Obama
President Obama was elected under the banner of change.
- Change for the overall health of his nation
- Change in economics and finance
- Change of a re-assertion of the higher ideals of his nation expressed in the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Rights.
In this last, he even promised this change in his inaugural speech on that cold January day, and a very big thing was made of it too!
Freedom Cracks
Barely 100 days had passed before Obama was revealed as the head of a United States, professing freedom for all while at the same time condoning torture.
Guantanamo was promised to be closed and the abuses stopped. The guilty would face the full majesty of the law.
Broken Promises
Even this bold Obama-ite sensed something was possibly wrong when the author stated back in January,
In the last week or two, Obama has been making a point of saying really depressing and right-wing things
Then in July, the same author said,
His world view isn’t set by the media, and the Western media at that.
The thing is when Barack speaks…
The thing is, it all sounds great when Obama speaks. But as with everything, it’s actions that count, not words. And the latest action in America is not pleasant at all.
Under direct command from Obama, Defence Secretary Gates has blocked the publication of any more images featuring Americans abusing and torturing people.
Q. The Reason?
A. National security, of course!
These aren’t all old images, mind you! No! The images span the period from the Twin Towers’ collapse to 22 January 2009 – this year! Gates’ reason for blocking the picture releases is;
“Public disclosure of these photographs would endanger citizens of the US, members of the US armed forces, or employees of the US government deployed outside the US”
Germany Calling
Now can you imagine the scenario if a German had said that at the Nuremberg Trials after WW2? What would the US and British media have made of that? Let’s see what it sounds like, should we?
“Public disclosure of these photographs would endanger citizens of Germany, members of the German armed forces, or employees of the German government deployed outside Germany”
It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? The whole point is that these people have done wrong.
Obama and Opinion
Obama’s new response to the blocking of all torture images is wholly at variance with Eisenhower’s at the end of WW2.
Eisenhower got all media and persons to visit the death camps and tell everyone they knew all about them.
Obama? He said;
“…the release of such images would be ‘of no benefit’ and might inflame opinion against the US” – !!!! ???
My opinion is that across the globe, people have been yearning for some leadership on this. A demonstration of the ‘right way’ to behave. A feeling that justice can be done. A beacon of hope to show that actions and attitudes really can change.
There’s a fat chance of anything like that now, is there?
Q. Just what exactly did Obama learn when he lived abroad and elsewhere as a “normal person” as this author confidently states?
A. It certainly wasn’t ethics and it certainly wasn’t honour.
France
Shakespeare says in Henry V, “Done like a Frenchman: turn, and turn again!” So despite being cool about Sarkozy, Obama has definitely picked up lots of tips on his French trip on D-Day this year about how to behave like Frenchman and how to run a Republic.
See My Old Posts on This – I won’t stop until they do!
- Brave Italians versus Torture – (CIA Guilty of Torture and Kidnap – Damages of 1.5 Million Euros) – only 10 days ago!
- We Don’t Have to Behave Badly Just Because Others Do!
- Americans Love to Torture – Official
- Obama’s Been Got
- Taliban Torture America
- Megrahi and Calley compared and contrasted (in this post, VP Clinton said it was a bad day for justice and law… I just say wah? I also remember the deep embarrassment during the US primaries which all Americans should have felt, but forgot, when she claimed to be bravely dodging bullets and plainly wasn’t when the video surfaced.)
Obama is trying to protect us from these photos by not showing us, but it makes us even more furious when they get leaked out and we see them then if he would just show them. Just my opinion, but I don't see any need to hide such things. If Obama is too scared to show the public what he's doing, then he probably shouldn't be doing it.
In light of the Wikileaks information, I don't think it's fear on Obama's part. Granted, he shouldn't be doing it, but the whole US industrial and military complex as Eisenhower put it, shouldn't be doing 90% of what they're doing!
So Obama isn't scared of public opinion – he's scared of much greater forces that strive to maintain their own power, the status quo, and to keep us all enslaved.
Now, as the Yanks draw up the abuse drawbridge as Obama goes to tell the Chinese how to do human rights, the British Torture and Death investigation gets underway.
See <img src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8362200.stm" alt="Baha Mousa" /> Officer 'abused Iraqi prisoners'
I hope, given what I've said, that Obama's words when he reached China will strike the right sort of resonance with you! See:
Obama presses China over rights
To me, it's just weasel talk to the wind. he said;
He then went on to say that freedom of information – including open access to the internet – was important. he said;
Obviously, he's forgotten all about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the US Constitution….? Because he's not examining that aspect of what he's doing.