IN his speech on Thursday, President Obama made it clear that the United States is currently attempting to ride the tiger of revolution.
He said: ‘For six months, we have witnessed an extraordinary change taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. Square by square, town by town, country by country, the people have risen up to demand their basic human rights. Two leaders have stepped aside. More may follow.’
This is not correct. Two leaders who were supported by the US did not step aside, they were overthrown by revolutions in which several thousands were killed or seriously injured, revolutions which are unfinished, since the rights of working people, to strike and to demonstrate, and to have decent jobs and wages cannot be secured under the capitalist order.
Obama then stated: ‘The question before us is what role America will play as this story unfolds. For decades, the United States has pursued a set of core interests in the region: countering terrorism and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons; securing the free flow of commerce and safe-guarding the security of the region; standing up for Israel’s security and pursuing Arab-Israeli peace.’
He adds: ‘We will continue to do these things, with the firm belief that America’s interests are not hostile to people’s hopes, they’re essential to them.’
We are being asked to accept that the interests of American imperialism equal the interests of the oppressed peoples, who are ruled over by US puppets!
However, he acknowledges that a propaganda change is necessary.
‘Yet we must acknowledge that a strategy based solely upon the narrow pursuit of these interests will not fill an empty stomach or allow someone to speak their mind. Moreover, failure to speak to the broader aspirations of ordinary people will only feed the suspicion that has festered for years that the United States pursues our interests at their expense.’
Obama’s solution to the contradiction between the interests of the masses and the US imperialists is that the US must use a different form of words, about freedom etc and democracy, and warns: ‘a failure to change our approach threatens a deepening spiral of division between the United States and the Arab world.’
He continues that: ‘The United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region.’ This is, unless they are the people of Libya, where he is part of the plan to bomb them back to the stone age. Or unless they are the people of Bahrain who are asked to be satisfied with the hypocritical freedom words of Obama while his ally, the feudal monarch, in Obama’s words ‘a long-standing partner’, executes dissidents especially democrats.
Then there are the people of Saudi Arabia, where his ally the feudal King runs his own dictatorship and has sent troops to massacre Bahrainis.
Saudi Arabia and its feudal regime were not mentioned once in Obama’s speech.
And what about Israel and its massacres of Palestinians, which are continuing. Of these there are no mention.
In fact, he warns the Palestinians that they must not seek recognition for their state at the September meeting of the UN. He says: ‘Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won’t create an independent state.’
He states that he wants to see a settlement based on the 1967 boundaries, but makes clear that there will be land swaps to allow Israel to exchange chunks of the Negev Desert for the settled areas of the West Bank. East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees have already been vetoed.
The US will not be able to ride the tiger of the developing world socialist revolution using a few democratic slogans. It will be thrown off and trampled as the workers of the world from the Middle East to the EU and the USA join the fight for socialism to put an end to capitalism and imperialism.
