A New Hope?

Barack Obama was elected by many because he represented a new hope for his supporters--supporters whose selective hearing allowed them to believe he would be a change from the murderous foreign policies of past US administrations.

President Obama even called the publicized first actions of his administration a "clean break from business as usual," promoting the image of change he brings to the White House.

The "business as usual" murderous past of US foreign policy includes:

• George W. Bush and his pre-9/11-planned war in Afghanistan, which has killed and maimed thousands, and is continuing to do so.

• George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, which has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of children and civilians and continues to do so. The hope that President Obama has fostered results from his saying he wants to eventually (pdf pp. 67-69) withdraw from Iraq.

• The Clinton administration blockade of Iraq, which doubled the child death rate there. Clinton's soon-to-be secretary of state thought it was worth it.
• George H. W. Bush and his tacit approval to Saddam for his invasion of Kuwait, right before attacking Iraq for it (similar to his doing business with Noriega and then imprisoning him).
• The Reagan administration authorization of a terrorist attack on Muammar Gaddafi. The missile strike that killed Gaddafi's adopted child, resulted in Gaddafi retaliating with more terrorist attacks of his own.
• Jimmy Carter's Carter Doctrine (pdf) and the arming of al Qaeda resulted in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the creation of al Qaeda.
• Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger tacitly condoning the Indonesian government murder of an estimated 60,000-200,000 East Timorians in 1975-76. During the Carter administration, in 1977, Richard Holbrooke, a Carter appointment as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs was involved with Zbigniew Brzezinski supplying weapons to the Suharto regime while it was slaughtering East Timorians. (Richard Holbrooke is now President Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.)

• The Vietnam war policies of Richard Nixon, who campaigned with a slogan of peace with honor, and Lyndon Johnson, who portrayed his opponent, Barry Goldwater, as a war candidate, resulted in over a million deaths. Nixon expanded the war into Cambodia by conducting a bombing campaign there in 1970.

• John F. Kennedy's knowledge of plans to assassinate Patrice Lumumba in the DRC and Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, and sanctioning the assassination of, in a case of what goes around comes around 20 days later, Ngo Diem in Vietnam. His brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, "personally managed the operation on the assassination of Castro" (pdf).

• Dwight Eisenhauer ordering the CIA to assassinate Patrice Lumumba in the Congo and Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. CIA documents (pdf and pdf) admit plotting the assassinations, but no direct involvement in the actual murders.

Only three days after his inauguration, Barack Obama, the new hope, has already murdered three children in Pakistan.

In a decision left unheralded by the mainstream media, just three days into his presidency, Obama approved the firing of missiles into a Pakistani village, sending a message of business as usual to other nations.

According to the January 23, 2009 Times online article:

"Missiles fired from suspected US drones killed at least 15 people inside Pakistan today, the first such strikes since Barack Obama became president and a clear sign that the controversial military policy begun by George W Bush has not changed...

"Pakistan has objected to such attacks, saying they are a violation of its territory that undermines its efforts to tackle militants. Since September, the US is estimated to have carried out about 30 such attacks, killing more than 220 people."

So President Obama is continuing the Bush administration policy. The US is not at war with Pakistan and there is no congressional declaration of war as required by Article I Section 8 of the Constitution.

Then-candidate Obama stated throughout his campaign that he wanted to increase military activity in Afghanistan and pursue military action in Pakistan. He said as much on page one of his plan (pdf). In the same plan you'll also see a Nixonian mention that his administration will "End the War in Iraq Responsibly."

President Obama has also appointed Richard Holbrooke, of "East Timorian (pdf) gun-running, friend of Paul Wolfowitz fame," as special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Where's the change? Do you still believe?