The Two Faces of Barack Obama
One for the masses, one for the power elite
by
Justin Raimondo
by Justin Raimondo
 The
news from Europe, if you listen to our infatuated media, is that
the Euros love President Obama: according to the American
reportage, his recent trip there was a cavalcade of photo-ops,
cheering crowds, and hugs from the queen of England. Even the French
were in awe of him! However, if you look beneath the surface, not
that far beneath the gloss and the glam there runs a current of
irritation, and, dare I say it, resentment.
Take, for example,
his stop in the Czech Republic, where he declared that he was seeking
a
nuclear-free world – that is, a world free of nuclear weapons.
This is a goal the United States has a special moral responsibility
to seek, he averred, because we are the only nation that has actually
used these weapons. The crowd loved it. What they didn’t at
all love, however, was his announcement that
"As
long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a
missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven. Iran’s
nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not
just to the United States, but to Iran’s neighbors and our
allies.’”
 "The
governments of the Czech Republic and Poland, he added, are ‘courageous’
for ‘agreeing to host a defense against these missiles.’"
One supposes
it takes a fair amount of courage to defy the wishes of your own
people and obey the dictates of a foreign power, albeit not the
sort of courage appreciated by Obama’s audience. As the London
Telegraph put
it:
"The
crowd enthusiastically cheered the more idealistic parts of Mr.
Obama’s speech but was relatively subdued when he spoke about
his backing for missile defense.
"Petr
Sramek, 33, was among those disappointed that Mr. Obama had not
dropped a policy that was opposed by more than two thirds of Czechs.
‘I really liked the clear message on nuclear disarmament but
I am against the missile defense system. It is more about geopolitical
influence then defense against missiles.’
"Arena
Protivinska, 30, described herself as a ‘big fan’ of
Mr. Obama but accused him of ‘hypocrisy’ for urging
world peace while also pushing forward with the missile shield.
‘He sounded like George W Bush saying that we should be afraid
in order to justify missile defense.’"
Like Americans,
the Europeans want to believe – but they see the two
faces
of Barack Obama too clearly, and the contrast is too apparent to
be denied. The gullible
Americans, who take things at face value, still believe their
new president represents a real change, a challenge to the
status quo, while the more sophisticated Europeans are quick
to pick up on Obama’s inconsistencies – made all the more
glaring by his habit of pairing two mutually contradictory stances
on the same issue.
Read
the rest of the article
April
8, 2009
Justin
Raimondo [send him mail]
is editorial director of Antiwar.com
and is the author of An
Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard and Reclaiming
the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement.
Copyright
© 2009 Antiwar.com
Justin
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