Expect Obama to prioritize
advancing America's imperium. He did aggressive in term one. New wars are
planned. Current ones won't end. Proxy ones continue. So does increasing
America's global military footprint.
Fiscal cliff hype is about
greater force-fed austerity to free up more funds for America's war machine.
Waging them isn't cheap. Profiteers depend on wasteful spending to boost bottom
line performance.
It pays to have friends in high
places. They assure all the billions wanted. Social America is being sacrificed
to provide them.
Over the next decade, trillions
of dollars will shift from people needs to war making, generous corporate
handouts, tax breaks for the rich, and hardened homeland repression against
nonbelievers.
At the same time, deficits will
keep rising exponentially. Hype about urgently cutting them is fake. Post-9/11
has been the worst of times. Expect more of the same on steroids ahead.
Conditions today are the most
perilous in world history. Global war is possible. The threat is real and
ominous. Open discussion is suppressed. Media scoundrels won't touch it.
Nor do they explain Project
Censored's top Censored 2013 story: "Signs of an Emerging Police State." It
began pre-9/11, accelerated under Bush, then Obama exceeded his extremism.
Tyranny in America is a hair's
breadth from full-blown. For those affected, it arrived long ago.
Project Censored's number 4
story is: "FBI Agents Responsible for Majority of Terrorist Plots in the United
States." Innocent people are wrongly imprisoned. Media scoundrels convict them
in the court of public opinion.
Other top censored stories
include criminalizing nonviolent protests, corporate predators running the
global economy, Federal Reserve money printing madness enriching Wall Street,
Washington joining forces with Al Qaeda, prison slavery, wrecking public
education by privatizing it, and NATO war crimes in Libya, but it's much the
same wherever this killing machine shows up.
Media scoundrel managed news
suppresses these and other vital truths people most need to know. Instead, they
get The New York Times running cover for Obama's foreign policy by praising what
it should condemn.
On November 11, its editorial headlined "The Foreign Policy
Agenda." It reads like it's about someone else, not Obama. It wrongly claims he
envisions a world without nuclear weapons.
Under Bush and Obama,
Washington asserts the right to use them preemptively. Both administrations
violated NPT, the ABM and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaties, and Fissile Material
Cutoff Treaty. Others relating to national security also.
In 2010, Obama's Nuclear
Posture Review (NPR) was old wine in new bottles. Rhetoric changed. Policy
stayed the same.
Obama won't achieve his goal,
said The Times, but his position "offers a framework for reducing America's
stockpile and for (encouraging) other countries to follow suit."
Stockpile levels matter less
than new, more destructive, weapons replacing older ones.
The Times also wants tough
policies on Iran. It stops short of urging war, but wants sanctions "rigorously
enforced and strengthened." Those in place are illegal. Times articles and
commentaries don't explain. Nor are readers told that Iran's program is
peaceful. Tehran threatens no one.
What's ahead in Afghanistan
remains to be seen. Drawdown won't end war and occupation. America doesn't come
to war theaters to leave. Permanent occupation is planned.
The Times hope for withdrawal
by end of 2013, of course, won't happen. Nor are Times' claims about "severely
weaken(ing) Al Qaeda."
Washington enlists its support
in all regional wars. It admits doing so. The so-called Arab Spring is fake.
America's war on Syria is suppressed. So is claiming a possible two-state
Israeli/Palestinian solution followed by peace.
America's foreign policy plate
is full, said The Times. What's ongoing and at stake was suppressed or
distorted. Military Keynesianism on steroids is official US policy.
America always glorified wars
in the name of peace. They've been waged every year in US history at home and/or
abroad against one more adversaries. Peace, stability, personal safety, and
common dignity are crowded out by imperial wars and a longstanding culture of
violence.
Generations of violence
engrained it in US culture. Media violence feeds it. America's addiction to war
reflects it. Permanent ones rage. New ones replace others when their energy
wanes. Congress provides open-ended funding. The Federal Reserve prints up all
the ready cash needed.
Imagine living under a
permanent state of readiness. Enemies don't exist so Washington invents them. At
the same time, homeland needs go begging.
Eisenhower's
military-industrial complex warning went unheeded. Disastrous "misplaced power"
could rise and persist.
"Every gun that is made," he
added, "every war ship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final
sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, from those who are cold
and not clothed."
Today's legacy is force-fed
austerity. Health and public welfare are sacrificed on the alter of America's
addiction. Obama has plenty more in mind. Wars of choice are planned.
Since WW II, none of necessity
existed. America is masterful at inventing enemies when none exist. No matter
how many times people are fooled, they're easy prey to convince alleged threats
must be challenged.
Washington Post writer David Ignatius has close ties to US
intelligence. Be "bold" he urges Obama in term two. "Think big."
"Well, Mr. President, what the
hell's the presidency for?" Be "strategic" on foreign policy. Deal with Iran to
limit its nuclear program. Find solutions for Afghanistan.
Remove Assad by "managed
transition." In other words, oust him by any way that works.
Cut a deal on Palestine that
benefits Israel. Choose a new Secretary of State when Clinton leaves to assure
whatever America says goes.
"A successful second term is
less about ideology than about results. Think big. Take risks. Get it
done."
In other words, Ignatius favors
policies that assure US hegemony. Without saying it, he includes war.
Former Bush administration UN
ambassador/American Enterprise Institute senior fellow/uberhawk John Bolton wants Obama to prioritize national
security threats.
America has none excepts ones
it invents. Bolton left that unexplained. The war on terror isn't over, he
stresses. Al Qaeda hasn't been defeated. It's "stronger than before and
America’s strategic position in the region has steadily deteriorated."
Al Qaeda is used strategically
as ally and adversary. It was part of Washington's Libya strategy. It now serves
US interests in Syria.
Prioritize "international
terrorism," says Bolton. Prevent Iran's "long-sought objective of deliverable
nuclear weapons."
Challenge Russia and China
assertively. Flex America's muscles aggressively. Republicans should hold his
feet to the fire.
Foreign policy advisors like
Bolton risk WW III. Washington has lots more like him.
AP's
Brian Murphy discussed Obama's second term "evolving foreign policy."
His mandate involves asserting
"superpower confiden(ce and) military strength" combined with "soft power"
coalition building.
Murphy ticked off the usual
challenges - Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Israel/Palestine, China, Russia, North
Korea, and Cuba. Solutions weren't proposed.
Micah
Zenko is a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Center for Preventive
Action Douglas Dillon fellow. America "will never have another peacetime
president," he says.
It follows as one never before
existed. America has always been at war at home and/or abroad throughout its
history.
WW II aside, it's truer today
than ever. Multiple direct and proxy wars rage. More are planned. Political
claims about wanting peace are false. America prioritizes war.
Zenko expects a "period of
persistent conflict" to continue. Obama is America's most belligerent leader. He
exceeded the worst of Bush. Expect term one policies to continue and be
intensified in term two.
Congressional oversight of
presidential war-making powers is moribund. Obama is virtually restraint free.
Previous warnings went unheeded.
Former Senator Robert Byrd
reminded fellow legislators that "Congress is not a rubberstamp or a
presidential lapdog - obedient and unquestioning. Oversight, oversight,
oversight is among our most important responsibilities."
Senator James Webb didn't seek
reelection. In May, he co-sponsored a bill that failed. Passage would have
required presidents to formally request congressional approval before
authorizing military action.
"Year by year," he said,
"skirmish by skirmish, the role of the Congress in determining where the US
military would operate, and when the awesome power of our weapon systems would
he unleashed, has diminished."
Obama is free to continue term
one wars and wage new ones. Expect him to take full advantage.
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "Banker
Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."
Visit his blog site at
sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network
Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All
programs are archived for easy listening.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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