Obama starts playing politics

It was a matter of time. In the end, Obama is just another politician. Deceptions were about to come sooner or later. But maybe the last one, the relative to the tortures, is even more significative, because was one of the few things where both McCain and Obama agreed. And is even more worrying because this time, the one who agrees with Obama is Dick Cheney.

First is the delay of the release of photos regarding tortures to detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. Maybe after seeing the photos, Obama decided it was too much for the average American stomachs. The official argument lies on the possible threat that could represent for American troops abroad, who could see an increase on the attacks due to the hate coming from the fundamentalists. Of course, this is the same the old administration told us. And Cheney is more than happy with this. Something is wrong if that happens. Worried? Keep reading.

In the second part of the case on tortures, Obama decided to keep the military commissions for the trials for Gitmo’s detainees. The Cuban prison is becoming a headache for Obama. First was the problem of what to do with the detainees that won’t be in America. Now, with the ones that will be in America.

The present decision has more to do with the fact that, if a normal trial is granted to the detainees, a lot CIA and FBI agents will have to face public disclosures. And those guys are really worried of their privacy. In that case, it’s better -for Obama- to leave on the side of the road the civil rights he was promising than endanger the National Security. Equally, is left aside the trust from his believers supporters.

All this comes just after the decision last month to not prosecute the CIA and FBI agents who actually made the tortures, allegedly because they were just following orders. Obama just came to them in a softly parental way to say them that it was wrong, and made them promise they won’t do it again.

Another cold water shot -not waterboarded, though- over the hope Obama brought came with the negative from Obama to intervene in the dismissal of an Army official because is gay. It’s not like what he praised during his campaign, as one of his promises was to stop any sexual discrimination at work, regardless gender or orientation.

It’s even worse by the fact that the guy dismissed is a West Point official, just back from Iraq, where he was serving as an Arabic linguist; a kind of person highly demanded right now.

So, let get me this right. Waterboarding maybe makes detainees talk, but it won’t make them speak English. But you will fire the guy that can understand something more than the “glglglgl” of the suspected terrorist, just because he is... a fag? Jon Stewart explains it better here.

Balance starts going dangerously into the broken promises. And the ones not broken are irrelevant or have been done just at half of it. Like the ban on the presents from lobbies, but then you have the Freeman case, where the American president submits to the will of the AIPAC and Israel. Or like the limit on executive salaries from companies rescued by the Government, not with retroactive action, of course. It allowed the later AIG outrage.

But hey, Obama kept the promise of getting a dog for his daughters, and it was covered by TV networks like if it was the biggest news on the year. That’s just what the USA (and the world) needed. Both the dog and the coverage of the dog by the media.




Photo: AP
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