-[Obama] looks much more of a war-monger than his predecessor. The war in Iraq is not over, the war in Afghanistan is going to be lost, there is a new war in Libya, and a number of an uncapped (as appears from Obama’s interview to the BBC) raids and military actions elsewhere in the world.
And the fervor in the US is such that Congress is ready to authorize such policy. One of the amendments to the law on military expenditures now before the House of Representatives aims to turn this policy into law.
-[H]ow many more American soldiers need to die in overseas missions, how many more terrorist attacks are needed against the US and its allies all over the world, and how many more countries, along with Pakistan, need to be alienated to the extent that government forces start firing at American aircraft, before US lawmakers and executives realize that something is going wrong?
On Monday, two top US Senators, Democrat John Kerry and Republican John McCain, together with five of their colleagues, introduced a resolution backing US involvement in the military operation against Libya. President Obama was quick to thank the senators.
In fact, the resolution absolves him of a serious violation of US laws that require that the President gets congressional approval for military action no later than 60 days after the start of the operation. The deadline expired last Friday and by that time the President had not asked Congress to give its approval.
Now, the senators thought it better to give their approval rather than demand that the President abide by the law. The military fervor in the United States is so high that action against Muammar Gaddafi is one of the few issues where Democrats and Republicans see eye-to-eye.
Another issue of the same kind is the operation against Al Qaeda. It has cast a major shadow over a decades-old alliance and partnership with Pakistan, with anti-American sentiments in that country rising sky-high and terrorists seeking revenge on everybody. But Osama bin Laden is dead, and the end justifies the means.
More so, in a recent interview to the BBC President Obama stated that he would repeat such an operation on the territory of any sovereign foreign state, including Pakistan, if he felt that the territory served as a haven for terrorists threatening US security.
It poses another question. Where are the limits to American actions in the world? Or isn’t this a repetition of the old policy of a “global gendarme”?
Well, Obama was elected as a peace dove. But the reality is such that he now looks much more of a war-monger than his predecessor. The war in Iraq is not over, the war in Afghanistan is going to be lost, there is a new war in Libya, and a number of an uncapped (as appears from Obama’s interview to the BBC) raids and military actions elsewhere in the world.
And the fervor in the US is such that Congress is ready to authorize such policy. One of the amendments to the law on military expenditures now before the House of Representatives aims to turn this policy into law. Representatives seek to give the President power to attack Al Qaeda and its associates wherever they are located.
Human rights activists have already stated that such amendments give the president the power to conduct any kind of military operation under the pretext that it is an anti-terrorist one.
There are lone voices opposing such policy. For example, Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich has introduced a draft resolution demanding that Obama pull out all troops from Libya and from areas around Libya.
But this is indeed a lone voice, and such a resolution has no chance of being approved. Unlike the belligerent resolution introduced by Senators Kerry, McCain and Co, which acquits the President when he violated the law without even questioning him.
Well, how many more American soldiers need to die in overseas missions, how many more terrorist attacks are needed against the US and its allies all over the world, and how many more countries, along with Pakistan, need to be alienated to the extent that government forces start firing at American aircraft, before US lawmakers and executives realize that something is going wrong?
It seems that in the context of today’s military fervor, US authorities really believe that their country has no borders at all, and that any coercive action in any part of the world is justified if it serves US national interests.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam – To the greater glory of God – is the centuries-old Jesuit motto. It seems that Obama might rewrite this as “ad majorem US gloriam”.
