Whats Next Mr. Obama | PKKH.tv
PKKH Exclusive | By Sakina Kavi
On the 6th of November 2012, Barak Obama regained his chair of presidency for the second time in the history of the United States of America. However, with the looks of it, the second time victory of the African American President is not as welcomed as it was expected to be.
The count of states petitioning to secede from the United States of America had reached 34 just 2 days after the election of Obama, but now citizens from all 50 states have asked to secede from the nation of United States. Louisiana became the first state to petition on the official Whitehouse government website, followed by the rest of the 48 states. Texas was the first state to have exceeded the 25,000-signature count, followed by Louisiana for the petition to be officially reviewed by the President himself. However, no statements have been passed as yet. With all the states being unhappy about the election of Barak Obama, it really raises a question if the people were actually thinking before they casted their vote. The question of democracy now comes under scrutiny. Like casting their votes would be the democratic way to impose the opinions of the people; would asking for their states to secede from the United States right after the election of Obama not add up to their right to true democracy as well?
These happenings right after the election of President Barak Obama give voice to the disapproval of the states over the re-election of the president. At the same time, it also raises the question whether the United States of America are actually united under one governance.
The answer to this question can be fetched with an analysis of the president’s governance in the last four years. Obama took the responsibility of presiding over the United States of America first in January 2009, bringing in new hopes, many promises and a lot of positive thinking. The states of America, correspondingly welcomed the first black president of USA, thinking that the new president would actually take the country to see greater success in his tenure.
However, after two years of what it looked like ‘rainbows and butterflies’ for the people of USA, the reality steadily started to set in. The citizens of the United States realized that Obama’s tenure was nothing but a series of broken promises.
Barak Obama right before his election was portrayed as a pro-peace and an anti-war person. He promised rights for everyone, and stability in the states of America as well as in the international system. Moreover, having the first black president in America denoted the idea that the United States of America was now readily accepting multiculturalism and different ethnicities in the front bench.
Obama’s tenure started with a number of acts for immigrants living in the land of USA, the DREAM Act that was reimposed under the governance of Barak Obama, was one huge step in stealing the hearts of the increasing number of immigrants to the country. But what the US people and the whole international system were looking forward to, was Obama’s promises of fighting against terrorism, and completely eradicating it within his four years of tenure.
Obama took over the seat of presidency when his country was already on a war with two Asian/ Muslim nations, Iraq and Afghanistan. The former president George W. Bush, in his tenure started wars against the two nations in the name of fetching out weapons of mass destruction from Iraq, and ceasing power from the al-Qaeda network and the Taliban that dominated the lands of Afghanistan. By the time, Obama secured his position as the president; the USA was already in a state of war with these two nations. In spite of the claims, the US army found none of the weapons of mass destruction; instead, they had used this statement as an excuse to exploit the country’s oil resources.
Although Obama had chanted about world peace and stability in the international political system, it would not be false to say that little was done to maintain these promises. The Iraq war was although officially called off on December 2011, by the Obama administration; the on-going sectarian violence has completely crumbled the state of Iraqi economy and political stability, putting grave questions on the purpose of waging this war and the conditions which have been left upon the Iraqis at the withdrawal.
The US-Afghanistan war is no less different, fought in the name of fighting against terrorism. Under Obama’s regime, the country of Afghanistan suffered from much brutal and massive amount of terrorism at the hands of the US army, than they ever did under the rule of Taliban or al-Qaeda presence. The truth is in front of everyone about the US-Afghan war, behind the statements of working against the terror groups, the US army become one of the main sources of promoting terrorism in the region. Afghan children have spend 10 years of their childhood witnessing nothing but their loved ones dying in front of their eyes, and their mothers being abused in the hands of US army, who are supposedly here to give them protection from the bigger horrors of life!
Obama however, in the last year of his tenure, just a few months before the next elections, in an official statement stated that by 2013 the US armies would be heading back from the lands of Afghanistan to their own country. Of course, this was expected sometime eventually. Waging a war with an under-developed country like Afghanistan, which was itself struggling with its weakening economy made no sense, as Afghanistan posed no threat to a super power like USA, looked like an odd thing to do, as by the looks of it the war was doing nothing but exploiting USA’s economic and military resources.
However, in fact, the US government actually had been eyeing Afghanistan’s strategic position in the middle of the Caspian Sea, the unexploited area with millions of dollars’ worth oil resources that the US government terribly needs in order to grow its economic industry. Therefore, Afghanistan was wrongly assumed as an easy country to wage a war against, and that too with the cheapest cost, but reality proved to be the opposite of all this. Furthermore, not only the wars accounted to the increasing terror in the international politics, but also the number of drone strikes that rose in Pakistani territory, caused anti-US and anti-Obama sentiments across the Pakistani nation.
The unhappy US citizens, tired of all the terror activities that their country had been promoting around the world and in their own country, in all these years, protested at a number of occasions. The Occupy Movement, was one of the latest signs of resentment rising among the US citizens against its government. The Occupy movement, basically spoke against the delusion of democracy that the US citizens were living in, it said that the international system just gave a false hope of democracy that pretends that the voices of the people were actually being heard, while in reality all the major decisions were taking by the highest orders. The first Occupy Movement campaign was started by hundreds of unhappy citizens at Zuccotti Park in New York on 17th September 2011. All these protests and the fact that the unhappy citizens were actually daring to be vocal about their thoughts, was just a spark that has been igniting a civil unhappiness among the people of United States of America, the signing of petitions to secede from USA, is just another act adding up to the already increasing list.
Because of the increasing number of wars and terror activities since Obama’s tenure, the US economy has been going down in shatters; therefore it is actually understandable why the US states now want separate governments for themselves. Obama’s Peace Plan for Palestine-Israel which Israel has rejected every now and again is also a blow in the US nation’s confidence in the ability of the President to apply him in practical terms. In the current conflict, Obama while standing on Thai soil has said that “Israel has the right to defend itself and that Hamas should stop rocket firing for peace”. This depicts Obama’s inclination towards the same policy of global hegemony against which the people came out in the Occupy-Movement.
Replacement of Hillary Clinton from the position of Secretary of State and the popping up of John Kerry name is being seen as one positive step toward a peaceful withdrawal from Afghanistan as Kerry is seen by many to be relatively unbiased in his stance on Afghanistan and that Kerry knowledge is substantially more solid than Hillary’s on the AfPak situation. If this comes to pass, it will be taken as Obama’s inclination towards a peaceful withdrawal from the AfPak Region, but this is yet to be seen.
Just after re-election, Scandal after scandal and conflict after conflict seem to not only haunt Obama but are affecting his complete administration. His often decline from his own promises and agenda have brought down this man with the promise of ‘Change’ to a person for whom his opponent are saying, ‘the only thing that changed was Obama himself’.
Sakina Kavi is an aspiring journalist pursuing a degree in Mass Communication from the University of Karachi. Being a left-winger, Sakina believes in social equality and freedom of speech for all. Sakina tweets @Sakinakavi
Source
PKKH Exclusive | By Sakina Kavi
On the 6th of November 2012, Barak Obama regained his chair of presidency for the second time in the history of the United States of America. However, with the looks of it, the second time victory of the African American President is not as welcomed as it was expected to be.
The count of states petitioning to secede from the United States of America had reached 34 just 2 days after the election of Obama, but now citizens from all 50 states have asked to secede from the nation of United States. Louisiana became the first state to petition on the official Whitehouse government website, followed by the rest of the 48 states. Texas was the first state to have exceeded the 25,000-signature count, followed by Louisiana for the petition to be officially reviewed by the President himself. However, no statements have been passed as yet. With all the states being unhappy about the election of Barak Obama, it really raises a question if the people were actually thinking before they casted their vote. The question of democracy now comes under scrutiny. Like casting their votes would be the democratic way to impose the opinions of the people; would asking for their states to secede from the United States right after the election of Obama not add up to their right to true democracy as well?
These happenings right after the election of President Barak Obama give voice to the disapproval of the states over the re-election of the president. At the same time, it also raises the question whether the United States of America are actually united under one governance.
The answer to this question can be fetched with an analysis of the president’s governance in the last four years. Obama took the responsibility of presiding over the United States of America first in January 2009, bringing in new hopes, many promises and a lot of positive thinking. The states of America, correspondingly welcomed the first black president of USA, thinking that the new president would actually take the country to see greater success in his tenure.
However, after two years of what it looked like ‘rainbows and butterflies’ for the people of USA, the reality steadily started to set in. The citizens of the United States realized that Obama’s tenure was nothing but a series of broken promises.
Barak Obama right before his election was portrayed as a pro-peace and an anti-war person. He promised rights for everyone, and stability in the states of America as well as in the international system. Moreover, having the first black president in America denoted the idea that the United States of America was now readily accepting multiculturalism and different ethnicities in the front bench.
Obama’s tenure started with a number of acts for immigrants living in the land of USA, the DREAM Act that was reimposed under the governance of Barak Obama, was one huge step in stealing the hearts of the increasing number of immigrants to the country. But what the US people and the whole international system were looking forward to, was Obama’s promises of fighting against terrorism, and completely eradicating it within his four years of tenure.
Obama took over the seat of presidency when his country was already on a war with two Asian/ Muslim nations, Iraq and Afghanistan. The former president George W. Bush, in his tenure started wars against the two nations in the name of fetching out weapons of mass destruction from Iraq, and ceasing power from the al-Qaeda network and the Taliban that dominated the lands of Afghanistan. By the time, Obama secured his position as the president; the USA was already in a state of war with these two nations. In spite of the claims, the US army found none of the weapons of mass destruction; instead, they had used this statement as an excuse to exploit the country’s oil resources.
Although Obama had chanted about world peace and stability in the international political system, it would not be false to say that little was done to maintain these promises. The Iraq war was although officially called off on December 2011, by the Obama administration; the on-going sectarian violence has completely crumbled the state of Iraqi economy and political stability, putting grave questions on the purpose of waging this war and the conditions which have been left upon the Iraqis at the withdrawal.
The US-Afghanistan war is no less different, fought in the name of fighting against terrorism. Under Obama’s regime, the country of Afghanistan suffered from much brutal and massive amount of terrorism at the hands of the US army, than they ever did under the rule of Taliban or al-Qaeda presence. The truth is in front of everyone about the US-Afghan war, behind the statements of working against the terror groups, the US army become one of the main sources of promoting terrorism in the region. Afghan children have spend 10 years of their childhood witnessing nothing but their loved ones dying in front of their eyes, and their mothers being abused in the hands of US army, who are supposedly here to give them protection from the bigger horrors of life!
Obama however, in the last year of his tenure, just a few months before the next elections, in an official statement stated that by 2013 the US armies would be heading back from the lands of Afghanistan to their own country. Of course, this was expected sometime eventually. Waging a war with an under-developed country like Afghanistan, which was itself struggling with its weakening economy made no sense, as Afghanistan posed no threat to a super power like USA, looked like an odd thing to do, as by the looks of it the war was doing nothing but exploiting USA’s economic and military resources.
However, in fact, the US government actually had been eyeing Afghanistan’s strategic position in the middle of the Caspian Sea, the unexploited area with millions of dollars’ worth oil resources that the US government terribly needs in order to grow its economic industry. Therefore, Afghanistan was wrongly assumed as an easy country to wage a war against, and that too with the cheapest cost, but reality proved to be the opposite of all this. Furthermore, not only the wars accounted to the increasing terror in the international politics, but also the number of drone strikes that rose in Pakistani territory, caused anti-US and anti-Obama sentiments across the Pakistani nation.
The unhappy US citizens, tired of all the terror activities that their country had been promoting around the world and in their own country, in all these years, protested at a number of occasions. The Occupy Movement, was one of the latest signs of resentment rising among the US citizens against its government. The Occupy movement, basically spoke against the delusion of democracy that the US citizens were living in, it said that the international system just gave a false hope of democracy that pretends that the voices of the people were actually being heard, while in reality all the major decisions were taking by the highest orders. The first Occupy Movement campaign was started by hundreds of unhappy citizens at Zuccotti Park in New York on 17th September 2011. All these protests and the fact that the unhappy citizens were actually daring to be vocal about their thoughts, was just a spark that has been igniting a civil unhappiness among the people of United States of America, the signing of petitions to secede from USA, is just another act adding up to the already increasing list.
Because of the increasing number of wars and terror activities since Obama’s tenure, the US economy has been going down in shatters; therefore it is actually understandable why the US states now want separate governments for themselves. Obama’s Peace Plan for Palestine-Israel which Israel has rejected every now and again is also a blow in the US nation’s confidence in the ability of the President to apply him in practical terms. In the current conflict, Obama while standing on Thai soil has said that “Israel has the right to defend itself and that Hamas should stop rocket firing for peace”. This depicts Obama’s inclination towards the same policy of global hegemony against which the people came out in the Occupy-Movement.
Replacement of Hillary Clinton from the position of Secretary of State and the popping up of John Kerry name is being seen as one positive step toward a peaceful withdrawal from Afghanistan as Kerry is seen by many to be relatively unbiased in his stance on Afghanistan and that Kerry knowledge is substantially more solid than Hillary’s on the AfPak situation. If this comes to pass, it will be taken as Obama’s inclination towards a peaceful withdrawal from the AfPak Region, but this is yet to be seen.
Just after re-election, Scandal after scandal and conflict after conflict seem to not only haunt Obama but are affecting his complete administration. His often decline from his own promises and agenda have brought down this man with the promise of ‘Change’ to a person for whom his opponent are saying, ‘the only thing that changed was Obama himself’.
Sakina Kavi is an aspiring journalist pursuing a degree in Mass Communication from the University of Karachi. Being a left-winger, Sakina believes in social equality and freedom of speech for all. Sakina tweets @Sakinakavi
Source
Last edited by a moderator:
