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And to think that many hailed Obama as the best the Democratic Party had to offer...
Maybe they were right, of course.
Congressional votes for killing Syrians are not a good thing.
On the more positive side (slightly), this morning the NY Times on front page was saying that the evidence that the Syrian government did the massacre was not convincing to many people.
-----Original Message-----
From: Hunter Gray <[email protected]>
To: Bear Without Borders <[email protected]>
Cc: newgreencanada <[email protected]>; marxist <[email protected]>; SycamoreCanyon <[email protected]>; Redbadbear <[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, Aug 29, 2013 6:23 am
Subject: [SycamoreCanyon] Some thoughts: Obama, Syria, and related dimensions
I haven't said a great deal about Barack Obama and the Syria mess. On the whole, I tend to agree with David McReynold's faithful postings.
It's impossible for any person of sensitivity to observe this situation without a strong and dismal sense of déjà vu -- and at least some disgust.
That disgust certainly extends to the abdication of most media. Earlier this morning, I heard a CBS person comment earnestly (and revealingly) in support of that which Obama is attempting. "If he does this," she said, "it will be for moral reasons, not legal ones."
No one in the media seems to be asking, "Who appointed Barack Obama et al. the world's police chief, prosecutor, judge and jury?"
I have never seen Barack Obama as an especially bright bulb. Initially, he seemed to be a thoughtul and articulate person committed to social justice and bent on helping the country out of the Bush 2 mess. In addition, many of us assumed the momentum of the peace movement especially would press him to go even further than his initial commitments.
Once elected, he began to renege on his promises faster than the U.S. government broke its "solemn" treaties with the Indian nations in the 19th century. A great many liberals in this country, and much of the small Left, let him get away with this and many still are -- after all, he is a Democrat and an African American.
At this point, he and his circle seem bent on ignoring the UN, the Constitutional requirement of Congressional approval, and the fact that most Americans shy openly from yet another "humanitarian" conflict. His supporters talk of limited "surgical strikes." We heard that in the '90s from Bill Clinton, something of an Obama role model, who said he'd bomb Yugoslavia for only three days. He bombed it relentlessly for more than 90 days -- leaving wreckage of many kinds that will take generations to repair.
Obama and many of his people have displayed a penchant for vindictiveness, often of a petty variety. On the other hand, it's difficult not to feel that there's a broader and deeper "mercenary" goal in this sanctimonious rush to judgment and cavalier action.
Let's hope that Congress -- or at least a good part of it -- acts to at least try to block this. One would hope that the American people -- or at least some of them -- will indicate their obviously strong disapproval in appropriate ways: nonviolent demonstrations, pressure on timid politicians.
And whatever the limitations of Putin, it's hard not to see a tough Russia as an asset at this point.
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
.
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial
introduction by me. And this book is also an activist's
how-to manual: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
and also "Fifty Years: Remembering Medgar Evers" :
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)
Our very substantial page on effective community organizing
techniques: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm