A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

Unkept Barry

Most folks know that Barack Obama (I call him Barry, because every time I go to type Barack or Obama I feel as though my fingers may go on strike and walk out) won a Nobel Peace Prize for his rhetoric on leading the world to a more peaceful future. What most people don’t know is that during his acceptance speech he directly denied that peace was a viable option for the future. Why would he even travel to Oslo, Norway to accept an award for peace when he knew he wasn’t even attempting to push a peaceful foreign policy?

Barry’s 2008 campaign ran largely on promises of ending the war in Iraq and having all troops out of the country within 16 months. Yet here we are three years later, with more than ten thousand troops and more than 15 thousand private contractors still in Iraq. Barry refers to them as “non-combatants.” I wonder what response you would get from one of those soldiers walking around in Iraq, wearing fatigues and carrying an M-16, if you told them they weren’t in a combat zone. They’d probably laugh at you and tell you a little something about the way the world really works.

The truth is that Barry is a neo conservative. He doesn’t keep his promise of peace because he doesn’t have the balls to stand up to the Military Industrial Complex. He can tell the world they need to take a larger role in fighting terrorism, but when it comes down to it, he is just as bankrupt in ideas – as George W. Bush was – on how to get the rest of the world to actually step up and pitch in.

In the hotly contested ’08 primary against the almighty powerful Bilary (aka Hilary Clinton), Barry vowed to reverse the Patriot Act. Upon taking office he then signed it into law, but not before adding provisions and extending existing ones. Ah, no biggy, it’s just the Fourth Amendment right? He preached on and on about how immoral it was to hold other human beings in private prisons without a trial, legal counsel or even knowing the charges they are accused of.

He did all of this before he signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which gives him legal authority to indefinitely detain and assassinate Americans. This act makes you a terrorist if you are a political activist, have missing fingers on your hand, like to recite the Bill Of Rights, have a seven day food supply in your home and the list goes on.

The act gives the feds legal authority to suspend the Constitution and initiate martial law. If a destabilizing event occurs, such as a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, the federal government can now kick in your door, take your guns, you and your family to a prison to detain you for life and they don’t even need to charge you with a crime. Habeas corpus is now a thing of the past. How peaceful does any of that sound to you?

To me, this sort of state action sounds like an out of control police state, anticipating some type of cataclysmic event to occur, and when it does, the legal system will have already been adjusted for modern use.

To add insult to injury, Barry authorized the CIA to take over the Pakistan drone program. He runs a presidential campaign on transparency, accepts a Nobel Peace Prize putting him in the company of Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King, then signs his name to a program that has admitted to killing over a hundred children since the start of his presidency. Since when did a program that kills other peoples’ children make us safer or extend peace to anyone? Good call, Barry, can’t wait to feel the blowback from that policy.

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Drew Sheets, Staff Writer

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