Obama’s cynical action was uncalled for
Fidel Castro Ruz
In the final paragraphs of a Reflection entitled “The Bells Are
Tolling For the Dollar,” published two months ago, on October 9, I
mentioned the climate change problem brought on humanity by imperialist
capitalism.
With regards to carbon emissions I said: “The United States is not
making any real effort but accepting just a 4 percent reduction with
respect to the year 1990.” At that moment, scientists were demanding a
minimum of 25 to 40 percent by the year 2020.
Fidel Castro |
Then I added, “In the morning of this Friday 9, the world woke up to
the news that “the good Obama” of the riddle, as explained by Bolivarian
President Hugo Chavez Frias at the United Nations, had been awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize. I do not always agree with the positions of that
institution but I must admit that, at this moment it was, in my view, a
positive action.
It compensates the setback sustained by Obama in Copenhagen when Rio
de Janeiro, and not Chicago, was chosen as the venue of the 2016
Olympics, a choice that elicited heated attacks from his right-wing
adversaries.
“Many will feel that he has yet to earn the right to receive such an
award. Rather than a prize to the President of the United States, we
choose to see that decision as a criticism of the genocidal policy
pursued by more than a few presidents of that country who took that
nation to the crossroads where it is today.
That is, as a call for peace and for the pursuit of solutions
conducive to the survival of the species.”
Obviously, I was carefully watching the black president, elected in a
racist country afflicted by a deep economic crisis; however, I avoided
prejudiced judgments based on his campaign statements and his position
as leader of the Yankee executive.
Nearly one month later, in another Reflection entitled “A Science
Fiction Story,” I wrote that, “The American people are not the culprits
but rather the victims of a system that is not only unsustainable but
worse still: it is incompatible with the life of humanity.
“The smart and rebellious Obama who suffered humiliation and racism
in his childhood and youth understands this, but the Obama educated by
the system and committed to it and to the methods that took him to the
US presidency cannot resist the temptation to pressure, to threaten and
even to deceive others.”
“He is a workaholic. Perhaps no other American president would dare
to engage in such an intense program as he intends to carry out in the
next eight days”, he added.
As it shows in that Reflection, I analyzed the complexity and
contradictions of his long journey through Southeast Asia and I
wondered: “What is our distinguished friend planning to discuss during
his intense journey?” His advisors had claimed that he would be
discussing every issue with China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and so
on, and so forth.
It is clear now that Obama was paving the way for his remarks of
December 1st, 2009, in West Point. That day he made a thorough analysis.
He carefully chose and produced 169 phrases aimed at pressing the right
‘keys’ that would win him the support of the American people for a
certain war strategy.
Cicero’s diatribes would pale beside his assumed postures. That day I
had the impression to be listening to George W. Bush. His arguments were
no different from the philosophy of his predecessor, except for a fig
leaf: Obama was opposed to torture.
The main leader of the organization blamed for the terrorist act of
9/11 had
been recruited and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency to
fight the Soviet troops, even when he was not an Afghan.
Cuba’s condemnation of the terrorist action and other additional
measures were made public that same day. We also warned that the way to
fight terrorism was not through war.
The organization of the Taliban, a word meaning student, sprang up
from the Afghan forces fighting the USSR; they were no enemies of the
United States. An honest analysis would lead to the true story behind
that war.
Today, it is not the Soviet troops but the US’s and NATO’s that are
occupying that country with great violence. The policy that the new US
Administration is offering the American people is the same as that of
George W. Bush, who ordered the invasion of Iraq, a nation that had
nothing to do with the attack on the Twin Towers.
The President of the United States is not saying a word of the
hundreds of thousands of people, children and elders included, who have
perished in Iraq and Afghanistan or of the millions of Iraqis and
Afghans suffering from the consequences of the war, even when they had
no responsibility whatsoever with the events of New York. Rather than a
wish, the final phrase of his speech, “God bless America,” sounded like
an order to heaven.
Why did Obama accept the Nobel Peace Prize if he had already decided
to fight the war in Afghanistan to the very end? His cynical action was
uncalled-for. He later announced that he would be receiving the Prize in
the Norwegian capital on December 11, and then travel to the Copenhagen
Summit on the 18th.
Now, we should expect another dramatic speech in Oslo; a new textbook
of phrases hiding the real existence of an imperial superpower with
hundreds of military basis deployed all over the world; two-hundred
years of military interventions in our hemisphere; and, over a century
of genocidal actions in countries like Vietnam, Laos and others in Asia,
Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and elsewhere on Earth.
The problem with Obama and his wealthiest allies now is that the
planet they dominate with an iron fist is just falling apart.
The crime against humanity committed by Bush is well known, as he
ignored the Kyoto Protocol and failed to do for ten years what should
have been done long before that. Obama is not an ignorant. He is aware,
as Gore was, of the grave danger threatening us all, but he hesitates
and shows weakness vis-à-vis that country’s blind and irresponsible
oligarchy. He does not act like Lincoln did in 1861 to resolve the
slavery issue and preserve national integrity, or like Roosevelt to cope
with the economic crisis and with fascism.
Let’s see what happens! |