Time for a Hero

Al Jazeera:

Obama doesn't seem to understand that the US doesn't need to "take the fight" to al-Qaeda, or even fire a single shot, to score its greatest victory in the "war on terror". Supporting real democratisation will do more to downgrade al-Qaeda's capabilities than any number of military attacks. He had better gain this understanding quickly because in the next hours or days the Egypt's revolution will likely face its moment of truth. And right behind Egypt are Yemen, Jordan, Algeria, and who knows what other countries, all looking to free themselves of governments that the US and its European allies have uncritically supported for decades.
If president Obama has the courage to support genuine democracy, even at the expense of immediate American policy interests, he could well go down in history as one of the heroes of the Middle East's Jasmine winter. If he chooses platitudes and the status quo, the harm to America's standing in the region will likely take decades to repair.

Obama as a hero? Hmmm... has anyone else showed up for the casting call? No? They're all here for the role of "Stooge", are they?

Quite. Obviously... Obama doesn't have the courage to go against American policy interests. That's what Obama does — his job description, or whatever — he protects the exact same American interests that drove the Cold War, Vietnam War, 1st Gulf War, and the dozens of other "little" interjections of American might O-round the world.

Yesterday, Andrew Bacevich printed a piece that made the usual rounds. In it, he attempted (quite succinctly, I thought) to explain why the mega-defense mega-budget is mega-protected and never gets cut:

In a 1948 State Department document, diplomat George F. Kennan offered this observation: "We have about 50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population." The challenge facing American policymakers, he continued, was "to devise a pattern of relationships that will permit us to maintain this disparity." Here we have a description of American purposes that is far more candid than all of the rhetoric about promoting freedom and democracy, seeking world peace, or exercising global leadership.

That pattern of relationships includes nuzzling up to autocrats. Not exactly a stretch, is it? Not exactly breaking any ground here today, am I? 

Oh, and if one of these asshole American officials begs for restraint... one. more. time. I'm gonna... I'm gonna...