{"id":425,"date":"2009-12-01T22:19:01","date_gmt":"2009-12-01T22:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/strike-three-1.html"},"modified":"2009-12-01T22:19:01","modified_gmt":"2009-12-01T22:19:01","slug":"strike-three-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/strike-three-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Strike Three"},"content":{"rendered":"
I had planned a post on a
\nwonderful book for today.  
\n<\/span>But Barack Obama has pushed it to another day. <\/span><\/p>\n

Tonight Barack Obama joined
\nGeorge Bush in our growing national pastime of escalating military adventures
\nwithout a clear reason for doing so. What a disappointment in a man who has
\npromised so much and delivered so little.   <\/span>In my opinion one of the worst aspects of his decision
\nis in feeding the national ego that believes we are the world’s saviors not by
\ngood example but by force of arms. 
\n<\/span>Which sets a bad example.  
\n<\/span>Vote Vets<\/a>, <\/a> a
\nnational organization of veterans of our Iraqi adventure have already rejected
\nthe reasons he has given as insufficient to justify the slaughter of lives and
\nwaste of treasure. They are right. 
\n<\/span>His words are the same old same old.<\/p>\n

  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n


\n     In my view it is also an act of
\nmoral cowardice (not unusual for Presidents but still appalling) over
\nAfghanistan, where many Americans and Afghans will die so that Hamid Karzai, a
\nhideously corrupt<\/a> ‘president,’   <\/span>can still hold power in that
\ncountry.   <\/span>In the last
\nelection 1.3 million votes were tossed as fraudulent.  <\/span>Out of 5 million total.<\/a> 
\nThe odds are that we are helping impose a corrupt government militarily on a
\npopulation that voted against it. 
\n<\/span>Americans dying for dictators. 
\n<\/span>Wonderful. <\/span><\/p>\n

Men in power find it so easy to
\npreside over the deaths of others who did them no harm in order to look
\n“strong.” Bob Herbert clearly describes<\/a> this aspect of America’s and Obama’s
\nweakness pretending to be strength.    <\/span>Only the conservatives and
\nneo-cons<\/a> who cheered us on to attacking Iraq seem to really support escalation.  <\/span>Thugs like Karl Rove. 
\nOutside that camp of losers there is decidedly less support. Even many foreign
\npolicy  <\/span>“realists”<\/a> who often criticize
\nthe supposed naivete of people who want moral values to count in our
\npolicies  <\/span>oppose this escalation. 
\nGlenn Greenwald, as usual,<\/a> exposes the nonsense of those Democratic lovers of war as being as
\nintellectually and morally vacuous as that of the Republican right.  <\/span>We’ve been down this road before.<\/p>\n

But Obama is better than Bush,
\nsomeone might say.<\/p>\n

But being better than the
\nopposition isn’t a sign of competence when the opposition is depraved, and the
\nmistakes have been as big, and the opportunities to lead as strong and
\nneglected as has been the case with President Obama. We are nearly a year into
\nhis first term, which is traditionally a President’s strongest (see FDR and the
\nNew Deal, LBJ and the Great Society, and RWR and the Reagan Revolution as
\nexamples).  <\/span>So far we have
\nadmittedly significant but not very visible changes done at the Executive
\nBranch level, not so much accomplished in Congress, and on the big issues, STILL
\nno clear vision of what health reform should look like in Obama’s eyes, no
\nadministration bill over global warming to help focus debate, and kissing up to
\nGoldman Sachs and other banksters and national tapeworms.<\/p>\n

For me, tonight us strike three.<\/a> \n<\/p>\n

I am through giving Barack Obama
\nthe benefit of the doubt.  <\/span>In my
\neyes he has proven to be a fully owned instrument of the military-industrial-financial
\ncomplex until he proves otherwise. <\/span>
\n<\/span>He does not care that a majority of Americans oppose escalation.  <\/span>He figures we’ll fall in line.  <\/span>This one won’t.<\/p>\n

I know, I know – Obamaists will
\nsay he has to deal with a corrupt Democratic Party and a depraved Rethuglican
\nParty and both a corrupt and depraved Washington DC and media culture.  <\/span>All of this is depressingly true.  <\/span>But he was elected to lead, not to be a
\nclerk.  <\/span>He was elected to focus
\nenergy for change, not for a corrupt ‘bipartisanship.”  <\/span>He was elected to offer an alternative
\nto the architects of our national disasters, not to learn to sleep with them.  <\/span>He was elected to act based on his
\nwords, not just continually spout more pretty words.  <\/span>Instead of “Yes We Can,” in power Obama is “No We Can’t.”  <\/span><\/p>\n

I see nothing in this man that
\nstands out as a leader except fine words, and without actions when you have the
\nchance to act, fine words are cheap. 
\n<\/span>Worse, fine words without action spread cynicism and despair.  <\/span>Remember all the promises about
\ntransparency after years of Bush’s secrecy? They were rendered meaningless
\nwithin months.  <\/span>These were issues
\nwhere he did not depend on Congress, and his frequently pledged word was
\nwithout value.  <\/span>I cannot believe
\nhim now except by an act of irrational will akin to those conservatives who
\nmade little George their savior.<\/p>\n

I sure would like to be proven
\nwrong.  <\/span>I really would.  Like many of us I’d like, for once, a president I could truly respect.  It;s been a long time.  But I doubt that I will.<\/p>\n

That Obama is a failure as a
\nleader or as a moral force is no reason to vote for a Republican, for a Sauron
\nrather than a Smeagal, but his presidency is certainly nothing to get excited
\nabout.  <\/span>If this country has much
\nhope of remaining a society with some semblance of decency, I think it will
\narrive either from hitting rock bottom so the establishment, right and extreme
\nright alike, can’t avoid being discredited (and as with drunks, the outcome of
\nhitting the bottom  <\/span>isn’t always
\ngood) or if good citizens vote ONLY for Democrats who actually serve their
\nconstituents more than Goldman Sachs or the insurance industry or the
\nmilitary-industrial-congressional complex.  <\/span>There are a few and primaries could select more if we vote
\nagainst “centrist” and “conservative” incumbents.<\/p>\n

Otherwise thank the Gods we have
\nour spirituality, one that puts the pathetic  <\/span>incompetence of so many “leaders” in a fitting
\nperspective.  <\/span>But still it’s
\nsad.  <\/span>This could be a so much more
\ndecent world.<\/p>\n

And Barack Obama could have been
\na great man.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had planned a post on a wonderful book for today.   But Barack Obama has pushed it to another day.  Tonight Barack Obama joined George Bush in our growing national pastime of escalating military adventures without a clear reason for doing so. What a disappointment in a man who has promised so much and delivered…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nStrike Three - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/strike-three-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strike Three - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had planned a post on a wonderful book for today.   But Barack Obama has pushed it to another day.  Tonight Barack Obama joined George Bush in our growing national pastime of escalating military adventures without a clear reason for doing so. 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