It was nice while it lasted — the audacious dream, the anti-war President, the brand new way of doing things. Nice to feel like progressives were at last on the side of history. Nice to imagine that America, having made the huge breakthrough of electing an un-white guy, would go on to even more critical breakthroughs.
No more war. Winding down the empire. Shifting military spending to social needs. Environmental action. Universal healthcare…..
True, the wheels have been wobbling and threatening to fly off the wagon from Obama’s very first appointments. But he’s such a charming, likable man, so much better than the last guy!
Just as Bush’s supporters stood by him despite all his failings because he was such a likable man, I just ignored the uneasy feelings and kept hoping that the next big decision would be better.
That will never happen. Obama’s decision to escalate in Afghanistan has confirmed that his presidency is firmly in the hands of the military-industrial-complex. We will continue to flush ever greater sums and precious lives down the sewer of war-mongering and we will have neither money nor will to do any of the other important things.
War trumps everything. Being a war president means that he will never be the people’s president that we worked so hard to elect.
Michael Sky | ThinkingPeace