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Año VII |
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Obama in his
labyrinth
José Vicente Rangel •
Aporrea
Wednesday, 16 de September de 2009
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Whether he has his head
in the clouds or lost in the labyrinth makes no difference. What’s
certain and beyond question is that president Barak Obama is in a tight
spot. And to make things worse, he won’t accept any help. There must be
a reason to explain why such a clever person, who managed to form such a
great bond with the widespread feelings of change that prevailed across
the U.S., dashed the hopes he raised in vast sectors of his country so
soon –a mere 8 months– after he took office. Not many American
presidents have seen their popularity ratings fall as quickly.
Why would any one who became President and got off to a promising start
amid great enthusiasm collapse in such a way and raise so much doubt
about his true ability to lead?
Getting to the bottom of this won’t be any easier than getting inside
the complicated labyrinth where president Obama is trapped.
Nevertheless, I’ll try to sort it out:
A) Let me start with the most kind-hearted possibility: Obama
underestimated the forces he would have to confront in order to make
good his promise of democracy, social justice and foreign policy. Small
surprise, if we bear in mind the usual gap existing between an electoral
campaign and real governance.
B) The president has had to make concessions to the conservative right
–even in detriment of his own platform– while trying to avoid a face-off
with those who stood behind George W. Bush’s management. In other words,
Obama’s attitude is due to a plan of the moment designed to strengthen
his power throughout the tricky stage of transition. Once he gains a
foothold, he will rev up his original project.
C) That the U.S. President’s power is relative and there are forces
underlying the presidential institution which makes decisions in a
reasonably autonomous manner, often with more liberty than the White
House itself, may be thus confirmed. Say, the military-industrial
complex about which ex-president Dwight Eisenhower spoke with a certain
undertone of resentment, is a deciding factor. They plot the route to be
followed and work on the basis of faits accomplis. Clashing with
this blurry macro-power could mean chaos and even death to whoever makes
a move against them.
D) Another possible reason, maybe the most disturbing: Obama is fully
aware of his situation and chooses on purpose to do nothing about it.
After all, as a man trained in and acquainted with American politics,
he’s absorbed by pragmatism and acts accordingly. That would explain why
after winning the presidential race with his anti-war message he still
embarked on his own war adventure in Afghanistan despite its well-known
disastrous outcome. It also explains why, after starting with such a
good note in the Trinidad and Tobago Summit –where his fresh,
anti-interference and friendly discourse differed in so many ways from
Bush’s– he allowed the U.S. army to monitor from its base in Palmerola,
Honduras, the coup against Zelaya’s constitutional government.
Obama still sits on the fence about the whole thing, much as he said
nothing about the installation of seven U.S. military bases in Colombia.
This is a further step toward the internationalization of that country’s
internal conflict and the escalation of regional hostilities. We should
ask ourselves whether he made this call and plans to do it in other
nations, like the Peruvian foreign affairs minister implied in reference
to his country. Meanwhile, his domestic health care policy is bogged
down while he’s hounded by Republicans and Democrats alike, bent on
keeping him on a leash. All of the above indicates that the ill-defined
positions his Administration has adopted so far are certainly doomed to
failure and not finding a way out of his labyrinth.
http://www.lajiribilla.cubaweb.cu/noticias/noticia.asp?Id=14120
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