- The genuine euphoria of the world over the selection
of Barack Obama is genuine on so many different fronts; but the differentials
between the promise inherent in this 'choice' and the facts on the ground
are very real.
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- PROLOGUE
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- The public apparently believes that: In the face of the
'global' promise of Obama, to continue to insist upon "minor details"
is of no consequence, and is harmful to the spirit of 'change' itself.
If the president does not have to abide by the Constitution, then technically
there is no law in this land; and no "law" can then be enforced
against any citizen, because constitutionally we have only one law for
all citizens, including the president. Of course the US Constitution is
now just another relic of history" rather than the legal basis for
this nation: something that many who have professed not to have noticed
for the last eight years; have now hastened to point out, with a heavy
emphasis on what they see as "the positive that must not be threatened,"
especially by something as inconsequential as adherence to Article Two
of the US Constitution.
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- DAY ONE
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- The first twenty-four hours are now history, and the
first indications are that there are surprises waiting for those that
'believed,' perhaps too soon; in the literal application of Obama's implied
promises for real change that already seems to be imperiled. The message
from around the world lies in the hope that Obama will begin to encourage
peace and end the foreign policies that have destabilized so much of the
world today. Here are some excerpts from a round-table discussion on Democracy
Now this morning.
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- JOHN PILGER: "Michael Moore had it right when he
said the other day 'let's hope he breaks all the election promises as
politicians generally do; because all his election promises in terms
of foreign policy are a continuation of 'business a usual.' And even if
there is a return to what used to be called a multi-lateral world, I think
there has to be a critical analysis of the return to the pretentions of
America as a peacemaker around the world."
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- In response to another question Pilger said: "What's
it's like over there (in Afghanistan); it comes down to asking, I suppose,
an Afghan child how they feel when their family has been destroyed by
a 500 pound bunker-buster bomb dropped by the United States and dropped
by a president Obama as he continues that war. I think that's the reality
that we have to begin to discuss now; having celebrated, and rightly celebrated,
the assent of the first African- American president of the United States."
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- MAHMOOD MANDANI: "I agree with Pilger that Obama's
first task is to cut through this ideological sham and to bring the American
people to face realities. The most that Obama can contribute within the
context of being the president of an imperial power is to recognize the
changing world situation. To recognize that this is the end of an era
of a single super-power; that the US will operate among several powers:
That the US has to learn to live in the world rather to simply occupy
it. ~ The campaign was full of extreme and contradictory promises and
provocations. But if you look on the side of the promises there are indications
that this is within the realm of the possible.
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- There is the discussion of the need to speak to the president
of Iran without preconditions. There is that remarkable primary debate
with Hillary and Edwards (wherein Obama and the others were each asked
which of them Martin Luther King would support). Obama responded that
King would not have supported anybody: but that King would have organized
his movement to push the winning candidate, to pursue the objectives.
That's the real question now in the US today.
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- There was a movement, a youth movement to elect Obama.
Will that movement dissolve itself or will that movement build itself
around the objectives, around which it organized? Will America recognize
as I believe South Africa has after the election of Mandela; that the
election of Mandela was not 'change,' but was an opportunity to change:
And whether that opportunity is realized and transformed into a program
of social justice within the country. Peace abroad will depend on the
movement that pushes Obama and gives him the opportunity to respond to
it.
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- The lesson of Bush is that when a candidate steps from
an arena of electoral politics to the presidency of the US the kinds of
interests and pressures that now come to bear on the candidate are different:
Larger and within the president is different. There are anxieties
about the particular kinds of people who gathered around Obama especially
as regards foreign policy. . ."
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- ALI ABUNIMAH: On yesterday's announcement of Rom Israel
Emmanuel to become White House Chief of Staff. "Indeed Emmanuel is
one of the most hard-line supporter's of Israel and has been for years.
He's the son of Benjamin Emmanuel who actually was a gun-runner for Irgun,
the pre-Israeli Zionist militia that carried out numerous terrorist attacks
on Palestinian civilians, including the bombing of the King David Hotel.
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- Of course Rom Emmanuel himself is not responsible for
any of that, but his record is sometimes far to the right of President
Bush when it comes to supporting Israel. But I think the important thing
here is not just the appointment of Emmanuel but the greater context
here which is that from the days when we knew Barack Obama as a small
time politician in Illinois.
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- I won't tell you that I've never said that he was incredibly
progressive on Israel-Palestine; but he was certainly more open minded
than he is now. And what he's done substantially throughout the campaign
is to distance himself, or to 'throw under the bus' as the term goes;
any advisor or friend that was suspected of having pro-Palestinian sympathies.
In other words he has succumbed to the McCarthyite and racist campaigns
that says; If you associate with even a very moderate Columbia University
professor, or take their advice, then that's the biggest crime. So the
signal he's sending here is that this is not going to change. The people
who could give him more balance, more objective or more realistic advice
that could change the course of the disastrous Palestine- Israeli policies
of the Bush and Clinton administrations-that that is not going to happen.
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- That should be very worrying because a lot of progressive
people; a lot of people in the Middle-East, a lot of leaders, have pined
hopes upon Obama of being quite different on this issue-and I just don't
see any evidence so far, that that's going to be the case.
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- It worries me that people will stay silent, rather than
putting on the table now: and loudly-their demands for a more balanced,
more objective, more fair plan that could bring peace for Palestinians
and Israelis.
- There could not be a more provocative appointment than
Rom Emmanuel, if he wanted to send a signal that he is going to stick
by a hard-line pro-Israel!
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- The point I want to make is that Barack Obama has painted
himself into a corner by appealing to the most hard-line pro-Israeli
elements in this country. By distancing himself from all advisors, even
mainstream establishment figures like Zebignev Brzezinski or Robert Malley
who was one of Clinton's officials who was thought by the pro-Israeli
lobby to be too pro-Palestinian. What he has done is he has publicly embraced
people like Dennis Ross and Martin Endig, two of the most pro-Israeli
officials from the Clinton era, who are totally distrusted by the Palestinians
and other across the Middle-East, because they are seen as life-long advocates
for Israeli positions.
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- So he's made it impossible or extremely difficult for
himself to say 'look, now we're going to talk to wider range of people;
we're going to talk to those excluded voices that could give us advice,
that could actually get us out of this mess in Israel- Palestine' and that's
very worrying. And I think that progressive people across this country;
instead of basking in the euphoria, need to pick themselves up today and
start demanding that the Obama administration immediately end The Siege
of Gaza: it's totally indefensible, and it is a crime unprecedented in
modern history, that 1.5 million people are confined to a Ghetto, starved,
cut-off from the world: threatened! This is indefensible and there's
no need for this to continue even for a single day under a new administration
that should be setting the standard very high; not accepting 'slight hints'
that 'in a few year's time,' an Obama administration "might"
accept a Palestinian State or might talk about one. The days for that
are over. This situation is urgent, and we really need to see radical
change: It's not going to come from Rom Emmanuel and Dennis Ross and Martin
Endig-it's only going to come from a groundswell; demanding that the promises
of 'change' be kept!"
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- MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Upon being asked about Obama now: "My
sense it that we have to place the man in context. I'm equally skeptical
of those who believe Obama is capable of everything, as I am of those
who believe he is incapable of anything: he'll simply be muzzled by context.
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- I think that this campaign began as a campaign on the
question of peace. He began as a peace-candidate and ended up as a redistribution
candidate. Foreign policy had the front seat at the beginning and had
the back-seat towards the end of the campaign. So we really don't 'know'
much. What we do know is that any president who wants to have an impact
on history can only do so at moments of great crisis; and this is a moment
of profound crisis, domestically and internationally. Obama's campaign
accounts I believe give us very little clue as to what he's going to do.
His appointments I agree give us some clues and there is reason for concern.
But at the same time there'll be returns coming in, if the appointments
lead to the policies we fear they may lead to. It's a time of priorities
and a time to organize and to put the pressure."
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- AFTERWORD:
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- This unique overview, of which the foregoing is only
a small part, only takes an hour to hear in its entirety-this would seem
to be a small investment for anyone that remains remotely curious about
where the Obama administration might seek to take this country, as we
begin this journey toward Inauguration. (1)
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- What a difference a day can make, especially if we take
some of the advice above and demand the changes that were implied within
the run-up to this selection.
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- kirwanstudios@sbcgloba.net
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- 1) President-Elect Obama and the Future of US Foreign
Policy: a Roundtable Discussion
- http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/6/ president_elect_obama_and_the_future
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