New York Times: Ghana’s democratic elections and comparatively well-managed economy are still not the norm in Africa, and the list of imploding, unstable countries is long.
Mr. Obama says he chose Ghana to “highlight” its adherence to democratic principles and institutions, ensuring the kind of stability that brings prosperity. “This isn’t just some abstract notion that we’re trying to impose on Africa,” he told AllAfrica.com. He added: “The African continent is a place of extraordinary promise as well as challenges. We’re not going to be able to fulfill those promises unless we see better governance.”
Despite the obvious wincing Obama’s criticism of Kenya may cause, many Kenyans not only seem to understand Mr. Obama’s choice to visit Ghana, but endorse it. Kenyans often follow politics like a sport, so it was not uncommon to hear them in recent weeks describing Mr. Obama’s choice as a savvy one, insulating him from any accusations that he was favoring his father’s country. [ READ MORE ]
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A Kenyan author, Barrack Muluka, has a different view. According to Mr. Muluka: “Kenya doesn’t need Obama to show us how to make Kenya a great country.”
“….all this American talk about democratic styling up is a lot of fudge.” “….What was he(Obama) doing in Egypt the other day?” “Egypt is the headquarters of dictatorship and emergency laws in Africa.” “But Americans thrive on contradictions and double speak, from Guatemala and Honduras and from Chile and Nicaragua, all the way to Zaire.” “They have been associated with some of the worst regimes in history and will remain so for a long time to come. Obama is only the latest custodian of American doublespeak,” says Mr. Muluka
“He is in Ghana to ingratiate himself with the present generation of American African slaves of yesteryear, through visiting their ancestral lands. He already came to Kenya to sanitise his own ancestry ahead of his successful presidential bid.” “He did not want this to be an election issue.” “He has been to dictatorial Egypt to pacify the Islamic world.” “There is nothing to bring him to Kenya, and I doubt that it is important for him to come to Kenya – to bring what?,” adds Muluka. [ READ MORE ]
MSNBC’s O’Donnell on Limbaugh’s Obama-Al Qaeda comparison: “Did he go too far this time?”
Neil Boortz “didn’t see any apologia, show of weakness” in Obama’s Cairo speech
Pagliarulo: Obama should do what Reagan would have, tell moderate Muslims “screw you,” love us or “live in your cave”
Beck guest host Pagliarulo claims Saudi King gifted Obama with “big honkin’ bling”
Rodgers: A “few million dead Americans” will “wake up” public “to the fact that they have elected an anti-American President”
Bush’s BRAIN Karl Rove tries to dispute that “the Muslim people” and “the Muslim world” “hated” Bush
Anti-Immigrant Bigot (The King of Xenophobia) Lou Dobbs poll asks whether you are “concerned” that Obama “seems compelled to continue to apologize for the United States”
Hall grills GOP’s Corant: “So you’re telling me Rush Limbaugh means nothing… to conservatives and Republicans?”
Burton shoots down Smith’s suggestion that Obama didn’t “address[]” terrorism during speech, is “Apologist-in-Chief”
President Obama signed his first executive order yesterday, concerning ethics within the executive office, accompanied by Vice President Biden. He made ‘unprecedented‘ changes to open up government and limit lobbyists’ insider influence. He also took up withdrawal from Iraq, Mideast peace and the closure of Guantanamo.
Barack Obama moved decisively to distance himself from the previous administration, pushing top military leaders for a plan to withdraw combat troops from Iraq and issuing a string of orders to make government more open.
The new president signaled his desire to wade into the Mideast conflict, conferring by telephone with the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. He also laid the groundwork for fulfilling his campaign pledge to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. — [MORE]
Before the September 11 attacks, Washington’s Neo-cons had waited in frustrated hope for an event that would serve as the excuse needed to enable them to rouse public support for a war against Iraq and other “rogue states” where they were sure American power could easily dispatch. Their project for the New American century proposed to remake the oil-rich-Middle-East in America’s image. Vice President Dick Cheney was also dreaming to restore the imperial presidency that had been lost with Richard Nixon’s Watergate.
In 1999, when George W. Bush was considering for the Presidency, he contracted with Houston Journalist Micky Herskowitz for a ghost-written autobiography. No more than two months passed before Bush’s team of advisors dismissed Herskowitz. The gregarious governor was telling Mickey too much. What’s interesting about the Russ Baker interview with Mickey Herskowitz is the reasons Bush gave for wanting to attack a small country: he wanted to emerge from his father’s shadow and become more popular.
From a strategic point of view the most effective way to fight terrorism is by intelligence operations and police work. However, for all the above reasons, militarizing the fight into a perpetual state of “war” would most easily facilitate the expansion of presidential powers.
On the other side of the world, the extremist Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were also making their plans. The people and government of Muslim nations from Algeria and Egypt, to Saudi Arabia and the Sudan, wanted to run the extremists out of their country, because they were inflicting violence to those they considered “not Muslim enough.” In Algeria the radicals had began eliminating each other over perceptions that many of their own members were not “pure enough.” For these reasons extremist Osama bin Laden had been chased from Saudi Arabia to the Sudan and then back to the caves of Afghanistan. Even in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar, concerned for the well-being of his Taliban government, had ordered bin Laden to quit giving interviews to the western press declaring jihad against Israel and the U.S.A.
Rudyard Kipling had described “Afghanistan” as the “place where empires go to die.” Bin Laden knew that, and believing that Israel and its supporter, the United States, were instruments of oppression for the muslim people, was looking for an opportunity to drag the United States into a long and costly war similar to that they had engaged the Soviet Union in the 1980s. They hoped to slowly wear Americans down as they had already succeeded with the Soviet forces. Their goal was to provoke such a heavy military response from the Americans that would offend the Muslim world, destabilize the region, and increase the oil prices (which were cheap through the previous two decades) bringing further damage to the American economy while the Middle East was prospering.
Of course Bin Laden was taking the risk that Americans would strike and destroy al-Qaeda in a way it would not alienate U.S. from the rest of the Muslims. But that did not happen. The Bush administration was not focusing its attention on bin-Laden, because they were planning to attack Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Instead of using U.S. troops to seal the border, President Bush relied on hired Pakistanis, who were receiving money also from Al-Qaeda! In the battle of Tora Bora the local “allies” who had mixed sympathies towards al-Qaeda, let many of them escapeâ?¦ Marine officials, who foresaw Al-Qaeda’s strategic withdrawal from Tora Bora were not allowed to patrol the border and seal off bin Laden’s caves. Some reports suggest that bin-Laden had escaped by the end of November, 2001. A witness present in the Tora Bora claims that Osama escaped around December 10, 2001.
“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” George W. Bush, Washington, D.C. March 13, 2002. Six months after September 11.
President Bush should be grateful to Osama Bin Laden for his re-election in 2004, when the race for presidency was neck-to-neck with Democrat Kerry. While the Neo-con political adviser Karl Rove was orchestrating Bush’s image as “resolute” and Kerry’s as “weak flip-flopper,” Osama bin Laden released a tape saying “Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al-Qaeda. Your security is in your hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked.” Bin Laden knew that by demanding the Americans to surrender, they would proudly want to fight back and consequently vote for the “resolute” presidential candidate Bush instead of the “weak” Kerry. Bin Laden knew that Bush would continue his clumsy war in Iraq that depleted our economy and deteriorated diplomatic relations with Middle East.
The war on Iraq was not as easy as Americans had expected. Sad to admit, the “war on terror” made Americans fall in bin Laden’s trap, resulting to all the things that Bin Laden had wanted. One of the things that bin Laden demanded years ago was the oil should cost $144 barrel, Charles Edmund writes in “W got his war” of The Coyote Report.
