Fidel Castro: I Wish I Were Wrong!
Elsy Fors
Garzon
Havana (Prensa Latina) The leader of
the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro, writes
that he read in awe press items on the
United States domestic policy where it is
evident there has been a systematic
declining influence of President Barack
Obama.
It is logical that among the US citizens who
supported him many hopes arose, he expresses
in the article published today by Cubadebate
website under the title "I wish I were
wrong."
"I was amazed to read the wire services
issued during the weekend about the US
domestic policy, evidencing a systematic
decline in President Barack Obama's
influence. His surprising electoral victory
had not been possible in the absence of the
deep political and economic crisis affecting
that country. The American soldiers killed
or wounded in Iraq, the scandal about
tortures and secret prisons, and the loss of
jobs and housing had shaken the American
society. The economic crisis was spreading
throughout the planet, thus increasing
poverty and hunger in the Third World
countries.
Such circumstances made it possible for
Obama to run for office and be elected in a
traditionally racist society. No less than
90 per cent of the poor and discriminated
against black people, most of the voters of
Latin descent and a broad working and middle
class white minority, especially the youth,
voted for him.
It was only logical for those Americans who
supported him to entertain lots of hopes.
After eight years of adventurism, demagogy
and lies, which led to the death of
thousands of American soldiers and almost
one million Iraqis in a conquest war over
the oil of that Muslim country -which had
nothing to do whatsoever with the atrocious
attack on the Twin Towers-, the American
people felt tired and ashamed?
Not only a few people in Africa and
elsewhere got excited about the idea that
the US foreign policy would change.
However, an elemental knowledge about
reality would have been enough in order not
to raise hopes about a possible political
change in the United States after the
election of a new president.
Obama had certainly opposed the war launched
by Bush against Iraq long before many others
in the US Congress. Since he was a teenager
he knew about the humiliations of racial
discrimination, and just as many other
Americans, he admired Martin Luther King,
the outstanding civil rights fighter.
Obama was born, educated, went into politics
and managed to be successful within the
United States' imperial capitalist system.
He neither wished nor could change the
system. Curiously enough, despite that, the
extreme right hates him for being an
Afro-American and opposes anything the
President does to improve that country's
deteriorated image.
He has come to understand that the United
States, with hardly 14 per cent of the
world's population, consumes about 25 per
cent of the fossil energy, and is the
biggest source of emissions of pollutant
gases in the world.
Bush, in his ravings, did not even sign the
Kyoto Protocol.
Obama, for his part, intends to implement
stricter rules against tax evasion. For
example, reportedly, the Swiss banks would
supply data about approximately 4 500
financial accounts of a total of 52 000
owned by US citizens under suspicion of tax
evasion.
A few weeks ago in Europe, Obama committed
himself before the G-8 countries, especially
France and Germany, to put an end to the use
of fiscal heavens by his country in order to
inject huge amounts of American dollars into
the world's economy.
He offered health care to almost 50 million
citizens who had no medical insurance.
He promised to the US people that he would
grease the wheels of the production
apparatus machinery, stop increasing
unemployment and resume growth
He promised the 12 million Hispanic illegal
immigrants he would put an end to the cruel
raids and the inhumane treatment they
receive.
He made other promises that I will not list,
but none of them questions the system of
imperial capitalist domination.
The powerful extreme right will not tolerate
any single measure that could in the least
mean a reduction of its prerogatives.
I will just limit myself to refer to some
reports published in recent days by US news
and press agencies.
August 21:
-According to a poll published that day by
The Washington Post, the confidence of
American citizens on Presidents Barack
Obama's leadership has substantially
decreased.
-In the midst of an increasing opposition
against he health system's reform, the
telephone poll made by that newspaper and
the ABC TV network among 1 001 adults from
August 13 to 17 revealed that 49 per cent of
respondents believe that Obama would be able
to significantly improve the US health care
system. This results accounts for 20
percentage points less as compared to the
period before Obama started his presidential
mandate.
-Fifty five per cent of the respondents
believe that the US general situation is not
going well, as compared to 48 per cent in
April.
-The fierce debate over the health reform in
the US evidences an extremism that has
become a source of concern for experts; they
are alarmed about the presence of armed men
in popular gatherings, the drawing of
swastikas and the images of Hitler.
-The experts in hatred crimes have
recommended watching these extremists
closely. While many Democrats have felt
overwhelmed by the protests, others have
decided to directly confront their fellow
countrymen.
-The young woman who carried a manipulated
picture of Obama, wearing a Hitler's style
moustache, nurtured the theory that the
President would create 'death panels' that
would support euthanasia among senior
citizens with no hope of recovery.
-According to reports, there are those who
pretend to be deaf and resort to convey
messages of hatred and extremism, which Brad
Garrett, the former agent of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), deems as
alarming.
-Last week Garret said to the ABC network
that we were certainly living through scary
times, and added that the secret services
are afraid that something may happen to
Obama.
-According to reports, just on Monday last
about twelve people were proud to show their
weapons outside the Phoenix Convention
Center in Arizona, where the President was
delivering a speech before the war veterans
in which, among other things, he defended
his medical reform.
-It was said that another man was carrying a
gun bearing the following inscription: the
time has come to refresh the tree of
liberty, which evoked the phrase pronounced
by President Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)
when he said that "the tree of liberty must
be refreshed "by the blood of patriots and
tyrants."
-Some messages have been even more explicit;
they have wished for the death of Obama,
Michelle and their two daughters.
-Those incidents show that hatred has
penetrated America's politics more strongly
than ever before.
-Larry Berman, from the University of
California, who has written 12 books about
the US presidency, said to EFE that right
now we are talking about people who shout,
who carry Obama's pictures in which he
appears characterized as a Nazi, and refer
to the term socialist' with contempt. He
believes that part of what is going on is
due to the racism legacy that still lives
on.
-Reportedly, after The New York Times
published the day before that the CIA had
hired Blackwater back in 2004 to perform the
tasks of planning, training and
surveillance, this day's newspaper revealed
further details about the activities
entrusted to that controversial private
security company whose current name is �Xe'.
-The newspaper revealed that the United
States Central Intelligence Agency recruited
several Blackwater agents to install bombs
on board of drones in order to kill Al Qaeda
leaders.
-According to the information revealed by
government officials to The New York Times,
those operations were carried out in bases
located in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where
the private company equipped the planes with
Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs.
-It was reported that the current director
of the Agency, Leon Panetta, decided at some
point in time to cancel the program and
reveal before Congress in June the type of
collaboration that existed between
Blackwater and the CIA.
-According to the news, Blackwater's
collaboration ended a few years before
Panetta was appointed as CIA chief, because
the agency officials themselves questioned
the convenience of having external agents
participating in programs of selective
assassinations.
-Blackwater is said to be the main private
security company in charge of protecting the
US staff in Iraq during the George W. Bush
administration.
-Reportedly, its aggressive tactics were
criticized on different occasions. The most
serious case occurred on September, 2007,
when some agents from the company killed 17
Iraqi civilians.
-After considering the record figures of
suicides and the wave of depression
spreading among its soldiers, the US army is
said to be, little by little, creating some
special groups whose task will be to enhance
its troops' resistance against the
war-related emotional stress.
August 22:
-This day the US President Barack Obama is
said to have harshly criticized those who
oppose his plan to reform the health system
in his country, and accused them of
disseminating false and distorted
information.
-According to reports, as he himself has
pointed out in his speeches, the objective
of the reform of the health care system is
to put a halt to its rapidly increasing cost
and ensure health coverage for almost 50
million Americans who have no health
insurance.
-According to the news, this should have
been an honest debate, not dominated by the
deliberately false and distorted reports
that have been disseminated by those who
would benefit the most if things continue to
be the way they are.
-According to what was published by The New
York Times this day, the US State Department
has continued funding Blackwater, the
private company of mercenaries who were
involved in the assassination of Al Qaeda
leaders which is now called Xe Services.
-It was reported that the Governor of the
State of New York, David Paterson, expressed
on Friday last that the media had resorted
to the use of racial stereotypes in its
coverage of black officials like him,
President Obama and the Governor of
Massachusetts, Deval Patrick.
-It is said that the White House has
estimated that the budget deficit during the
next decade will amount to 2 trillion
dollars more than the figure recently
estimated, which would be a storming blow
for President Barack Obama and his plans to
create a public health system largely
financed by the State.
-Forecasts within 10 years time are said to
be very volatile and could vary with time.
However, the new red figures in public
funding will reportedly pose serious
problems for Obama in Congress, and will
cause a huge anxiety among the foreigners
who are financing America's public debt,
especially China. Almost all economists
consider them to be unsustainable even if
there were a mass devaluation of the
American dollar.
August 23:
-The top ranking military who commands the
American army is said to have expressed on
Sunday last his concern about the loss of
popular support in his country to the war in
Afghanistan, while indicating that the
country continued to be vulnerable to the
attacks of the extremists.
-Mike Muller, the chief of the military
joint command said that the situation in
Afghanistan was serious and deteriorating,
and added that in the last two years, the
Taliban insurrection has improved and become
more specialized.
-In an interview aired by the NBC TV
network, Mullen did not specify whether or
not it would be necessary to send more
troops.
-According to reports, a little bit more
than 50 per cent of the respondents in the
poll made by The Washington Post and the ABC
TV network, whose results were recently
published, expressed that the war in
Afghanistan was not worth it.
-Reportedly, by the end of 2009 the United
States will have three times more soldiers
than the 20 000 who were deployed in
Afghanistan three years ago.
Confusion is rampant within the American
society.
September 11 will mark the eighth year since
the fateful 9/11. On that same day, at
Havana's Sports Coliseum, we advised that
the war was not the way to put an end to
terrorism.
The strategy of withdrawing troops from Iraq
and sending them to the Afghan war to fight
the Taliban is wrong. The Soviet Union was
trapped in a quagmire there. The US European
allies will be ever more reluctant to see
the blood of their soldiers shed in that
country.
Mullen's concern over the popularity of that
war is not far-fetched. Those who
perpetrated the attack on September 11,
2001, against the Twin Towers were trained
by the United States.
The Taliban is an Afghan nationalist
movement that had nothing to do with that
event. Al Qaeda, an organization that has
been financed by the CIA since 1979 and was
used against the USSR during the years of
the Cold War, was the one that masterminded
that attack 22 years later.
There are still some dark events that
require further clarification before the
international public opinion.
Obama has inherited those problems from
Bush.
I do not have the slightest doubt that the
racist right will do its best to try to wear
him out by hindering his program and leaving
him out of play, one way or the other, at
the lowest possible political cost.
I wish I were wrong!"
Fidel Castro Ruz
August 24, 2009 |
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