We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, June 7, 2010

War on the World: Obama's Surge in State Terror

by Chris Floyd from his blog, Empire Burlesque. One of my favorite bloggers. The fact that our ruling class has been so successful at expanding the war in Afghanistan-Pakistan clearly demonstrates to me that they could not have found a better fake leader than Obama to lull the American people to sleep.
...our highly intelligent and cool, pragmatic president is now vastly expanding the use of secret war, subversion, sabotage and murder into even more countries around the world, and giving America's secret, unaccountable death squads and covert operators even more power to carry out their lawless operations. As one Pentagon mandarin gushed, Obama is allowing "things that the previous administration did not."

That quote comes from a remarkably candid story in the Washington Post on Obama's "surge" in America's secret war on the world, which now encompasses no fewer than 75 countries. 
However, I think he gives to much credit to Obama for this rather surprising development (for most people) by giving credence to the way the Washington Post frames the story. In order to preserve the myths about "democracy", they must suggest that Obama is running the show.
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