Barack Obama as Deluded as the Neoconservatives

[liveonearth]

gavin6942 writes in this post that Obama is no better than the Republicans because he also believes that the US has the right to go around fighting optional wars in foreign countries. This is in fact against international law. America's doctrime of "preemptive war" is the biggest reason that the nations of the world fear us. As they rightly should.

Gavin's words made me chuckle:

"Assassinating terrorists on foreign soil is no more legal than a hunter shooting varmints in his neighbor's back yard. Just as it is no more right for American leaders to make blatant threats than for "rogue" nations to do so. By our own logic, Cuba and Venezuela have every right to fire missiles into Miami to eradicate the killers we harbor here."

Comments

[gavin6942.livejournal.com]

Glad you found it amusing, and thanks for the promotion. (Not sure what precisely was worth the chuckle... the word "varmints"?)

I was using Obama as simply an example. The problem isn't really him, or the neoconservatives... it's something about the way America itself thinks. No mainstream politician would question our "right" to attack, nor would any mainstream journalist. Even those who took issue with Obama weren't so concerned about the fact he suggested invasion, but the fact he was so vocal about it.

(I know you know this, but I'm clarifying for any reader. Hillary or Biden or who-knows-who-else would be just as likely to act in this way. Your favorite, Ron Paul, I think might be one of the very few exceptions.)

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I think the crux lies in the saying: MIGHT MAKES RIGHT. Americans believe this. Since WWII we've had the might to kick the rest of the world around, and we have no intention of giving up the associated "right", nor the idea that we are morally and ethically "in the right".

Ron Paul is definitely an exception to this bullying status quo among US politicians. He has said that his first order as president would be for the aircraft carriers to back away from Iran. He understands blowback and is willing to speak about it.