Written November 2008

I know that my latest articles have made a lot of people unhappy and upset, but I am far too concerned with the state of euphoria that seems to make the next President of the United States immune to any criticism to let it slide. My concern is not to make friends and I could honestly care less if people stop speaking to me altogether.

Barack Obama won so we can all calm down now. While it is understandable that people were forgiving about the vagueness of Obama’s campaign, with the exception of his stated intentions regarding Cuba, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine, it is time to drop the role of an unyielding supporter. This is not a sport, the lives of millions or billions of people depend on the pressure that can be exerted on Obama to do what is right.

It is unhealthy to put such a trust on someone – especially a politician, a United States president – and throw all constructive criticisms by the wayside in order to keep the illusion alive that Obama will be the ideal president. This illusion is pushed forward by turning the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. into a mere Hallmark card. It makes for a nice t-shirt but it does not go any further than that. When it comes face to face with the historical record, it falls flat on its face.

We are deceived by the assumption that this is exactly what Martin Luther King Jr. wanted because an African-American had finally climbed the highest peak of the political and social hierarchy. If we think that, we do not know King at all. He was anything but shallow or easily impressed by high-flying rhetoric.

Speaking about the Vietnam War, King went at the United States government in a speech:

"The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while, the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy, and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers destroy their precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least 20 casualties from American firepower for each Viet Cong-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

This is not the Martin Luther King Jr. that we have come to know through the media and the opportunistic politicians that will always find a way to refer back to King in order to save their hides. He sounds even more militant than Malcolm X and, of course, there is no way that the United States intellectual apparatus, the gang of frauds that they are, would allow for such a thing to enter the discourse.  King was an African-American civil rights leader who fought against racial discrimination and won somewhat (he himself was not happy). Therefore, he must be beaming from joy at such an important win. Nevertheless, the reality is not as romantic as it is made out to be because there is something that has been ripped from the narrative, without shame or any feeling of disrespect, done with a straight face. It is not even a matter of morality – although, one can make an argument about that too – but it is a matter of historical fact -- cold, hard and straightforward with little or no room for interpretation.

King showed tremendous concern over U.S. foreign policy and if he heard Obama's intentions (clearly stated) as it relates to the latter, it is highly plausible that he would react the same way as he did with the politicians during his lifetime. It is not a matter of race or skin color, it is a matter of objectivity and historical fact regarding what he actually stood for. Going beyond that, the realm of human morality, it was about putting names on every single casualty on the final body count which never ceases to rise. When a mother was shot dead, she was not the only casualty that he saw or considered, the other casualty would be her daughter who may not have died from a bullet but from the lack of bare necessities resulting from her mother getting shot. It was not a matter of saving American lives only but the lives of innocent people throughout the world who have come to depend on no one but themselves in order to fend off American imperialism.

It is insulting for others to think that he would be shallow enough to jump up and down just because an African-American is now a president. He was concerned about morality, compassion and justice. He was concerned about specific policies and not some abstract notion of "change" or "hope". He was concerned about civil rights, human rights, economic rights and a just foreign policy that did not brutalize innocent people.  These were the things that he was concerned about and we cannot just pick one or two. Without the other, the others are incomplete if not outright useless. He opposed wars for these reasons and not for strategic ones as Obama did, showing very little concern for Cubans, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians and the list goes on. Instead, he expressed concern for the aggressors, the one carpet bombing a nation in order to get to one man that has held a country hostage in Afghanistan. He expressed solidarity with a nation bent on the destruction of another, Israel, a nation that seems to exist only to ensure that Palestinians disappear from the face of the earth. A nation built on institutions that are designed to ensure the systematic displacement of Palestinians, rejection of the uncontroversial international consensus that has been in existence for over 30 years and the compilation of one of the most disgraceful human rights record (according to every single human rights organization) that has ever been seen in history. When you have Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu comparing the system you have to apartheid, you have clearly overstepped the boundaries of a morally upright human being. When you have your own scholars and former government members condemning the practices of your nation you have clearly overstepped such boundaries. Still, not once did we hear Obama utter a word of solidarity to those suffering under the boot of U.S. imperialism.

These are things that do not easily fit on t-shirts so that they could be sold to people who seek to keep the illusion alive that their challenge to this particular president is not required. The vague and abstract are easy to print, “Hope” at the front and “Change” at the back, for those without illusions the reality is far more complex. You need a whole new wardrobe to fit this entire narrative.

This is not “defeatist” as others may call it. This is calling Obama out on his own words or lack thereof. Today, people react in the same manner when John F. Kennedy is referred to as one of the biggest war criminal in history along with the cronies that he surrounded himself with. When looking at the historical record in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua (to mention a few in Latin America) and Vietnam, there is no controversy whatsoever.

So far, we are lucky that it has been nothing but words out of Obama. Although, as the day passes on, words will be put into practice and these practices will be applied to people -- in light of the U.S. historical record, whether they like it or not. It is the task of the world, most importantly of responsible and morally upright Americans, to make sure that we keep Obama in line like the other politicians we have come to deal with. If he is truly our hero, let us make sure it stays that way. If he is the hero we make him out to be, we should do everything we can to make sure that is the case. He asked you to speak out and that includes putting pressure on him. Taking him at his word. Taking responsibility for where to direct his next move and that includes a lot of mobilization on the grassroots level as King did.

Fit all this on a t-shirt and sell it for 50 bucks a pop.

In the spirit of resistance,
Critical Mood