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by Dejan Gantar
Last November Americans sat glued to their TV’s, spent countless hours campaigning, and like a nation of panhandlers repetitiously muttered the words the Obama campaign used to inspire us all, “change…change…change”. One year later we look down the line, some jaded, others still drooling, waiting for that hope and change they claim they were promised. We have failed to see any real change in domestic policy; budget spending is absolutely outrageous and goes greatly uncovered by the media (although I did not miss a single exciting update on balloon boy’s family). Let’s look at some numbers, even though at the kind of deficit the country is in, these are mostly arbitrary symbolic depictions used as an attempt to explain how unbelievably screwed we are. $75B has been spent on intelligence operations in the past year. The senate recently passed a $626B military and war funding bill (the Pentagon’s budget for 2010 alone is $704B). The American people have subsidized large banks and insurance companies that failed because of faulty economic policies, by the trillions. Yet now we see Wall Street employee bonuses at an all time high, at $140B just this past year. All the while education is poor amidst vast budget cuts, and the military is beginning to recruit in middle schools (the Army is beginning to develop middle school JROTC programs). There is obvious political gridlock within the current system; this is made evident by looking at the healthcare reform struggle between the executive and legislative branches. The president seems to have totally given up on the public option, which polls show more than half of Americans now favor. And this all in favor of large insurance and prescription drug companies that seem to have our entire ‘democracy’ by the gonads. In a true democracy, the public would be given voting options or referendums on important issues such as these. Instead these decisions are being made by our country’s most powerful corporations, such as insurance and prescription drug companies. Time Magazine recently reported that pharmaceutical companies spent $110 million lobbying congress the first half of this year. Other policies that remain the same include the Patriot Act. Initiated by the Bush administration following the 9/11 attacks in order to “intercept and obstruct terrorism”, the senate panel recently voted to keep this law intact, though with minor amendments that slightly weaken it. The bottom line; it is still legal for the government to obtain information through unwarranted search and seizures and hold an individual, refusing them the right to an attorney or a trial, even if there is no clear connection to a terrorist group. The war has shifted to the east from Iraq to Afghanistan. There are currently 52,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan (many of whom have simply been pulled out of Iraq and replaced). The White House is to approve an additional 30-45,000 troops shortly. This number does not include private military contractors (or mercenaries) that are stationed in the region, whose number is actually larger than that of U.S. military troops. Private military contractors, such as Black Water, who remain immune to laws that fall under the Geneva Conventions, make up 57% of the total Defense Department workforce, making the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the most privatized wars in history. Powerful PR strategies, like those used under the Bush administration, are convincing the public that the U.S. “needs” to be there and “needs” to fight the terrorists. This is no different than the campaign led during the Iraq war, which left many Americans thinking “We shouldn’t be there, but we already are, and at this point it is our only option”. It is important to note that evidence pointing toward very little progress, if any at all, in Afghanistan, is becoming more prevalent; particularly to U.S. military standards. The U.S. has for long, supported Israel. Regardless of their human rights abuses, oppression, occupation and overall halts on possible development against the Palestinians. The recent UN inquiry into the Israel-Palestine conflict earlier this year, written by the renowned Justice Richard Goldstone, cites war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetuated by both sides. It accuses Israel of various crimes, including the bombing of civilian targets, arbitrary arrest and even the murder of children waving white flags. The Obama administration has with quite an effort, attempted to minimize the report’s findings, as well as stating the report is biased. In a recent interview with Al-Jazeera, Goldstone stated “I have yet to hear from the Obama administration what the flaws that they’ve identified are.” So we, as a nation with an appetite for change, sit back and wait for it. Will we see an end to our wars? Will we see our rights and liberties reinstated to their position before the Patriot Act? Will the people of the U.S. continuously be ignored by lawmakers whose interests lie with large business? Or will we see a further prolonging of the status quo as a president attempts to secure his seat for a second term?
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