Obama, The War President
by Helen Thomas
Where’s the change we can believe in?
Bush left a legacy of two wars, neither of which was ever fully explained or justified. Obama has merely picked up the sword that Bush left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the struggle against terrorism, one might say, “Who cares?”
One group that cares consists of Americans who follow the rules and think we should honor all the treaties we have promoted and signed over the years.
The President gave short shrift to foreign policy in his State of the Union address, mentioning neither the lives lost nor the cost of the global hostilities that the U.S. has involved itself in. He also didn’t mention U.S. policies in the Middle East, though those are the root cause of many of our problems.
While U.S. special envoy George Mitchell has a hopeful outlook for the resumption of the stalemated talks between the Israelis and Palestinians after a year of trying, Obama seems to have temporarily thrown in the towel.
Obama said he was keeping his promise to leave Iraq by the end of August.
Meanwhile, frequent suicide bombings continue in that beleaguered country.
Afghanistan is a different story. U.S. forces there are involved in manhunts of al-Qaida and Taliban leaders. But the cost in civilian life is heavy when drones are used and whole families have been wiped out to get one suspected leader.
The U.S. seems to have convinced the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan that it’s their war too. The Washington Post said the loss of Hakimullah Mehsud has dealt a fatal blow to his followers.
The U.S. military web has spread to Yemen, where American intelligence teams have joined Yemeni troops in planning missions against al-Qaida elements. Scores have been killed there.
Then there’s the ramped-up U.S. saber-rattling toward Iran.
In his speech, Obama warned Iran of “consequences” if it didn’t play ball and co-operate on nuclear inspections. It’s unclear whether those consequences are of the financial variety or of a pre-emptive military strike by the U.S. or Israel.
All this comes at a time when the U.S. has bolstered its naval presence in the Persian Gulf and the neo-conservatives are calling for “regime change” in Iran.
But neo-con Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, sees the possibility of peaceful regime change in Iran. Organic regime change could change the Iranian equation, Kagan concludes in a Washington Post article.
Iran, reacting to Western pressure or from fear of an attack, recently offered to send its uranium abroad for enrichment for industrial use.
There are new tensions in other parts of the world. China is upset with the U.S. $6 billion-plus arms sale to its nemesis, Taiwan. China’s also irked at Google for its belated push-back against Chinese hacking into Google’s G-mail accounts.
So while the President’s Democratic base of support mutters about his abandonment of health reform and immigration reform, Obama can take solace in support from the Republican Party whenever he flexes U.S. military muscle.
And so this president takes his place among other U.S. chief executives who have sought the glory of leading the nation in military conflict. He has attained the desired status of “War President.”
© 2010 Albany Times-Union
Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail: helent@hearstdc.com. Among other books she is the author of Front Row at The White House: My Life and Times.
I have always admired Helen Thomas. Reading her articles educates me on the issues. Since I self teach myself I depend on Journalists who do their research before they write their articles to keep me informed so that I as an American citizen have knowledge of what is going on in the world.
Maybe this is why I dream of being able to go to college and get a 4 year degree in journalism. To me Journalism is a noble field and very important because Journalists research the topic to find the truth and then they write an article to inform people of what is really going on. Journalists make our government give an account for their actions. At least they were suppose to. Helen Thomas comes from the old school of journalism. Today people like me who have no formal training in being a journalist can start a blog and write. Glen Beck has his own tv show on Fox News and he didn’t go to school to learn how to be a good journalist.
I am teaching myself by reading different books that are written by Journalists. I have to finish the book I am reading now before I can start Andrea Mitchell’s ” Talking Back to Presidents, Dictators, and assorted Scoundrels.” She is another woman Journalist that I respect and admire.
Some Americans like to say that the News and all the media is controlled by Communists or as White Nationalists like to say is controlled by the “Jews”. Yet, the truth is that large corporations have been allowed to by up these companies so that the reality is that we have a corporate media who many times doesn’t report all the news that the American people need to be able to educate ourselves. We have a few independent media like commondreams, democacry now, and ring of fire, that I post on this blog so that my readers can read and listen to Progressive media.
I have always been the black sheep in my family. I have always been the one who is differnt. Boys would tell me that I was a rare jewel because there was only one of me. Yet, inspite of the way things look on the outside I keep on believing that someday I will be able to go to a good 4 year college and be able to study Journalism. I have also considered being a vet because I like working with animals, but the reality is my brain doesn’t process information as quickly as normal people. I have a slow processing speed and science and math is very hard for me. I have great writing and verbal skills so Journalism is something that I could do and be happy knowing that I as a journalist would be educating other Americans on the issues so they can vote because of knowledge and not on sound bites or on his looks.
Helen Thomas is a great lady!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!