Tuesday, March 11, 2014

President Obama is keeping his promise on ending perpetual war

Some of you might remember that it was only a year ago that libertarians and many liberals were consumed with talking about drones. Then in May, President Obama gave a speech in which he talked about ending perpetual war.

Of course, folks like Glenn Greenwald said it would never happen and then went on to mockingly deride the President's promises.
Until one sees actual changes in behavior and substance on those issues, cheering for those changes as though they already occurred or are guaranteed is the height of self-delusion...

How many times does Obama have to deliver a speech embracing a set of values and polices, only to watch as he then proceeds to do the opposite, before one ceases to view his public proclamations as predictive of his future choices?
Well, I have some news for the naysayers. Over the last year, I've been documenting the fact that the number of drone strikes has been dropping dramatically. And then today comes this report from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (one of the biggest critics of President Obama's drone policy):
John Brennan has now completed his first year as director of the CIA. In that time there has not been a confirmed report of a civilian casualty from a CIA drone strike in Pakistan, according to an analysis of Bureau drone strike data...

And there has not been a reported drone strike for more than two months in Pakistan.
In light of that, I'd suggest the following re-write of Greenwald's question from up above: "How many times does [President] Obama have to deliver a speech embracing a set of values and policies, only to watch as he then proceeds to fulfill them, before one begins to view his public proclamations as predictive of his future choices?" In typical Greenwald fashion, that's a lot of words to basically say: Obama keeps his promises...when are you guys going to finally start paying attention?

Now that everyone has dropped their vapors about the issue of drones and gone on to surveillance, perhaps its time to start believing what this President says.

1 comment:

  1. I have watched this president fulfill all his promises. Did he wave his hand and do them all on the first day? No. He has labored long and hard to restore democratic process to all our deliberations, and that simply takes time. We have been dismantling the New Deal and Great Society for 40-plus years. We have increased the unilateral Cold War for almost as long. Making systemic change in five years is therefore almost miraculous. The biggest problem we face as a nation is the ignorance people have about how democracy works AND what changes we have obtained that fulfill their desires but go almost unnoticed by the very people demanding them. We take superficiality as fact - Obama listens to everyone so he must be selling out to them. Nope. Not happening.

    You nailed this Nancy - Obama is keeping his promises. When are "you guys" going to notice?

    ReplyDelete

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