Maravi

(HERALD) Obama a prisoner of US foreign policy mindset

Obama a prisoner of US foreign policy mindset
By Tichaona Zindoga

IN the article "Removing sanctions healing step" (The Herald, March 16, 2009), this writer made a laconic parody of the catchphrase of Barack Obama’s campaign messages that made him the 44th leader of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States.

The last sentence of the article suggested that telling Obama, whose motto during electioneering last year was the "The Change We Want", that a black president who follows white racist policies was not, in fact, the change the world wanted.

This view courted the muckraking objection of a columnist of one local weekly newspaper.

This came in the wake of Obama’s Democrat administration’s resolve to extend by another year illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush, literally pouring cold water on expectations that the new government would give Zimbabwe a break.

That, however, he resolved to follow the Bush-blazed trail on Zimbabwe merely confirms the fact that due to bloated ethnocentrism and outright racism, successive US leaders have failed to grasp the nature of other peoples around the world, thus continuing to expose themselves through their uninformed and high-handed interventionism.

Hence, the paradox that ignorance is much a coefficient of America’s foreign policy as are imperialism, hypocrisy and arrogance.

In a piece titled "Shun the empire’s hypocritical politics" (The Herald, June 2, 2008), former Cuban leader Cde Fidel Castro Ruz showed acute consciousness of this, and even predicted that Obama, whom he tipped to win the race to the White House, would fail to absolve himself of the paradox.

He quoted Obama as having told an annexationist audience at the American National Foundation on May 23, 2008, that throughout his entire life, there had been injustice and repression in Cuba and the people of Cuba had not known freedom.

Opined Obama: "Never, in the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known democracy.

"This is a terrible status quo that we have known for half a century – of elections that are anything but free and fair . . . I won’t stand for this injustice, you won’t stand for this injustice, and together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba."

Obama then resolved that he would maintain the American embargo on Cuba (which Castro called an act of genocide) which was imposed in retaliation over Cuba’s struggle against American imperialism.

Castro surmised Obama as planning to abet hunger in Cuba and then giving "remittances as charitable handouts".

The veteran nationalist clearly exposed Obama’s lack of understanding of Cuban disposition for two centuries, espoused by Marti’s refusal of annexure to the US and the 1959 Cuban Revolution Castro himself led against the puppet regime of Batista in a quest for freedom from subjugation

Rather, Obama was committing himself to the traditional ignorance and arrogance of the genus of successive US leaders in preaching ethnocentric values that have nothing to do with their imperialist designs.

The Miami setting also did nothing to hint at any policy or attitude change.

Miami, in the US state of Florida, is home to a strong anti-Cuba sentiment, harbouring a vast terror network that is sponsored by the CIA and Washington.

Directives from Miami have tried innumerable times to kill Castro and subvert the Cuban Revolution.

Obama’s Zimbabwe action generally falls into the same matrix with Obama in his days as Illinois Senator, having written to then President Bush in support of the ruinous embargo on Zimbabwe.

But it is Obama’s recent move that raise questions about his understanding of developments in Zimbabwe, particularly on the back of the new Government.

In a statement issued by the White House on March 4, Obama said: "On March 6, 2003, by Executive Order 13288, the President declared a national emergency and blocked the property of persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 USC 1701-1706).

"He took this action to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes orinstitutions.

"These actions have contributed to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region.

"On November 22, 2005, the President issued Executive Order 13391 to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 by ordering the blocking of the property of additional persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.

"On July 25, 2008, the President issued Executive Order 13469, which expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 and ordered the blocking of the property of additional persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.

"Because the actions and policies of these persons continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States, the national emergency declared on March 6, 2003, and the measures adopted on that date, on November 22, 2005, and on July 25, 2008, to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond March 6, 2009.

"Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 USC 1622(d)), I am continuing for one year the national emergency with respect to the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions."

The wording and tone of his latest contribution to America’s blitz on Zimbabwe shows that he has merely inherited, along with America’s imperial baggage, its lack of credibility, senselessness and, as bad for those who granted he was "smart" enough, ignorance.

And it is a "terrible status quo" which anybody but America cannot stand.

His regurgitation of the usual rants about the rule of law and democracy shows that the highest profile Stevie Wonder fan has been having some skeletons itching and nudging him to come out on Zimbabwe.

But, like in his Guantanamo misadventure, he is running into a swelter of opposition against the measures with local and international sentiment opposed to them.

And he misses the point that Zimbabwe was neither founded on American and European values nor that Zimbabweans know that the US is trying to use the same for imperialist purposes.

While it might be plausible to brand Obama a mountebank – a boastful pretender – especially for those who read much into his "change we want" rhetoric, it is instructive to realise that for all his eloquence and presumed grasp of issues that won him admiration, the not so old leader had not grasped some.

In his own country, for instance, he promised to shut down the notorious Guantanamo Prison within his first days in office.

Unfortunately for, him he soon found himself running into a morass of technical, logistical and legal sandbags, which means that he might not be able to do so anytime soon.

And if that did not show clearly his deficient side at home, his administration showed it in Russia just days ago.

In a largely symbolic gesture supposed to mark the mending of relations between the US and Russia, Obama’s Secretary of State Hilary Clinton presented Russia’s Foreign Minister with a button marked "Reset" in English and "Overload" in Russian.

Her Russian counterpart noted the error rather lightheartedly, and Clinton conceded the mistake on America’s part.

But taken in the context of the symbolism that imbued the event, the incident is reflective of America’s, and particularly the new administration’s, lack of understanding of other peoples around the world, which their pre-eminence cannot help either.

Here, as Castro noted of Cuba, Obama is not responsible for crimes that have been perpetrated on Zimbabwe and humanity throughout the existence of the sanctions before he became leader, but he has failed to understand its situation and processes, thereby exposing him as ranking with his predecessor.

While it is not deniable that there has not been an equal reaction to the Fauvism that brought sanctions in Zimbabwe from the same quarters that invited them, now that there is a new, inclusive dispensation, Obama should have given himself more time on Zimbabwe.

Then he would have realised that Zimbabwe’s "democratic institutions" he wishes to "protect" were not, in the first place, created by America, but by Zimbabweans themselves through blood and sweat.

He might also have realised that as Zimbabweans work together, it is America that is "posing a continuing and extraordinary threat" to Zimbabwe.

Labels: BARACK OBAMA, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 3:50 PM