SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Imperial President Obama Pretends Not to Wage War
President Obama's contention that the United States is not engaged in "hostilities," much less war, against the sovereign state of Libya shows him to be fully as sick and arrogant an imperial misanthrope as his historical predecessors on both sides of the Atlantic. America's First Black President is wholly compatible with the old-school imperialists of Europe, now reborn and rejuvenated through NATO as the unchallenged masters of Africa.
Jun 22, 2011
President Obama's contention that the United States is not engaged in "hostilities," much less war, against the sovereign state of Libya shows him to be fully as sick and arrogant an imperial misanthrope as his historical predecessors on both sides of the Atlantic. America's First Black President is wholly compatible with the old-school imperialists of Europe, now reborn and rejuvenated through NATO as the unchallenged masters of Africa. Ten thousand sorties of Shock and Awe scream that Euro-American rule is returning to Libya - but not, of course, by means of war. Oh, no, this is a case of "humanitarian intervention," and not hostile in the least. Call it brotherly love - yeah, that's the ticket. But don't call it war.
Over the five centuries since the Western Europeans broke out of their small corner of the planet, to wage uninterrupted wars of conquest and enslavement against the rest of mankind, they have seldom acknowledged being at war with "lesser peoples." Rather, the merciless looting and depopulation of the America's and Africa was packaged as a Christianizing or "civilizing" mission - but seldom as wars. The half a millennium-long siege of North America, during which 95 percent of the native inhabitants died, was a project of "settlement" to "tame" a continent - not a continuous series of wars of occupation and annihilation. The few armed clashes with white settlers that are more commonly referred to as "wars" - the Seminole Wars and the Plains Indian Wars - were notable in that whites lost a number of battles and suffered significant casualties; white deaths sanctified them as wars.
President Obama seems to be making the same distinction, in Libya. His minions tell lawmakers and the press that U.S. bombing and drone attacks do not represent "hostilities" because the Libyans cannot effectively shoot back. According to this reasoning, once the initial, overwhelmingly American cruise missile barrage destroyed the Gaddafi government's air defenses, back in March, hostilities ceased, because the Libyans could not defend themselves from ongoing attack. In fact, "hostilities" never existed, because cruise missiles can't be killed. Only their Libyan targets on the ground can be killed, and they don't count unless they can kill back.
President Obama's thinking is no different than that of the white settlers of North America. Human turkey shoots are not wars, except in the few situations in which the "turkeys" are white.
The deaths of millions of native people was a natural occurrence, an extinction made "inevitable" by contact with the superior white race, according to President Teddy Roosevelt, of Mount Rushmore fame. He got a Nobel Peace prize. So did Obama.
The wholesale taking of non-European lives was not considered warfare, which was an activity between equals. When Europeans fought each other over the spoils of Africa and Asia - that is, over the right to continue to occupy and expropriate the land, and exploit and kill the natives, of the non-white world, at will - these were considered wars. However, when the natives died by the millions - possibly ten million in Congo under Belgian King Leopold - that was due to their own failure to assimilate to the demands of "civilization." But it was not war.
Barack Obama has totally assimilated the historical values of Euro-American civilization - a characteristic that has endeared him to multinational corporate boardrooms and contributors. He speaks and thinks the language of imperialism. By Obama's logic, the American military's "full spectrum dominance," which gives the U.S. the capacity to devastate other countries without itself suffering significant casualties, can abolish wars in the developing world, forever - at least on the semantic level - since the targeted nations could fight back. No fight-back, no "hostilities," no war. Give that man another Peace Prize!
Former supporters of Barack Obama, a class that, sadly, includes most of what passes for a Left in the United States, are disturbed, angry, shocked and appalled at his refusal to comply with the War Powers Act by denying that there is a war. In fact, they encouraged President Obama to pretend that there is no war, when they pretended that candidate Obama was not your average, garden variety, center-right Democratic imperialist, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
These Left Obamites held demonstrations against wars in general, without mentioning the name of the War-Maker-in-Chief - denial on a mass lunatic scale. So, why shouldn't Obama take the logic of the pretend anti-war folks to its logical conclusion, and simply pretend not to be waging war on Libya?
The following is not for pretenders:
The United National Anti-War Committee is calling for thousands to say "No to the US/NATO War on Libya," on June 27 in New York's Times Square. Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and others will report to Harlem on June 25 in the first stop of a national "Eyewitness Libya" tour. A coalition of groups is organizing a Harlem Millions March protesting the attack on Africa, for August 13, at which Nation of Islam Min. Louis Farrakhan will be a speaker. The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations has called for a day of action on August 20 against the "Other Wars" waged by the United States against people of color abroad and at home.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Glen Ford
Glen Ford (1949-2021) was the co-Founder and Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report. He was a socialist, a Vietnam War-era military veteran and a member of the Black Panther Party. He served in the news media over many years in his professional life. He was the Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent for the Mutual Black Network, an American radio network. He co-launched, produced, and hosted the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television, America's Black Forum, in 1977.
President Obama's contention that the United States is not engaged in "hostilities," much less war, against the sovereign state of Libya shows him to be fully as sick and arrogant an imperial misanthrope as his historical predecessors on both sides of the Atlantic. America's First Black President is wholly compatible with the old-school imperialists of Europe, now reborn and rejuvenated through NATO as the unchallenged masters of Africa. Ten thousand sorties of Shock and Awe scream that Euro-American rule is returning to Libya - but not, of course, by means of war. Oh, no, this is a case of "humanitarian intervention," and not hostile in the least. Call it brotherly love - yeah, that's the ticket. But don't call it war.
Over the five centuries since the Western Europeans broke out of their small corner of the planet, to wage uninterrupted wars of conquest and enslavement against the rest of mankind, they have seldom acknowledged being at war with "lesser peoples." Rather, the merciless looting and depopulation of the America's and Africa was packaged as a Christianizing or "civilizing" mission - but seldom as wars. The half a millennium-long siege of North America, during which 95 percent of the native inhabitants died, was a project of "settlement" to "tame" a continent - not a continuous series of wars of occupation and annihilation. The few armed clashes with white settlers that are more commonly referred to as "wars" - the Seminole Wars and the Plains Indian Wars - were notable in that whites lost a number of battles and suffered significant casualties; white deaths sanctified them as wars.
President Obama seems to be making the same distinction, in Libya. His minions tell lawmakers and the press that U.S. bombing and drone attacks do not represent "hostilities" because the Libyans cannot effectively shoot back. According to this reasoning, once the initial, overwhelmingly American cruise missile barrage destroyed the Gaddafi government's air defenses, back in March, hostilities ceased, because the Libyans could not defend themselves from ongoing attack. In fact, "hostilities" never existed, because cruise missiles can't be killed. Only their Libyan targets on the ground can be killed, and they don't count unless they can kill back.
President Obama's thinking is no different than that of the white settlers of North America. Human turkey shoots are not wars, except in the few situations in which the "turkeys" are white.
The deaths of millions of native people was a natural occurrence, an extinction made "inevitable" by contact with the superior white race, according to President Teddy Roosevelt, of Mount Rushmore fame. He got a Nobel Peace prize. So did Obama.
The wholesale taking of non-European lives was not considered warfare, which was an activity between equals. When Europeans fought each other over the spoils of Africa and Asia - that is, over the right to continue to occupy and expropriate the land, and exploit and kill the natives, of the non-white world, at will - these were considered wars. However, when the natives died by the millions - possibly ten million in Congo under Belgian King Leopold - that was due to their own failure to assimilate to the demands of "civilization." But it was not war.
Barack Obama has totally assimilated the historical values of Euro-American civilization - a characteristic that has endeared him to multinational corporate boardrooms and contributors. He speaks and thinks the language of imperialism. By Obama's logic, the American military's "full spectrum dominance," which gives the U.S. the capacity to devastate other countries without itself suffering significant casualties, can abolish wars in the developing world, forever - at least on the semantic level - since the targeted nations could fight back. No fight-back, no "hostilities," no war. Give that man another Peace Prize!
Former supporters of Barack Obama, a class that, sadly, includes most of what passes for a Left in the United States, are disturbed, angry, shocked and appalled at his refusal to comply with the War Powers Act by denying that there is a war. In fact, they encouraged President Obama to pretend that there is no war, when they pretended that candidate Obama was not your average, garden variety, center-right Democratic imperialist, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
These Left Obamites held demonstrations against wars in general, without mentioning the name of the War-Maker-in-Chief - denial on a mass lunatic scale. So, why shouldn't Obama take the logic of the pretend anti-war folks to its logical conclusion, and simply pretend not to be waging war on Libya?
The following is not for pretenders:
The United National Anti-War Committee is calling for thousands to say "No to the US/NATO War on Libya," on June 27 in New York's Times Square. Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and others will report to Harlem on June 25 in the first stop of a national "Eyewitness Libya" tour. A coalition of groups is organizing a Harlem Millions March protesting the attack on Africa, for August 13, at which Nation of Islam Min. Louis Farrakhan will be a speaker. The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations has called for a day of action on August 20 against the "Other Wars" waged by the United States against people of color abroad and at home.
Glen Ford
Glen Ford (1949-2021) was the co-Founder and Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report. He was a socialist, a Vietnam War-era military veteran and a member of the Black Panther Party. He served in the news media over many years in his professional life. He was the Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent for the Mutual Black Network, an American radio network. He co-launched, produced, and hosted the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television, America's Black Forum, in 1977.
President Obama's contention that the United States is not engaged in "hostilities," much less war, against the sovereign state of Libya shows him to be fully as sick and arrogant an imperial misanthrope as his historical predecessors on both sides of the Atlantic. America's First Black President is wholly compatible with the old-school imperialists of Europe, now reborn and rejuvenated through NATO as the unchallenged masters of Africa. Ten thousand sorties of Shock and Awe scream that Euro-American rule is returning to Libya - but not, of course, by means of war. Oh, no, this is a case of "humanitarian intervention," and not hostile in the least. Call it brotherly love - yeah, that's the ticket. But don't call it war.
Over the five centuries since the Western Europeans broke out of their small corner of the planet, to wage uninterrupted wars of conquest and enslavement against the rest of mankind, they have seldom acknowledged being at war with "lesser peoples." Rather, the merciless looting and depopulation of the America's and Africa was packaged as a Christianizing or "civilizing" mission - but seldom as wars. The half a millennium-long siege of North America, during which 95 percent of the native inhabitants died, was a project of "settlement" to "tame" a continent - not a continuous series of wars of occupation and annihilation. The few armed clashes with white settlers that are more commonly referred to as "wars" - the Seminole Wars and the Plains Indian Wars - were notable in that whites lost a number of battles and suffered significant casualties; white deaths sanctified them as wars.
President Obama seems to be making the same distinction, in Libya. His minions tell lawmakers and the press that U.S. bombing and drone attacks do not represent "hostilities" because the Libyans cannot effectively shoot back. According to this reasoning, once the initial, overwhelmingly American cruise missile barrage destroyed the Gaddafi government's air defenses, back in March, hostilities ceased, because the Libyans could not defend themselves from ongoing attack. In fact, "hostilities" never existed, because cruise missiles can't be killed. Only their Libyan targets on the ground can be killed, and they don't count unless they can kill back.
President Obama's thinking is no different than that of the white settlers of North America. Human turkey shoots are not wars, except in the few situations in which the "turkeys" are white.
The deaths of millions of native people was a natural occurrence, an extinction made "inevitable" by contact with the superior white race, according to President Teddy Roosevelt, of Mount Rushmore fame. He got a Nobel Peace prize. So did Obama.
The wholesale taking of non-European lives was not considered warfare, which was an activity between equals. When Europeans fought each other over the spoils of Africa and Asia - that is, over the right to continue to occupy and expropriate the land, and exploit and kill the natives, of the non-white world, at will - these were considered wars. However, when the natives died by the millions - possibly ten million in Congo under Belgian King Leopold - that was due to their own failure to assimilate to the demands of "civilization." But it was not war.
Barack Obama has totally assimilated the historical values of Euro-American civilization - a characteristic that has endeared him to multinational corporate boardrooms and contributors. He speaks and thinks the language of imperialism. By Obama's logic, the American military's "full spectrum dominance," which gives the U.S. the capacity to devastate other countries without itself suffering significant casualties, can abolish wars in the developing world, forever - at least on the semantic level - since the targeted nations could fight back. No fight-back, no "hostilities," no war. Give that man another Peace Prize!
Former supporters of Barack Obama, a class that, sadly, includes most of what passes for a Left in the United States, are disturbed, angry, shocked and appalled at his refusal to comply with the War Powers Act by denying that there is a war. In fact, they encouraged President Obama to pretend that there is no war, when they pretended that candidate Obama was not your average, garden variety, center-right Democratic imperialist, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
These Left Obamites held demonstrations against wars in general, without mentioning the name of the War-Maker-in-Chief - denial on a mass lunatic scale. So, why shouldn't Obama take the logic of the pretend anti-war folks to its logical conclusion, and simply pretend not to be waging war on Libya?
The following is not for pretenders:
The United National Anti-War Committee is calling for thousands to say "No to the US/NATO War on Libya," on June 27 in New York's Times Square. Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and others will report to Harlem on June 25 in the first stop of a national "Eyewitness Libya" tour. A coalition of groups is organizing a Harlem Millions March protesting the attack on Africa, for August 13, at which Nation of Islam Min. Louis Farrakhan will be a speaker. The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations has called for a day of action on August 20 against the "Other Wars" waged by the United States against people of color abroad and at home.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.