Obama and Clinton: The Siamese Twins

Barack Obama tortures the English vocabulary and strains logic to the breaking point in an attempt to validate his bogus claim to be an anti-war candidate. The New York Times, eager to believe Obama, donated copious space to the senator's so-called "Iraq withdrawal plan" - which turns out to be predicated on so many "ifs" and multitudinous "security" considerations as to be counterfeit on its face - like Hillary Clinton's even murkier schemes. Both Democratic front-runners reveal themselves to be as wedded to U.S. global domination as George Bush, minus the insane demeanor. In the final analysis, Barack and Hillary are plotting further war crimes in the language of twin-speak.

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Barack Obama is engaged in a high-profile/low substance effort to distance himself from Hillary Clinton on the Iraq war. It's like watching Siamese Twins slap each other around, knowing that the two are genetically identical and inseparable. Clinton and Obama are conjoined War Democrats who pretend to disagree on a phrase here and there. Both intend to stay in Iraq as long as so-called "U.S. interests" dictate. In that regard, their shared Iraq position is no different than George Bush's stated goals.

Last week, the New York Times gave Obama acres of space to spin his illusory Iraq "withdrawal" plan - more space than the newspaper has afforded Dennis Kucinich, the real peace candidate, during the whole primary campaign. It was a waste of words, see-through clothing on a naked body. Obama claims he doesn't plan to maintain permanent bases in Iraq. So, by the way, do Hillary Clinton and George Bush. But Obama says he'll employ a "broader strategic" approach than Clinton - that he won't shy away from "talking" directly to the leaders of Iran and Syria. Sen. Clinton says she'd have to study the matter awhile, before deciding whether to have face-to-face meetings.

But, meetings about what? Obama and Clinton both insist that the U.S. military reserves the right to remain in Iraq until it serves U.S. interests to do otherwise - in Obama's words, until "we see some stability" in the region. But, what is "stability"? Apparently, it means pacification - just as it did in Vietnam. The "withdrawal" of which Obama speaks is predicated on leaving behind "secure" areas - again, in his words, "so we can afford to remove troops." And that depends on getting the "cooperation" of the Iraqis, friend and foe alike. George Bush sings the same song: "When Iraqis Stand Up, We Stand Down," says Bush, bringing back an oldie-but-goldie phrase that presidents Johnson and Nixon deployed endlessly in Southeast Asia, two generations ago.

Obama assured the New York Times that he doesn't intend to stay in Iraq for another "ten or twenty years" - that is, if those pesky Iraqis just act right. If they don't, all bets are off. Here's a definitive quote from the candidate: "I will remove all our combat troops, we will have troops there to protect our embassies and our civilian forces and we will engage in counter terrorism activities," said Obama. However, he continues, "How large that force is, whether it's located inside Iraq or as an over the horizon force is going to depend on what our military situation is."

In other words, Iraq will have to be pacified for Obama's 14-to-15 month, piecemeal and totally iffy "withdrawal" plan to take place. Hillary Clinton won't even mention anything smacking of a timetable, but that really doesn't make a difference, since Obama's schedule depends on achievement of some kind of U.S. "victory" before withdrawal - which is George Bush's stated scenario, as well. Like Bush and Clinton, Obama refuses to take any military options "off the table," including nuclear options. Although Obama is less rhetorically bullying than Bush, and more charming than Clinton, all three reserve the right to launch a first strike against Iran. This is the language of war criminals.

It seems our problem is not the Siamese Twins, Obama and Clinton, but Siamese Triplets, Hillary, Barack and Bush.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com .

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