Due to their flippant use throughout Barrack Obama’s presidential campaign, “change” and “hope” are words of little meaning.
When I voted for Obama, I hoped his cabinet would be the first sign of “change I can believe in”. It’s not. I haven’t seen anything but the rhetoric of change and an administration George W. Bush can believe in.
The current conflict in Gaza is a unique opportunity to remind the international community that America can be a positive force in the world. Were Obama to act as an unbiased moderator, by abandoning America’s absolutist support of Israel, then real progress could be made and lasting peace would become a viable possibility.
Working toward lasting peace will continue to be a fantasy until both Israel and Palestine’s grievances are given consideration.
Unfortunately, it is unlikely Obama will take advantage of the situation.
In a speech to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, Hillary Clinton, our new Secretary of State, committed the new administration to supporting Israel and not negotiating with Hamas. So far, there’s no ‘change’ in sight, just promises of working for peace, while supporting Israel unequivocally, just like Bush.
Clinton isn’t the only one who’s on Bush’s path. Despite serving on Bush’s staff for the past two years, Robert Gates will retain his position as Secretary of Defense in the new administration. Change is hard to believe in when we aren’t even receiving a new Secretary of Defense, a department that was a major focus of the promised change in Obama’s campaign for the presidency.
And if you agree that keeping Gates on board is bad, take a look at Obama’s National Security Advisor, James Jones.
The only thing he has going for him is he didn’t work for the Bush administration. His qualifications include serving on the Board of Directors at Chevron (like Condoleezza Rice) and at Boeing.
Jones’ history in both oil and the military industrial complex is the sort of conflict of interest that was rampant in the Bush administration. It may be a policy destined to continue into the infrastructure friendly Obama administration.
A key issue for many Obama supporters has been global warming and protecting the environment.
Our new Energy Secretary, physicist Steven Chu, seems to be someone who doesn’t hate American soil, air, and water as the previous administration’s actions suggest they do. Chu encourages us to be more efficient with our fuels, and has said those blessed words “coal is my worst nightmare.”
Then he dampened our hopes by bringing up clean coal, which, despite the multimillion dollar advertising and PR campaign, doesn’t exist. Chu even mentioned the futility of transitioning from coal power because China and India will continue their use of the Carbon emitting energy source.
How can we support someone like Chu in environmental protection? Do we really want to abstain from doing the right thing because others aren’t doing it? After Obama’s campaign promises to protect our resources, Chu is already beginning to justify future actions that aren’t so different from Bush’s – he just has different rhetoric behind it.
Many Obama supporters were looking to the closure of Guantanamo Bay Prison as a sign of “change”. Last week, Human Rights Watch all but called on Obama to change America’s path and abandon the policy of human rights abuses, closing Guantanamo being the first step. Obama had previously committed to closing Guantanamo within 2 years of becoming president.
This would be a good change, a needed change, but it is only a symbolic step in the right direction.
Guantanamo holds 250 men. That’s almost one percent of the 27,000 men, women and children held internationally, without trial, by the U.S. government. Most of these prisons are in Iraq and Afghanistan, where we are involved in wars, but they’re also in Bosnia, Kosovo, Djibouti and Ethiopia. And there might be many more locales.
From the rhetoric of Obama, it sounds like these human rights violations by the U.S. will continue.
Barack Obama’s rhetoric is a welcome change from the neo-fascist message we’ve heard for the past eight years. It shows America’s values are improving.
But Obama’s words aren’t the only change I believe in. Actions speak louder than words. So far, his cabinet has shown him to be more of the same in very key areas where much ‘hope’ and ‘change’ were promised.
Max Avery is a political science senior. His column usually appears every other Monday.
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eightbitgirl 3 years, 4 months ago
We'll never get out of Israel's stranglehold. The lobbyists and $$$$ are much more important than Palestinian civilians. I'm glad Gitmo's almost gone, and perhaps there will be changes in other countries as well.
I do implore you to wait more than twenty-four hours before judging the man's presidency, though.
datboymccoy 3 years, 4 months ago
"we don't negotiate with terrorists"