GuidoWorld

The Trojan Horse President

June 7, 2009 on 5:51 pm | In General |

During the campaign trail Barak Obama seemed like a breath of fresh air in a fear and hatred dominate presidential race. His message was one of hope and compassion often talking about how the US could continue to be the most powerful nation in the world without having to compromise its high humanitarian values.

For those of you who have visited the site often you are well aware of the fact that I had my doubts of Obama’s ability to follow through on his words. I felt that any true challenger to the status quo wold not be allowed to win their party’s nomination. The  media assasination of Howard Dean and Ralph Nader in the previous election and Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich in the recent election formed the basis of my cynical stance.

Yet, in my post following Obama’s first day in office I stated how pleasantly surprised I was with his pledge to close Guantanamo and his stance opposed to torture along with his balanced approach towards Israel and the middle east. I did add as a caveat that I was very concerned about who he had named as cabinet members and policy advisors. These people, especially his economic team, were well entrenched insiders who were major players in the very economic system in crisis that Obama was pledging to reform.

Well it didn’t take long for Obama to move away from reform and back to the status quo. Soon his tough words on torture and Guantanamo softened, his words of diplomacy towards the middle east were belied by his actions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Isreal, and the bailout and stimulus programs flew in the face of his previous populist viewpoints.

One could make the case that his foreign policies have become even more aggressive and militaristic than the Bush administration. Not only is torture alive and well but the stealth bombings of Pakistan, and the use of banned weapons in Afghanistan is upping the immoral ante of the US as a global bully. The bombing of Pakistani civilians in the hope of killing a few suspected terrorists, and the melting of Afghans through the use of white phosphorous is a step in the wrong direction if your goal is moral leadership.

I was always amazed at how Republican’s who called themselves the moral majority or the religious right could support policies that propagated torture and murder. Now, I’m likewise baffled by the Democrats who are coming up with excuse after excuse to justify Obama’s recent policy decisions and imperialistic actions. Of course, many people, just bury their head in the sand and don’t even acknowledge the heinous actions done in our name.

It appears obvous to me that neither party is willing or interested in making the world a safer and more harmonious place. Fear mongering and bullying is the only game in town.

As a citizen of the US I feel no moral superiority over anyone else on the globe. I don’t necessarily think nations that oppose our policies are inerently evil and dangerous. There are good and mean people in every nation and society on the globe, yet I have a hard time finding any nation’s foreign policies more vicious than ours. Being good is accomplished through good deeds not by living in a specific geographic space or espousing a specific political philosophy.

Jim Guido