obama.

[vaneigem]

Obama won't be a big change, he's more dangerous than McCain in many ways, in that he gives a better face to American imperialism meaning he'll face less opposition for military action; expect military "interventions" in Africa (in Sudan, Congo, or both) soon after he gets into power, and we'll hear the vacuous talking heads in the media talking about how Obama feels a connection with Africa so feels like he needs to take care of it. Bull.

You may be aware that China is getting a free pass in Africa right now, offering long term investments without strings attached in the form of "structural adjustments," which is a euphemism for privatisation, austerity, and stripping down public services and infrastructure. China now obtains some 30% of it's oil supplies from Sudan whilst the US is excluded, oil rich Angola has established close commercial ties to China, even long time ally Nigeria is increasingly turning to China for military hardware, and Joseph Kabila's government in the Congo, formerly a US ally, has received $9 billion in investment from China, which now has access to massive supplies of cobalt and copper. Furthermore, Kabila plans to terminate contracts with European, American, and Australian mining in companies in favour of Chinese. All across Africa, many are arguing that World Bank and International Monetary Fund (tools of US and EU imperialism) are becoming irrelevant because they can get investment and aid packages from China without the strings attached.

Meanwhile, no doubt to counter Chinese influence, Bush is trying to set up Africom, a new unified military command specifically for Africa. However, only Liberia has offered to host a headquarters so far and Africom is even openly opposed by the 15 member nations of the South African Development Community. When Bush toured Africa in january to discuss plans for Africom (well, he says to discuss humanitarian issues, but I don't think anyone seriously believes that outside the US) he was not invited to a single major African nation, with his itinerary including only Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Benin and Liberia, and even so he faced protests upon arrival in Tanzania and in Ghana he had to publicly acknowledge that a lot of people believed he only wanted to build a big military base-regarded (correctly) by many Africans as an imperialist action. And the US-sponsored invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia was widely condemned, with only Uganda offering to supply troops for the African Union force there.

Now, only a fool would expect the American ruling class to sit back and do nothing about this. I suspect, before pushing Africom further, they are going to wait for Obama to become President and then begin to counter China's influence in Africa, as Obama will be better received in Africa and American liberals who would oppose George Bush or McCain pressing an imperialist agenda in Africa would likely fall for the claims of "humanitarian intervention" if Obama was the figurehead. And sure enough, look at one of the first things Obama has done after being elected;

http: //allafrica.com/stories/200811080066.html

Dear Kenyans, I am grateful for your unwavering support during my entire presidential campaigns, which reached its peak with my victory.
During the campaigns, I consistently and fondly spoke of my Kenyan roots. I am an American citizen and, on January 20, 2009, I will be America's 44th president.

As a son of a Kenyan father, I know that Section 90 of your constitution bestows upon me automatic citizenship. In the fullness of time, who knows, Michelle and I may decide to come and retire in the land of my father.

....

Since the attack on our country on September 11, 2001, we know that Islamic terrorism is our existential threat. My predecessor authorised the attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan to neutralise this threat.

Though these wars are still on and at times look like we are in a quagmire, I promised an honourable exit, but subject to the threat having been removed. My first major task in January will be to approve our defence budget which is about us$600 billion.

Also, part of our foreign policy is to ensure the safety and secure borders of Israel, safe routes of our oil supplies and commitment to our bilateral and multi-lateral allies. Kenya has always been our friend, and these ties shall now be strengthened by my heritage.

Our relationship could be imperilled should your foreign policy be at odds with ours. We will never dictate your foreign policy as you are a sovereign state, but our relationship is dependent on your choices.

...

Kenya may benefit if it makes certain strategic decisions. We are looking for a base in Africa to build our AfriCom headquarters, and Lamu is one of the likely locations.
In the event that you accept our request, we will make Lamu a deep-sea port and build a railway line from there to Ethiopia, our other strategic ally in the region. The choice again I say is yours.

Silver tongued weasel.

And watch this space for an intervention in the Congo in support of the Tutsi rebel Laurent Nkunda (who, ironically, the US and EU have been helping the government attack) backed by propaganda wrongly associating Kabila's government with the Rwanda genocide, because some Hutu militias are allied with government and UN forces in fighting Nkunda. (the Hutus carried out mass killings of Tutsis during the Rwanda genocide)

I think this because, even though the US is still backing Kabila for now, (who with UN help has been trying to retake North and South Kivu, but his forces were routed by the rebels) Nkunda is exploiting the uncertainty of western companies and their governments in light of Kabila's plan to replace them with Chinese companies by presenting himself as a more reliable and trustworthy ally, courting the western press, and announcing that he plans to march to the capital and seize the entire country. It's only a matter of time before we hear politicians and media denouncing Kabila as some sort of genocidal maniac; I suspect we'll hear Obama talking about that sometime soon.

Now, I know making political predictions this specific is a fool's game, but I suspect the US establishment wishes to set up a military base in Kenya (see above) to serve as a launch-pad for an attack on the Congo through Uganda and Rwanda which are close allies of the US. Although it is entirely possible that they will just choose to back Nkunda militarily, as well as encouraging Rwanda and Uganda to send troops to back the rebels.

[vaneigem]

I confine the term nigger to the black wannabe school failing waste of space who listens to rap music instead of doing something with his life and talking bout how hard his life is and he can't support his baby mamma as they put it with the free food stamps given to him and talks like Fo shiz the dawg bra and uses as much punctuation as I did in the sentence to prove a point.

First off; capitalist economy requires unemployment, full employment means that companies have to compete for employees rather than vice versa so wages end up going high and you get inflation. When politicians talk about changing interest rates to combat inflation, what they actually mean is change interest rates to keep up unemployment. Any economics class will tell you this in sanitised terms, (i.e. governments have to choose between fighting inflation and fighting unemployment) so it's stupid to attack people for having to live on food stamps because if it wasn't them, it would be someone else. Saying they aren't doing enough to get ahead doesn't really make sense, because it's a criticism that can go on forever as even if they do all get out the rut will be replaced by others, creating a situation where you can continually blame individuals when it's a structural problem. Unemployment will always be a problem in a capitalist society, and it will never be solved no matter how hard individual unemployed people work.

I don't think you're a racist, but you are just a typical snob. I'm really sick of self absorbed idiots like you attacking people for speaking in ways different to themselves, like you are by saying you HATE (how absurd) people who talk like "fo shiz tha dawg bra." I proudly speak with a geordie accent, (dialect of north-east england) and I could equally condemn those as pathetic who cast aside their natural accent as soon as they get to university and start speaking "proper" english, which is just sucking up to the rich in my opinion. There is no correct way of speaking a language, what is regarded as the "correct" way is simply the dialect and accent that the elites use.

[Gribble]

Your quote seems awfully suspect to me.

What's the benefit to going into Rwanda? The people are sick of war. They're sick of sending children off to die for another man. Any action in Africa would be heavily criticized. And why the hell would we go now? We sat on our laurels during the genocide of 8 million Africans.

[DoesntMatter]

Wow, somebody did their homework

[DoesntMatter]

Fucck humanitarian intervention

[vaneigem]

Your quote seems awfully suspect to me.

What's the benefit to going into Rwanda? The people are sick of war. They're sick of sending children off to die for another man. Any action in Africa would be heavily criticized. And why the hell would we go now? We sat on our laurels during the genocide of 8 million Africans.

Why suspect? It's sourced, look at the url above the quote box.

Yeah I know people won't support it as readily as they did the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but with Obama in it could be different.

There's no benefit to going into Rwanda, but there is the Congo; western mining firms make a LOT of money there, and Joseph Kabila plans to terminate their contracts in favour of Chinese firms-I doubt the US is going to sit this one out, especially as the economic crisis continues to intensify. And ditto for the Chinese, in fact. Economic crises like the one we're entering now always heighten tensions between different world powers-see both world wars for proof of that; pretty scarily, I've just read that Zimbabwe and Angola, both close allies of China, have sent troops in to protect the Kabila government, and the economist magazine claims that many diplomats believe China is about to make a no-strings military deal with Kabila. How the US will respond will be interesting, but frankly, it's scares me.

Read up on the history of the first half of the 20th century and prepare yourself to enter again an age of wars, revolutions, and counter-revolutions.

[vaneigem]

Wow, somebody did their homework

Thanks, I do Chinese studies so I've been following the whole China in Africa thing pretty closely.

[DoesntMatter]

Ahhh... I see. You're well informed lol

[Lipp]

Just one thing, the sentence prior to your quote -

These briefings let me into esoteric knowledge of the challenges facing our country that no American has access to other than the top heads of the various intelligence agencies. I will share with you the broad outlines.

Makes it sound as though he's calling out what the briefing concerns, and how he aims to address it. In this case, these sound as though they're taken straight out of it

Since the attack on our country on September 11, 2001, we know that Islamic terrorism is our existential threat.

Also, part of our foreign policy is to ensure the safety and secure borders of Israel, safe routes of our oil supplies and commitment to our bilateral and multi-lateral allies

So it's currently what his response would be to the briefings prepared by the Bush administration (and sure doesn't make me wonder why the current president does what he does). But yeah, it doesn't quite deny what he's saying, just that not all of the text is necessarily his own opinion.

The rest of what you say sounds good, guess we'll have to wait and see how things turn out. Would you by any chance have any more input about the role of the LRA (because of their attacks into DRC) and the Ugandan government? My parents and most of my siblings are living there at the moment, so its good to consider if things might fall apart entirely.

[Junket]

I don't care so long as it doesn't affect me.

[Lipp]

I don't care so long as it doesn't affect me.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

-Martin Niemöller

[Junket]

-Martin Niemöller

That is so 5th grade.

[Mish]

Obama won't be a big change, he's more dangerous than McCain in many ways, in that he gives a better face to American imperialism meaning he'll face less opposition for military action; expect military "interventions" in Africa (in Sudan, Congo, or both) soon after he gets into power, and we'll hear the vacuous talking heads in the media talking about how Obama feels a connection with Africa so feels like he needs to take care of it. Bull.

Interesting theories and I guess we will have to wait and see how it turns out. Though, a lot of this is plain speculation and seems like these predictions are made with a certain biased view of US (as if US is a predictable entity which always acts in the same manner, which it's not). I will be surprised if the new administration will strife for new conflicts as soon as it gets into the office seeing how history taught us that this was one of the main elements that broke the back of the last US administration. I think Obama's administration will be extremely cautious about any future conflicts and will be very careful with their foreign policy decisions in the world arena. The new administration is also not the same as GOP and the Neo-con orientation policies of the last administration. Democrats are not as quick to favour "might is right" and "worlld police" ideals of the Neo-cons, they will find it hard to justify any millitary action to their core (even in the guise of "humanitarian support") a lot of whom are pacifist.

[IndiReloaded]

Vaneigem, I disagree with you about Obama. He is not more dangerous than McCain. I agree with you about some of the issues with China (really, they are just opportunistic, like Britain a century or so ago--who can blame them?) but Obama is much better prepared intellectually to deal with them than McCain's team ever was.

The Economist has been warning doom & gloom (for the West) re: China for several years now. With their resources, and the Bush admin basically tanking the US economy, I think this is basically a done deal as far as their reaching into new markets like Africa. They've been doing this all over the world, even in Canada. Obama will not take on China head to head. The US simply can't afford to. I think Obama will focus on domestic improvements, including putting funding into a lot of new energy research & development.

And Obama is a consummate politician. Much, much better than McCain. He 'speaks' the Chinese political language, which as you know isn't at all obvious, much better than the current admin. And where he flags, he will find someone who does. He doesn't seem at all stupid that way.

Oh, and as regards language, I couldn't disagree with you more. Clear, concise language is extremely important if you want to accomplish anything in this world. And, at present, the dominant language of power & technology in the world is english. You can thank your forebears for that. Those who use slang or speak with dialect are at a disadvantage, like it or not.

[DoesntMatter]

Clear, concise language is extremely important if you want to accomplish anything in this world.

Like to win over your approval