"It is difficult to decide what is most reactionary and contemptible in such comments. Is it Donilon’s presentation of Obama as a defender of the US Constitution—though Obama has ordered extra-judicial drone murders, including of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, expanded domestic spying, including on the press, and signed bills authorizing the indefinite military detention of Americans, in practice shredding the Bill of Rights? Or is it the fact that Donilon posed as a defender of the Constitution and of civil liberties only minutes after having been praised as the organizer of the extra-judicial killing of bin Laden? Washington’s intervention in the oil-rich Middle East is perhaps the clearest example of the fundamental contradiction between the American “values” cynically invoked by Obama and the American (imperialist) “interests” he also invoked. As it ruthlessly pursues its imperialist interests in the Middle East, through war and murder, the American ruling class is trampling on the democratic values and rights embodied in the US Constitution and other basic documents of the American Revolution. Concluding his remarks in the Rose Garden, Obama praised the three officials, saying: “They have made America safer. They have made America’s values live in corners of the world that are crying out for our support and our leadership.” It is safe to say, in fact, that no corner of the world is “crying out” for the drone strikes and military invasions through which Washington exercises its “leadership.”"
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:13:30 +0000
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