[ALOCHONA] Obama: Wind of Change?

Obama: Wind of Change?   Democrat Obama caught the imagination of the people of America and also of many all over the world in only four years By Zoglul Husain, UK London 6 November 2008. US President-elect Barack Hussein Obama II, popularly known as Barack Obama, won a landslide victory (349 to163, when 270 was needed for a win) in the election of 4 November 2008, by riding high on the expectations of the wind of change. It was a historic win. It is for the first time that an African American has been elected as the President of the most powerful nation in the world. The big question now is: Will there be a change and, if so, in which respect and to what extent? Democrat Obama caught the imagination of the people of America and also of many all over the world in only four years, as a junior US Senator from Illinois, since being elected a Senator in November 2004. Obama became a phenomenon that stirred America and drew a record number of voters deluging the polls. This election was nothing short of a whirlwind, which lifted him to the position of the most powerful person in the world. His charisma and youthful charm at 47, his appearance of an honest and sincere wish for a better world, his astute political acumen, adept oratory and debating skill used to calmly thwart and defeat the opposition attacks, which were at times brutal and banal, contributed to establishing his popularity. His declared intent for extricating America from the disastrous ongoing war in Iraq, his careful approach to solving America's greatest financial crisis since the great depression of 1929, his lofty stature as a black man (father a Kenyan black man and mother a white American) that ignited the fire of passion for racial equality to lift the morale of the depressed and deprived 13.4 percent black people of America or for that matter the 34% Americans outside of 66% non-Hispanic Whites, all contributed to the storm. And how well did his presidential campaign run? The New York Times expressed it with a heading, "Obama's near-flawless run from start to finish". And he did finish it with a resounding victory, which was followed by a victory-celebration speech that spoke of a 'defining moment' for America to unite and bring in change for the better. The speech aroused inspiration and emotion, and many of the audience had tears of emotion-choked joy in their eyes, with a sense of the dawning of a new history in the making and with the expectations of the future before them. The 44th President-elect of America aroused hopes, and his message of optimism reverberated throughout the world, which also wants a change from the destruction, degeneration and degradation of the Bush era. It was the huge wave of an emphatic 'no' to Bush that Obama rode on. After celebrations of victory in elections, there always comes the shock awakening of realism. How often does the voters' euphoria of election victory waft into the thin air after the elections? And how often do the dreams of the voters get shattered in countries after countries? And so, the question will inevitably arise: Will Obama make a difference as a President or will he prove to be another run of the mill politician or even a failure, bruised and battered by the neo-conservatives (neocons), whose hold on the economy is hardly shakable? Obama will take office on 20 January 2009 as the 44th US President. He will immediately face a host of challenges regarding foreign policies as well as policies relating to home affairs. The voters will immediately find out that the most powerful person under the sun does not have a magic wand in his hand and that he is only a cog in the wheel of a system, even though in the system individual ideas matter. So, let us have a brief look at what he is likely to do in the following: What will happen to the ongoing wars? Obama, in his election pledge, declared his intent to withdraw from Iraq by phases, but this declaration was quickly supplemented by his intent to focus more on Afghanistan, especially more on the borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and he unreservedly declared that if necessary he would invade Pakistan in the hunt for al-Qaeda. Let us refer to his speech of August 1, 2007 standing in front of a Stars and Stripes flag at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. He delivered the emotion-arousing speech by declaring, "There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again". But he did not mention a word about the more than a million dead, more than 2 million injured and several million homeless in Iraq and comparable numbers in Afghanistan because of the imperialist invasions of the US. The speech does not make him less of an imperialist than Bush. History has shown that the Democrats are as much of imperialists as the Republicans are, there may be a difference of tone or extent. In the Vietnam War (from September 26, 1959 to April 30, 1975) the US Presidents involved were: Dwight David Eisenhower 1953-1961 (Republican), John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1961-1963 (Democrat), Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969 (Democrat), Richard Milhous Nixon 1969-1974 (Republican) and Gerald Rudolph Ford 1974-1977 (Republican). The string of both Democrat and Republican Presidents fought the Vietnam War until their ignominious defeat by the valiant Vietnamese. So, where will the voters' euphoria stand for Obama with regard to war and peace? The lovers of just-peace must fight on. Will Obama try for a genuine solution to the Palestine crisis? No, not at all likely. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on November 6, 2008 that Obama 'made no secret of his support and dedication to the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel'. And his running mate Vice-Present-elect Senator Joe Biden in an interview with the Jewish 'Shalom TV' in 2007 said, "I am a Zionist. You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist." He also revealed that his son is married to a Jewish woman. It is absolutely clear that the Jewish lobby has tied the hands of both Obama and the much-experienced Biden. It is true that Obama said he would be "willing to meet, without preconditions, with leaders of countries hostile to the United States, such as Iran, Cuba and Venezuela". However, considering his whole gamut of foreign policies, these gestures are not going to produce anything substantial, except perhaps for some gimmicks. So the voters' euphoria in this respect is likely to dry up in the heat of reality. Will Obama attempt to alleviate poverty in the world? Well, the imperialist system, based on domination and plunder, creates poverty and does not reduce it, and hence Obama as a representative of the imperialist system is likely to follow suit. It is all very well for Nelson Mandela at the age of 90 to pin high hopes on young and spirited Obama to alleviate poverty and bring peace and security in the world by urging him in a letter, which highlights and transmits his own life-long dream, but will Obama be able to back it up by delivering peace, security and alleviation of poverty? Mandela's historic long struggle and in the end his spectacular victory, broke the barriers of apartheid and he became an iconic personality as the first post-apartheid President of South Africa. Breaking the barrier of apartheid is a great advancement of history. However, we have many miles to tread before we can send imperialism to the scrap heap of history. If it cannot be expected that Obama will be able to deliver much in terms of peace, security and alleviation of poverty in the world, even if he takes some positive steps, it would be welcome. In any case the voters' euphoria in this regard is bound to bite the dust. Will Obama's presidency promote racial harmony in America? Yes, it already has. A black man to be the President of America, a black First Lady and a black family to be in the White House was unthinkable. Many did not believe it until they saw it from his election. America needs to be congratulated for transcending the remnants of the great barrier of racial segregation and racial discrimination that still is prevalent de facto, though not so much de jure any longer in America. It was forty-four years ago that civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic speech 'I have a dream' for racial harmony. In 1964 he became the youngest person to receive the Nobel peace prize, but was assassinated four years later for his civil rights movement and for opposing the Vietnam War. Obama fulfilled part of his great dream, even if it is a long way to go before racial harmony in America is fully established. After a long struggle, slavery in America, which began in 1607, was finally abolished in 1865 with the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution. Racial segregation and racial discrimination have also been eroding through the struggles of 1960s and 70s, which are continuing to date. Obama is expected to make further advancements to this great cause. The voters' euphoria in this regard is likely to be rewarded, and history will make that much advancement, thanks to the Black people's new icon Obama. Some people call his victory a bi-racial victory, both a black and white victory. Will Obama be able to solve the current deep financial crisis of the US? Here he is an absolute cog in the wheel of the economic system, in the main run by the neo-conservatives (neocons) in the Bush administration led by Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, William Krisrol, etc., who are behind Bush's disastrous policies. Al Jazeera reported on March 22, 2008, 'Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-prize winning economist, and Linda Bilmes, authors of "The Three Trillion Dollar War," argue that the Iraq war will cost the US at least $3 trillion and possibly as much as $5 trillion.' According to some, $1 trillion has already been spent on Iraq alone. "In the short-term sense, we are spending $12 billion a month in Iraq alone", said Linda Blimes, a budget and public finance expert at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. These staggering amounts are being spent for the creation of a huge US-Israel oil-empire, except that the war has gone wrong and the US has already been defeated in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The grim situation coupled with the greatest financial crisis since the great depression of 1929 will present a most challenging task for Obama when he takes office. The war economy along with hyper greed and reckless profiteering, as well as unbridled and fraudulent financial operations in the name of free market economy and the plundering of other nations in the name of capitalist globalisation, brought havoc in the financial sector. The US has not yet fathomed, how deep the crisis is. At present the public are being robbed of about a trillion dollars to save the bad guys in order to shore up the failed banks and the financial institutions. Obama is likely to watch the process perplexed, with his hands tied by the neocons. It is unlikely that either he or his team will launch a new economic system or a new movement. So the voters' euphoria in this respect is likely to be crushed under the feet of the neocons. Will Obama's time in the White House be worth anything? Yes, it certainly might be worth a lot, pending favourable circumstances. Needless to say, almost any other President would be better than Bush in the White House. Obama however, is not just any other President. He has all the trappings for a great President, circumstances permitting. We congratulate him for what he has already achieved by defeating the potential replacements of Bush, by creating a great example for racial harmony, by arousing optimism in the world for peace in spite of what he had to concede for election, and by promising to regulate the financial sector to save the world economy from the greed of the neocon rogues. He will of course need to be cautious and vigilant about the neocons, who given a chance will invariably try to pull the rug from under his feet! Writer: Zoglul Husain E-mail: zoglul@hotmail.co.uk http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=229987

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