Sunday, January 25, 2009

Obama: True Friend of Israel


Beware of Straight-A Students!

Democrats are like the good, intelligent students to the Republicans mostly jocks and too rich to study types. Vast stereotypes, both, but will do for the purpose.

Among the Democrats' goody-two-shoes student types, though, Obama is exceptional. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he were a straight-A student throughout his school years. Also, I bet he always wanted to sit in the front row, though guessing by his height he must have probably sat toward the back.

Not even a week in the White House, and he is cruising through his agenda tasks one by one; nay, one two three at a time, 'There, I'm done!'

His first work week was only three days long, yet he's already given the orders to close down Guantamo Bay's prison camp, and all 'black sites'. Just these two items of shame should also bring about a whole host of investigations and prosecutions, but will any ensue? I doubt it.

Also, any and all legal justifications and formulations of torture, by a stroke of pen, were rejected, suspended or came 'under review', although the legal procedures for the prisoners' trials/release are still to be worked out ... Which, itself could take a while longer ... "Have patience," will soon become the operative word of advice coming from Democrat apologists.

And, let us not pass too quickly over that convenient category: 'under review'. Could it be that some of these 'methods and techniques' could simply be re-categorized, or the army manuals re-written, so after the 'review process' torturous methods of interrogation can resurface, now as legal? Never put anything past these rats.

Next: abortion. Reversed all Bush injunctions and bans on spread of U.S. aid money going to international organizations that educate about, or help with, abortion. Done! All the feminists thus satisfied, he can depend on them for support in just about anything he'll put his mind to. The Pro-Choicers, further, will revel for a long while on the fact that it is now the Pro-Lifers' turn to organize and protest, to bring pressure; this particular tennis ball is now in the opponents' camp for at least four years. Barack, the ever-enthusiastic student has paid his debt to one of his gleeful constituents, turned in his homework and early at that, has a guaranteed stage at this forum, and has an apple cart full of polished ones ready to hand out to this crowd.

Next: in a show of something not so pleasant that could await more government employees (wage/benefit cuts), Obama started a policy of wage freeze for the White House staff. Done! And see how serious he is about fiscal discipline?

Next: to show how hard he's coming down on those terrible lobbyists, he's introduced restrictions on lobbying by anybody who works in his administration. Done! See how unfriendly he is to 'special interests'?

Obama is smart! And, therefore, tons more dangerous than Bush. On this, I have to agree with Alex Cockburn's descriptions of George Bush as the ultimate disaster president for the plans of the imperialists (see, Hail to the Chief). Just look at how exposed the imperialists became during the Bush presidency. Now, all the mess will be swept under the carpet. Try to get a word of criticism against this Prince of Light, and just watch how quickly a liberal will morph into a fascist super-hero right in front of you, no telephone booths needed.

A friend, a very capable editor in his own right, was warning way back about this very 'Barack more dangerous for the left' business. Back when the presidential campaign was ongoing, my friend was confiding that from a leftist perspective, as President, McCain would do more damage to imperialism than would Obama. With an Obama victory, he warned, you'll get the slick, schmoozing, super-hypocritical slime balls back in charge, finessing and sexing things up, tidying up the mess, soft-talking to the Europeans and making it easy for the U.S. to get more effective European cooperation to plunder and further oppress the rest of the world. My friend was, and is, correct.

Yes, to prove how quick of a study he is, Obama didn't forget to include the big-ticket items of strategic import that he also was required to turn in: Insults for the Palestinians, the Afghans and the Pakistanis. It didn't take him long at all to reveal how much of a slave he has promised to be for his Israeli bosses.

Look how successfully he has turned in his homework, reports all typed-up, double spaced, one and half inch margins, with a neat title page, with appendices featuring special charts, color-coded and all handed in before term, already got his 'A+'; for work done so well and the report written up oh, so beautifully on the topic of ... Gaza!

"Israel has a right to self-defense," and, "No democracy can tolerate such danger to its people." This line of non-reason is such a non-sequitur and so irrational that it is almost insane to utter; it is clearly not said to address a real problem. 

What does it mean, anyway? That 'democracies' can kill innocent children indiscriminately by the hundreds in a short span of time, if they so wish? That 'democracies' can occupy other people's land indefinitely and subject the people of those occupied lands to any sadistic and cruel type of behavior the human mind can conjure up? What kind of 'defense' requires killing and maiming innocent children, women and men by the thousands, to 'retaliate' for the killing of one person, even if we agree that the Hamas rockets were the real reason for the 'retaliation'? Is Obama sick in the head?

Still not a word of condemnation about the outrageous ethnic cleansing and widespread massacres; not a word about the use of illegal weaponry such as white phosphorus and uranium-enriched munitions, a war crime that a constitutional lawyer should know about; not a word about the indiscriminate bombardment of heavily civilian population areas, not to mention direct and very precise attacks on hospitals, schools, infrastructure such as power plants and sewerage plants, even UN buildings; the very institution that sanctified Israel's very creation and existence! Still not a word regarding ALL the egregious violations of Geneva Conventions, UN Charter, international humanitarian laws or most any law, period!?

So we can conclude that, during the 22-day slaughtering of Gazans, when Obama didn't utter a word about the massacre of Palestinian children, women and men, trapped-in and locked-in with no place to flee to, it was not due to the fact that the U.S. 'cannot have two presidents at any given time' (I am pretty sure he did not stop waxing statesmanlike regarding a whole host of other issues).

Obama's silence was not due to his careful deliberations under way, forcing him to wait for his moment before coming out and revealing a thus-far hidden socialist internationalist seeking to interject some 'balance' into the U.S.'s role as an intermediary in the Middle East 'conflict'.

No. He had already finished his homework for this class and turned it in before term! The real reason he didn't say anything was that Obama really didn't have anything to add. Nothing to add beyond what reality (aided by Bush and his puppeteers) was saying already: that the slaughtering of Palestinians is acceptable to ALL U.S. administrations.

Be afraid of this straight-A student. Be very afraid, and organize!

Monday, January 19, 2009

The 22-Day Slaughterhouse: A Lesson Better Learned


The Israeli leaders are claiming victory in their latest atrocity, the 22-day-long slaughtering of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip; destroying 4000 homes and damaging 16,000 more, killing upwards of 1,500 people, wounding and injuring more than 5,000, destroying government buildings (used and needed by ALL the population), mosques, schools, UN buildings, even hospitals -- the biggest destruction in this department, the best equipped Gaza City's Quds Hospital, in the process obliterating half of the available capacity in Gaza City for taking care of the sick and the injured, making sure that the number of murdered will continue to rise for weeks to come.

And that is called victory by the Israeli sadists. Victory? Against a trapped and captive, starved and oppressed population living on their millennial, ancestral lands, lands which they refuse to let the Israelis steal more of?

Hardly a victory, of any sort. Hamas is still there, and is still the legitimate, democratically elected representative of the people; the destruction will be repaired, even if it takes years; the dead will be buried, and in the process of all the funerals more will join the ranks of the freedom fighters in Palestine. Meaning, the resistance to Israeli barbarities will continue for years to come.

All that the Israelis victoriously and successfully showed to the world was that they are a sick bunch of sadists with no conscience. All they proved was that they could very swiftly kill many, many hundreds of innocent children in their homes and schools and even when injured and in hospitals, do the same to women and men of different ages, by bombing and bulldozing buildings in thousands, using illegal white phosphorus bombs; all, in order to get an entire nation to 'change its behavior'. Isn't that the official definition for 'terrorism'?

The Israelis proved they can destroy buildings. That's all the 'victory' they got.

The Palestinian people, if they needed any further confirmation of the treacheries against them from their human brothers and sisters in high places, just witnessed the impotence of not just the 'World Leaders' in stopping daily massacres against them; but more importantly, the Arab leaders (no news really to Palestinians), and very particularly the Egyptian Hosni Mobarak. Mahmoud Abbas, likewise, lost any credibility he may have had.

In other words, it was re-affirmed for the Palestinian people that, in their just struggle against Israeli occupation and atrocities, they must rely more on their own abundant resourcefulness and resilience.

I think one major lesson must follow: one of the stated aims of the Israeli military operations was to destroy the tunnel systems developed by the Palestinians in Gaza, around the southern border with Egypt. However, as admitted by the Israelis, '"The operation did not deal an irreversible blow to the tunnels industry," Mr Diskin, the head of the Shin Beth internal security service, said' (see here).

In view of how frustrated the Americans became over the years in Vietnam exactly due to an elaborate tunnel system created by the Vietnamese freedom fighters-- the tunnel systems developed by the Vietnamese played a key role in their long-term, military victory against first the French and later the American invaders -- the tunnel systems created in Gaza must be given an important strategic place in the fight the Palestinian people are waging against the Israeli occupiers. So, one lesson must clearly be: a more extensive tunnel system, more elaborately constructed, is needed. Not just in Gaza, but in all the occupied territories.

The land, as the Vietnamese realized very early in their fight, is the thing that cannot be taken away by invading armies. It may be occupied for an hour or two, a day or two, a year or decade or two, even several decades and more, but the aggressor always has to cede it back. For the aggressor has no game other than deflect and delay. By killing more Palestinians, who are legitimately exercising their right of defense against occupation, Israel is doing nothing other than deflecting and delaying a just outcome. Justice may be delayed, but in this case it shall not be denied.

So, dig deep into the earth that is yours.

Long Live the Palestinian People!
Long Live Free Palestine!
Justice will be had!

Post Script: For a general overview of the tunnel system created by the Vietnamese, you can see our four-part series of quotations from a book by Tom Mangold and John Penycate, titled, The Tunnels of Cu-Chi (1985):
Introduction: here ...
Strategic Import/Structure:  here ...
Resource Management:  here ... and
Tunnels' Defense:  here.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

George Galloway on Gaza Massacres

Below is a video clip of George Galloway at a rally on January 8, 2009, speaking on the Gaza atrocities.