by Ed Ciaccio
Dandelion Salad
Featured Writer
December 18, 2011
Image by SS&SS via Flickr
Whether or not President Obama is re-elected, here is his record, which Americans should be aware of, but most likely are not:
Obama is STILL warring on:
Afghanistan (Bagram airbase contains a Guantanamo-type indefinite-detention prison).
Iraq (Obama will have hundreds of troops guarding the world’s largest “embassy” in Baghdad, plus thousands of mercenaries will still operate in Iraq).
Pakistan (Obama daily bombs areas of Pakistan with drones and has U.S. troops stationed there + CIA operating there).
Yemen – drone bombings + CIA.
Somalia – drone bombings + CIA.
Uganda – Obama recently sent U.S. troops there.
Additionally, in Bahrain, U.S. aid to this dictator has crushed the pro-democracy movement there, because Obama “needs” the naval base there for a U.S. fleet near Iran.
In Uzbekistan, Obama still supports this brutal dictator because Obama needs to use this country to get supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
In Egypt, Obama supplies the Egyptian police & military with the weapons, including tear gas, they use to suppress the pro-democracy movement there.
Obama had U.S. aerial forces involved in the U.S./NATO war on Libya.
Obama claims the authority to assassinate anyone, anywhere, whom he decides is a terrorist threat. The recent drone assassination of al-Awlaki in Yemen, and then his 16 year-old son a few days later, both U.S. citizens living abroad, were the first two known acts carried out under Obama’s new assassination policy, which even George W. Bush never claimed.
Obama & Israel have been conducting secret operations in Iran for years now. Iranian nuclear scientists have been murdered and explosions have been reported at Iranian nuclear facilities.
In addition, Obama has sent nuclear-armed warships to the South China Sea to intimidate China, and has recently stationed more U.S. troops in Darwin, Australia, which is the closest area to China, and in the Philippines. U.S. forces are also in other countries on China’s borders. Imagine how we would react if Chinese fleets were in the Gulf of Mexico and on our Atlantic & Pacific coasts, and China had troops stationed in Canada & Mexico.
In a November, 2011 article, “America’s Pacific Century”, in Foreign Policy, Obama’s Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, declares about U.S. involvement and intervention in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans, “From opening new markets for American businesses to curbing nuclear proliferation to keeping the sea lanes free for commerce and navigation, our work abroad holds the key to our prosperity and security at home… Harnessing Asia’s growth and dynamism is central to American economic and strategic interests and a key priority for President Obama.”
Obama has the U.S. Navy’s Fourth Fleet off the coast of Venezuela.
Obama has established U.S. drone bases in Africa.
Obama has maintained and expanded the number of U.S. military bases around the globe, and U.S. missiles (supposedly “defensive”) on Russia’s borders, provoking the Russians.
The U.S. has at least 800 + military bases in foreign countries all over the planet, and nuclear-armed fleets on every ocean, with nuclear-armed submarines under every ocean.
Obama has expanded the U.S. Empire beyond what even Bush did.
Given their rhetoric, except for Ron Paul, all the other Republican candidates for President will continue or expand these imperial foreign policies.
Obama has gone after more “whistle blowers” than all previous presidents combined.
Thousands of suspected “terrorists’ or terrorist “supporters” are now imprisoned in U.S. prisons across the U.S.
The National Defense Authorization Act, a bi-partisan bill overwhelmingly approved in both houses of Congress and soon to be signed into law by Obama will allow U.S. citizens “suspected of supporting al-Qaida and other terrorists” to be indefinitely detained without trials in military prisons in the U.S. This is the end of habeas corpus and the real next step to fascism and a military dictatorship here.
In addition, police forces all over the U.S. have been receiving more military weapons from the Pentagon, and the police forces are also developing sonic cannons and lasers to go along with the tear gas and tasers they already use for “crowd control”.
U.S. police forces are increasingly using drones to patrol U.S. areas.
The U.S. military has just added a new assignment for U.S. soldiers to choose: guarding civilian detainees in the U.S. We don’t know if FEMA has many detention camps waiting, but Halliburton is involved in running them.
If the Occupy Movement gets too big and out of control, the military and police will use these weapons and camps, with the new NDAA law allowing it, to round up protestors and put them in these camps with either military or Halliburton guards.
If catastrophic climate chaos accelerates even more than it has already, it will raise food prices even more as well as causing extreme weather all over the planet. Last year, the U.S. suffered 12 billion-dollar extreme weather events for the first time ever. These extremes in weather will only add to the insecurity here.
If worst comes to worst, Bush had authorized a new military command, NorthCom, whose mission is to be stationed for duty here in the U.S., the first time a unit of the U.S. military has had its mission as duty here at home. Obama has continued NorthCom.
Slowly but surely, a military dictatorship is emerging here, with the complicit corporate media doing its best to keep most Amerikans from learning about these steps to fascism.
Obamabots and others too distracted by trivial celebrity scandals and all the other mindless crap of our culture will not be aware of all these ominous developments until it is too late (it’s probably already too late).
Of course, they’ll say, “It can’t happen here.”
Remember what Hannah Arendt told us, after fleeing Nazi Germany: “Empire abroad entails tyranny at home.”
Ed Ciaccio’s first book, Heartlines: Selected Personal Works 1966-2011, is now available at http://www.createspace.com/3722975 or www.amazon.com/.
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You said to remember what Hannah Arendt told us, after fleeing Nazi Germany: “Empire abroad entails tyranny at home.”
She is also well-known for the phrase “the banality of evil” which forms part of the title of her 1963 book – Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.
As described in Wikipedia this book “describes the thesis that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths, but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal”.
Is that what’s happening in America now?
Very good question, Patrick. I think the answer is yes, unfortunately.
Yes, Patrick, i believe that is what is happening here, and has been happening for decades here, though it accelerated after 9/11, which is why the truth about 9/11 must be investigated, but will not be.
Two other reading recommendations in addition to Hannah Arendt:
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer
Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline by Morris Berman
Thanks, Ed. Although I haven’t read Berman’s book I’ve heard his interview with Cenk Uyger and read the reviews. I think there is much more involved than America’s fronteir “hustler” mentality.
The best overview is “How the Economy Was Lost” by Paul Craig Roberts. This puts the blame more on the post-war system at:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/paul-craig-roberts/how-the-economy-was-lost.html
You should also read “With all the pieces in place, when will the hammer drop?” by Maddison Ruppert of End The Lie at:
http://endthelie.com/2011/12/22/with-all-of-the-pieces-in-place-when-will-the-hammer-drop/
Take care.
Patrick
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Thank you for gathering this information in one place. It helps me organize my thoughts, but Obamabots will become hysterical and refuse to believe.
Thanks, Dr. Victoria W. Massey. It’s all here in one place, his record of being a war criminal, etc.