Obama: Not Cool, Just Cold-Blooded | Black Agenda Report

Obama: Not Cool, Just Cold-Blooded

01 Feb 2012

🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The United States is waging a terroristic war against at least four nations,” but its president is somehow perceived as “cool.” Obama’s fans, the corporate media and, apparently, the commander-in-chief himself see no contradiction between coolness and international criminality. “Barack Obama has surpassed George Bush in lawlessness.” He’s “cool like Jesse James.”

Obama: Not Cool, Just Cold-Blooded

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“When the U.S. president arrogates to himself the right to bomb and kill at will, he makes himself an outlaw.”

President Obama thinks killing people around the globe with drones is as cool as singing Al Green at the Apollo. In a live Web interview, Obama assured his audience that the U.S. unmanned drone force – now thought to number in the thousands and ranging from deadly Predators and Reapers to aircraft the size of small birds – was “kept on a very tight leash.” So, here we have a secret weapons program that violates other countries’ airspace and kills their citizens at will – and even kills American citizens without charge or trial – and Obama thinks that all he is obligated to do is give assurances that the weapons are on a “tight leash.”

The issue is not whether the American commander-in-chief has made sure that the drones are under his control, but that the United States is waging a terroristic war against at least four nations – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and possibly more – with not the slightest justification under international law.

The people of Iraq, who know a great deal about the effects of drones, are trying to figure out what their sovereignty and independence actually means when the U.S. State Department can fly drones above their cities as a safeguard to U.S. diplomatic installations. The question raised by Iraqis is not, Does Obama have those drones under tight controls, but Why is a foreign power, whose military was supposed to have left Iraq, flying aircraft in their skies? A New York Times article on Monday reported that the Iraqis’ were angry. But Obama dismissed their complaints as much ado about nothing; the article, he said was “a little bit overwritten.” I suppose Obama thinks he’s being cool, like breaking briefly into song at a Harlem fundraiser. But there is nothing cool about violating the territorial integrity of other countries – including nations like Iraq that Obama constantly describes as a U.S. ally.

“Obama apparently thought it was cool to stick a knife up Col. Gaddafi’s butt.”

Obama was too cool to let the U.S. Congress sweat him over the six-month aerial war waged by the United States and its NATO allies against the sovereign nation of Libya, at the conclusion of which Libya’s leader was murdered by U.S.-supported thugs. Obama apparently thought it was cool to stick a knife up Col. Gaddafi’s butt. The First Black President’s drones are busy over Somalia, whose government the U.S. and its African puppet allies overthrew in 2006, precipitating a humanitarian catastrophe that has only worsened as the U.S. war continues. All of Yemen is a killing zone for U.S. drones.

When the U.S. president arrogates to himself the right to bomb and kill at will, with no respect for national boundaries and sovereign rights, he makes himself an outlaw. So, I guess Obama is cool like Jesse James.

With his huge expansion of the drone terror wars and passage of preventive detention, Barack Obama has surpassed George Bush in lawlessness. But most Americans, especially African Americans, cannot imagine that Obama represents a danger to them. If George Bush had had thousands of drones that could fly up the hallway of an apartment building, ring the bell and assassinate whoever answered the door, Black folks would have been terrified. But, they're not scared of Obama, because he...is oh so cool.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

listen

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20120201_gf_ObamaDrones.mp3

More Stories

The Cradle News Desk
Israel considers plan to impose siege, expel 300,000 Palestinians from northern Gaza
25 Sep 2024
The plan is being promoted by Reserve Major General Giora Eiland, who has encouraged the spread of disease among civilians in Gaza to help Israel win the war against Hamas.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor , Garland Nixon
Hezbollah Readies War, Israel's Pager Attack Ignites Fury | Garland Nixon & Margaret Kimberley
25 Sep 2024
BAR executive Editor, Margaret Kimberley, and Garland Nixon join Danny Haiphong to break down Israel's devastating pager attack on Lebanon and what it means for the possible outbreak of war after…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio September 20, 2024
20 Sep 2024
In this week’s segment, we learn about Aurora, Colorado, where a landlord used right-wing media to create a story of a non-existent gang crisis just as he was ordered to court to address violations…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Dr. Butch Ware on his Green Party Vice Presidential Campaign
20 Sep 2024
Dr. Butch Ware joins us from Santa Barbara to discuss the Green Party’s campaign, why it is under a sustained attack by Democrats, and what that means for black voters.
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Landlord and Right Wing Media Create Story of Aurora, Colorado Gangs
20 Sep 2024
D. Musa Springer joins us to discuss reports that Venezuelan gangs have taken over apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, and the reality, that a landlord used right-wing media falsehoods to cover…