With Barack Obama there might be hope...

"We have a hero in the making back in the United States today because we have a new candidate for president of the United States, Barack Obama. For all of us that have dreams and hope, Obama is a hero," said George Lucas, the creator of "Star Wars" series, when asked who his childhood heroes were. (TOKYO - AFP - June 3, 2008)
Indeed, in spite of the gloomy condition of national and international affairs, some romantic of us still dare to dream and hope for a world where sanity, love, justice, peace and prosperity will prevail over madness, hatred, injustice, war and poverty. And with Barack Obama in the White House some of those dreams and hopes have a chance to come true. This is my opinion, anyway.

I am not a US citizen, but there again, the question "WHO is President of the United States of America" is not simply an American issue. It is a global issue. Since the American militaristic empire, in her aggressively insatiable endeavor to take control of the Earth's energy resources, has long ago put on the mask of the nations' advocator for freedom and democracy, thereby arbitrarily taking up the role of the World’s, often brutal, policeman,...
the US government's foreign policies is also mine and everybody else's business. Thus, as a citizen of the World who cares about the future of this planet, I, too, have the duty to speak on this boldly and loudly.

Seeking hope for mankind, during the last few months I have been closely watching the American race for Party Nomination and presidency, and my attention has been drawn particularly on charmer and ideologue Barack Obama. I came to greatly admire Obama, although I disagree with some of his views. But this does not stop me from praying for this man to become the next planet-archon. I cannot see a better candidate in the horizon, and he seems to be a gift of the Universe to America. Will the US extent its hands in gratitude and receive this precious "GIFT"? Will the sober and peace-loving American voters outnumber the biased or misinformed war supporters? I hope so…

No doubt, Barack Obama is an inspirational leader. He is young and self-made; he is charismatic and eloquent, and he gives the impression that he speaks from his heart, believing what he says. Moreover, he seems to have a vision to change much of what is wrong with his country, both domestically and in its foreign polices. He has the noble ambition to work for a "nuclear free world" and he promised neither to allow new designs for nukes nor to build any new ones. He also intends to persuade the Russians to do the same. I consider this as a decisive stance regarding nuclear disarmament.

But how far will he really be able to proceed with the changes he announces? In other words, how far is Obama prepared, and indeed allowed, to confront the US's National Military Establishment, its monstrous arms industry, its multinational corporations and its powerful Banking/Financial system? It is amazing that over two centuries ago, when the banking system was nowhere as powerful as it is today, Thomas Jefferson had said: "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." 
And Felix Frankfurter, Justice of the Supreme Court (1939-1962), said: "The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes." I couldn't agree more with this distinguished Jew.

Let us have no illusions over this! Regardless of who is the next Commander-in-Chief in America, he will face great difficulties to affect any real change in the US's traditional militaristic outlook. Should Obama dare to confront the ruling invisible powers and insist in crossing the red line, he will, one way or another, be seriously and, may be, dangerously challenged by the US hawks. By all evidence, however, Obama is very smart and knows the problems lying on his way to more peaceful foreign policies. This is why throughout his political campaign to win the Democratic nomination, despite his rhetoric against Iraq's invasion, he has been very careful not to make any absolute anti-war statements.

As a member of the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) - the most powerful organization to shape United States foreign policy, with members prominent politicians, academicians and media personalities - Barack Obama knows what his country stands for and which are its tools for global domination, militarization of the nations, globalization, and the implementation of the illusive "New World Order" through iron fist.
As a CFR member, he certainly knows that for over seventy years the Council on Foreign Relations, through effective control of national governments, Media, Education, financial institutions and multinational corporations guides the issues of the day in Washington as well as in the rest of the World.

Should Obama be elected as the next President of the US, something I wish with all my heart, his road to changing the hawkish American mentality will not be paved with roses. He will need all the support he can get from the American people in every major decision he takes.

As a pacifist, I must admit I was disappointed that back in October 2, 2002, when Obama made his case against an American invasion of Iraq, in the first anti-Iraq war rally organized in Chicago, he started his speech saying: "Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. (…) I don't oppose all wars." 

Of course! If he said that he did oppose all wars, he wouldn’t be running for President of the US today! However, let him bear in mind the words of the political philosopher, 3rd President of the United States and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the USA, Thomas Jefferson, who had said. "War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses." 

And John F. Kennedy (1961) had said: "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind."
Unfortunately, the mad warmongers of the US have entirely different views about the "benefits" of war, and continue littering the environment with their military bases spread in every corner of the earth. These hawks work diligently even to weaponize space! For goodness sake! Someone has to stop this madness before the words of J.F. Kennedy come true.

Barack Obama rightly foresaw the futility of Iraq's invasion. And this is definitely to his credit. In the same speech to which I referred above (October 2, 2002) Barack Obama had also said: "I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda."
Immediately after these words, again in an attempt to pacify the ruling warmongers, Obama repeated his motto: "I am not opposed to all wars. I 'm opposed to dumb wars."

Now, six years after US administration’s ill-conceived invasion of Iraq and counting the cost and the losses it entailed, Barack Obama is in a position to capitalize on his wise warning and draw around him all the sober and peace-loving Americans. "We have lost thousands of American lives, spent nearly a trillion dollars, alienated allies and neglected emerging threats - all in the cause of fighting a war for well over five years in a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks," said Obama. (Washington, D.C. - July 15, 2008)

Further down he said: "I warned that the invasion of a country posing no imminent threat would fan the flames of extremism, and distract us from the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban;" 
So, Iraq was invaded and brutally devastated although it had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks and posed no imminent threat to the US…

However, I regret to notice that in this monumental speech Obama avoided to refer to the magnitude of the devastation the US invasion caused to Iraq. Does this not matter to the American voters? He ‘forgot’ to mention the chaos that followed the American invasion of Iraq, the subsequent breakdown of that country, the wrecking of its basic infrastructure, the destruction of its entire culture (what was left from "Desert Storm"), the spread of vicious violence, and the estimated 1,236,604 Iraqi deaths since that invasion of March 2003 (justforeignpolicy.org).
Alas, he 'forgot' to apologize to the Iraqis for all this on behalf of his nation. He failed to display the sensitivity and the humility any great man would readily have displayed. And this grieves my heart. But still, if I were American, I would vote for Obama. Even if he is not perfect, he is certainly promising a better deal for the US and the World.

As for the immediate withdrawal of the American troops in Iraq, let Barack Obama be wiser and less populist over this. Since the US has created a mess in this country, you just cannot wash your hands and leave it to its fortune. You now have the moral responsibility to stay there for an "undetermined" length of time, paying for the crimes of your predecessor, i.e. fatal President George W. Bush. There is no easy or quick way out of the mess the US created in Iraq, the ancient cradle of civilization that had the misfortune to have lots of oil under its ground - oil that the invisible rulers of the US much crave...

Besides, in another of his speeches, Obama himself admitted: "We are too late to stop a war that should never have been fought; too late to undo the pain of battle, the anguish of so many families, or the price of the fight; too late to redo the years of division and distraction at home and abroad." (September 12, 2007 in Clinton, Iowa.)

It is always too late, indeed, to avert the consequences of one’s evil actions… The sovereign law of cause and effect cannot be bribed into inaction. Nor can the Iraqis grow mature for handling democracy from one day to another. Besides, the wounds of the war are very deep, and the religious and tribal hatred abysmal. Who and how could hold this country together?

By the way, I was pleased to read (globalresearch.ca) that a conference to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes will be held September 13-14 at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. I hope the participants of that conference will take the right decision to pay Mr. Bush his due.

Let me close this article by reminding us the words of Omar Bradley, the US general who played an important role in the Allied victory in World War II : "The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living." 

Still, with Barack Obama as a Commander-in-Chief of the US, there might be some hope…