OBAMA TRIPPING IN ASIA

 

Obama just had sushi in Japan and is rounding up the allies to get them to fork over some more money to help pay for the surrounding of China.  The reward for Asia-Pacific countries that participate in such an expensive and dangerous endeavor?  A piece of the action for the top 1% if they go along with corporate military, banking and austerity agendas.  In a way Obama is like a priest offering 'faith' for a price as the collection plate is passed among the assembled.

Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle writes:

The US “pivot to Asia” is a multi-pronged offensive that includes the further deployment or “rebalancing” of US military forces and military bases into the region, the drive to forge a long-sought Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), and the consolidation and expansion of its strategic alliances with selected countries in the region. These objectives are part of the long-term efforts of US imperialism to advance its economic, political and military interests and reassert its preeminent power in the region.

The renewed US focus on Asia, highlighted since late 2011 by a series of policy statements and positions in various summits and country visits by top US officials and considered a cornerstone of current US foreign policy, will be further pushed by Obama in his upcoming four-country visit. He is expected to advance or finalize a number of multilateral agreements when he visits Japan from April 23 to 24, South Korea from Apr 25 to 26, Malaysia from April 26 to 28, and the Philippines from April 28 to 29.

Secretary of Mis-State John Kerry recently had some telling comments about the ability of the US to control Russia and China.  He spoke longingly for a return to the Cold War days:

“It may not have seemed so at the time, obviously, to great leaders, but it was easier than it is today – simpler is maybe a way to put it,” Mr Kerry said of the Cold War era. “The choices were less varied, less complicated, more stark, more clear: Communism, democracy; West, East; the Iron Curtain, the great line of divide.”

 I have one particularly personal Kerry experience.  As Bush II was preparing to attack Iraq with 'shock and awe' in 2003 I was on a speaking tour of western Massachusetts.  In the office of the American Friends Service Committee I noticed a huge stack of letters they were faxing to their then Sen. John Kerry.  I was told that Kerry had declined to meet with representatives of the peace movement who were making themselves publicly known in huge numbers.  Kerry supported going to war and did not have the courage to face his constituents.

I also once heard George W. Bush say, when he was running against Kerry for reelection in 2004, that he'd never met his fellow Skull & Bonesmen before in person.  I had a real hard time swallowing that tale.  During their presidential debates Kerry strongly stated that he'd spend $100 billion more on the military than Bush would.  Kerry graciously took the fall as Bush had to steal the election that was more like professional wresting than real democracy.  All show and pretense.

Obama and Kerry are quite a team.  Both weak-willed, ambitious, no core values, and willing to sell their souls for power.  One black, one white.  One from the upper class, the other from the middle class.  The Mod Squad if you will.

Their job now is to show the nation that the Democratic Party is fully in the bag of corporate capitalism.  Those well-intentioned liberals who still defend their party policies of imperial militarism and domestic austerity are dreaming their life away.

This current Asia-Pacific tour is the head-tripping of a collapsing yet still dangerous empire.