Intro: "The grades for the president's State of the Union are in and the critics have been kind. In fact, it's chilling to see just how few hits the president takes for couching his entire address in unqualified celebration of the US military."
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, as Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, right, listen. (photo: Saul Loeb/AP)
Not A Peep About President's Praise for War
27 January 12
he grades for the president's State of the Union are in and the critics have been kind. In fact, it's chilling to see just how few hits the president takes for couching his entire address in unqualified celebration of the US military.
Speaking of the troops, President Obama began: "At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations."
Post-show pundits on cable news praised the president's comfort with his commander-in-chief role but none saw fit to mention recent news - of marines urinating on Afghan corpses, say, or Staff Sgt Wuterich walking free after participating in the killing of 24 unarmed men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq. Accompanying Obama's next phrase, "Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example," no one thus far has played vile viral video. The critics have been kind.
The president chose to celebrate the US military; the press chose not to raise a peep about the spread of US militarism. Yet US targets proliferate - abroad - with unmanned drones assassinating unconvicted suspects in innumerable undeclared wars. And militarism spreads at home. The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act makes indefinite military detention without charge or trial a permanent feature of the American legal system. It's kind of the critics not to mention that - or the president's four-year-old pledge to close Guantanamo, and to restore the "rule of law."
"They're not consumed with personal ambition… They work together," continued the president (again, speaking of the troops.) There are surely plenty of troops who would disagree. The tally is long of commanders and pigeon hawk commanders-of-commanders who've dodged responsibility, fingered underlings and permitted rank-and-file "bad-apples" to take the heat for US war crimes.
"Those of us who've been sent here to serve can learn a thing or two from the service of our troops," the president concluded.
There are indeed things we can learn; things that many US troops have begged us to learn. That war dehumanizes the killer and the killed, and that war tactics have a habit of spreading from the war zone to the home. Successive generations have told us that military recruiters lie, and that "rules of war" exist only in legal minds. (Ninety percent of casualties in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were civilians.) Troops have begged us to learn just what we are celebrating when we celebrate "winning" and war.
As far as I can see, Ralph Nader on Democracy Now was the lone voice of disgust on national TV.
Clearly we have a lot to learn.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
 22 May 2012
|
 21 May 2012
|
 21 May 2012
|
 21 May 2012
|
 21 May 2012
|
 23 May 2012
|
 22 May 2012
|
 22 May 2012
|
 22 May 2012
|
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
Jack Lohman
http://MoneyedPoliticians.net
Obama has proven to be a war-monger and not a man of peace. His use of drone attacks shows this well. He continually patronizes the US military and caters to the neocons who love to use our military for their battles and not real defense of the USA.
The line in his speech that shocked me was when he claimed his most prized possession was the signed flag carried on the mission to kill Bin Laden. That's a sad commentary, especially when Bin Laden was unarmed!
The Taliban … refused to hand over bin Laden without proof or evidence that he was involved in last week’s attacks on the United States. … The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan … said Friday that deporting him without proof would amount to an “insult to Islam.”
CNN also provided an explanation for the Taliban’s “refusal,” reporting: “Bin Laden himself has already denied he had anything to do with the attacks, and Taliban officials repeatedly said he could not have been involved in the attacks.”
So the Taliban were not really refusing to turn him over but rather were demanding certain conditions be satisfied before they did so. That is not unusual. Governments routinely have evidentiary standards that must be met before they grant an extradition request. Bush, however, was not in a diplomatic mood, and he told the Taliban “the demands were not open to negotiation or discussion.”
The refusal by the Bush administration to put any evidence on the table made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Taliban to turn bin Laden over.
The Washington Post ran a story in October 2001 that quoted Milton Bearden, a former CIA official, who said the Taliban needed a “face-saving formula.” While the Bush administration was saying, “Give up bin Laden,” the Taliban were saying, “Do something to help us give him up.”
Guess I should invest in some arms manufacturers because it looks like they got another good year coming.
We live in a time of showmanship and games only. Many of us grieve for the loss of anything resembling decent statesmanship and international cooperation.
http://lookingglass.blog.co.uk/2012/01/26/i-m-so-proud-12528363/
Tis true that 'how do you know a politico is lying - their lips are moving'.
This works out very well for O and his handlers; they can keep the dumb citizens busy worrying about the economy and in the meantime blithly go about their business murdering innocents around the globe for the enrichment of the corporations. Nary a word is ever said about military spending being the cause of the deficit because that would be political suicide for anyone brave enough to do anything about it.
What a sick, inhumane country this has become and anyone who thinks it will get better if O is reelected need only look at his shameful record.
Does Obama include the marines who were caught filming themselves pissing on Afghans they had murdered. I guess if it is murder and terrorism, the troops do exceed all expectations -- and all bounds of law and humanity.
I did not watch the speech. I did not want to throw up for the night. I heard that he never mentioned OWS. It appears that Obama is still pandering to the right wing and the fascists in the neo-cons and imperialists. What an asshole. And yet he is still better than Newt. Just try to imagine Newt giving this speech.
RSS feed for comments to this post.