He's young. He's black. And he's a great stump speaker. But
if Barack Obama has you convinced that he represents change,
he's pulled the wool over your eyes.
He's a change only on the shallow level of identity politics,
just as Hillary is.
As the video, Barack to Hillary: I look forward to you advising
me, illustrates, Barack Obama has many advisers from previous
administrations, including the Clinton Administrations. Are
these advisers going to advise any material change from the
past? I don't think so.
If Obama truly represents change, he would not be recycling
advisers from previous administrations.
One of his foreign policy advisers is Zbigniew Brzezinski,
who goes back to the Carter Administration. Zbig is as imperialist
as they come. He is the author of a book called "The Grand
Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives"
(Basic Books, 1997). Here are a few choice excerpts
. . . it is correct to
assert that America has become, as President Clinton put it,
the world “indispensible nation.” . . . Without
sustained and directed American involvement, before long, the
forces of global disorder could come to dominate the world scene.
And the possibility of such a fragmentation is inherent in the
geopolitical tensions not only of today's Eurasia but of the
world more generally. [p. 195]
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The last thing Zbig wants is what Peak Oil and climate change
is now demanding: more political localism and local control
of resources by the people of whose land they are a part. When
this book was published in 1997, Big Oil thought it had discovered
in the Caspian Sea basin oilfields that would be greater even
than those of Saudi Arabia. However, soon thereafter, the oil
companies found out that there was not nearly the amount of
oil there that they thought and they canceled projects.
In the short run, it is in America's interest to consolidate
and perpetuate the prevailing geopolitical pluralism on the
map of Eurasia. That puts a premium on maneuver and manipulation
in order to prevent the emergence of a hostile coalition that
could eventually seek to challenge America's primacy, not
to mention the remote possibility of any one particular state
doing so. . . . The most immediate task is to make certain
that no state or combination of states gains the capacity
to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish
significantly its decisive arbitrating role. [p. 198].
A genuinely populist democracy
has never before attained international supremacy. The pursuit
of power and especially the economic costs and human sacrifice
that the exercise of such power often requires are not generally
congenial to democratic instincts. Democratization is inimical
to imperial mobilization. [p. 210, emphasis mine]
People such as Zbig, at a minimum, would welcome an event such
as 9-11 as an opportunity to extend American hegemony.
If it's true that you are known by the company you keep, what
does it say about Barack Obama that Zbig is one of his foreign
policy advisers? And I believe him when he says he looks forward
to Hillary advising him, Bill, too. If you think Obama represents
change, think again. And if you are excited about his candidacy
because he's black, remember the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. " . . . not by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character."
There are some pretty sorry characters running for president
these days. I recently saw a question online: "How come
we get to choose from over 50 candidates for Miss America, but
only 2 for president?" Indeed, how come?
