North Country Veterans for Peace - Chapter 121

Almost 60% of Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008.  We were promised changes in Washington.  What we got was Dubya Lite.

From the very first choice a new President makes, Obama signaled support of the status quo.  His essential advisers and Cabinet choices -- Gaither and Summers, Clinton, Gates -- represent deferrals to the status quo.

His first chance to intervene in a major issue before Congress was a labor issue, the Employees Free Choice Act.  In deference to National Chamber of Commerce and other interests he refrained from any signal of support.  The initiative failed in Congress.

In his pursuit of health reform, he quickly abdicated on the core issue of his campaign:  the public-health option.  He failed to support importation of generic drugs from Canada and other countries.  Whatever reform comes out of the Congressional wrangle will founder under perks for Insurance, Finance and Big Pharm.  It will fail in the one thing his constituency demanded:  guaranteed health care for all Americans.

His administration's decision in resolution of the Honduras coup and intensified military assistance for the Uribe government in Colombia mark a giant step backward in support of democracy in Latin America.

His approval of the Alberta Clipper pipeline to Canada's tar sands and mountain moving in West Virginia, and his decision to push "clean energy" with a new generation of nuclear plants show the coal, oil and power interests have him hooked now too.

His piddling adjustments to Bush's cures for the economy have generated a huge backlash in loss of public trust.

As for war:
He is about to send a war fleet to the Persian Gulf.
He is authorizing export of major WMDs to Taiwan, in defiance of Chinese interests.
He is pushing upwards of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan.
He has allowed expansion of blackbox drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an ally.
Expanded military support for the Uribe regime confirms to Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay that these leftwing governments are in for a virtual epidemic of contra-type action against them.
He has budgeted an increase of military spending that dwarfs that of any in recent past.  U.S. military spending, including debts from past wars, now surpasses that of all other countries in the world combined.
ALL THIS AFTER HE WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!  MUCH OF IT AFTER HE ACCEPTED IT!!!

Kindest thing one can say about these broken promises is that, once the Beltway closed about him, Obama discovered he was trapped.  The military-industrial-congressional complex is realer than ever.

Unkindest thing is that he never meant to keep his campaign promises -- that he just used our good will to be elected.  Same old same old.

How much worse would McCain have been?  In at least one way he'd have been better:  we'd be spared the farce of a U.S. President being offered, and accepting,` the Nobel Peace Prize. 

What to say but -- once again, we're screwed.