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Blogs are a familiar feature on the internet - where users post content in an accumulating manner, with comments, and search options, etc. They facilitate expression and exploration, and via attached comments, also debate and synthesis.


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Creating Blog Posts

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Blogs

50

David Peterson's Blog

Web Address: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/davidpeterson
Bio: I am an independent writer and researcher based in Chicago. (More)

All Peterson Blogs

"A Way Forward in Iraq"?

By David Peterson at Nov 21, 2006


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Friends: The history of politics is replete with candidates (even potential candidates) saying one thing, then doing another.  Also with the political establishment's ability (near infinite, it some times seems) to discover and/or to create candidates willing to perform in this role.--Please keep this in mind while reading Senator Barack Obama's November 20 speech before an outfit called the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

   

Among the questions worth asking would be where this particular speaker really truly comes down on questions concerning war, concerning peace, and concerning American Power, above all else?

Is Barack Obama pro-peace?  Is he a strict constitutionalist and advocate for international law?  Is he anti-war?  Or maybe (like roughly 99 percent of the rest of them) just unhappy with the course of the Americans' war over Iraq?

For example, does Obama believe the war has grown "too costly"?  And to whom, exactly?  To the Americans?  To the Treasury?  To those who want only to regroup and to fight another war one day again?  Or to the Iraqis?  To the international order?  To the world as a whole?

Or does Obama believe the war to be "unwinable" (let us say) in Henry Kissinger's sense of complete military and political domination of the whole of Iraqi national territory?  Or that maybe the current regime in the White House devoted "insufficient" resources to doing the job right?  Was the war in Obama's judgment a "mistake"?  Indeed.  A "tragic mistake"?   

Above all: Does the Junior Democratic Senator from the State of Illinois strike you as a bait-and-switcher?  (Woodrow Wilson and the 1917 entry into Europe's war perhaps having been the classic example of the bait-and-switch in American history.  (Always see "The War and the Intellectuals," Randolph Bourne, 1917.)  Though we might also recall the Democrats ahead of the national elections of November, 1964.  And what they did to Vietnam as soon as Lyndon Johnson won re-election.) 

"A Way Forward in Iraq," Barack Obama, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, November 20, 2006 
Barack Obama at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA Webpage with videolinks)
Barack Obama On The Issues - Defense (Obama's website)

"Obama Urges Gradual Withdrawal from Iraq," Deanna Bellandi, Associated Press, November 20, 2006
"'No good options left': Obama unveils plan to cut U.S troops in Iraq," Scott Fornek, Chicago Sun-Times, November 21, 2006
"Obama helps U.S. focus on constructive Iraq policy," Editorial, Chicago Sun-Times, November 21, 2006
"Obama: Time to stop `coddling' Iraq," Christi Parsons and David Mendell, Chicago Tribune, November 21, 2006
"Obama calls for pullout in Iraq," P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times, November 21, 2006
"Obama calls for phased pullout," Philip Dine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 21, 2006 

"Great White Hope," ZNet. August 16, 2004
"Barack Obama and the Clash of Civilizations," ZNet, September 27, 2004

 

Person

A Dime-a-Dozen

By Kissenger, Clark at Nov 24, 2006 12:55 PM

Friends:

"Once the president makes the decision to go in, our priority has to be with the safety and success of our troops," state Sen. Barack Obama, D-Chicago, said from Springfield, where the state Legislature is in its spring session.
"Our prayers are with the families, and we have to hope for the best possible outcome in the shortest possible time."
 

-- "Some Illinoisans cheer, others protest U.S. attack on Iraq," Megan Reichgott, Associated Press, March 20, 2003
 

Politicans like this come a dime-a-dozen.

You can keep 'em.

I'm not buying.


David Peterson
Chicago, USA

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Person

Barack Obama, October 2, 2002

By Kissenger, Clark at Nov 24, 2006 11:24 AM

"I don't oppose all war; I oppose dumb war."

-- Illinois State Senator Barack Obama, speaking at a downtown Chicago rally, October 2, 2002 (as reported in the October 3, 2002 Daily Herald, "300 attend rally against Iraq war," Greg Bryant and Jane B. Vaughn). This is the oldest public record of Obama's position specifically about the looming U.S. aggression over Iraq that I've been able to find reported in the U.S. media.

One interesting question for the gentleman might be: Under which conditions would you support war against the United States?

Presumably his answer would be: Under no conditions.

The follow-up question would be: But then how could you not oppose all war?

It would be a real hooter to listen to the gentleman explain the finer differences between "smart" wars (cakewalks for the Americans) and "dumb" wars (those where the otherwise smart warriors from the States can't kill their targets with relative ease and impunity).


David Peterson
Chicago, USA 

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Person

socialist or capitalist ideology apart..

By Kissenger, Clark at Nov 22, 2006 17:08 PM

nother problem it is that corporations remould the failling political parties to reflectn their will. Noam Chomsky description of the US political system as an obligarchy is accurate. Paul Street's description of this elitist obligarchy as a form of fascism is also accurate. Victor, I agree Obama is no-good. He is already enrooted in evil

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Person

Craig

By Kissenger, Clark at Nov 22, 2006 12:16 PM

Craig - my problem with Obama is that even after hearing him I don't really know what he REALLY stands for. He seems left, right and middle to me - a sure danger signal. And yes, I have nothing against him personally, but he got where he is by pleasing the kingmakers. And that's enough for me. He doesn't rely upon me for money - he relies upon them - I don't sign his payslip - they do. And that's the problem with American politics.

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Person

democracy to the people

By Kissenger, Clark at Nov 21, 2006 19:18 PM

craig, what david's intent is to show that obama is part of the general problem affectingh US politics.. American voters are being fed with the same whole crap over and over agin.. David is legitimately right to be fed up..corporations should not meddle with democracies..war should not be sponsored to enrich few psychopath..politician should have integity and avoid feeding on corporate agendas.. If you don't realize the ideology must change in the US, nothing will change nad the US will continue to be the main Tyranny in the world

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Person

You are correct, Barak Obama is a politican

By Kissenger, Clark at Nov 21, 2006 17:26 PM

But is that so bad? If nothing else isn't he an inspiration to African Americans in the United States and by comparsion reasonably good at representing the interests of the Left?

I think this is probably the third time I've seen a znet blog attacking Barak Obama, and I don't think he's what the Left's intellectual energies should be focused against. How far do we have to look to find someone much worse than him, or an issue that's much more pressing?

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