President Obama took to the airwaves Tuesday night with a major
televised address regarding his plans for Syria but his hypocrisy was laid bare
by
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and human
rights activist, environmental scientist Rania Masri on Real News Network while
Navy aviator Veteran and a Veterans Today featured columnist Allen L Roland
offered his equally blunt post speech assessment of Obama's hypocritical performance
on Press TV.
A
key paragraph from President Obama's speech on Tuesday night regarding Syria brought
a similar impassioned response from all three of
these TV interviewees and bears repeating ~ "
Terrible
things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every
wrong. But when with modest effort and risk we can stop children from being
gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I
believe we should act. That's what makes America different. That's what makes
us exceptional. With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of
that essential truth."
Here's
some Real News response excerpts as well as
the video link from a transcript of the Hedges and Masri interview as moderated
by Jaisal Noor, TRNN producer. That's
followed by my interview link with Press TV just after Obama's speech.
NOOR: So, Rania, let's start with
you. As an activist that's been speaking out against this possible intervention,
against U.S. involvement in Syria, what's your response to this speech?
MASRI: It
really was what we had expected. I mean, those of us who've been spending time
at the Hill and following the news, President Obama's speech was what we had
expected. The postponement (of the attack) was
expected. And the reason that he postponed it
was not only because the Russians provided him with a really strong political
way out, a political possibility for chemical weapons deterrence in Syria, but
also because he simply didn't have the votes in Congress. Were
this to go to the House, it would have failed. It might even have failed in the
Senate."
NOOR: And, Chris, I want to pose
that question to you. It seems like within the past few weeks and days, this
war has become or this possible intervention in Syria has become increasingly
unpopular. At least that's how it's been reported in the press. What's your
response to his speech and the fact also that he had to delay this vote in
Congress?
HEDGES: "
Well,
Rania is right. He didn't have the votes, so he had no choice. But I think
this is really symptomatic of an exhaustion on the part of the American public
after 12 years of war, 12 years in Afghanistan, ten years in Iraq. They
have seen this scenario before. The clips of atrocities, the appealing to
American exceptionalism, the high-blown rhetoric of patriotism. Kerry even
trotted out once again World War II, calling this the Munich moment and
referring to the graves, Normandy. And none of it worked. It didn't work
because at this point people have been lied to so many times. The excuses
and propaganda that is pushed forth and has been pushed forth year after year
just fall flat. It doesn't work anymore. And I think people understand that
when you drop Tomahawk missiles, each Tomahawk missile carries a 1,000-pound
iron fragmentation bomb or 166 cluster bombs. And they're talking about
dropping hundreds of them…. And let's not forget that internally, we are,
like all dying empires, being hollowed out from the inside in terms of
infrastructure. I live near Philly, I live in Princeton. The school system
is shattered with closings and layoffs. Libraries are being shuttered. Head
Start is being cut back. Unemployment benefits are not being extended. You
know, we've reached a point of both physical and emotional exhaustion … And
I think what we're really watching is a kind of revulsion at this whole
(war)process. And while it may be naïve ~ and I think Rania is correct in
saying that it probably is ~ at the same time, it's very, very real. And I
think Obama is going to have a very tough time pushing this through, and I
think we've really reached a kind of endpoint where we just had enough."
NOOR: And, Rania, I wanted to ask
you, as someone who's been speaking out against this, what do you think ~ and as someone who's from the region, what do
you think the response will be in the Middle East to the Obama speech? And
something you've pointed out is that many Syrians working with the U.S. or
working with Saudi Arabia have been proponents of the strike. What's your
response?
MASRI: "
….
Now,
for myself as an Arab American from the region, as somebody who's been working
on peace and social justice issues both here in the United States and in
Lebanon, I have to say that although President Obama's final conclusion was
not surprising, his prelude to it was deeply, deeply offensive, deeply
unethical, and a historic for him to sit there and to go on at length about
these images of the children that have been gassed ~ and how images of children
that have been gassed have moved him to action was just repulsive, because the
level of hypocrisy in that statement cannot be tolerated ~ the fact that it is
the United States government also under his leadership that have funded and
supported the Israeli use of white phosphorus against Palestinians in Gaza, the
fact that it is the U.S. government that has themselves directly used white
phosphorus against the Iraqis in Fallujah. And it is the toxic legacy of the
use of white phosphorus in Iraq that is actually greater than the toxic legacy
of both the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as report that was published
several years ago proved… And
I think it's really critical that we poke holes in this. And there is an
understanding of amongst a significant segment of the American public that
recognizes the lack of credibility the United States has in complaining about
chemical weapons when we have not only used chemical weapons, but we're the
only country to have used nuclear weapons twice against civilian communities.
But nevertheless, there is
this desire that is perpetuated by the mainstream media and accepted by too
many Americans that we are exceptional in our morality and in our legitimacy
and in our desire to do good. And, unfortunately, the words of Martin Luther
King still hold true today. The United States does remain the greatest purveyor
of violence in the world."
But Masri was not done with
her scathing critique ~ "As
for the quotes that you highlighted from President Obama, again, I mean,
they're ahistoric. They're extraordinarily naive. And I long for the
day when the vast majority of Americans will recognize the fallacies in those
statements. We can only be exceptional as a country if we truly live
according to the values of our constitution, all our constitution, inclusive of
the amendments, of course, and recognize that exceptionalism can only be
obtained through morality, through legality, through legitimacy, and not
through hypocrisy and not through violence…. So
in no way, shape, or form have we been a global anchor for security. I long for
the day when we may be become that. But I believe we will
only become that if, again, we remember the words of Martin Luther King,
who recognized that this country continues to suffer from the vices of
militarism, materialism, and racism."
Full
video Real news interview of Hedges and
Masri ~ must see 18 minutes ~
And
here's my five minute late hour interview with Press TV, approximately one
hour after Obama's speech, and like Hedges and Masri ~ I don't mince words
regarding my feelings about Obama's words particularly on the eve of the hypocrisy
surrounding the 12th anniversary of the fictitious 9/11 official story.
"The idea of democracy has been stripped of its moral
imperatives and has come to denote hollowness and hypocrisy."
Paul Wellstone
Paul Wellstone
Allen L Roland
Freelance Alternative
Press Online columnist and transformational counselor
Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and
private Skype consultations allen@allenroland.com
Allen
L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and
lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a
monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
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