Obamas Speech, Translated into Candor
Published on
Monday, December 07, 2015
by
Common Dreams
Obamas Speech, Translated into Candor
by
Norman Solomon
"Heres what I want you to know," said President Obama on Sunday night to
the American people: "The threat from terrorism is real, but we will
overcome it." (Photo: Reuters/Pool)
Here is a condensed version of President Obama's speech from the Oval Office
on Sunday night, unofficially translated into plain English:
I kind of realize we cant kill our way out of this conflict with ISIL, but
in the short term hopefully we can kill our way out of the danger of a
Republican victory in the presidential race next year.
As a practical matter, the current hysteria needs guidance, not a sense of
proportion along the lines of what the New York Times just mentioned in
passing: The death toll from jihadist terrorism on American soil since the
Sept. 11 attacks45 peopleis about the same as the 48 killed in terrorist
attacks motivated by white supremacist and other right-wing extremist
ideologies.... And both tolls are tiny compared with the tally of
conventional murders, more than 200,000 over the same period.
While Im urging some gun control, that certainly doesnt apply to the
Pentagon. The Joint Chiefs and their underlings have passed all the
background checks they need by virtue of getting to put on a uniform of the
United States Armed Forces.
As much as we must denounce the use of any guns that point at us, we must
continue to laud the brave men and women who point guns for us -- and who
fire missiles at terrorists and possible terrorists and sometimes
unfortunately at wedding parties or misidentified vehicles or teenagers
posthumously classified as militants after signature strikes or children
who get in the way.
We cant see ourselves in the folks we kill. But I know that we see
ourselves with friends and co¬workers at a holiday party like the one in San
Bernardino. I know we see our kids in the faces of the young people killed
in Paris.
Also I know we dont see ourselves in the blameless individuals who have
been beheaded by our ally Saudi Arabia, which has executed 150 people this
year mostly by cutting off their heads with swords.
Nor should we bother to see ourselves in the people the Saudi government is
slaughtering with airstrikes in Yemen on a daily basis. We sell the Saudis
many billions of dollars worth of weapons that make the killings in San
Bernardino look smaller than puny. But thats the way it goes sometimes.
I gave a lofty major speech a couple of years ago about how a democratic
society cant have perpetual war. I like to talk about such sugary ideals; a
spoonful helps the doublethink medicine go down.
Let me now say a word about what we should not do. We should not be drawn
once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria. The United
States of America has colossal air powerand were going to use it. No muss,
little fuss: except for people under the bombs, now being utilized at such a
fast pace that the warhead supply chain is stretched thin.
Yes, were escalating a bit on the ground too, with hundreds of special
operations forces going into Syria despite my numerous public
statementsadding up to more than a dozen since August 2013that American
troops would not be sent to Syria. Likewise weve got several thousand
soldiers in Iraq, five years after I solemnly announced that the American
combat mission in Iraq has ended.
But heres the main thing: In the Middle East, the USA will be number one in
dropping bombs and firing missiles. Lots of them! Its true that we keep
making enemies faster than we can possibly kill them, but thats the nature
of the beast.
In Afghanistan too. At the end of last year I ceremoniously proclaimed that
the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion
and the United States will maintain a limited military presence in
Afghanistan. But within 10 months I changed course and declared that 5,500
U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan into 2017.
Midway through this falleven before the terrorist attacks in Paristhe
United States had launched an average of about 50 airstrikes per week in
Syria during the previous year, and the New York Times reported that the
U.S. military was preparing to intensify airstrikes against the Islamic
State on Syrian territory.
And according to official Pentagon figures, the U.S.-led aerial bombing in
Iraq has topped 4,500 airstrikes in the last yearapproaching an average
rate of 100 per week.
Our military will hunt down terrorist plotters where they are plotting
against us. In Iraq and Syria, airstrikes are taking out some of the latest
ISIL leaders, heavy weapons, oil tankers, infrastructure. Ive got to tell
you that these actions will defeat ISIL, but Ive got to not tell you that
the airstrikes will kill a lot of civilians while launching new cycles of
what gave rise to ISIL in the first placeinflaming rage and grief while
serving as a powerful recruitment tool for people to take up arms against
us.
In the name of defeating terrorist forces, our air war has the effect of
recruiting for them. Meanwhile, in Syria, our obsession with regime change
has propelled us into closely aligning with extremist jihadi fighters. They
sure appreciate the large quantities of our weapons that end up in their
arsenals.
You dont expect this policy to make a lot of sense, do you?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the
Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death and "Made Love, Got War:
Close Encounters with America's Warfare State".
Obamas Speech, Translated into Candor
Published on
Monday, December 07, 2015
by
Common Dreams
Obamas Speech, Translated into Candor
by
Norman Solomon
11 Comments
"Heres what I want you to know," said President Obama on Sunday
night to the American people: "The threat from terrorism is real, but we
will overcome it." (Photo: Reuters/Pool)
Here is a condensed version of President Obama's speech from the
Oval Office on Sunday night, unofficially translated into plain English:
I kind of realize we cant kill our way out of this conflict with
ISIL, but in the short term hopefully we can kill our way out of the danger
of a Republican victory in the presidential race next year.
As a practical matter, the current hysteria needs guidance, not a
sense of proportion along the lines of what the New York Times just
mentioned in passing: The death toll from jihadist terrorism on American
soil since the Sept. 11 attacks45 peopleis about the same as the 48 killed
in terrorist attacks motivated by white supremacist and other right-wing
extremist ideologies.... And both tolls are tiny compared with the tally of
conventional murders, more than 200,000 over the same period.
While Im urging some gun control, that certainly doesnt apply to
the Pentagon. The Joint Chiefs and their underlings have passed all the
background checks they need by virtue of getting to put on a uniform of the
United States Armed Forces.
As much as we must denounce the use of any guns that point at us, we must
continue to laud the brave men and women who point guns for us -- and who
fire missiles at terrorists and possible terrorists and sometimes
unfortunately at wedding parties or misidentified vehicles or teenagers
posthumously classified as militants after signature strikes or children
who get in the way.
We cant see ourselves in the folks we kill. But I know that we see
ourselves with friends and coworkers at a holiday party like the one in San
Bernardino. I know we see our kids in the faces of the young people killed
in Paris.
Also I know we dont see ourselves in the blameless individuals who have
been beheaded by our ally Saudi Arabia, which has executed 150 people this
year mostly by cutting off their heads with swords.
Nor should we bother to see ourselves in the people the Saudi government is
slaughtering with airstrikes in Yemen on a daily basis. We sell the Saudis
many billions of dollars worth of weapons that make the killings in San
Bernardino look smaller than puny. But thats the way it goes sometimes.
I gave a lofty major speech a couple of years ago about how a democratic
society cant have perpetual war. I like to talk about such sugary ideals; a
spoonful helps the doublethink medicine go down.
Let me now say a word about what we should not do. We should not be drawn
once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria. The United
States of America has colossal air powerand were going to use it. No muss,
little fuss: except for people under the bombs, now being utilized at such a
fast pace that the warhead supply chain is stretched thin.
Yes, were escalating a bit on the ground too, with hundreds of special
operations forces going into Syria despite my numerous public
statementsadding up to more than a dozen since August 2013that American
troops would not be sent to Syria. Likewise weve got several thousand
soldiers in Iraq, five years after I solemnly announced that the American
combat mission in Iraq has ended.
But heres the main thing: In the Middle East, the USA will be number one in
dropping bombs and firing missiles. Lots of them! Its true that we keep
making enemies faster than we can possibly kill them, but thats the nature
of the beast.
In Afghanistan too. At the end of last year I ceremoniously proclaimed that
the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion
and the United States will maintain a limited military presence in
Afghanistan. But within 10 months I changed course and declared that 5,500
U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan into 2017.
Midway through this falleven before the terrorist attacks in Paristhe
United States had launched an average of about 50 airstrikes per week in
Syria during the previous year, and the New York Times reported that the
U.S. military was preparing to intensify airstrikes against the Islamic
State on Syrian territory.
And according to official Pentagon figures, the U.S.-led aerial bombing in
Iraq has topped 4,500 airstrikes in the last yearapproaching an average
rate of 100 per week.
Our military will hunt down terrorist plotters where they are plotting
against us. In Iraq and Syria, airstrikes are taking out some of the latest
ISIL leaders, heavy weapons, oil tankers, infrastructure. Ive got to tell
you that these actions will defeat ISIL, but Ive got to not tell you that
the airstrikes will kill a lot of civilians while launching new cycles of
what gave rise to ISIL in the first placeinflaming rage and grief while
serving as a powerful recruitment tool for people to take up arms against
us.
In the name of defeating terrorist forces, our air war has the effect of
recruiting for them. Meanwhile, in Syria, our obsession with regime change
has propelled us into closely aligning with extremist jihadi fighters. They
sure appreciate the large quantities of our weapons that end up in their
arsenals.
You dont expect this policy to make a lot of sense, do you?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
/author/norman-solomon
/author/norman-solomon /author/norman-solomon
Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the
Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death and "Made Love, Got War:
Close Encounters with America's Warfare State".
