Obama's Moment

Anybody remember 9/11? Bush's moment. The event that set the tone and the agenda for eight years of murder, mayhem and spend it like there ain't no tomorrow monetary and fiscal imprudence.

Some people think that "the moment" was an inside job designed as the kick-off to a preplanned program.

The Obama love-in lingers on, despite serious US economic woes, but am I the only one or are there others waiting for "the moment." Obama's moment.

When Clinton came to power it looked as if there would be clear sailing for eight years of careful attention to the US economy, but that G. d'd world got in the way again in Rwanda and Kosevo. Bush came in with a reputation as a by-partizan conciliator who could unite the nation with his amiability and charm, but "the moment" happened. Bye bye love.

There are people who think that the Obama team will try to move the American Imperial Agenda to the border of Russia in Europe or to Central Asia in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghanistan is already happening and Pakistan is heating up to a sizzle even as I write. How about an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team for a new approach? (No, I'm not kidding, it just happened.)

Is Obama really done with the Middle East? What and where will Obama's moment be? What new and suprising fanged rabbit is Uncle Sam going to pull out of the hat next? What does Uncle Sam want now? What would serve his immediate interests?

Any thoughts?

reply to post by ipsedixit


George Bush said a mouthful when he said that he didn't think anyone in his administration or in the previous administration could have envisioned ramming airliners into buildings like that and on such a scale.

For the most part, that statement is quite true. When I woke up around noon on 9/11 and was told by one of my housemates what had happened, I told her it was impossible.

That's the first condition "the moment" has to satisfy, it has to be a completely unexpected surprise. The only thing that won't be a surprise about it is that it will be connected to US strategic interests.

Obama has performed beautifully during his first 10 minutes in office, and this is very important. George Bush did the same. Obama has come in sounding so much more sane and sensible than Bush. He talks about closing Gitmo, reining in the CIA interrogators and for heaven sake, getting back on track and doing what Bush should have done in the first place, concentrating on Afghanistan.

The average American breathes a huge sigh of relief. "Thank God that looney billionaire's son frat boy/dude ranch cowboy is out of office. We finally have someone in there who knows which end is up and can get us out of this mess."

These people are not taking one thing into consideration. The moment. We haven't had the moment yet.

In the old bait and switch game, "the moment" is the time when the switch takes place, when all bets placed by the Obama administration are taken off the table, when the fanged rabbit is finally seen, hanging by his ears above the magician's hat. Now what you see is what you get.

So what is it going to be, this "moment".

Without going into a lot of explanation, I think there is good reason to believe that Obama is not finished in the Middle East. There is a huge US military presence in the Middle East as we all know. Obama is talking about pulling a lot of those people out of the region, but there are people who would like to see one more errand done in the neighborhood before the pullout happens.

Iran.

There is an interesting article on Michel Chossudovsky's website examining the current state of affairs across the Middle East, particularly with respect to Iran's role in the region and the problems it poses for Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

www.globalresearch.ca...

The people of the Arab world have longed for a leader to fight for their cause, and Iran has stepped up to the challenge. Moving closer to the US and aligning with Israel's war on the Palestinians is not the path that will secure the dictators of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Instead, reverting to the popular sentiments of the Arab world, and embracing the leadership role on Arab affairs in Palestine and Iraq is what is required to combat Iran and its proxies.

Here's a list of countries that would like to see something done about Iran:

1. Israel
2. The U.S.
3. Egypt.
4. Jordan.
5. Saudi Arabia.

All of those countries are the enemies of Iran and of it's surrogate, Hamas. Among them, the three Arab countries have been portrayed as chumps in the region for not supporting the Palestinians and for doing deals with Israel and the U.S.

Until now there has been a sort of status quo of violence in the region, with Israel, Hamas and the Palestinians being the only participants. Suppose that were to change?

Suppose "Hamas" were to take a crack at one of the leaders of the Arab countries in the list above? Suppose one of these countries' leaders were to be assassinated by "Hamas" or al-CIAda?

An incident like that could serve quite a few people's interests. It could provide an excuse for quite a lot of military activity. It would create quite a lot of confusion in the Arab street, which tends to support Iran and Hamas. It might create quite a lot of solidarity among the five countries listed above and a conviction that now would be a good time to do something about the thorn in their sides.

Obama's moment.

That moment will also, unfortunately, be another leader's moment too. One leader in particular should start being particularly careful. He's the obvious choice in the situation. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who it is. I'll give you a hint. He's not a member of a royal family.

These things are always so surprising when they happen. Shocking. Unbelievable.

Here is another take on Obama's moment.

I was saying in another thread that from the point of view of the string pullers, Obama has one big thing going for him, inexperience.

Isn't it strange that inexperience should be considered a qualification for arguably the most difficult job in the world? It certainly was in George W. Bush's case. In retrospect it is hard to think of a man more qualified to preside over the Bush administration and to interface with the American public during the events that transpired. You know, explain it all to them. What an inspired piece of casting!

With this in mind the only question remaining is what are the powers that be going to do with the very inexperienced Barack Obama? What are they going to use him for? Well they have used him for one thing already. He has mobilized world wide affection for one American.

Obama is a very attractive and likeable person. He is a PR man's dream. He's well spoken and intelligent. He has an intelligent asset in his wife. His children are adorable. He is popular in the United States and hugely popular overseas. America must realize that "foreigners" are, as the British sometimes say, besotted with him. They just adore him in that kooky way people adored the Beatles.

Poor Obama.

Much as I like Obama, I'm having trouble coming up with a substantive, more than evanescent, use for him. I don't see him as the man to fix the economy. The economy may be fixed on his watch but it will be done by others. Even in areas of foreign policy where he might be considered to be able to command some goodwill, at least, overseas, the issues are so intractable that they are impermeable to "goodwill".

Meanwhile, America just threw a lot of money at the Palestinian government, 4 or 5 billion dollars, I believe. If things were to go haywire any time soon, the Palestinian Authority would be in a good position to help it's people and to go to town on it's enemies. Perhaps prior to receiving the money they undertook to go to town on only one of their enemies should such a situation arise. Most likely, though, they undertook to lie doggo while Israel goes to town on that enemy as soon as the "used food" hits the fan.

What is Obama good for?

Is he going to bring peace to America's warring ethnic ghettos? Well, they are not really warring at the moment, are they? I know there is concern about an influx of Mexican and South American gangsters involved in the drug trade, but that isn't something that Obama is likely to be able to influence. Is he going to demonstrate to America's blacks that they too can make it in America? I think quite a long list of other people have already done that, although, of course, he is the cherry at the top of the sundae.

The "cherry" at the top of the sundae.

Obama may not have a lot of experience himself in big league government, but he has a very experienced man in Joe Biden as Vice President. Then he has the Clintons (two for the price of one) at State. That is a lot of firepower to be packed tightly into one administration. The great thing about the situation is that, if anything were to happen to Obama, this administration wouldn't miss a beat.

But of course nothing is going to happen to him. He is hugely popular. If anything were to happen to Obama, people would go crazy.

It would be like 9/11 all over again.

Especially if it were to happen overseas, on a visit to Israel or Egypt. Can you imagine the response if the Director of Central Intelligence were to confirm that "Hamas" or al-CIAda had done something to the president, probably at the behest of Iran?

I can.


[edit on 7-3-2009 by ipsedixit]

Please indulge me a moment or two. I want to set the tone of this post with a piece of music.



I can never listen to the opening strains of this beautiful music without practically bursting into tears. Oh Africa! My body is wracked with sobbing for you. You have given the world so much and have been victimized in so many ways.

Out of Africa have come the Africans. Around the world to this day. At last we are in an era that can see their value. There is an energy there of humanity, embodied in them. Our prejudices exempted them from responsibility and inadvertently preserved in them an ancient strain of deep humanity. In doing bad we did better than we deserve, for ourselves and for everyone.

Now we have a president, out of Africa. Our beautiful Barack.

The musical theme quoted communicates the conflict, the sadness, the grandeur, the yearning of an endless struggle in Africa and really everywhere. It is everyone's struggle. It is America's struggle and Obama's struggle in particular.

What can he do?

He wants to reach out to the Taliban, but is rebuffed. They are not impressed with the Marines and don't care for "carrots". The ocean of the world's armies have lapped on Afghan shores for millenia. Nothing changes for them but the weather.

Obama wants a new beginning in Cuba. Unfortunately the Cubans had their new beginning decades ago. Obama brings baggage with him.

What will he do?

I have a suggestion. America should amend the Bush doctrine.

America should reserve the right to itself, to wage pre-emptive peace on any nation or entity that it sees as a threat.

American forces should not be constrained by the conventional rules of peace in their pursuit of it.

Special diplomatic and economic forces highly trained in unconventional tactics should be willing to strike without warning anywhere across the globe, bringing a state of reassuring peace to anyone deemed a threat.

America will benefit from it. The world will benefit from it.

Every person has a moment. Great people have great moments. Suddenly the powers around them are astonished as their leader digs in his spurs and darts out of the circle they have corralled him in. He has seen the opportunity and lunges for it.

The powers that be are caught offguard. There is no time for intrigue. There is no time for temporising or for manouver designed to influence the leader's path to suit other agendas. They must wheel quickly, pulling the burden of the power that they cling to, with them, to keep pace with a thunderbolt.

A thunderbolt from somewhere they have never seen, except in the history books.

From that moment the Obama era begins.

I don't want to be alarmist but if the Obama era doesn't begin soon maybe other forces as noted in my posts above, will spur their horses first. There is a sense of dread growing in me.


[edit on 18-4-2009 by ipsedixit]

This is an old thread but I thought I would update it with a couple of observations. Obama has had two moments in the course of his administration to date.

One is his "victory" in an attempt to extend health care coverage to more disadvantaged Americans. He may become known as the "Health Care President". That fight is not really over though. As a Canadian, I can tell you that the fight over health care is never over.

Obama's second moment came when America succeeded in getting UN approval for NATO intervention in Libya. American activity in Africa has stepped up markedly under Obama. Many in these forums do not view that as a positive development. It can be argued that Libya is in worse shape now than it was before the "no fly, no sail, no drive" zone started to be enforced by NATO/America.

Other African countries are beginning to feel the American presence, specifically Uganda and Nigeria, both resource rich nations. It is beginning to look like a case could be made that Obama's real reason for being elected is starting to come into focus.

Is he designated by the global elite as the "Destabilize Africa President"? It's starting to look like it.

If that is the case, then Obama's Moment is really the moment when the puppeteers start to make the puppet do what they want done. That is disappointing.