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 Obama’s jejune comments at Camp Lejeune
This morning I read President Obama’s speech to the US Marines at Camp Lejeune. While there is much in the speech that I found agreement with, for example taking responsibility for a truly humane veterans’ program and transparency in all future diplomatic and military actions abroad, I did find some of his comments to be downright lies and completely unacceptable. It made me wonder: if President Obama is willing to lie about something so patently obvious as the history of the Iraqi war, can we expect him to tell difficult truths in matters far more controversial? You can read the speech yourself: “You have fought against tyranny and disorder. You have bled for your best friends and for unknown Iraqis. And you have borne an enormous burden for your fellow citizens, while extending a precious opportunity to the people of Iraq. Under tough circumstances, the men and women of the United States military have served with honor, and succeeded beyond any expectation.” “America’s men and women in uniform have fought block by block, province by province, year after year, to give the Iraqis this chance to choose a better future.” Our soldiers are still suffering from an unbearable level of cognitive dissonance unparalleled from any other conflict in our history, save only Vietnam. The war and the quality of service of our military in Iraq is nothing to be proud of by any stretch of the imagination. According to a strict definition of Geneva (one that I would never advocate) every volunteer in the coalition forces could be brought up on war crimes charges. Admittedly our troops in Iraq were lied to and brainwashed as to the history of American/Iraqi relations as well as the true reasons and goals of the conflict. They are more deserving of our pity than our honor. They did not fight “against tyranny and disorder.” They brought tyranny and disorder to a country that, while far from a model democracy, had one of the highest levels of literacy in the mideast. It was a country that, in spite of our enforcement of crippling sanctions, still had a degree of freedom, infrastructure comfort and opportunity that, since our invasion, has all but ceased to exist. I have no idea what the hell he is referring to in his thinking that the Marines’ burden of sacrifice has brought some “precious opportunity to the people of Iraq.” With careful, judicious effort on our part, including the payment of billions in reparations, Iraq may barely be able to return to the level of status it was enjoying on March 19, 2003. And this precious, mythical opportunity will never be realized by the million dead Iraqis whose blood will remain on our hands for all time. I think that all these statements indicate is that President Obama has been smoking Bush’s old press releases—and inhaling. “Now, before I go any further, I want to take a moment to speak directly to the people of Iraq.” “We Americans have offered our most precious resource – our young men and women – to work with you to rebuild what was destroyed by despotism; to root out our common enemies; and to seek peace and prosperity for our children and grandchildren, and for yours.” Somehow I don’t think that is what he means however. I can understand Obama’s desire to make these simple soldiers at Camp LeJeune feel a little better about being members of, what has been up to now, one of the most disgraced, demoralized, overburdened military organizations in the world. But doesn’t he realize that people outside the confines of the camp might be listening in on this speech? “And so I want to be very clear: We sent our troops to Iraq to do away with Saddam Hussein’s regime – and you got the job done. We kept our troops in Iraq to help establish a sovereign government – and you got the job done. And we will leave the Iraqi people with a hard-earned opportunity to live a better life – that is your achievement; that is the prospect that you have made possible.” To say that would have been to admit to an act so heinous, so barbaric that the world would forever see our country in its true light as one of the major perpetrators of terrorism on the planet. What we did in Iraq violated all the established standards of civilized behavior and the canons of international law, not that that has made much difference to our government in its past history. His statement appears to endorse this kind of illegality. Does he really mean that? Is that going to be his policy in Pakistan? Will he continue to ignore the democratically elected government of Haamas? Does it even bear repeating once again that what we really told our troops and the country was: the reasons for the war was the removing of weapons of mass destruction, to make the mideast safe for US gunboat diplomacy, to swell the pockets of Dick Cheney’s partners in crime, and as payback for Saddam’s role in the destructions of 9/11? I wish I could honestly say that I was shocked—shocked to hear that Obama is shamelessly kowtowing to the military-industrial complex. As one of Obama’s campaign workers, I cautioned my fellow progressives not to think he would substantially change US foreign policy or the primacy of military solutions over diplomatic ones. I hope that subsequent events will prove these predictions wrong. This speech with its wholly unnecessary justification of Bush’s policies and lies in Iraq make me wonder if we may not have elected a kinder, gentler despot when it comes to international diplomacy. I do see a winding down of the combat operations in Iraq—hopefully. Absent from his speech however was any mention of what he plans to do with that giant Crusader castle called the US embassy in the heart of Baghdad along with its thousand or so staff. What function will it serve in a “liberated” Iraq other than a tempting target for free-lance missile launches? I am encouraged by the stated, renewed emphasis on international diplomacy, the saber-rattling over Iran and Pakistani sovereignty notwithstanding. I definitely see the surge in Afghanistan as a gloomy cloud on the horizon. I do wish that the first call Obama had made would have been to Russian military strategists to ask them to try to teach him the lessons they learned during their disastrous campaign in that country. Would that we had learned from the French all about their history in Vietnam. Make no mistake, I remain an enthusiastic supporter of Obama’s domestic goals, flawed as some of them may be. We need to come together in the face of a far greater enemy of our economy, our domestic freedom and security: the intransigent Republican Party. I also emphatically reserve the right to attempt to set the record straight when it comes to some of Obama’s irresponsible, jejune statements like those made before the Marines on Friday, February 27, 2009.
 Robert Boldt an editor of MWC News, is a freelance film/video producer living in Jefferson City, Missouri. He is active in local politics, worked on the Howard Dean and John Kerry campaigns and is a cofounder of The White Rose Collective. Articles by Bob Boldt at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/bob-boldt |
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