Article and drawing by John Murphy
I sleep a lot better knowing I voted for Ralph Nader! We have a very short collective memory in the United States. For some reason we have the tendency to think the Democrats are somehow better than the Republicans but the only time the Democrats ever did anything positive for the "common man" is when they were forced to do so by massive public outcry as in the 1930s and 1960s. But let’s not forget that the Democrats were the proslavery party, the party, under Wilson, that 
maneuvered us into World War I, gave us the Espionage Act and opposed women’s suffrage. FDR did a lot of wonderful things to end the depression but also maneuvered us into World War II and then those concentration camps for Japanese-Americans. It might’ve been better had he told us we were going to go to war against Hitler rather than trump up the war with Japan simply because we were competing for the same markets in Asia and it was good old Harry Truman who nuked the civilian populations of two Japanese cities just in order to send the old Soviet Union a message. I guess we don’t have to talk about Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam with 3 million innocent people dead in Southeast Asia and Bill Clinton killing a million innocent men, women and children in Iraq with bombs and sanctions.
maneuvered us into World War I, gave us the Espionage Act and opposed women’s suffrage. FDR did a lot of wonderful things to end the depression but also maneuvered us into World War II and then those concentration camps for Japanese-Americans. It might’ve been better had he told us we were going to go to war against Hitler rather than trump up the war with Japan simply because we were competing for the same markets in Asia and it was good old Harry Truman who nuked the civilian populations of two Japanese cities just in order to send the old Soviet Union a message. I guess we don’t have to talk about Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam with 3 million innocent people dead in Southeast Asia and Bill Clinton killing a million innocent men, women and children in Iraq with bombs and sanctions.OBOMBER
With that as history it is not surprising that Obama has continued the policies of the other half of the Corporate War Party. Even when he was campaigning he refused to admit that his so-called withdrawal plan from Iraq would leave over 100,000 mercenaries behind along with 50,000 US troops (now called "advisors"). All during the campaign he convinced his supporters that Afghanistan was the "right war".
The Democrats took the majority in Congress in 2007. They could have put an end to the Imperial presidency of George Bush but the first thing that Nancy Pelosi said was that impeachment was off the table! The Democrats would not bother to impeach the most impeachable President in our history and then the Democrat Congress gave George Bush everything he wanted. Clearly the Democrats wanted to have an imperial president as well when Bush was gone. The so-called opposition between these two parties is more like an intramural softball game. It looks like there is competition but when it’s all over both sides retire to the bar for a beer: they work for the same company; in this case the same 1500 corporations.
Obama will toss his constituents a couple of crumbs from the corporate table which will permit him to sugarcoat his atrocities. Even the announcement to close Guantánamo seems to be a cynical joke as the attorneys for the prisoners report that conditions have actually worsened. Anyone with three credits of logistics could close Guantánamo in a week! It would take approximately 2 days to send the prisoners home and those prisoners who could not be sent home (with the appropriate reparations for destroying their lives) could be put up in the Hilton in Washington until an appropriate domicile could be arranged. Then the entire naval base could be demolished within another two days. The last three days might be spent in negotiating with the Cuban government precisely how much the United States of America owes Cuba for the illegal occupation of Guantánamo since 1903! But we would do that only if we were a righteous nation. We have, instead become a rogue nation driven by the ever constant need for the growth of corporate profits. The prisoners will not be set free; it is unlikely that they will even be tried in a civilian court. They will simply be put into another Guantánamo here in the United States.
Given that Obama has a superior intellect to George Bush one might have expected that completely ending torture and actually sending the prisoners home might have been a thicker sugarcoating for the atrocious policies he would continue to follow with respect to Iraq, Afghanistan and our support of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. It was telling that Obama no sooner took the oath of office when he attacked Pakistan! He has also threatened Iran, Syria and Venezuela.
The choice of Joe Biden might have been forced on him by the DNC but as he announced the rest of his cabinet members we were introduced to the harbinger of horror that Obama has planned. Hell, six of them withdrew because they were in violation of the tax code! Unfortunately this speaks volumes about Obama’s leadership capabilities.
Clearly, he must defend the Bush era officials for if he did not, the Republicans would then begin an investigation of some of the Clinton era officials! Furthermore, he would be establishing a precedent for the eventual investigation and punishment of the members of his own administration. While in the Senate he supported the Military commissions act and reauthorized the Patriot Act!
Trying to withhold information about the Bush presidency strengthens his own position and emboldens the members of his own cabinet and advisory staff. Clearly in order to be impeached lying to the American public about war and the reasons for war are not sufficiently "high crimes". Lying about having sex in the Oval Office however is such a sufficiently high crime!
Afghanistan will very likely turn out to be for Obama what Vietnam was for Lyndon Johnson. Couple his foreign policies with his disastrous economic policies at home and you have all the makings of a one term president. And you know what will follow will make Richard Nixon look like a Boy Scout!
John Murphy was the “corporate free” candidate for Congress in the 16th District of Pennslyvania in the 2008 elections.