December 6, 2009

Barack Obama is not the type of guy who agonizes over sending soldiers into battle. This isn't Lyndon Johnson, after all, who paced the Oval Office night after night, quaffing Bushmill's and dreading the next troop deployment to Saigon. Obama is more in the George Bush "What-me-worry" mold. He has no problem clowning around with the same cadets he'll ship off to the Afghan killing fields just weeks later. No worries. Maybe, that's why this week's speech at West Point was such a bust; it lacked the empathy that one expects from a leader who's sending his fellow countrymen into war. Yes, there was plenty of the usual rhetorical fanfare, but nothing that vaguely resembled genuine concern or--dare we say--compassion. That's just not part of Obama's repertoire.

Part of the problem has to do with the fact that Obama always looks like he just stepped out of the White House sauna after an invigorating workout at the gym. He seems a little too spunky and carefree for someone who's supposed to be overseeing two wars at the same time. When people's kids are in harm's way, they want to see it etched-deeply into the president's face. It should resonate in his voice and guide his behavior. This is apparently lost on the Hollywood set-designers who run the White House public relations team. They're still stuck in the "Reagan is God" mode, where every president is expected to be ebullient, energetic, and resolute; an odd-mix of Winston Churchill and Lance Armstrong.

Obama also has a glaring truth-in-advertising problem. He's just not who he pretends to be. He was sold as an avatar of change but, as soon as he was sworn in, he proceeded to reinforce the most regressive policies of the Bush administration. With typical callousness, he has run roughshod over his liberal base who mistook his sweeping proclamations as a sincere commitment to progressive politics. Boy, were they duped. No change, no way.

Tuesday's recitation at West Point is a perfect illustration of Obama as cardboard figurehead rallying the public for more gratuitous carnage in the Afghan meat-grinder. While earnest-looking cadets gazed on in stunned silence, Obama went through his usual ruminations, pretending that the platitudes flashing on the monitor before him were his most heartfelt convictions. The problem is, Obama's heartfelt convictions are as rare as the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker, a fact that crestfallen liberals are just now starting to grasp.

"It is easy to forget that when this war began, we were united, bound together by the fresh memory of a horrific attack, and by the determination to defend our homeland and the values we hold dear," Obama thundered. "I refuse to accept the notion that we cannot summon that unity again. I believe with every fiber of my being that we – as Americans – can still come together behind a common purpose."

Talk about audacity! Here's Obama channeling George Bush to his captive audience, invoking the same stale imagery, the same demagoguery, the same flawed logic as his reviled predecessor. Is it any wonder why the far-right loonies at the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard are now gushing over our new War President?

Obama's speech was laced with Bushisms: America is the victim...America never asked for this war...America only invaded to spread democracy and liberate the tormented Afghan people... Anything America does can be justified by 9-11.

"9-11, 9-11, 9-11." Oh, and did I mention, "9-11."

So what exactly is the difference between George Bush and Barack Obama?

3 inches and maybe 20 lbs, beyond that, not a thing. They're carbon copies.

Obama will now deploy 30,000 troops to the Afghan hellhole while activating Gen Stanley "death squad" McChrystal's savage counterinsurgency operation which will integrate psyops, special forces, NGOs, psychologists, media, anthropologists, humanitarian agencies, public relations, reconstruction, robotic drones, and conventional forces to assert control over the South and the tribal areas of Pakistan, to quash the indigenous resistance, and to pacify the restive and increasingly pessimistic population. Sounds great, eh? The Pentagon's plan to overpower, occupy and subjugate Afghanistan while grinding its people beneath the iron-heel of Yankee militarism, will be dramatically intensified under the guidance of America's charismatic and warmongering Commander-in-chief, Barack Obama.

Let the bloodbath begin!