Obama on race and foreign policy
Further to my post of yesterday, you can watch Obama's whole speech on the comments of his former pastor here.
The Israel line is almost a throwaway one. The speech focuses on the issue of race domestically in the US. Obama had been called upon to condemn his former pastor, who had said "God Damn America" for the way it had treated, and continues to treat, its black citizens. Obama spent a few minutes doing so, but spent the bulk of the speech putting Rev.Wright's comments in the context of the grave, historic injustices of the African-American experience.And then he went further, identifying the problems that face America's white working class, and noting that the political solutions for all those who are not getting their fair share of America's prosperity - black and white - lie in recognising their common interests and utilising their collective strength.
So on race, and Wright's comments on race, Obama had it both ways. And I don't necessarily mean that as a criticism. While condemning Wright's specific words, Obama made it clear that those words were rooted in a clearly understandable source of anger. Personally, I think words of condemnation for Wright would have stuck in my throat. His anger at the situation of Black Americans was perfectly justified. But perhaps Obama sees this as a battle one can afford to lose, in the interests of winning the wider conceptual war.
However, that was all in respect of Wright's comments on domestic policy. In respect of his comments on foreign policy, which is what yesterday's post was about, Obama's condemnation goes entirely unqualified. If he had given as gentle and as eloquent a contextualisation of what Wright had said about US crimes overseas as he had on the subject of race politics in the US, my criticism here would have been muted. But in a 40 minute speech, Obama offered a swift condemnation, and no explanation whatever, of why Wright would view 9/11 as a consequence (albeit a disgusting and inexcusable one) of decades of US aggression abroad.
One of the deepest roots of the imperialist "war on terror" - whether as a mistake from a US point of view or as a crime from an objectively moral point of view - is the failure, or even the refusal, to understand the malignant role the US has played in the lives of so many people across the world. Hence the idea that "they" could only possibly "hate us" because "they hate our freedoms". Hence the idea that our new set of military adventures abroad could only be a good thing for all concerned, save for "the bad guys". Failure to so much as acknowledge that America has done wrong after catastrophic wrong to others, continuing to indulge in jingoistic conceits about the greatest country on Earth, as Obama does with something approaching a casual abandon, is akin to being an 'enabler' to an alcoholic, when what he needs is not just one more drink for the road, but a long, hard look in the mirror.
There is a danger when liberals draw lines in the sand, demarcating what one can and can not say politically; as Obama did when he declared Wright's comments to be utterly beyond the pale. The danger is that things which urgently need to be said are rendered unsayable, and more importantly, unthinkable, on the grounds of political expediency. Obama's was about the most progressive speech I've heard from a major US politician in my lifetime. So much so that many mainstream commentators have described it as positively daring; courageous in its candour and frankness. If, even in a speech like that, the merest honest reflection on the unambiguously evil things that we know the US has done abroad is absolutely out of the question, then the US is a long, long way from a foreign policy that reaches so much as the lowest threshold of decency. If even Barak Obama can't tell the truth about America's role in the world, in a speech which was quite marvellous in parts, then who will? And if American politicians, even the most progressive of them, can't so much as acknowledge Americas past crimes, then what kind of "hope" do they really offer to the traditional victims, in Palestine, Iraq, Africa and elsewhere?
I'll say this much: if Obama can make a speech on foreign policy as (relatively) enlightened, honest, humane and forward thinking as this one was on race, then we may just be onto something with him. If he can't, or won't, then we should be even more reserved about his candidature than we ought to be already.
[Here's a useful assessment of Obama's evolving position on the Middle East, by Stephen Zunes of the University of San Francisco]
The Israel line is almost a throwaway one. The speech focuses on the issue of race domestically in the US. Obama had been called upon to condemn his former pastor, who had said "God Damn America" for the way it had treated, and continues to treat, its black citizens. Obama spent a few minutes doing so, but spent the bulk of the speech putting Rev.Wright's comments in the context of the grave, historic injustices of the African-American experience.And then he went further, identifying the problems that face America's white working class, and noting that the political solutions for all those who are not getting their fair share of America's prosperity - black and white - lie in recognising their common interests and utilising their collective strength.
So on race, and Wright's comments on race, Obama had it both ways. And I don't necessarily mean that as a criticism. While condemning Wright's specific words, Obama made it clear that those words were rooted in a clearly understandable source of anger. Personally, I think words of condemnation for Wright would have stuck in my throat. His anger at the situation of Black Americans was perfectly justified. But perhaps Obama sees this as a battle one can afford to lose, in the interests of winning the wider conceptual war.
However, that was all in respect of Wright's comments on domestic policy. In respect of his comments on foreign policy, which is what yesterday's post was about, Obama's condemnation goes entirely unqualified. If he had given as gentle and as eloquent a contextualisation of what Wright had said about US crimes overseas as he had on the subject of race politics in the US, my criticism here would have been muted. But in a 40 minute speech, Obama offered a swift condemnation, and no explanation whatever, of why Wright would view 9/11 as a consequence (albeit a disgusting and inexcusable one) of decades of US aggression abroad.
One of the deepest roots of the imperialist "war on terror" - whether as a mistake from a US point of view or as a crime from an objectively moral point of view - is the failure, or even the refusal, to understand the malignant role the US has played in the lives of so many people across the world. Hence the idea that "they" could only possibly "hate us" because "they hate our freedoms". Hence the idea that our new set of military adventures abroad could only be a good thing for all concerned, save for "the bad guys". Failure to so much as acknowledge that America has done wrong after catastrophic wrong to others, continuing to indulge in jingoistic conceits about the greatest country on Earth, as Obama does with something approaching a casual abandon, is akin to being an 'enabler' to an alcoholic, when what he needs is not just one more drink for the road, but a long, hard look in the mirror.
There is a danger when liberals draw lines in the sand, demarcating what one can and can not say politically; as Obama did when he declared Wright's comments to be utterly beyond the pale. The danger is that things which urgently need to be said are rendered unsayable, and more importantly, unthinkable, on the grounds of political expediency. Obama's was about the most progressive speech I've heard from a major US politician in my lifetime. So much so that many mainstream commentators have described it as positively daring; courageous in its candour and frankness. If, even in a speech like that, the merest honest reflection on the unambiguously evil things that we know the US has done abroad is absolutely out of the question, then the US is a long, long way from a foreign policy that reaches so much as the lowest threshold of decency. If even Barak Obama can't tell the truth about America's role in the world, in a speech which was quite marvellous in parts, then who will? And if American politicians, even the most progressive of them, can't so much as acknowledge Americas past crimes, then what kind of "hope" do they really offer to the traditional victims, in Palestine, Iraq, Africa and elsewhere?
I'll say this much: if Obama can make a speech on foreign policy as (relatively) enlightened, honest, humane and forward thinking as this one was on race, then we may just be onto something with him. If he can't, or won't, then we should be even more reserved about his candidature than we ought to be already.
[Here's a useful assessment of Obama's evolving position on the Middle East, by Stephen Zunes of the University of San Francisco]
Labels: Barack Obama, Israel/Palestine, US Imperialism, US Presidential Election 2008
posted by David Wearing at 3:55 PM
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