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Oil and Islam. Will America Shift Away from Its Past Unilateralist Policies? Obama's Cairo Speech
by Prof. Peter Dale Scott
June 10, 2009
GlobalResearch.ca
In his remarkable speech at Cairo University on June 4, President Obama promised
"a new beginning." In the words of the Israeli commentator Uri Avnery,
the speech offered "the map of a new world, a different world, whose values
and laws he spelled out in simple and clear language -- a mixture of idealism
and practical politics, vision and pragmatism."1
Much of what Obama had to say was new, and warmed the hearts of observers like
myself, who had become increasingly concerned about the new president's
fidelity to the financial and military policies of the previous Bush-Cheney
administration. But while Obama broke new ground on Israel-Palestine issues,
he glossed over troubling issues pertaining to the US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He also glossed over one of the fundamental issues alienating the Muslim world:
America's relentless efforts to preserve its threatened financial status
by moves to dominate the region's oil resources. Here his careful ambiguity
was ominously reminiscent of the Bush era.
The speech reaffirmed a complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by 2012,
as the U.S. committed itself to do in a signed agreement last December. In addition
Obama asserted that "we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan...
We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident
that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and now Pakistan."
But Obama's remarks did not address the statement on May 26, 2009, by
Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, that, despite the agreement with Iraq,
the United States would continue to have fighting forces in Iraq and Afghanistan
beyond 2012. The reality, Casey said, is that "we're going
to have 10 Army and Marine units deployed for a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan."2
Nor is it clear that Obama's promise to withdraw "troops"
from Iraq would also cover private military contractors (PMCs) . Jeremy Scahill,
author of a book on the notorious firm Blackwater, said on the Bill Moyers show
that what we're seeing in the Cairo speech "is sort of old wine in a new
bottle. Obama is sending one message to the world," he told Moyers, "but
the reality on the ground, particularly when it comes to private military contractors,
is that the status quo remains from the Bush era."3
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