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Obama’s Second Term: Forward March

By Joseph Grosso

03 May, 2012
Countercurrents.org

As the next election begins to loom larger, filled with the predictable, banal, batch of slogans destined to land in history’s dustbin- remember ‘compassionate conservatism’ (along with George W. Bush’s chastening Congress for balancing the budget ‘on the backs of the poor’), John Kerry’s ‘reporting for duty’- who could forget Barack Obama‘s contributions ‘change we can believe in’ or ‘Yes we can’? Just like all the others it is quite easy to list the countless ways Obama’s rhetoric collapses on itself. In fact the difficult part is knowing where to begin.

The Guantanamo Bay prison is still open. Wiretapping without a warrant, far from being eliminated and prosecuted, has expanded and not even Bush had the fortitude to have his attorney general declare the right to assassinate American citizens overseas with drones. The pharmaceutical companies, whose negotiations with the with the White House were not televised on CSPAN, still effectively own the government which still can’t even legally negotiate lower prices or import cheaper drugs for Medicare. When was the last time Obama muttered the phrase ‘living wage’ or stumped for card check (the Employee Fair Choice Act, which would make union organizing slightly easier), all while continuing the tradition of overlooking continuing anti-union violence in Colombia? This could go on ad nauseum. Recall the outrage when oil companies participated in Dick Chaney’s energy task force? Well Obama’s CEO meeting list includes Twitter, Netflix, Apple, Apple, Facebook, Google, American Express, Xerox, Wells Fargo, Johnson and Johnson, and JPMorgan Chase. And leave it to Obama to turn an individual mandate to buy private insurance, originally a conservative policy, into a liberal cause.

Yet nothing shows a more firm resolve for the status quo than the continued support for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. On this score at least Barack had the courtesy of showing his hand early, on the very next day after he locked up the Democratic nomination. He went straight to AIPAC declaring an undivided Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel and assuring options (‘I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon’) to prevent Iran from developing nukes. If that evening an a way symbolized a young, dynamic Politian easing the fears of the establishment (something he made sure to do in an earlier interview with Forbes magazine when he labeled his own anti-NAFTA talk as simple ‘campaign rhetoric’), it is still striking how deep are the ties that bind.

Look at the subsequent events of Obama’s first term. Just as the administration was attempting to restart the tedious peace process, vice president Biden was greeted upon arrival in Israel with news of settlement expansion, undermining the main Palestinian for the resumption of talks. And it isn’t everyday that an American president gets lectured on national TV. Yet even after the settlement debacle that’s exactly what happened when Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flat contracted Obama’s statement to AIPAC that future negotiations be based on the pre-1967 borders. Netanyahu’s quip that “The only peace that will endure is one that is based on reality, on unshakeable facts” left Obama sulking and his aides seething but otherwise there was no harm done. Obama quickly tried to ensure an anxious media just how much he and Netanyahu are on the same page.

During Obama’s most recent AIPAC speech he proclaimed:

‘The fact is, my administration’s commitment to Israel’s security has
been unprecedented. Our military and intelligence cooperation has never
been closer. Our joint exercises and training have never been more robust.
despite a tough environment, our security assistance has increased every year.

Following this there was:

Iran’s leaders should now I do not have a policy of containment.
I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And as
I’ve made clear time and again during my presidency. I will not hesitate to
Use force when necessary to defend the United States and its interests

Saber-rattling is of course standard campaign material. Intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program years ago. Just yesterday a NY Times story painted Netanyahu as largely a solitary hawk regarding Iran’s nuclear question, with even former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pushing diplomacy. The Times’ front page cited both American officials and outside analysts as thinking military action as increasingly remote. Yet for Obama a chance to show his hawkish side before AIPAC is never to be passed up which makes it an exceedingly easy bet that the American policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will leave another administration morally bankrupt.

Perhaps it is fitting that Barack Obama dispensed with ‘Change We Can Believe In’ and took up the banner of ‘Forward’ for his reelection campaign. Indeed it would have been preferable if he’d saved the trouble and gone with that from the beginning. Barack Obama was never serious about change as his administration from the start has continued the forward advance of corporate power and other reactionary interests.

Joseph Grosso is a librarian and writer living in New York City




 


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