If you are not excited to see 8 years of Bush and 30 years of Republican ideological dominance crumble into the waste bin of history, then you are probably still rocking back and forth in tears.
The Republicans were trounced eight ways from Sunday last night, despite the racist, fear mongering, smear campaign of McCain/Palin. America, the home of slavery and Jim Crow, elected a African American president. Let that marinate for a while.
Given this historic moment, and being the insomniac political junkie that I am, I set to work. I want to know what will be the pressure points, the issues to push in order to make our government deliver on its promises. Rochester Against War just took a stand opposing the war in Afghanistan, so I went to check out Obama's stated position. I wandered on over to BarakObama.com but found a glaring issue with Obama’s “issues” section.
While you will find subjects like, “Economy, Poverty, Immigration, and even Iraq”, what you wont find is, to me, one of the defining issues of the day, second only to the economic crisis. THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN. (screen shot attached)
Check out the Foreign Policy page. Among the 2,845 word explanation of Obama/Biden’s foreign policy, you wont find mention of Afghanistan there either! Not even once. In fact, if you do a Google site search of Obama’s website, you get 12 hits, most of which are from the same 2 speeches.
Now, isn’t this a little odd considering its one of the two major wars the US Military is currently fighting?
When you CAN find the country mentioned, Obama is clearly planning to escalate the war in Afghanistan. At the end of this post you can find a comprehensive set of quotations and links from the Obama/Biden website. Here are some choice phrases to consider:
-- "The scale of our deployments in Iraq continues to set back our ability to finish the fight in Afghanistan, producing unacceptable strategic risks.”
-- “When I am President, we will wage the war that has to be won, with a comprehensive strategy with five elements: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
-- “I will never hesitate to defend this country and our critical interests.”
-- “Above all, I will send a clear message: we will not repeat the mistake of the past, when we turned our back on Afghanistan following Soviet withdrawal.”
Those last two should make you feel pretty queasy. Is he suggesting we should have CONTINUED supporting Bin Laden through the 90's, that Bin Laden would have been a good ally if we didn't piss him off?
Why is this? Why is Obama's analysis of Afghanistan, a major war, buried so much on his website. I don't think its an accidental oversight. In fact, Obama has used his website to raise millions of dollars and connect millions of volunteers to each other during his campaign. What I think Obama and his handlers realize is that his "base" the millions who brought him to power, are under the assumption that Obama is the "peace candidate" The Democratic party is just fine with this notion and purposely downplay this seeming contradiction. And so they bury and distract, bob and weave, and allow incorrect beliefs to continue, as long as they deliver their vote on Nov 4th. Its straight out of the McCain playbook.
In fact, Obama isn't a "peace candidate", he falls more on the "Wrong War, Wrong Way." The places he plays UP his desire to escalate is among those generals, military contractors, and Washington elite that stand to benefit from US domination of the region. He is courting them by arguing he can manage the Empire better than old Bushie, who has really made a mess of things.
I think the overall point made is that far from opposing US military intervention, Obama is squarely in the camp of using the US Military to “defend this country and our critical interests.” As I started this article saying, we should be extremely excited and we should realize that sentiment is moving in a leftward, progressive, whatever word you want to use, OUR direction!
But we should remember, that politicians are bought and sold like credit default swaps. Unlike Wall St., bankers WE have something to lose and everything to gain by examining in explicit detail what is THE CONTENT of their policies, and who do those policies end up benefiting?
I can remember getting calls from my friends, trapped in downtown Manhattan as the World Trade towers fell. I also remember that Bush was reading a childrens book in Florida, and Cheney was safe in his bunker. “Our critical interests” are actually “their” critical interests. No Afghani ever gambled my life savings away. No Iraqi ever denied me healthcare, and no Pakistani ever imprisoned me indefinitely without charge.
RAW Politiko
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Obama by the quotes:
Lets see what the Obama/Biden ticket says about Afghanistan (ive bolded some of the most important remarks):
-- In the Iraq section, under the headings “Resurgent Al Aqaeda in Afghanistan” it says the following:
The decision to invade Iraq diverted resources from the war in Afghanistan, making it harder for us to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and others involved in the 9/11 attacks. Nearly seven years later, the Taliban has reemerged in southern Afghanistan while Al Qaeda has used the space provided by the Iraq war to regroup, train and plan for another attack on the United States. 2007 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001. The scale of our deployments in Iraq continues to set back our ability to finish the fight in Afghanistan, producing unacceptable strategic risks.
-- In a speech given in Des Moines, IA | May 21, 2008, Obama says:
“Change is ending a war that we never should've started and finishing a war against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan that we never should've ignored.”
-- A speech given in Washington, DC | August 01, 2007 titled, “The War We Need to Win” Obama said the following:
"And so, a little more than a year after that bright September day, I was in the streets of Chicago again, this time speaking at a rally in opposition to war in Iraq. I did not oppose all wars, I said. I was a strong supporter of the war in Afghanistan."
He continues:
"When I am President, we will wage the war that has to be won, with a comprehensive strategy with five elements: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan; developing the capabilities and partnerships we need to take out the terrorists and the world's most deadly weapons; engaging the world to dry up support for terror and extremism; restoring our values; and securing a more resilient homeland.
The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
He continues:
Above all, I will send a clear message: we will not repeat the mistake of the past, when we turned our back on Afghanistan following Soviet withdrawal.
http://origin.barackobama.com/2007/08/01/remarks_of_senator_obama_the_w.php
-- In a speech given to some Flag Officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force in Chicago, IL | March 12, 2008 he says:
That is why I have consistently called for an increased commitment to Afghanistan, and why I called last August for at least two additional combat brigades to support our mission there. And that is why I will end the war in Iraq when I am President, and focus on finishing the job in Afghanistan.
I will never hesitate to defend this country and our critical interests.
http://origin.barackobama.com/2008/03/12/obama_receives_endorsement_of.php
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