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The outcome of the battles to come in our society and world isn’t predetermined. Those battles are already in process, with more convulsive ones to come. That is for certain. What we can also say for certain is that if the American people do not stand up in the millions (on the order, specifically, of several million) and become a powerful, independent political force on the scene fundamentally changing the political balance of forces by demanding a reversal of the Bush Program, then 1) economic disasters will continue and deepen profoundly, and 2) the disastrous war on terror will spawn further catastrophes abroad and at home.
We can see what an Obama presidency will look like unfolding in real-time now with respect to Pakistan. In August 2007 Obama advocated launching military attacks in Pakistan regardless of the Pakistani government’s wishes and without bothering to even notify them that the U.S. was striking on their country. At the time Biden, Clinton, and even George W. Bush ridiculed Obama for being bellicose. In July 2008, as the New York Times recently reported, Bush secretly signed orders adopting Obama’s proposal and the land and air attacks have ensued. Pakistan’s government and its people, including the families of innocent victims of these U.S. attacks, have decried these blatant violations of their national sovereignty. Blowback, the sort that resulted in 9/11, is in the making.
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Which future do we want? Which side are we on? Are we going to be “Good Americans?” Or will the following comment from Debra Sweet recently be the cutting edge injunction by a movement that dramatically turned things around, “Stop thinking like an American and start thinking like a human being”?
We can see what an Obama presidency will look like unfolding in real-time now with respect to Pakistan. In August 2007 Obama advocated launching military attacks in Pakistan regardless of the Pakistani government’s wishes and without bothering to even notify them that the U.S. was striking on their country. At the time Biden, Clinton, and even George W. Bush ridiculed Obama for being bellicose. In July 2008, as the New York Times recently reported, Bush secretly signed orders adopting Obama’s proposal and the land and air attacks have ensued. Pakistan’s government and its people, including the families of innocent victims of these U.S. attacks, have decried these blatant violations of their national sovereignty. Blowback, the sort that resulted in 9/11, is in the making.
* * *
Which future do we want? Which side are we on? Are we going to be “Good Americans?” Or will the following comment from Debra Sweet recently be the cutting edge injunction by a movement that dramatically turned things around, “Stop thinking like an American and start thinking like a human being”?
[Originally published in the journal, State of Nature, on 10/28/08.]
