And I did, and then God would tell me,
"George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq ."
And I did. And now, again, I
feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and
get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East."
And
by God I'm gonna do it'" (Nabel Shaath, BBC, 6/10/05) -- then certainly
President Obama, our most recent American Prophet, can attest to
“America’s singular role in the course of human events.”
As Obama waxed
eloquently in the latter third of his address to the people of the
world, and most pointedly to the American people who must remain
“united” behind his determination to complete his mission for “...the
light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance,” he marked with
great profundity that we must “learn the lessons” of this past decade,
“We have learned anew the profound cost of war” listing as he did so the
costs to America, leaving for another day, no doubt, the million and a
half Iraqis killed and the untold millions that fled their country, and
the thousands upon thousands left maimed and physically and mentally
ravaged.
But neither God nor His prophets have given much
consideration to the enemy, another lesson we might have learned from
our past. Minister John Robinson testified to God’s intervention on
behalf of His chosen when our Puritan forebears exterminated the Pequot
Indians in 1637:
Thus were they now at their Wits End, who not many
Hours before exalted themselves in their great Pride, threatning and
resolving the utter Ruin and Destruction of all the English, Exulting
and Rejoycing with Songs and Dances: But God was above them, who laughed
his Enemies and the Enemies of his People to Scorn, making them as a
fiery Oven: Thus were the Stout Hearted spoiled, having slept their last
Sleep, and none of their Men could find their Hands: Thus did the Lord
judge among the Heathen, filling the Place with dead Bodies! (Quoted in
David E. Stannard, American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 136).
In 1630, John Winthrop , in his sermon to his Puritan
followers, “A model of Christian Charity,” declared that they were the
chosen people of “our” God , arriving in God’s chosen land, the new
Zion, given to them as the new Israelites to be as a “city on a Hill”
where the eyes of all the people in the world could see the covenant
between their God and His people, a covenant that provided protection by
God unless they were to break it, and their “security ceaseth.” Belief
in that God and that covenant seems to exist to the present day since
America has yet to accept any responsibility for the ethnic cleansing of
the indigenous people that inhabited the land we call the United States
of America. Needless to say the cleansing continued well into the
1800s, and one might suggest with some reason, to the present day.
Every nation needs a mythic explanation of its purpose
and a hero to exemplify its unique place “in the course of human
events,” as our President remarked. But how does a nation “conceived in
liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal,” find such a hero? It’s difficult, if not pretentious, to promote
oneself as you proclaim that all are equal. Who among our “founding
fathers” could be elevated to such stature: Washington who vocally
proclaimed the inferiority of the indigenous people; Jefferson who
fathered yet another nation of Jeffersons with Sally Heming’s, his
personal slave; Adams who declared on behalf of the pseudo-Aristoi and
mocked his wife’s efforts on behalf of women; or maybe Thomas Paine who
indeed declared all equal but was rejected and forgotten by the very men
that led the Revolutionary forces that would not have existed had he
not spoken so eloquently of the virtues of freedom and liberty?
A difficult task indeed. Yet find a hero they did, in
Columbus, in the first half of the 1800s. Indeed, Columbus emerged as a
myth and a symbol, a “man of vision and audacity” who defeated the
“forces of entrenched tradition,” a man of hope and spirit willing to
take risks even in foreign lands to accomplish his mission, a man sent
by God to bring the puritas de sangre to the heathens of this
very continent that they might be saved for Christ. Fortunately
Americans could turn to one of their own for corroboration of these
myths in Washington Irving’s Columbus. “We arouse and arrange our memories to suit our psychic needs.”
Thus from 1492, the initiation of the greatest
holocaust in history against the indigenous people, before even the
conception of a United States existed, the myth of God given rights to
the spoils of war waged on behalf of “sacred beliefs” ordained by Christ
through his ministers, became a lesson learned by the Puritans, the
settlers, the pioneers, and the government of the U.S. until the whole
of this nation came to heal. By 1846 our government declared its right
to the land of Mexico north of the Rio Grande by initiating a war to
ensure the continuation of slavery in Texas, fought against Spain in
1898 to gain control of Cuba and the Philippines in the Pacific, most
notably in the eradication of the Moro Muslims in a massacre, described
in caustic satire by Mark Twain. American imperialism baptized as
“Manifest Destiny” or “bringing God’s word to the heathens” continues
unabated.
It is a corrosive mindset indelibly branded on the
American psyche. It is the underlying proclamation of Obama’s address to
his people couched in words without meaning: “the tide of war is
receding,” “the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance,”
“These long wars will come to a responsible end.” The first implies that
our President knows the certainty of God’s vision, yet the vision
belies the reality of the past and the lessons to be learned from that
past: the destruction of the evil Taliban in Afghanistan within three
months only to have that conflagration become the longest war in
American history; the 90 day war that did not materialize in Iraq
although the declaration of its demise was broadcast world-wide from the
deck of an aircraft carrier; the spread of the terrorists from nation
to nation as America’s killing fields leap from Afghanistan to Iraq to
Pakistan to Yemen to Libya as hatred for America grows geometrically as
civilians die; and, perhaps most tellingly, the on-going support by
America of the genocide taking place in Israel against the Palestinian
people, a massacre that has no “light of secure peace” in the distance.
Consider “These long wars will come to a responsible
end.” What is the “responsible end” for a war instigated and entered
into on the basis of lies to the American people, to the soldiers of the
United States, and to the nations United as Colin Powell testified to a
platter of fabrications shoved down the throats of unknowing delegates
who gave their consent on behalf of their people? What is the
“responsible end” to an irresponsible war? How does this nation give
recompense to the dead, to the maimed, to the refugees and to the
children whose lives have been lost to the American war machine? Will
the “responsible end” declare the true reasons for the war? Will it tell
the Iraqi people and all of our coalition partners that our true
purpose was control of oil reserves to maintain our vaunted standard of
living, that it was to secure oil for Israel, that it provided America
with a means of establishing 14 more air bases to effectively surround
Iran, that democracy was offered as a means of electing our puppet to
replace Saddam; will we act responsibly and tell the truth?
Consider that Obama knew the purpose of his statement;
“... this decade of war has caused many to question the nature of
America’s engagement around the world...some would have America retreat
from our responsibility as an anchor of global security and embrace
isolation that ignores the very real threats that we face.” Notice the
word ‘retreat’ used negatively against those who would question his
mission to be Emperor of the World; cowards all, no doubt, though he
does not offer them the respect due a logical question: who declared
America “anchor of global security”? When were the American people asked
to vote that we should undertake such a mission? But that’s not all.
Such “retreatists” are also “isolationists.” They are also “ignorant.”
Ignorant of what? That they do not know why America has taken on this
role; that they realize that America is awash in debt that threatens to
undermine the nation; that they do not profit as a people from Pentagon
investments in on-going wars; nor do they receive the million dollar
salaries made by CEO’s of companies that furnish the war machine? Why
are these questions not addressed by the Prophet? Americans are either
with our imperial, mission driven mindset or they are “retreatists” and
ignorant isolationists. How convenient.
Finally, and perhaps most audaciously, Obama ends with
these cautionary words: “...we must remember that what sets America
apart is not solely our power—it is the principles upon which our union
was founded. We are a nation that brings our enemies to justice while
adhering to the rule of law and respecting the rights of all our
citizens.” What principles in our founding documents justify America’s
blatant, on-going, calculated rejection of international law and the
laws of the United States as it vetoes United Nations resolution after
resolution condemning the illegal actions of the state of Israel?
The UN Security Council has passed a large
number of resolutions condemning Israel for its actions in the Middle
East and against the Palestinian people and surrounding nations. The
General Assembly has passed over 100 resolutions condemning Israeli
actions and policies. In addition, the International Court of Justice
has ruled that the wall that Israel is building through the occupied
Palestinian territories substantially violates the human rights of the
Palestinian people and needs to be torn down immediately, and the people
affected must be compensated for their losses.
Israel has ignored all of the resolutions of the
Security Council, which is a violation of the Charter, and by
extension, international law. And it has also ignored all of the
resolutions of the General Assembly and the Advisory Opinion of the
International Court.
In addition, it is important to note that in
support of Israel, the United States has exercised its veto power in the
Security Council to cancel out many other resolutions that were
otherwise passed unanimously or by the vast majority of its members.
(STUDY GUIDE : International Law & Israel).
Once again, Obama understands the audacity of
this contradiction even as he utters it to the American people. He is a
student of the Constitution, yet he mocks the foundational documents by
justifying the decades long action of the U.S in the Security Council as
it vetoes the will of the majority of nations that see Israel’s
immunity a product of the United States’ decision to break its
agreements with the international body. Just this February, Obama vetoed
the last action taken by the UNGA and the UNSC by denying the
recognition of illegality, even though 14 member states of the UNSC had
declared the resolution justified.
Over the weekend, the United States vetoed a
resolution before the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlements
in the Occupied Territories after failing to convince the Palestinian
government to withdraw it. The veto came despite support for the
resolution from the 14 other members of the Security Council, including
the four permanent members. The Obama administration explained its
opposition: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the prospects for peace
would be damaged by any action taken at the UNSC. The reaction to the
U.S. veto in both Israel and in the wider region shows that the U.S.
position is becoming increasingly untenable in the face of changes in
the Arab world ( Feb/ 2011).
Such disdain for America’s founding documents
makes a mockery of Obama’s address to the people. We are no longer a
nation that abides by laws; we are a nation under the control of a
foreign government that has coerced the U. S. Congress to succumb to its
policies and dictates. One need only witness the ridiculous demeanor of
our bobbing representatives who gave obeisance to the Prime Minister of
Israel as he presented lies on top of lies, quietly smiling his
approval as he virtually conducted a symphony of applause.
Our government no longer protects its citizens’
rights; it emasculates them. We do not protect our freedom and
prosperity by extending it to others, we are in lock-down at airports
and at home, we are in debt because we have brought military control
through occupation to the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan, and
imprisonment, torture and oppression to the Palestinian people by
allowing the illegal actions of Israel to destroy their country. In all
of this, we have not protected Americans, we have made their lives
insecure and unstable.
Deception and deceit do not create a united
nation, they foster only doubt, indignation, and distrust. Contrary to
Obama’s assertion, “We stand not for empire, but for
self-determination,” the policy of the Bush administration from
September 2002 on was exactly the opposite; we stood for empire and
threatened any nation that dared to oppose us. Two years into the Obama
administration and not one major policy of the Bush era has been
altered. Indeed, our policies on torture, privacy, cyber-control, NSA
secret spying on Americans, Guantanamo imprisonment by military courts,
on-going invasion of other nations without their acceptance continues.
This very speech belies the assertion; he
condemns Americans who oppose his will by maligning them and that in
turn negates his last statement, “We will support those revolutions with
fidelity to our ideals, with the power of our example, and with an
unwavering belief that all human beings deserve to live with freedom and
dignity.” In effect, Obama seeks compliance and obedience to his
determination that “America’s singular role in the course of human
events,” as determined by his administration, will be the only
principled response to the world that questions America’s “role” and the
citizens that find this myth of America repugnant, unacceptable and
destructive.
William A. Cook is a Professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California. His latest book, The Plight of the Palestinians, was published by Macmillan this past August. He can be reached at www.drwilliamacook.com or wcook@laverne.edu.
