Obama’s Middle East Foreign Policy is a Big ?

Movie maker Michael Moore’s  reaction to Obama’s election is reprinted below. 

Moore  is mistaken to call Obama an anti-war person. This has been the big myth of the candidacy of Obama.   Obama has promised to increase the war in Afghanistan and the “war on terror”.  He has even spelled out how he could send soldiers into the region around Pakistan and move into that country if necessary.  He has only said he will end the war in Iraq so he can move war  to other countries.  Anyone who thinks Obama is “anti-war” is in for a big surprise.

In recent days, there have been many bomb strikes and many people killed by 500 lb. bombs dropped on them in Afghanistan.  Will a bomb dropped by President Obama hurt people any less?  Of course not.  After the celebrations of his election are done, it’s time for analysis and critical thinking to be applied to an Obama presidency.  Obama, a man of the system, is not going to solve all of our problems.  Obama should be given a chance, but not a blank check to do what he wants, and not unquestioning support.  That’s what people gave Bush after 9/11, with disastrous results. 

As Michael Moore said the other day, let’s hope Obama breaks all of his campaign promises.  His promises were mostly neo-liberal, and they were not progressive. We need to return America to be a peacemaker around the world and to be more liberal in general, which is what most Americans want when they aren’t busy labeling things “right” and “left”.

Obama won the primary mainly because he told us he was against the Iraq war.  We need to hold him to his promise to get us out of Iraq and then we need to convince him to end the war in Afghanistan, something that would go directly against his stated intentions.

The other troubling thing that has happened already is that Obama has chosen the ultra-pro-Israel Rahm Emanuel for his chief of staff.  This will not be a positive development for Palestinians, who have also suffered more Israel attacks in recent days. The big question is whether an Obama presidency will actuall change our policies towards most of the Middle East.  Obama has not actually said anything that makes us think things will actually improve significantly any time soon.  He has also inexplicably talked very tough about Latin America, calling out Chavez by name, as though Venezuala were our enemy.  They are not!

The best thing Obama’s election has done for the United States is to improve our image around the world, and give some people, in some countries, some hope.  Will that translate into better foreign policy?  Only if the American people push Obama in that direction, as hard as he is being pushed by the right wing of the Democratic party.

Moore also seems to think we are in for a creative Renaissance due to Obama.  I don’t see what our election has to do with art.  Artists and writers never stop doing their work because of a president, unless that president puts them in jail.  There has been a ton of pro-peace music and anti-war art and creativity in the last 6-7 years. There are also millions of artists who don’t pay any attention to politics.  There has been so much great anti-war art created lately, if anything, this will end some of that.  In fact, in my opinion, the best art does not come from a satisfaction with life but some type of dissastisfaction. 

A Message From Michael Moore

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.

There was another important “first” last night. Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war. I hope President-elect Obama remembers that as he considers expanding the war in Afghanistan. The faith we now have will be lost if he forgets the main issue on which he beat his fellow Dems in the primaries and then a great war hero in the general election: The people of America are tired of war. Sick and tired. And their voice was loud and clear yesterday.

It’s been an inexcusable 44 years since a Democrat running for president has received even just 51% of the vote. That’s because most Americans haven’t really liked the Democrats. They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support. Well, here’s their chance. It has been handed to them, via the voting public, in the form of a man who is not a party hack, not a set-for-life Beltway bureaucrat. Will he now become one of them, or will he force them to be more like him? We pray for the latter.

But today we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago. What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country’s greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet. I know, pinch me.

We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, “gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?” Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We’ve entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.

An African American has been elected President of the United States! Anything is possible! We can wrestle our economy out of the hands of the reckless rich and return it to the people. Anything is possible! Every citizen can be guaranteed health care. Anything is possible! We can stop melting the polar ice caps. Anything is possible! Those who have committed war crimes will be brought to justice. Anything is possible.

. . . .

I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and resources to make this victory happen. It’s been a long road, and huge damage has been done to this great country, not to mention to many of you who have lost your jobs, gone bankrupt from medical bills, or suffered through a loved one being shipped off to Iraq. We will now work to repair this damage, and it won’t be easy.

But what a way to start! Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Yours,
Michael Moore