- As well as anyone, Edward Said understood the West's
long-standing antipathy to Islam - reflected in Samuel Huntington's "The
Clash of Civilizations" article in the summer 1993 issue of Foreign
Affairs and later a 1996 book.
-
- He wrote that future conflicts won't be "primarily
ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind
and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural....the principal
conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different
civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics.
The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future"
- demagogically suggesting a benevolent, superior West confronting a belligerent,
hostile, inferior Muslim world. In other words, good v. evil.
-
- Said called him and others like him, "ignorant,"
a "clumsy writer," and an "inelegant thinker" using
a "gimmick" to suggest a "war of the worlds" pitting
good guys against bad ones.
-
- Post-9/11, it was easier than ever for America to declare
war on Islam, abroad and at home - a policy no different under Obama than
for eight years under George Bush. Empty rhetoric changes nothing, in Cairo
or elsewhere. Facts on the ground are clear, unequivocal, and hostile -
in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Occupied Palestine. Also toward Iran,
Syria, elected Hezbollah Lebanese officials, the legitimate Palestinian
Hamas government, and targeted Muslim Americans at home - for their activism,
prominence, charity, religion and ethnicity. It's the wrong time to be
Muslim in America and most anywhere else in the world.
-
- Around 1.5 billion Muslims want change and the basic
respect they deserve. In the spirit of noted US civil rights activist,
Fannie Lou Hamer, they're "sick and tired of being sick and tired,"
colonized and exploited, targeted and slaughtered, vilified as terrorists,
occupied and oppressed, falsely charged, convicted, and sentenced in kangaroo-court
proceedings, imprisoned and tortured, or viewed the way Edward Said explained
in his noted book, "Culture and Imperialism" - as "the strange
(inferior, Orient, East, them)" v. "the familiar (superior, Europe,
West, us)." They deserve much better, yet remain a political target
of choice.
-
- Until that changes and high-sounding speeches become
policy, empty rhetoric will fall on deaf ears. We've heard it before, yet
the more things change, the more they stay the same under Democrat and
Republican administrations.
-
- Obama's Cairo speech was profoundly disingenuous, much
like others past and more recently. He decried the "killing of innocent
men, women, and children," yet US forces slaughter them daily in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and supply Israel with billions of dollars and
the latest weapons and technology to commit slow-motion genocide against
millions of Palestinians, deny their legitimate self-determination, and
right of their refugees to return home as international law demands.
-
- Also, Iraq and Afghanistan remain occupied, the former
with unchanged troop levels for the duration if necessary and thousands
more for the latter under a new commander, general Stanley McChrystal,
known for his brutality as leader of the Pentagon's infamous Joint Special
(death squad) Operations (JSO). No exiting timelines are in sight for either
country. Human rights abuses and war crimes occur daily, and torture, extraordinary
renditions, and military tribunals remain official US policies as they
did under George Bush.
-
- America is a serial aggressor and abuser of binding human
rights laws. High-sounding rhetoric changes nothing. Obama claimed America
"did not go (to Afghanistan) by choice, we went of necessity....we
do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases
there....Iraq was a war of choice (but) I believe that the Iraqi people
are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein."
-
- "Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help
Iraq forge a better future - and leave Iraq to Iraqis. I have made it clear
to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory
or resources. Iraq's sovereignty is its own. That is why I ordered the
removal of our combat brigades by next August (and) why we will honor our
agreement with Iraq's democratically elected government to remove combat
troops from Iraqi cities by July, (and) all our troops....by 2012."
-
- Secret provisions in the Pentagon's 2008 Status of Forces
Agreement (SOFA) indicate otherwise. They flagrantly violate Iraqi sovereignty
and authorize the building of permanent US bases, camps, and prisons inside
the country. They immunize US forces, civilian security, and private contractors
from criminal prosecution. They assure Iraqi "democracy" is illusory.
-
- Their officials have no say over US operations, including
incursions into other countries. They require Washington's approval before
concluding any agreements with other countries. Key Iraqi ministries stay
under US control, including defense, interior, and oil. No timeline is
stipulated for America's withdrawal. Conditions depend on Iraqi force readiness,
the removal of "security threats" in neighboring countries (namely,
Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine), and national
reconciliation (meaning a defeated resistance). Unacknowledged is that
America is in Iraq to stay, and the same holds for Afghanistan.
-
- The historical record shows what Obama won't say. America
came to Japan in 1945 and South Korea in 1950, both close US allies, and
remained there ever since. Obama plans the same fate for Iraq, Afghanistan
and numerous other strategic countries where America intends permanent
occupations towards its goal of "full spectrum dominance" globally,
including by preemptive wars with first-strike nuclear weapons.
-
- Obama also claimed he's "taking concrete actions
to change course (and) unequivocally prohibited the use of torture"
at a time the practice remains official policy and continues reprehensibly
in US-run prisons, including Guantanamo, and secretly in ones in other
nations doing our bidding.
-
- Obama said nothing about the millions of Iraqi deaths,
refugees, and mass human misery since the Gulf War, subsequent sanctions,
and 2003 conflict. He ignored the destruction of the "cradle of civilization,"
subjugation of a sovereign state, and infliction of the same fate on Afghanistan.
He declared his support for democracy, peace, human rights, mutual understanding,
and social justice while bringing none to the region and backing its most
reprehensible tyrants.
-
- He declared an "unbreakable" bond with Israelis
and demanded that Palestinians "must abandon violence." He acknowledged
"more than 60 years" of their pain and dislocation but was silent
on its cause, the vast slaughter and destruction from Operation Cast Lead,
the daily incursions in the West Bank and Gaza, the latter Territory under
a medieval siege, and the viciousness of a rogue occupier bringing death,
destruction, and human misery to a civilian population in violation of
binding human rights laws and norms.
-
- He referred to a "stalemate" pitting "two
people with legitimate aspirations" against each other in conflict.
"It is easy to point fingers," he said, but "the only resolution
(for peace is for) both sides" to accept a two-state solution as stipulated
in "the road map" leading solely to isolated bantustans after
Israel seizes all valued land, leaves worthless scrub patches behind, and
ethnically cleanses large numbers of Palestinians to bordering countries
if they'll have them.
-
- "The United States does not accept the legitimacy
of continued Israeli settlements," but supplies billions in aid to
build them, opposes the legitimate right of Palestinian refugees to return
home, backs the corrosiveness of a racist and belligerent Zionism, supports
conflicts against an occupied people, and rogue Mahmoud Abbas Fatah elements
to divide, conquer, and solidify Israeli hardline rule.
-
- Obama mentioned nuclear weapons as another source of
tension, "reaffirmed America's commitment (for) a world" without
them, acknowledged Iran's right to "peaceful nuclear power,"
ignored Israel's nuclear arsenal (likely 200 - 400 warheads), and so far
as known, Iran's full compliance with NPT. America and Israel are nuclear
outlaws. Israel is the region's most destabilizing force. America has that
"honor" globally.
-
- Overall, Obama proposed no concrete measures to redress
decades of Palestinian grievances, nor those of Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis,
and others in Eurasia - the region America covets for its vast energy and
other resource riches.
-
- He came, saw, spoke, made empty gestures and no promises,
except about America's permanent imperial presence in partnership with
Israeli rule. Obama puts a new face on long-standing policy, but no change
of America's global aim - for unchallengeable dominance in this resource-rich
part of the world with hardline militarism for enforcement. The Arab street
harbors few illusions that it'll be otherwise going forward. Stay tuned.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
- Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
-
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13859
- ?
-
-
-
- eye box and H
-
-
-
- h/o Obama's Empty Outreach To Muslims
-
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- Obama's 'Outreach' To Muslims -
-
-
- Empty Rhetoric, Same Old Policies
-
-
-
-
- By Stephen Lendman
-
- 6-8-9
-
-
- As well as anyone, Edward Said understood the West's
long-standing antipathy to Islam - reflected in Samuel Huntington's "The
Clash of Civilizations" article in the summer 1993 issue of Foreign
Affairs and later a 1996 book.
-
- He wrote that future conflicts won't be "primarily
ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind
and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural....the principal
conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different
civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics.
The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future"
- demagogically suggesting a benevolent, superior West confronting a belligerent,
hostile, inferior Muslim world. In other words, good v. evil.
-
- Said called him and others like him, "ignorant,"
a "clumsy writer," and an "inelegant thinker" using
a "gimmick" to suggest a "war of the worlds" pitting
good guys against bad ones.
-
- Post-9/11, it was easier than ever for America to declare
war on Islam, abroad and at home - a policy no different under Obama than
for eight years under George Bush. Empty rhetoric changes nothing, in Cairo
or elsewhere. Facts on the ground are clear, unequivocal, and hostile -
in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Occupied Palestine. Also toward Iran,
Syria, elected Hezbollah Lebanese officials, the legitimate Palestinian
Hamas government, and targeted Muslim Americans at home - for their activism,
prominence, charity, religion and ethnicity. It's the wrong time to be
Muslim in America and most anywhere else in the world.
-
- Around 1.5 billion Muslims want change and the basic
respect they deserve. In the spirit of noted US civil rights activist,
Fannie Lou Hamer, they're "sick and tired of being sick and tired,"
colonized and exploited, targeted and slaughtered, vilified as terrorists,
occupied and oppressed, falsely charged, convicted, and sentenced in kangaroo-court
proceedings, imprisoned and tortured, or viewed the way Edward Said explained
in his noted book, "Culture and Imperialism" - as "the strange
(inferior, Orient, East, them)" v. "the familiar (superior, Europe,
West, us)." They deserve much better, yet remain a political target
of choice.
-
- Until that changes and high-sounding speeches become
policy, empty rhetoric will fall on deaf ears. We've heard it before, yet
the more things change, the more they stay the same under Democrat and
Republican administrations.
-
- Obama's Cairo speech was profoundly disingenuous, much
like others past and more recently. He decried the "killing of innocent
men, women, and children," yet US forces slaughter them daily in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and supply Israel with billions of dollars and
the latest weapons and technology to commit slow-motion genocide against
millions of Palestinians, deny their legitimate self-determination, and
right of their refugees to return home as international law demands.
-
- Also, Iraq and Afghanistan remain occupied, the former
with unchanged troop levels for the duration if necessary and thousands
more for the latter under a new commander, general Stanley McChrystal,
known for his brutality as leader of the Pentagon's infamous Joint Special
(death squad) Operations (JSO). No exiting timelines are in sight for either
country. Human rights abuses and war crimes occur daily, and torture, extraordinary
renditions, and military tribunals remain official US policies as they
did under George Bush.
-
- America is a serial aggressor and abuser of binding human
rights laws. High-sounding rhetoric changes nothing. Obama claimed America
"did not go (to Afghanistan) by choice, we went of necessity....we
do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases
there....Iraq was a war of choice (but) I believe that the Iraqi people
are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein."
-
- "Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help
Iraq forge a better future - and leave Iraq to Iraqis. I have made it clear
to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory
or resources. Iraq's sovereignty is its own. That is why I ordered the
removal of our combat brigades by next August (and) why we will honor our
agreement with Iraq's democratically elected government to remove combat
troops from Iraqi cities by July, (and) all our troops....by 2012."
-
- Secret provisions in the Pentagon's 2008 Status of Forces
Agreement (SOFA) indicate otherwise. They flagrantly violate Iraqi sovereignty
and authorize the building of permanent US bases, camps, and prisons inside
the country. They immunize US forces, civilian security, and private contractors
from criminal prosecution. They assure Iraqi "democracy" is illusory.
-
- Their officials have no say over US operations, including
incursions into other countries. They require Washington's approval before
concluding any agreements with other countries. Key Iraqi ministries stay
under US control, including defense, interior, and oil. No timeline is
stipulated for America's withdrawal. Conditions depend on Iraqi force readiness,
the removal of "security threats" in neighboring countries (namely,
Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine), and national
reconciliation (meaning a defeated resistance). Unacknowledged is that
America is in Iraq to stay, and the same holds for Afghanistan.
-
- The historical record shows what Obama won't say. America
came to Japan in 1945 and South Korea in 1950, both close US allies, and
remained there ever since. Obama plans the same fate for Iraq, Afghanistan
and numerous other strategic countries where America intends permanent
occupations towards its goal of "full spectrum dominance" globally,
including by preemptive wars with first-strike nuclear weapons.
-
- Obama also claimed he's "taking concrete actions
to change course (and) unequivocally prohibited the use of torture"
at a time the practice remains official policy and continues reprehensibly
in US-run prisons, including Guantanamo, and secretly in ones in other
nations doing our bidding.
-
- Obama said nothing about the millions of Iraqi deaths,
refugees, and mass human misery since the Gulf War, subsequent sanctions,
and 2003 conflict. He ignored the destruction of the "cradle of civilization,"
subjugation of a sovereign state, and infliction of the same fate on Afghanistan.
He declared his support for democracy, peace, human rights, mutual understanding,
and social justice while bringing none to the region and backing its most
reprehensible tyrants.
-
- He declared an "unbreakable" bond with Israelis
and demanded that Palestinians "must abandon violence." He acknowledged
"more than 60 years" of their pain and dislocation but was silent
on its cause, the vast slaughter and destruction from Operation Cast Lead,
the daily incursions in the West Bank and Gaza, the latter Territory under
a medieval siege, and the viciousness of a rogue occupier bringing death,
destruction, and human misery to a civilian population in violation of
binding human rights laws and norms.
-
- He referred to a "stalemate" pitting "two
people with legitimate aspirations" against each other in conflict.
"It is easy to point fingers," he said, but "the only resolution
(for peace is for) both sides" to accept a two-state solution as stipulated
in "the road map" leading solely to isolated bantustans after
Israel seizes all valued land, leaves worthless scrub patches behind, and
ethnically cleanses large numbers of Palestinians to bordering countries
if they'll have them.
-
- "The United States does not accept the legitimacy
of continued Israeli settlements," but supplies billions in aid to
build them, opposes the legitimate right of Palestinian refugees to return
home, backs the corrosiveness of a racist and belligerent Zionism, supports
conflicts against an occupied people, and rogue Mahmoud Abbas Fatah elements
to divide, conquer, and solidify Israeli hardline rule.
-
- Obama mentioned nuclear weapons as another source of
tension, "reaffirmed America's commitment (for) a world" without
them, acknowledged Iran's right to "peaceful nuclear power,"
ignored Israel's nuclear arsenal (likely 200 - 400 warheads), and so far
as known, Iran's full compliance with NPT. America and Israel are nuclear
outlaws. Israel is the region's most destabilizing force. America has that
"honor" globally.
-
- Overall, Obama proposed no concrete measures to redress
decades of Palestinian grievances, nor those of Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis,
and others in Eurasia - the region America covets for its vast energy and
other resource riches.
-
- He came, saw, spoke, made empty gestures and no promises,
except about America's permanent imperial presence in partnership with
Israeli rule. Obama puts a new face on long-standing policy, but no change
of America's global aim - for unchallengeable dominance in this resource-rich
part of the world with hardline militarism for enforcement. The Arab street
harbors few illusions that it'll be otherwise going forward. Stay tuned.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
<mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net>lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
- Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
-
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13859
-
-
|