Welcome to Orwell’s World

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by The New Statesman

Welcome to Orwell’s World

Obama's lies over the Afghanistan war remind us of the lessons of Nineteen Eighty-Four

by John Pilger

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell described a superstate, Oceania, whose language of war inverted lies that "passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'."

Barack Obama is the leader of a contemporary Oceania. In two speeches at the close of the decade, the Nobel Peace Prize-winner affirmed that peace was no longer peace, but rather a permanent war that "extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan" to "disorderly regions, failed states, diffuse enemies". He called this "global security" and invited our gratitude. To the people of Afghanistan, which the US has invaded and occupied, he said wittily: "We have no interest in occupying your country."

In Oceania, truth and lies are indivisible. According to Obama, the American attack on Afghanistan in 2001 was authorised by the United Nations Security Council. There was no UN authority. He said that "the world" supported the invasion in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks. In truth, all but three of 37 countries surveyed by Gallup expressed overwhelming opposition. He said that America invaded Afghanistan "only after the Taliban refused to turn over Osama Bin Laden". In 2001, the Taliban tried three times to hand over Bin Laden for trial, Pakistan's military regime reported, and they were ignored.

"Hearts and minds"

Even Obama's mystification of the 9/11 attacks as justification for his war is false. More than two months before the twin towers were attacked, the former Pakistani diplomat Niaz Naik was told by the Bush administration that a US military assault would take place by mid-October. The Taliban regime in Kabul, which the Clinton administration had secretly supported, was no longer regarded as "stable" enough to ensure US control over oil and gas pipelines to the Caspian Sea. It had to go.

Obama's most audacious lie is that Afghanistan today is a "safe haven" for al-Qaeda's attacks on the west. His own national security adviser, James Jones, said in October that there were "fewer than 100" al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. According to US intelligence, 90 per cent of the Taliban are hardly Taliban at all, but "a tribal localised insurgency see themselves as opposing the US because it is an occupying power". The war is a fraud. Only the terminally gormless remain true to the Obama brand of "world peace".

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/05-2

[Don Caballero]

1. More mindless Obama bashing

The President did not lie about what he was going to do in Af/Pak. He campaigned heavily on his efforts to roust Al Qaeda and extremists from these safe havens.

[sharp_stick]

2. It's crap from commondreams

it's what I've come to expect from there. Anything posted from that site should be in the header so it can be ignored.

[arcadian]

4. the article is right on

you didn't listen to the "Peace" prize acceptance speech.

[Don Caballero]

5. Of course I listened to the President accepting the Peace Prize

Everyone who supports him watched and loved it. Common Dreams is losing more and more credibility if they ever had any.

[arcadian]

6. John Pilger has more credibility than you will ever have.

Obamas "peace" prize speech was exactly as he described. Peace = War in Obamaland.

[mike_c]

3. this is why it shocks me so to hear all the Obama cheerleading....

At the end of the day Barak Obama is simply a slightly less republican flavor of neo-conservative-- his foreign policy is completely in line with neo-conservative imperialist superpower objectives, his fiscal policy is Reaganesque, and while his domestic agenda includes some bare hints of liberalism, it would not raise the hackles of most conservatives if it originated from a republican administration.

But the foreign policy is the worst, IMO. Absolutely neocon.

[IndianaGreen]

7. Obama's foreign policy is far more aggressive than Bush's

Bush was too distracted by Iraq to pay attention to Latin America. Obama is making up for that oversight.

DLCers support the assassination/torture school the US runs in Fort Benning on behalf of Latin American oligarchs, School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC).

Published on Monday, January 4, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

From Coup-lite to Truth-lite: US Policy and Death Squad Democracy in Honduras

by Andrés Thomas Conteris

In the Top Ten Ways You Can Tell Which Side the United States Government is On With Regard to the Military Coup in Honduras, Mark Weisbrot correctly illustrates U.S. backing for the coup regime and its lack of support for democracy. For more than 100 days, I have been holed up inside the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, accompanying President Manuel Zelaya and covering the story for Democracy Now! and other independent media. In case Mark's points were not convincing, here are 10 more ways to help you decide.

10. The resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on June 30th strongly condemned the coup in Honduras. The United States, however, prevented the UN Security Council from taking strong measures consistent with the resolution.

9. When President Zelaya returned to Tegucigalpa and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy on September 21st, Lewis Amselem, the U.S. representative at the Organization of American States (OAS), called it "foolish" and "irresponsible." Amselem, whose background is with the U.S. Southern Command, is known in the halls of the OAS as "the diplomator." He led the charge for validating the Honduran elections, while most countries opposed recognition of elections held under the coup regime.

8. The U.S. Southern Command sponsored the PANAMAX 09 joint maneuvers from September 11-21 off the coast of Panama with military forces from 20 countries. Even though the U.S. publicly stated that ties had been severed with the Honduran military, the invitation for Honduras to participate in these maneuvers stood firm. The Honduran armed forces finally said they would withdraw from the exercises, only after several Latin American countries threatened to boycott them.

7. Key members of the Honduran military involved in the coup received training at the School of the Americas (which changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation -- WHISC), including Generals Romeo Vasquez and Luis Javier Prince. Even after the June 28th coup, the Pentagon continued training members of the Honduran military at WHISC in Ft. Benning, Georgia.

More: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/03-7

[tblue]

9. Some of what he's done has been conservative and some has been

just getting us back to 'common sense' where we had been truly over the deep end. I don't know if Obama is any more liberal than say some moderate Republican like a Chuck Hagel or a Lincoln Chafee would be as president.

If I look at Obama as a Republican, I think, well, gee he could be so much worse.

When I look at him as a Democrat, I think, dang, he should be so much better!

Funny how that works.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. Wish I could give this many more recs.

Mostly, I wish it wasn't true.

[ShamelessHussy]

10. i can't believe folks on DU are attacking commondreams - cognitive dissonance

a classic case.

instead of thinking that all of a sudden everyone of your friends is wrong, it maybe time to reconsider YOUR stance.