Obama’s
Last Gasp Imperialism
By Margaret
Kimberley
“The
United States and NATO continue to provoke
Russia in what could be a deadly game that
spins out of their control.”
May 06,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "BAR"
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With only
eight more months in office, Barack Obama shows no
signs of giving up his role as the most aggressively
imperialist American president in modern history.
Liberal Democrats rightly point fingers at Hillary
Clinton’s bellicosity, yet they say nothing about
Obama as he continues on a path of destruction
around the world.
Nations on
every continent are victims either of outright
American military violence or of war waged by other
means. Venezuela sinks further into despair as a
result of American manipulations of oil prices and
sanctions that cripple its economy. Millions of
people have had their homes destroyed by United
States interventions in Somalia and Libya and Syria
and are forced to make dangerous treks in hopes of
finding safety.
While the
American instigated war goes on in Syria that
country’s government and its Russian ally make gains
against terrorists. Because they are winning the
United States continues to make bizarre demands that
“Assad must go.” Obama has to turn over the keys in
January 2017 but Assad may sit in his presidential
office watching as his enemy rides off into the
sunset.
“The United
States continues to make bizarre demands that ‘Assad
must go.’”
The least
reported and yet biggest danger is taking place in
Europe. The United States and NATO continue to
provoke Russia in what could be a deadly game that
spins out of their control.
In recent
weeks the Russians have made clear that they won’t
take the provocation lying down. While the corporate
media follow the president blindly, they won’t tell
viewers and listeners that Russia has territory on
the Baltic sea coast. Kaliningrad is Russia, just as
Hawaii and Alaska are America. Of course there are
Russian planes and submarines in the Baltic. They
belong there while American vessels do not. Russia
has every right to “buzz” United States ships and
escort spy planes out of its airspace.
These very
simple facts are rarely presented to Americans who
have no idea that 200 of their troops will perform
exercises in
Moldova, a small country located between Ukraine
and Romania. It is an example of how American
presidents from Bush to Clinton to Bush to Obama
made a mockery of a promise not to encircle Russia.
Instead
they do just that and keep adding to the NATO
arsenal. Nations like Sweden, traditionally neutral,
are being lured into that organization’s grasp. In
the absence of the old Soviet block there is no use
for NATO except to act as the foot soldiers for
American dirty work.
“Russia has
every right to ‘buzz’ United States ships and escort
spy planes out of its airspace.”
It seems
that the end of his presidency has made Obama more
anxious and therefore more dangerous. There are now
“boots on the ground” in Syria, so far just 300
Special Forces, but even that small number is too
high and represents the extent to which the United
States is committed to maintaining the imperialist
project.
Only the
now inevitable Republican nominee, Donald Trump,
questions this premise of American foreign policy.
Hillary Clinton assisted Obama in his designs and
the supposedly left wing Bernie Sanders warns of
non-existent Russian aggression, supports
presidential “kill lists” and thinks that having
U.S. troops in Syria is a fine idea.
While the
United States threatens to start World War III, the
corporate media go into overdrive in their
determination to distract us from the dangers our
government poses to the world. They turn
trivialities into major controversy but rarely
report anything we ought to know. For example, Larry
Wilmore saluted the president as “my nigga” during
the last Obama era White House Correspondents
Dinner. There was much arguing back and forth about
the propriety of the words but no one spoke of the
impropriety of the event inself.
“The media
want access so they play along and tell lies of
commission and omission with every presidential
administration.”
The media
ought to have an adversarial relationship with
presidents. At the very least they should be
somewhat distant and skeptical. Instead they are
very cozy and quite publicly too. They even
celebrate their collusion at this love fest as a
president makes jokes with television comedians who
compete for the chance to be sidekick for an
evening.
There is no
longer any pretense of impartiality. The media want
access so they play along and tell lies of
commission and omission with every presidential
administration. They tell jokes at Russia’s expense
but won’t tell readers and viewers that it is the
United States who is provoking Russia in its sphere
of influence.
Obama
apparently wants to commit more destruction than he
has already. Turning Libya into an utterly failed
state was not enough. That act unleashed ISIS and
Boko Haram and a wave of refugees. The coup in
Ukraine ignited a civil war. The Syrian government
hangs on but at a terrible price. Russia answered
the call to help but America doesn’t want that war
to end and will continue to use its allies to
prevent a cease fire or an end to the conflict
altogether.
A lot of
damage can be done between now and January 20, 2009.
There is no reason to mourn or rejoice Obama’s
departure because he will be followed by someone who
likes his foreign policy as it is. That person will
also like Americans as they are: mostly intelligent
but uninformed even if they wish to know what is
happening around the world. The expression to do
something “like there’s no tomorrow” is poignant. If
Obama and company continue down this path, we shall
all find out what those words mean.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears
weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere.
She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as
at
http://freedomrider.blogspot.com.
Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be
reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
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