President Obama, when he was a presidential candidate gave his vision in the following words, “This century’s threats are at least as dangerous as and in some ways more complex than those we have confronted in the past. They come from weapons that can kill on a mass scale and from global terrorists who respond to alienation or perceived injustice with murderous nihilism. They come from rogue states allied to terrorists and from rising powers that could challenge both America and the international foundation of liberal democracy. They come from weak states that cannot control their territory or provide for their people.
“As commander-in-chief, I would also use our armed forces wisely. When we send our men and women into harm’s way, I will clearly define the mission, seek out the advice of our military commanders, objectively evaluate intelligence and ensure that our troops have the resources and the support they need. I will not hesitate to use force, unilaterally if necessary, to protect the American people or our vital interests whenever we are attacked or imminently threatened.”
As a presidential candidate, Obama promised to evacuate American troops from Iraq, a war which he voted against as senator and a war which he promised to close by evacuating all American troops before X’Mas; later extended by 16 months. Today, we hear the President has extended it further to 2011, a date originally promised by Bush. Not only that a number of 50,000 soldiers out of the present 1,42,000 troops will remain, may be indefinitely. The American people voted for Obama over MaCain because they thought MaCain would be Bush on a third term. But suddenly we find Obama’s presidency is turning out to be almost Bush on third term compared to the campaign promises.
What we find surprising is that American people, in spite of all the primary debates within the parties and then the Presidential debates and campaign promises are not intelligent enough to know the truth about various issues affecting them. What we see is that Government policies are run by special interests. These interests do not want to be influenced by general public, which may not be adequately informed about the specialised needs of the American nation. This can be high finance, national security issues, but can be slowly expanded to include even health care, education and time taken to sign the bills after it was approved by the Senate (Obama promised at least one week but in actual practise he is giving only two days or even less!)
Indian media used to talk about how ignorant the general populace is about various issues affecting them like Indo-US nuke deal wherein even elected parliamentarians may not know the difference between uranium and plutonium. But now I find that Americans voted for change with regard to Iraq, Iran, AFPAK but actually they are getting Bush III. I can say with a smirk that it is not Indian population alone, which is taken for a ride but also the population of America, the oldest democracy in the world.
Special interests alone run nations, even in democracies!
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