Where’s all the “change” we were promised?
Obama has promised to “remove all U.S. troops from Iraq,” but that will still leave at least 50,000 troops stationed there indefinitely. Obama is gearing up to expand the war in Afghanistan and has continued to move into Pakistan with unmanned drone attacks, continuing to kill hundreds of civilians.
It seems that these wars can no longer be denounced as solely being “Bush’s wars,” as Obama has claimed them as his own.
By the way, seen any more anti-war rallies recently? They seem to have stopped on Jan. 20. Hmm ...
While Obama spent time posturing against corporate welfare and greed, his Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have doled out hundreds of billions to a myriad of corporations and banks, and has semi-nationalized many of these institutions.
Obama has continued the Bush policy of extraordinary rendition: continuing to hold individuals, including American citizens, without charging them with crimes or giving them their day in court. Obama has followed Bush’s past uses of the “state secrets privilege” as an excuse to keep these people detained indefinitely.
While some have hailed Obama’s closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, he is not freeing these individuals, only transferring them somewhere else for indefinite detention.
While many of his supporters have been outspokenly against Bush’s Patriot Act, Obama has expressed support for continuing Bush’s warrantless wiretapping. No one should really be surprised by this, however, as in 2008, then-Sen. Obama voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act.
Bush’s “faith-based” initiatives, which drew sharp dissent from the left, will now be expanded and elevated by Obama’s new “Office of Faith-Based Initiatives,” a new official council to the White House.
Indeed it seems as though Obama’s first term is looking more like Bush’s third. His supporters seem to turn a blind eye when Obama does the very same things they used to protest against when Bush was doing them.
The Daily Gamecock > Viewpoints
US policy has changed little under Obama
Not only in war does President’s policy mirror Bush’s stance
Published: Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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Will Potter
First-year economics student
8 comments
Open your eyes and wake up, Dana