Obama’s America – Episode 181 – Leadership’s A Dirty Word For President Obama

Has Obama Seen This Graphic?

By Arthur Piccolo

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. July 18, 2014:  I’ve said it before here and I will say it again.

It is beyond ridiculous that Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There is not a single reason on the face of the Earth for President Barack Obama to have received this distinguished award. If he had any scruples he would have distinguished himself by refusing to accept it.

He should return it. All he has done is make a mockery of all those who richly deserved it and have received it. All this was is a publicity stunt.

Which is my prelude to this week’s episode of Obama’s America.

There are three related issues this week: 1) the latest Israeli-Palestinian violence, 2) the negotiations with Iran, and 3) the Ukrainian situation.

What unites all three Obama’s LACK of leadership and NOT looking out for America’s best interest but playing power politics with all three.

If there is  any hope at all for the U.S. to negotiate a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians that is only possible if President Obama is seen as an honest broker who will be fair to both sides and not being seen as clearly in the corner of one or the other.

So did President Obama say just yesterday that both the Israeli government ad Hamas are wrong to be attacking each other by targeting civilians and causing suffering for non-combatants.

No not at all. Here is what he said Wednesday.

“Speaking at the White House yesterday, President Barack Obama declared, once again, that Israel had a right to defend itself against rocket attacks. He blamed the Hamas-led government in Gaza for the “heartbreaking” deaths and injuries of “so many innocent civilians.”
“There’s no country on Earth that can be expected to live under a daily barrage of rockets,” Obama said, effectively giving a green light for an Israeli escalation. “Now, yesterday Israel did agree to a ceasefire. Unfortunately, Hamas continued to fire rockets at civilians, thereby prolonging the conflict.”

Who on the Palestinian side is possibly going to believe Barack Obama and the U.S. government is capable of negotiating a fair settlement?

If Obama had any such interest he would have said …

“I deplore the violence on both sides of this conflict. Both Israel and the West Bank are under attack from the other side. Israeli’s fear for their lives from Hamas missile and innocent Palestinians are being killed by Israeli rockets. They both need to stop.”

But Obama made no such statement. Here is how the Center For Research on Globalization characterized Obama’s actions ….

“While he claimed that the US government was working intensively for a truce, Obama’s comments pointed to the real purpose of the supposed ceasefire proposal cooked up earlier in the week by the US-backed military regime of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Issued to Hamas as an ultimatum, without any consultation, the Sisi-Netanyahu pact was nothing but a pretext for Israel to unleash a new, even deadlier, phase of its military onslaught.
“According to media reports, Hamas had proposed its own truce, offering ten years of calm in exchange for a complete lifting of Israel’s crippling siege of Gaza and the release of dozens of prisoners detained over the past month. The Sisi-Netanyahu plan, drawn up with US backing, met none of these demands, beyond a vague promise to ease the economic and supply blockade of Gaza ‘once the security situation stabilizes.’”

It’s simple you cannot seriously negotiate peace between two parties when you make it clear you completely support what one side does while condemning what the other side does. You can do it. Obama did it but you cannot then present yourself as the neutral party to negotiate a deal.

It is only too easy to always take the Israeli’s government’s side. It works well domestically here in the U.S. The Israeli lobby is strong and there is virtually no Palestinian lobby at all. But that is not leadership simply backing the stronger side in any situation and also ignoring the wider implications and what is best for the U.S. and the world.

Which brings us to Iran.

Here the Saudi Arabia and Israel are united. Neither want a strong Iran. In fact both want Iran permanently weak if not completely destroyed. Is that good for the Middle East, the U.S. or the world? No it is not but the right wing power brokers in Saudi Arabia and Israel think it is good for them, and that is what is most important to Obama and the American government.

So yes we are in negotiating over Iran’s nuclear program. But are we offering Iran anything very attractive like regular diplomatic relations and more economic and other cooperation in return for a deal no not at all. We are grudgingly willing to stop adding new severe sanctions against the Iranian people and ease off on some of the existing sanctions. Big deal!

So what is Obama threatening if Iran does not give into our demands the possibly of bombing them to kingdom come while also imposing new sanctions, embargos and blockades that will result in suffering beyond imagination in Iran and potential chaos. While the Saudi dictators and the Netanyahu government in Israel cheers on that possibility.

That is not leadership. Which brings us to the Ukraine.

What did Obama do just yesterday? He began to apply Iran like sanctions against the Russians to try and cripple their economy. Why? Because Obama claims Putin is not doing enough to crack down on separatists in Ukraine while the U.S. pours support into the corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs who lord it over that country and who savage the Russian speaking minority.

In other words, President Obama is playing typical power politics with Ukraine but bullying Russia telling them the U.S. can play these only two typical international games but not the Russians or else.

Yet again the wrong formula to create a better more stable world or protect Americans real interest but this is what we have in Barack Obama.

Let me not forget to mention one very important related point.

Obama’s position here is right in line with the Republican Right Wing except they want Obama to be even more ridiculous of course. The whackos want: 1) the Palestinians completely destroyed, 2) Iran bombed tomorrow if not today, and 3) Russia nuked if Putin does not get on his knees and beg for mercy. Is any of this an exaggeration not by much. And as for Obama he is trying to align himself with the militarist as much as he can get away with.

All of which brings us back to Obama’s Nobel PEACE Prize.

Ridiculous.

About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.