Skip to content
The World Can't Wait
Menu
  • Home
  • Events
  • About
    • About World Can’t Wait
      • History of World Can’t Wait
  • Projects
    • War Criminals Watch
    • We Are Not Your Soldiers!
    • Fire John Yoo
    • Sudan’s Struggle
  • Media
    • Audio
      • Video
    • Public Svc. Announcements
    • Press & Press Releases
      • Press Releases
      • Press Coverage
    • Photos
  • Take Action
    • Materials in English
    • Materials in Spanish
    • What You Can Do Now
    • Donate
    • More Resources
      • News & Analysis
        • Alternet
        • Antiwar.com
        • Black Agenda Report
        • Common Dreams
        • CounterPunch
        • Dissident Voice
        • Media Matters
        • Next Left Notes
        • OpEd News
        • Project Censored
        • Raw Story
        • Revolution Newspaper
        • Truthdig
        • Truthout
      • Anti-War
        • Afghans for Peace
        • Courage to Resist
        • Drone Warfare Awareness
        • Iraq Vets Against the War
        • Peace of the Action
        • Veterans for Peace
        • Voices for Creative Non-Violence
        • War is a Crime
      • Anti-Torture/Detention
        • Andy Worthington
        • Close Guantanamo
        • Free Detainees
        • Int’l Justice Network
        • No More Guantánamos
        • Religious Campaign Against Torture
        • Witness Against Torture
      • Political Repression
        • Bill of Rights Defense Committee
        • Center for Constitutional Rights
        • Committee to Stop FBI Repression
        • Drop the Charges on Gregory!
        • National Lawyers Guild
        • No Separate Justice
        • Project Salam
        • Stop Mass Incarceration
      • Women’s Rights/Theocracy
        • Defend Science
        • Feministing
        • RH Reality Check
        • Stop Patriarchy
        • Talk 2 Action
        • Theocracy Watch
        • Walk for Choice
      • Environment
        • Bill McKibben
        • Climate Connections
        • Enviros Against War
        • Grist
        • Tar Sands Action
  • En Español
Menu

If You Think Obama Can’t Help It

Posted on September 7, 2013
Share:
Dennis Loo | September 7, 2013

And you think that other unseen forces are making him do all of these terrible things, then take that reasoning process just ONE step further.

What you’re saying is that one individual, even the most powerful politician in the world, cannot do the right thing because of the forces that surround him.

You are saying, in effect, that the problem is the system and not who is elected into office.

Even assuming that someone like Barack Obama has the right intentions and goodwill in his heart, he has been completely unable to follow his heart and do what is right because the system that he sits at the official pinnacle of won’t let him.

Even if you believe that someone else is forcing him to push for bombing Syria, that is exactly what he IS doing: acting as pointman for the carrying out of the “supreme international crime.”

What we all have to deal with – and confront as reality – is that this is what he and the rest of the political leadership of this nation are doing: they are not honoring what the American people want, they are knowingly violating the central tenet of the UN Charter, they are trying to legitimate a massive war crime of bombing Syria through a massive PR offensive, trumped up intelligence, and a phony Congressional “debate.”

If you believe that we live in a democracy where public office holders are beholden to the will of the people and that this adherence to the people’s will is the central principle in play, then why is the Congressional leadership of both parties rushing to endorse Obama’s plan, even before Congress as a whole is back in session? Why isn’t Obama who serves at the will of the American people, abiding by his Constitutional duty to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” as his oath of office specifies? Why did he say very publicly before putting his plan to bomb Syria before Congress that he will not be bound by Congress if Congress votes down his proposal to bomb Syria?

If you think that he’s only doing this because he has to because he’s beholden to other forces around him who are more powerful than him, then doesn’t this mean that it is the system that is to blame and that to fix this monstrous situation means that we have to expose the nature and workings of this system and mobilize the people to change the system? Systems don’t change by working within those systems. Systems by their nature permit and encourage only those channels that operate overall to reinforce the existing system. If you go through “channels” to try to change the system by the rules that that system operates by, then you will not change the system. It is only by going outside of the existing channels and by ignoring and/or flouting the existing acceptable modes of thinking and doing that you stand a chance of really doing anything. It is only by insisting on and fighting for an entirely different path of thinking and doing that opens up that avenue for others to see and follow that you will be doing something of real value.

In short, follow to their logical conclusions your essentially correct belief that Obama cannot do the right thing and act on behalf of you and others doing exactly the right thing. It’s up to you.

Dennis Loo is a member of the Steering Committee of World Can’t Wait. His website is dennisloo.com.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Because humanity & the planet come first...
store
Don’t stop… Don’t conciliate... Don’t accommodate... Don’t collaborate... and support World Can't Wait.

Sign up for email

Stop FBI Repression
Know your rights
If An Agent Knocks

About

World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.

Read More

Subscribe to E-Newsletter

Contact World Can't Wait

TOPICS

  • Afghanistan & Pakistan
  • Covert Drone War
  • Crimes are Crimes
  • Culture of Bigotry
  • Environment
  • G.I. Resistance
  • Haiti
  • Immigrants
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Libya
  • Mass Incarceration
  • Obama
  • Occupy
  • Palestine
  • Police State Repression
  • Real History Lessons
  • Reproductive Rights
  • Reports on Protest & Resistance
  • Theocracy
  • Torture
  • Wikileaks
  • Calls to Action
  • The Expanding War on the World

Projects

  • War Criminals Watch
  • We Are Not Your Soldiers
  • Get Involved

  • Donate
  • Download filters, stickers and posters
  • More ways to get involved
  • ©2025 The World Can't Wait | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme