's website at http://media.trineday.com/radicalpeace
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