"Hey!!! He had a hat!"

[eridani]

Just channelling that Jewish grandma in the joke about the drowning grandson saved by divine intervention. I get like that sometimes, and thought Obama's speech was pretty fantastic overall.

But I did get tripped up on the "view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."

Good lord. Do Americans of all races now have to unite behind the imperial conquest of Middle East energy resources? That's mostly Britain and the US, of course, not Israel (which has a pretty minor tagalong role here). Imperialism had quite a bit to do with slavery in the past, which is its link with the topic of race in America.

Promoting religious bigotry is quite a useful imperial tool. The jihadi textbooks of the Afghan mujahedeen were written in the US. Iran was a secular democracy in 1953, and the US and Britain overthrew their government--no radical Islam there until our cat's paw suppressed every other opposition venue. US policy in the 80s was to prolong the Iran-Iraq war as long as possible by constantly changing sides to keep them roughly matched. If the various people living in these countries had some religion other than Islam, it would undoubtedly be invoked to justify hatred for the forces that are constantly fucking with them.

Oh well. Given our current situation, I suppose a strong anti-imperial stance is something that you really shouldn't expect of a presidential candidate that makes it through the establishment vetting process. But there is plenty of other stuff that needs to be done, and if all people Obama is inspiring stay active beyond the election maybe we can get around to the imperial thing eventually. If only because we can't possibly afford it and still deal with everything else.

[flor de jasmim]

1. I caught that too...perhaps in his Iraq speech today he'll be more

[mattclearing]

2. Can't be a national politician without toeing the line on Israel.

Even Obama isn't that brave. He said, "No one is suffering more than the Palestinian people," last year to a jewish audience and AIPAC was immediately onto him.

I suspect his views are slightly more even-handed in reality...after all, he spoke at that rally in 2002, and we know most Democrats won't touch antiwar rallies with a ten foot pole because there are always Palestinian flags at them and the next thing you know they are on a pamphlet with cheering people waving Palestinian flags, en route to election defeat.

From a political standpoint, it's important for him to stand up for Israel because his biography otherwise suggests he might be "one of the Muslims!!!"

Personally, I think it's clear that Obama is for bridging gaps between all people, which includes Jew and Muslim as well as black and white.

[eridani]

3. I think so too. Too bad he can't actually say it in a campaign speech, though n/t

[thunder rising]

4. My take too. We have to stop the Isaeli genocide.