Inauguration Day: Two Nobel Laureates, Drones Apart by Felicity Arbuthnot
Posted on January 22, 2013 by dandelionsalad
Image by Photo Phiend via Flickr
One day …
Children at school will ask:
What is war?
You will answer them.
You will tell them:
Those words are not used any more.
Like stagecoaches, galleys or slavery.
Words no longer meaningful …
– Martin Luther King (15 January 1929-4 April 1968)
Oh the cynicism. The man whose words have rung down over four decades, encapsulating a non-violent demand for peace, equality and fairness: “I have a dream”, has again been resurrected as President Obama’s philosophical icon.
In the most blatant act of symbolism, as Africa is now threatened by a President who touted the importance of his African roots four years ago, Obama reaffirmed his Presidential oath today on both Abraham Lincoln’s Bible – and that of Martin Luther King – on the day dedicated to Martin Luther King.
In truth the ceremony was a bit of a sham. The President was sworn in yesterday in a private ceremony in the White House, with, according to the New York Times: “Michelle Obama holding the family Bible for the ceremony”, as their daughters, Malia and Sasha stood beside their father in the Blue Room: “as he recited the thirty five word oath in the Constitution”, as four years ago, administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts. “About a dozen relatives of the Obamas and Jane Roberts, the Justice’s wife, watched, out of camera range.”
Back on 20th January 2009, the inaugural address contained some fine words – proved empty:
“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness … from the grandest capitols to the small village where my father was born … know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more (but) power … does no entitle us to do as we please…”
Obama assured: “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” People would be judged on: ” … what you can build, not what you destroy.”
Tell that to the droned and dismembered of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the ruined of Libya, Syria, Iraq, the fearful and threatened in Iran and now those in Africa in villages similar to where: “my father was born.”
Six months later in Cairo he avowed: “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world … I have known Islam on three continents.”
It now seems he now is prepared to blow it up on three continents.
The scale of human carnage under the Nobel Peace Laureate President is astounding, shaming and chilling:
“Bush’s roughly 24,000 air strikes in seven years from 2002 to 2008 amounted to an air strike about every three hours, while Obama’s 20,130 in four years add up to one every one and three quarter hours.”“The Obama Administration is responsible for at least 18,274 air strikes in Afghanistan since 2009, at least 1,160 by pilot-less Drones.”
At least 116 air strikes were conducted in Iraq in 2009 and in Libya approximately 1,460 of NATO’s 7,700 strikes in 2011 were US bombings.
There is also thought to be a five-fold increase in air and drone strikes over George W. Bush’s second term’s murderous record in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
The man who swore on Martin Luther King Junior’s Bible today is reported as personally deciding, weekly, who will be dismembered-by-drone, carried out by a youth at a computer screen around six thousand miles away. No law, no trial, just extra-judicial murder or mass murder of “suspected Islamic militants” – no questions ever asked, even when they are later proved to be baby, toddler, or kindergarten age “militants.”
But assassinations are now the sickening norm, as also Osama bin Laden, then Colonel Quaddaffi, the latter after US Ambassador Christopher Stevens arrived in Libya with a cargo ship of munitions and mercenaries. Both bodies disappeared, even death’s dignities denied. Terrorist actions.
