Obama: Democratic Words And Rightist Actions

In spite of all the speeches he gave about changing American policies, Obama’s initial decisions, such as the appointment of the hawkish Jew, Rahm Emanuel, to be the 23rd White House chief of staff, and his negative response to the events of Gaza, say only one thing: He supported the Israeli aggression. These decisions are regarded incredulously by many, including some Western writers led by Canadian writer Thomas Wokum, and his recent article: “Is Obama a disguised Conservative?”

Wokum says that the real tendencies of the new American president were “unearthed” after his maiden visit abroad, in which he went to Canada to meet with Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister. Prime Minister Harper is known for his extreme rightism, and was dubbed “Bush’s puppet” due to the fact that he took sides with the former American head of state, George Bush, Jr. The meeting between Obama and Harper resulted in nothing more than a conservative agenda, to the exclusion of everything else.

The Canadian writer goes on to note that Obama still propagates for fighting terror in Afghanistan, increasing the number of his troops there by a third and crushing the Taliban’s arm in Pakistan, as if to indicate that his “change” does not apply to these issues. He will make these decisions out of Congress’s hands and without their constraints, because they are “war” issues!

In addition, Obama’s administration, which gained support for publicizing the closure of Guantanamo prison camp, implicitly suggested that it would go after each and every so-called “terrorist” and take them, according to Wokum, to countries like Egypt to guarantee their full confession. The administration also refuses to try the ones that are already detained before civil courts.

Obama seemed even more right-wing than Stephen Harper when he indirectly criticized the Kyoto environmental agreement, which he called “useless without China and India.” And in respect to the financial realm, he traced Bush’s footsteps as he glutted the private financial agencies (that were fully responsible for the current economic impasse and failed to find solutions for it) with billions of dollars taken from the Americans’ pockets, hoping that these institutions would be able to wisely manage their money this time: That’s pure conservative logic!

Now, for those who care about Muslim and Arab issues and affairs – and I can quote the Hamas government – they should not think hopefully about the “employees of the White House” who were specifically chosen. You need only to look at the unprecedented and generous funds raised for Obama during his electoral campaign to know which side Obama will take.