Barack Obama is an important man, and we are lucky to have him as our President in these turbulent times. He is a great communicator, seems to believe in diplomacy and conflict resolution, and appears to be an honest man.
Obama, however, is not nearly as important as the movement that elected him. A growing number of Americans, many of them young people, realize that the United States is destroying itself. As a nation, we have been ignorant too long. We have refused to see both sides of the story for too long. We have repeated the same violent, hard-headed, bloody mistakes FOR TOO LONG. In recognition of this, the people of this country made a loud statement demanding a new course.
It is hard for me to understand how further inflaming the situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan reflects the change the people of this country have clearly demanded. It is hard for me to understand how keeping 50,000 troops garrisoned in Iraq until the Rapture or whatever reflects the change the people of this country have clearly demanded. We are worse than broke, we are severely in debt and spiraling out of control, and yet we perpetuate the follies that have broken us!
Leaving aside the popular demands for change, our foreign policy is self-defeating as currently executed. As long as American foreign policy employs imperial violence, we fan the flames of extremism across the globe. We cannot defeat terrorism with terrorism. And make no mistake: airstrikes that scare the shit out of innocent people and leave them missing limbs, children, homes, and jobs amounts to the same thing as terrorism. We cannot defeat Al-Qaeda, or the Shadow Army, or the Council of United Mujahideen, or the Taleban, or Hamas, etc, militarily alone!
Success against terrorism will only come when the conditions that facilitate violent extremism are addressed, the roots of the problem. Violent extremism is a symptom of poverty, oppression, and hopelessness. We cannot blow up terrorism. We cannot blow up poverty, oppression, and hopelessness. I understand that many of you, especially those who favor soundbites and seductively simple “solutions,” think that we can blow these things up. You are wrong, and your stubbornness is dragging us all down with you. We are paying for your ignorance, dearly.
So what can America do? Obviously we cannot ignore the proliferation of violent extremism. To repeat myself, the first thing we can do is stop fueling it. Another thing we can do is build roads and schools, feed and clothe the poor, and act as an HONEST broker for peace in the world. Dust off those bibles, Torahs, and other holy books you are all so fond of: there’s lots of helpful hints in there! Skip over the fire and brimstone, we’ve got enough of that already.
Mr. Obama, I do not envy anyone who stands up to or threatens the priorities of the Military Industrial Security Establishment. It is dangerous to stand up to such powerful people, whose capabilities are so advanced that we probably would not understand them even if we were aware of them. It is, however, your job. You took an oath to protect the Constitution and the American people, from all enemies foreign and DOMESTIC. Did you mean it?
If we still live in a democracy then the people tell the government what to do, not the other way around. For far too long the government of this country has been dictating to its people what we will do, as a nation. How well has that turned out? Take a look around you.
I will be writing a more thorough piece on this shortly. For now, I’ll leave you where we began: Mr. Obama, end these wars. End. These. Wars.
