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Thursday, April 30, 2009

A disappointing first 100 days


Pilger sums up the disappointment of Obama’s ‘change’.

John Pilger
In his first 100 days, Obama has excused torture, opposed habeas corpus and demanded more secret government. He has kept Bush’s gulag intact and at least 17,000 prisoners beyond the reach of justice. On 24 April, his lawyers won an appeal that ruled Guantanamo Bay prisoners were not “persons”, and therefore had no right not to be tortured. His national intelligence director, Admiral Dennis Blair, says he believes torture works. One of his senior US intelligence officials in Latin America is accused of covering up the torture of an American nun in Guatemala in 1989; another is a Pinochet apologist. As Daniel Ellsberg has pointed out, the US experienced a military coup under Bush, whose secretary of “defence”, Robert Gates, along with the same warmaking officials, has been retained by Obama.

All over the world, America’s violent assault on innocent people, directly or by agents, has been stepped up. During the recent massacre in Gaza, reports Seymour Hersh, “the Obama team let it be known that it would not object to the planned resupply of ‘smart bombs’ and other hi-tech ordnance that was already flowing to Israel” and being used to slaughter mostly women and children. In Pakistan, the number of civilians killed by US missiles called drones has more than doubled since Obama took office.

In Afghanistan, the US “strategy” of killing Pashtun tribespeople (the “Taliban”) has been extended by Obama to give the Pentagon time to build a series of permanent bases right across the devastated country where, says Secretary Gates, the US military will remain indefinitely. Obama’s policy, one unchanged since the Cold War, is to intimidate Russia and China, now an imperial rival. He is proceeding with Bush’s provocation of placing missiles on Russia’s western border, justifying it as a counter to Iran, which he accuses, absurdly, of posing “a real threat” to Europe and the US. On 5 April in Prague, he made a speech reported as “anti-nuclear”. It was nothing of the kind. Under the Pentagon’s Reliable Replacement Warhead programme, the US is building new “tactical” nuclear weapons designed to blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional war.

Perhaps the biggest lie – the equivalent of smoking is good for you – is Obama’s announcement that the US is leaving Iraq, the country it has reduced to a river of blood. According to unabashed US army planners, as many as 70,000 troops will remain “for the next 15 to 20 years”. On 25 April, his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, alluded to this. It is not surprising that the polls are showing that a growing number of Americans believe they have been suckered – especially as the nation’s economy has been entrusted to the same fraudsters who destroyed it. Lawrence Summers, Obama’s principal economic adviser, is throwing $3trn at the same banks that paid him more than $8m last year, including $135,000 for one speech. Change you can believe in.

11 Comments:

At 30/4/09 2:38 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heh.
I guess the emperor has no clothes after all, huh bomber?

 
At 30/4/09 2:52 pm, Blogger FAIRFACTS MEDIA said...

Well Bomber, if Pilger hates the Messiah so much, maybe Obama isn't as bad as I blogged this morning.

 
At 30/4/09 5:15 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

just scream yeas we can louder to block out the failures. hes like john key, dont promise anything, just get catch slogans because people are sheep

 
At 30/4/09 5:39 pm, Anonymous obamasnotgaybuthesblacksoatleasthatsomething said...

i kinda like the 'I'm a bit like obama' line from John Key a bit more now.

So - John Pilger.

Any of his facts wrong? probably not, never heard him being pulled up for fantasising or making shit up.

So - disturbing but surely outweighed by the positives to come from this change in America? It could'nt go on.

But then I guess thats what Pilgers on about - Nothings Changing. Whoops, back to disturbing with no sweet side.
Gotta get the consumer consuming consumptively again and again and again, get me off this fucking Merry goroundroundroundround

 
At 30/4/09 6:53 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

wait till he nukes Tehran

 
At 30/4/09 7:18 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At 30/4/09 7:59 pm, Anonymous ziggy said...

Blasted by Pilger, hated by Fox News--he must be doing something right! It is a pity Pilger did not provide more evidence for some of his claims (sources. footnotes etc.). The article as such was just a series of whinges without substantiation.

 
At 30/4/09 9:30 pm, Anonymous fast show said...

So Obama has been Pilgered.
That is "to present information in a sensationalist manner to reach a foregone conclusion"

Which is exactly what Pilger has done here - Obama hasn't managed to undo everything about America that Pilger doesn't like, therefore Obama is as evil as all those ghastly honkies that came before him.

"One of his senior US intelligence officials in Latin America is accused of covering up the torture of an American nun in Guatemala in 1989"

Really? Which one? Some un-named person conected to Obama has been accused by some other un-named person of toturing nuns (dude they torture some kittens too? Coz that would be extra specially evil) - Thats all it takes to get you in Pilgers bad books.

..."another is a Pinochet apologist."

Really? Which one? I'm astonished that Pilger actually expects us to believe this is evidence that Obama is some kind of puppet.

"In Pakistan, the number of civilians killed by US missiles called drones has more than doubled since Obama took office."

Why so shocked John? That is exactly what Obama said he would do: Chase the Taliban into Paksitan if necessary.

I'd imagine Obama isn't losing too much sleep over Pilger's rantings.

 
At 30/4/09 11:02 pm, Anonymous JasGeo said...

Well its sad that the western mass media originally led by the moronic Auberon Waugh has succeeded in throwing so many lies, so much gossip at Pilger that now even the pond scum of NZ's neoliberal blogs feels able to character assassinate the man without a skerrick of evidence, safe in the knowledge that their betters have already blackened Pilger's name, so the pond scum won't be put on the spot They can just point towards one of the oxbridge whores at some 'reputable' foreign broadsheet, whereupon we are meant to genuflect and behave as if the cheap and nasty words they pointed to were actually etched in stone and contained facts not subjective opinions interspersed with lies. The same people who have a label for everything they don't like because they can't understand it, so they knee jerk "How PC" safe in the knowledge that their fellow porridge brains will accept the cliche without any further thought let alone examination.

Anyway for anyone who can think for themselves, Irish-amerikan journo Jeremy Scahill has analysed Obama's Iraq policy and actions. Full of easily checkable facts here. Oh! - and his opinion pretty much concurs with Pilger's on the reality of the Obama prezdancy.

 
At 1/5/09 6:37 am, Blogger SeaJay said...

Thanks for that Jas

 
At 1/5/09 8:20 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well its sad that Pilger sycophants are so in love with John Pilger that they believe he can do no wrong and is beyond reproach.

No comment on Pilger's assertions-as-facts Jas?

Pilger - like all on the far left and far right - draw their conclusions then build their case to support that conclusion. It is sad that people like you pin all your hopes on one "journalist" to the point you are blind to their errors.

 

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