Now I am beginning to see a part of Obama who is just another man wielding power, little if any different that those who have preceded him. Major questions are arising as to his intentions of actually changing the way this nations employs its footprint in the world, or the way the government does so at home.
“What the hell are we doing in Afghanistan?” I have listened to all of your Orwellian rhetoric, Mr. Obama, about “denying them the space in which to make their plans” and “driving them out and making sure they never return.” That is nonsense fully worthy of the man who preceded you in the office you now hold. Plans are made in the minds of men, not in the wilds of Afghanistan, and grandiose oaths of “never return” cannot be carried out. Your statements of purpose are smoke and mirrors and our soldiers are dying with no military mission or objective having been stated by their President. So, “What in the hell are we doing in Afghanistan?”
“When are we leaving Irag?” You promised the exit of “one brigade per month until we are gone.” President Bush removed two brigades; so far you have not even announced a date for the removal of one single brigade, let alone actually removed any. You are, at this point, five brigades in arrears on your promise and have made no move toward keeping it. And instead of “until we are gone” we are now hearing from you that 30,000 to 50,000 will remain for some indefinite period. So, “When are we leaving Irag?”
“When will you take charge of the military?” You promised that as President you would make the policies and decisions, but now you clearly are allowing the military to make the decisions for you, even down to the decisions as to what documents and photos to be released. You promised to end DADT, and now that is pushed off to the indefinite future because (presumably, the military leadership has persuaded you that) you have more important things to do. Meanwhile, men and women are living lies and losing careers, and our military is losing valuable and needed service people. So, “When will you take charge of the military?”
“When will you clean up the DOJ?” The Ted Stevens case is reversed due to prosecutorial misconduct, but the DOJ steadfastly refuses to review the case of Don Siegelman of Alabama. So a federal politician who almost certainly was corrupt goes free while a state governor who was the target of a politically motivated and corrupt federal prosecution goes to jail because your DOJ will not investigate any member of the Bush Administration no matter how obvious and visible the degree of corruption. Other than a faint beginning of an investigation into the selective firing of prosecutors for political purposes, where are the DOJ investigations of anything at all that occurred under the Bush Administration? So “When will you clean up DOJ?”
“When is Guantanamo closing? Is it really doing so?” Since the grand announcement we have heard nothing more; no progress reports, no reports of any steps being taken toward that end. All we have heard is that it is turning out to be a more difficult task than anticipated. Seventeen Chinese prisoners, found innocent by a court and ordered released, have not been released; by you. Today we learn, as has been rumored earlier, that the military tribunal system is being revived to try an unspecified number of the prisoners there. As senator and as candidate for the office you now hold you decried those tribunals as illegal, and claimed that terrorists could be, were entitled to be, tried under our own system of justice. Now you have become Bushian in your logic that what kind of justice one gets depends upon who one is. Can that Bushian principle and those tribunals coexist with American law on American soil? So, “When is Guantanamo closing?”
And, of course, "What the living hell are we doing in Pakistan?," a question so abstruse and with so many facets of diplomatic political and military dimensions that I don't even know quite how to ask it.
Is that what you are Mr. Obama? All statements of intent and high rhetoric, as your opponents have declared you to be? Someone who throws $7 to the working class and $1000 to the financial sector and claims to be a man of the people? Someone who claims "health care reform" by making sure that every person in the nation is compelled to pay in to the health insurance industry? Someone who makes promises and declares intentions and thinks that we will not care if you do not follow through on them?
That is the biggest question of all, and only time will answer it.
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