Moving Obama Forward
March 17th, 2009 by Wil Robinson
I’m still tentatively problamistic about President Obama – not optimistic, not pessimistic - just assuming the most probable outcome. I won’t say I’ve become disillusioned yet, but Obama is definitely not bringing the kind of change we voted for, especially when it comes to foreign policy.
Obama’s policy on Iraq is virtually identical to what Bush’s was at the end of his term last year: we’re gonna keep some troops, we’re gonna secure our “interests” (read: oil), and we’re never really gonna leave entirely.
But it is in Afghanistan that Obama has really screwed himself. And it seems only now is everyone beginning to realize it. The decision to keep raining airstrikes on Afghanistan and Pakistan in hopes that we can bomb an insurgency into submission is finally being questioned (although many pundits seem to be questioning only “Obama’s decision” to bomb – seeming to ignore the 7 years that Bush first decided it was a good idea). But let bygones be bygones. We’re talking about now – the future – and the way forward.
I first said our policy of airstrikes on villages was doomed for failure last October. Then again here. And here. And also here. Professor Juan Cole alluded to the problem on January 26, just days after the inauguration. Newsweek opined on the issue in late January. The Scholar’s Stage analyzed the issue as well. And a former Pakistan CIA case officer wrote an op-ed for the New York Times last week saying the same thing.
Is anyone in the Obama Administration listening?
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the progressive spiritual magazine Tikkun (check out Tikkun’s wonderful piece on the positive role of Islam in Afghanistan), appears to have some constructive ideas about how we can get Obama’s attention (reprinted in part from an email and available in the March/April 2009 issue).
…[Obama’s] decision to double U.S. troops in Afghanistan is a moral and political disaster. He has neither clearly articulated goals nor a plausible exit strategy, he continues the intellectually incoherent and morally perverse “war or terror,” and he guarantees the death of innocents…
Yet how do we [criticize Obama]?
…[F]or some the answer simply is: “keep quiet, be patient, and in his own time he’ll do all the good things liberals want.”
But that is not how Obama works. It’s obvious from his appointments and his policies that Obama responds more to those outside his camp who make a ruckus of criticism than to those whose support he takes for granted.
To be politically relevant, spiritual progressives have to become visible critics where that criticism is morally required. Yet we must do so in a language that embodies our genuine respect for Obama and our genuine belief that he can be called back to his own highest values.
Our task is to use this extraordinary moment in history…to provide a detailed vision of an alternative…Without that vision of an alternative, progressives and liberals are forced back into the old ways of thinking…
The “something new” is already there…in our religious and spiritual wisdom, but today it must be fleshed out and applied…to build a new global system. That is our challenge, and that is our major project in the months ahead.
There is no question that the United States is a thousand times better off with Obama than his criminal predecessors (one of whom seems unwilling to let go of the fear…ehem, I’m talking about you, Darth Cheney).
We made a huge step forward last November when we elected a person like Obama. Unfortunately, the last eight years left us little room for mistakes. We can no longer afford two steps forward and one step back.
So the question we are left with is: What is the most probable outcome? Will Obama suddenly shift to a new foreign policy paradigm that advances international coexistence between East and West, between Muslim, Christian, and Jew, between rich and poor?
Or will Obama continue his drift toward hypocrisy, appeasement of the conservative right, and repetition of the failures of the past?
Progressives like Rabbi Lerner believe our duty as citizens only began last November. The future is up to us.
Tags: foreign policy, collateral damage, progressive, Afghanistan, Obama
Good post, Will. We are definitely a million times better off with Obama in the White House than John McCain. But the reaility is, Obama is a product of our political system and will serve the MIC and the establishment like any other politician. This should not be a surprise to anyone.
Republicans tried to win the election by painting Obama as a scary Socialist, but no one believed it, certainly not people on the left. And now some folks are acting surprised that Obama isn’t nearly as liberal as the Republicans said he was. LOL.
Our only solution is continue to work hard for human rights and justice, just as we would if McCain were president.
SB -
Amazing how every Democrat that runs for office is painted as the “most liberal in Washington” - and then when they win, they are suddenly the most center/right in Washington.
As you are probably aware, Wil, I have been slowly losing confidence in Obama. When Obama was campaigning, he offered up a seven-course meal of improvements he would make. Now, once elected, we only get crumbs brushed from the table.
I am torn between believing he is in the pockets of AIPAC and the Military/industrial Complex, or that he fears ending up like JFK.
He claimed he was going to institute vast sweeping changes in Foreign Policy (the root cause of most of our problems), but the changes have been minute. Foreign Policy is still Empire-building and Military Hegemony (and resource theft). His self-proclaimed ‘carrot and stick approach’ is pure bullsh*t! Besides, who can eat a carrot when they’ve had their teeth knocked out by the big bully’s stick?
If it’s fear that’s holding him back, then he is weak in character; if it’s something else, he’s a consumate con-man. He was swept into office with the mandates of the people. If he fails to deliver, his support will erode, and I don’t care how many times better than Bush he is.
BT-
I was very happy to see his videotaped message to Iran - in particular, his use of “The Islamic Republic of Iran” which seems to demonstrate that he is shifting away from the old policies. I think this will do much to sway opinion in Iran before the elections, thereby (hopefully) putting a reform candidate in office to replace Ahmedinejad, and putting the clerical leadership in the position where they will lose face with their people if they fail to grab ahold of the chance.
As for Afghanistan…it remains to be seen how he thinks he can win with bombs.
Wil–
You, with your world experience, knows that this world is made up of many different cultures. What maybe comfortable for some, is distasteful to others. When did God die and leave His decision-making to Washington D.C.? Our arrogance is flabbergasting. WE decide that our 230+ year experiment is the best in the universe. We fail to take into account, that others have a 5,000 year cultural history.
Water seeks it’s own level, and no amount of levees, dikes and damns will control it forever.
For those that think we have such a great society in America, pull your heads outta your asses, and look at the shape this country is presently in.
May God have mercy on us for all the death and destruction we have wrought on this planet.