It’s no surprise that President George W. Obama wants to invade the Middle East. Afterall, the war his predecessor started gained America a foothold on Iraq’s natural resources. Why should the political son disappoint the political father, W. Bush, by losing that precious oil and trade route from Afghanistan to Latvia? It’s no surprise someone tried assassinating Dubya Obama this week. It’s also no surprise that his administration tried telling the public a different story than what really happened - that’s also a trait passed down from Daddy Dubya. Perhaps, what’s really not surprising is that Obama decided to initiate military intervention while Congress was out on break and then mislead the public about his reasons. Some say the Islamic State is evil, wishing to establish a Middle Eastern caliphate, grabbing land in Iraq and Syria. In the mind of Dubya O., that makes it a domestic threat to the U.S. While calling the new campaign “counterterrorism” and ISIL fighters “terrorists,” the administration engaged in egregious deception. While Obama’s goon squad was all over the place cementing the impetus to attack amongst Washington’s elite and the American public, their story was far from the truth. In fact, intelligence officials admitted they had seen neither ability nor desire to attack America, at least before Washington targeted the Islamic State. Nicholas Rasmussen of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center testified before Congress that ISIL primarily threatened American interests “inside Iraq right now.” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said: “We know of no credible information that ISIL is planning to attack the homeland at present.” No doubt the world would be a better place without ISIL, with its extremist ideology, murderous tactics, and flagrant brutality. Even al-Qaeda disavowed the group. But that doesn’t make the Islamic State unique. Washington cannot rid the world of bad philosophies or people. Nor should it try, since its chief obligation is to protect the American people, not launch quixotic crusades for eternal peace. But protecting the American people doesn’t seem to be W.O’s main priority. In fact, from the increased surveillance to the military armed-police, its main priority would seem to be to protect Washington from the people. Obama has two years left in his presidency. A lot could happen in that time. Although he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, he has already won the title of America’s most bomb happy president, even exceeding Bush. Now that Obama has proved that he is the man who can bomb, torture, detain, and surveil, perhaps he can use the next two years of his term to demonstrate he can promote peace. Instead of continuing the policies of his immediate predecessor, Obama should look further back down his presidential lineage to JFK, a president who understood the meaning of peace and freedom. The world could only hope.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 01:51:02 +0000