Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Obama’s Proliferating Wars: Empire on Full Throttle Offensive
08 Feb 2012
🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

President Obama is leading a general imperial offensive around the globe, and “were it not for the Russian and Chinese vetoes at the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. and its allies would by now have declared the city of Homs or some other parts of Syria as areas to be ‘protected’ by U.S.-led air forces.” History will record Obama as “a man of war – many wars.

Obama’s Proliferating Wars: Empire on Full Throttle Offensive

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“Obama is a smarter, more attractive, charming warmonger – and, therefore, even more dangerous than George Bush.”

Barack Obama is running for re-election as a war president, the savior of American empire. His State of the Union address was bracketed, front and back, with praise for U.S. military prowess, including the fantastic claim that the Iraq War – his predecessor’s greatest crime – had made the nation safer. For those who still cling to the illusion of the First Black President as a man of peace, Obama has, himself, repudiated that non-existent figment of the imagination. Obama is a man of war – many wars.

The U.S. is engaged in a general imperial offensive that is designed to accomplish what George Bush set out to do – but failed – in 2003: to isolate Russia and China, the main obstacles to U.S. domination of the planet. In that sense, it is totally logical that Obama would revise and sanitize the Iraq War, since he approved of its imperial intentions, but thought its execution was, in Obama’s words, “dumb.” Obama is a smarter, more attractive, charming warmonger – and, therefore, even more dangerous than George Bush.

Even more than Bush, Obama can depend on a warmongering corporate media to demonize those regimes targeted for removal. CNN speaks constantly of Syrian President Assad as a “butcher” of his own people, a propaganda formula deployed only months ago against Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi – and equally false in both cases. Even the Arab League’s Observer Mission to Syria put much of the onus for the violence on “armed opposition groups” rather than security forces. You have not heard much about this report, because U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar – who largely financed the rebels in Libya – refused to publish the Arab League Mission’s findings. Much of the U.S. corporate media have also pretended that the report never existed, because it does not support Washington’s rational for regime change in Syria. Instead of a one-sided “slaughter,” the Arab League observers reported attacks by armed rebels provoked the Syrian security forces to respond; that armed militants bombed “buildings, trains carrying fuel, vehicles carrying diesel oil” and targeted “police, members of the media and fuel pipelines.”

“It is totally logical that Obama would revise and sanitize the Iraq War, since he approved of its imperial intentions.”

It is no secret that these armed groups are supported by Turkey, a member of NATO, by the billionaire royal families of the Persian Gulf, and by the United States. And, were it not for the Russian and Chinese vetoes at the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. and its allies would by now have declared the city of Homs or some other parts of Syria as areas to be “protected” by U.S.-led air forces.

Obama toys with war against Iran, and lies about it without blinking an eye. The president said flat-out to an interviewer, just before the Super Bowl, that Iran was trying to build a nuclear weapon. But his own Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, said only a month ago that Iran is not attempting to build a nuclear weapon. The heads of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies say the same thing. In the Super Bowl interview, Obama said Iran has refused to reject nuclear weapons – when, in fact, the Iranians have done exactly that on many, many occasions. But the President believes in spreading the Big Lie, and the U.S. corporate media are there to transform those lies into gospel truth, through sickening repetition.

So, tell me: Where is the difference between Obama and Bush on issues of war and peace?

There is none, except that Obama is a more talented killer.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20120208_gf_ObamaSyriaIran.mp3

More Stories


  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Detroit’s Wayne State U Encampment Shut Down by Police
    12 Jun 2024
    At 6:00 am, cops rushed in to break up the peaceful protest which was demanding the disclosure and divestment of WSU from entities with investments in the state of Israel.
  • Peoples Dispatch
    Biden Shuts Down US-Mexico Border
    12 Jun 2024
    Border shutdown will go into effect immediately, barring asylum seekers from entering the United States.
  • Maureen Clare Murphy
    Palestinians Massacred in “Rescue” Operation Lauded by US
    12 Jun 2024
    The recent massacre in the Nuseirat refugee camp that killed over 200 Palestinians is being touted as a successful rescue mission by Israel and the United States.
  • Natasha Lennard
    New York Spends $225 Million on Its Own “Cop City” — to Make the Whole City Run on Cops
    12 Jun 2024
    A proposed New York training facility shows how establishment politicians only understand governance through policing.
  • Alander Rocha
    Inmates Challenge Motion to Dismiss in Alabama Forced Labor Federal Lawsuit
    12 Jun 2024
    The lawsuit against Alabama state officials, agencies, local governments, and private companies for their involvement in the prison labor program continues. Prisoners now must fight a wave of motions…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us