[col. writ. 3/22/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
There is something so wonderful and terrible about the spectacle of U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama on the world’s stage.
Wonderful, as he is a Black man at the very pinnacle of political power; terrible, too, in that his immense talents are put at the service of the Empire.
When he speaks in an eloquence so sorely lacking from his predecessor, one hears the sweetness of self- evident reason, with an ease that would’ve baffled he who came before him.
And yet, beneath the words, in things unsaid, lie the very same imperial perceptions and presumptions.
As Bush said t, “What we say, goes!”
It is astonishing to read and realize how easily the U.S. may indict another country for some evil, which we, or our allies have perpetrated with perpetrated with perfect impunity.
Iran may not have a nuclear weapon, but Israel can have hundreds. Indeed, during the Shah’s reign, Iranian scientists performed nuclear tests at MIT!
But today’s Iran isn’t the Shah’s, and in the seat of power sits an Iranian religious leader who, unlike the Shah, isn’t a paid puppet of the Americans.
The Alawite government in Syria can be taken to task for a disputed report of chemical weapon’s use, but Israel can strike Gaza with white phosphorous, an extremely poisonous chemical that bursts into flame when in contact with air. The U.S. acted as if Israel dropped cotton candy.
And as for chemical weapons, remember Agent Orange?
The U.S. denuded Vietnam’s great forests, causing almost incalculable ecological and human damage that continues to haunt Vietnam to this day, not to mention tens of thousands of Vietnam vets, who have visited damage upon their children, caused by exposure to this powerful defoliant and poison.
War talk, on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War – by anybody – is crazy talk.
–© ’13 maj