Obama's Imperial Arrogance - by Stephen Lendman

Candidate Obama promised peace. As president, he double downed Bush and then some, waging multiple direct and proxy wars.

The business of America is war. Washington has a permanent war policy. Republicans and Democrats perpetuate it.

Obama's latest mission adds another to dozens of similar ones ongoing globally. On October 14, New York Times writers Thom Shanker and Rick Gladstone headlined, "Armed US Advisors to Help Fight African Renegade Group," saying:

Obama ordered "100 armed military advisers to central Africa to help regional forces combat the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a notorious renegade group that has terrorized villagers in at least four countries with marauding bands that kill, rape, maim and kidnap with impunity."

Independent journalist, war correspondent, African expert, and human rights investigator Keith Harmon Snow challenges major media distortions and lies.

He calls the LRA "a Ugandan guerrilla force....wag(ing) a low-intensity war against" Uganda's Museveni regime since 1987. Ugandan factions back LRA resistance. It's also "clandestinely supported by unnamed factions in Congo, Europe and Washington."

Some believe it's "a tool of the Museveni government used to manipulate public opinion, create chaos across the region, gain international sympathy from foreign donors, (and serve as a) perfect ruse to facilitate permanent foreign military intervention."

In 2001, the State Department named it a terrorist organization. Since 2008, it's been called a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group.

US intervention also targets China's growing African influence to feed its insatiable resource needs, especially oil and gas. WikiLeaks disclosed a February 17, 2010 US cable, saying:

"China's economic ties to Uganda continue to accelerate on all fronts making it one of the country's top foreign investors."

It's also true in other African countries, including resource rich Congo.

"Greater Chinese investment and assistance in Uganda has generated some resentment due to local perceptions that Chinese investments favor their own businesses."

China, in fact, prefers partnership arrangements benefitting both sides in contrast to Washington's one-way deals.

In 1986, Yoweri Museveni seized power in a bloody conflict. Holding it ruthlessly, he remains Uganda's Western-supported dictator. He provides proxy military services and serves corporate interests at the expense of his own people.

Obama, in fact, deployed Special Forces assassins. Others like them perform death squad services in dozens of countries. More on that below.

Obama told Congress that US troops will "assist African forces in the removal of (LRA leader) Joseph Kony and the leadership of the LRA from the battlefield."

AFRICOM (US Africa Command) was activated on October 1, 2008. Its mission is to secure and solidify unchallenged US control over the continent's resource riches.

Besides oil and gas, they include uranium, gold, diamonds, other precious stones, cobalt, and columbite-tantalite (coltan) essential for computer chips, circuit boards, mobile phones, laptops, and other electronic devices.

Other US Special Forces and troop contingents operate throughout Africa. Obama called those sent to Uganda "time-limited" for a few months. He lied. He concealed Washington's mission to secure continental imperial control.

From Djibouti's Camp Lemonier, killer drones bomb Somalia and Yemen. An expanding drone base network is being readied worldwide. Major media scoundrels ignore it, including Washington's Uganda mission.

Special Forces Death Squads Deployed Globally

In September 2009, then Central Command head General David Petraeus issued a secret directive. It ordered covert US Special Operations forces sent to friendly and hostile states in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Horn of Africa.

In fact, it suggested sending them anywhere to "penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy" terror threats and "prepare the environment" for planned military attacks.

On June 4, 2010, Washington Post writers Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe headlined, "US 'Secret War' Expands Globally as Special Operations Forces Take a Larger Role," saying:

The Obama administration "has significantly expanded a largely secret US war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups with Special Ops forces in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year."

Petraeus' order "also allowed for US special forces to enter Iran to gather intelligence" for potential future operations.

The Pentagon's Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force Execute Order authorized Special Ops forces sent anywhere. Moreover, its Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) deploys covert elements to kill targeted suspects, including US citizens.

No one anywhere is safe from Washington's war on humanity. Obama nominally heads it. So did Bush, his predecessors, and whoever becomes America's next president.

In fact, Pentagon power today is a rogue global force. In his book titled, "House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power," James Carroll discussed its bigger than life source of power and significance.

Even though civilians nominally head it, they operate by military rules. Its ethos is war to achieve unchallenged dominance. Its ceremonial groundbreaking occurred on September 11, 1941. Today it's a force unto itself.

America "only knows how to exercise one kind of power, the hard brutal power of military force." Enemies don't exist, so they're invented. At issue now is changing a destructive dynamic or "we're going to lead the globe right over the edge into the disaster" that's plagued humanity since the atom was split.

Waging global wars hastens the day. So does deploying trained killers anywhere worldwide to kill targeted enemies.

Special Forces now operate in 120 or more countries. Expect that total to rise. Pentagon power reaches everywhere. Established in 1987, US Special Forces Command (SOCOM) involves all service branches.

Its units include Army Rangers, Delta Force, and Green Berets, Navy SEALS, Air Force Air Commandos, Marine Corps Special Operations teams, specialized helicopter crews, boat crews, civil affairs personnel, para-rescuemen, battlefield air traffic controllers, and Special Operations weathermen.

Their covert missions involve targeted assassinations, counterterrorism, snatch-and-grab-kidnapping, reconnaissance, intelligence, directing and training foreign forces, as well as any mission requiring special skills. They also participate in interrogating high-value targets in secret black site torture prisons.

Former commander Adm. Eric Olson calls SOCOM forces "the most culturally attuned partners, the most lethal hunter-killers, and the most responsive, agile, innovative, and efficiently effective advisors, trainers, problem-solvers, and warriors that any nation has to offer."

If America had more diplomats than combatants, humanity would be safe from their scourge, including SOCOM's "hunter-killers."

Middle East Saber Rattling

On October 11, the Department of Justice charged Iranian involvement in a fake terror plot to kill Saudi Arabia's US ambassador, blow up the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Argentina, and smuggle opium into Mexico.

Charges were brazen, fabricated and laughable on their face. Responding perhaps to rage across America against corporate power, government corruption, and Main Street hard times, Obama, Vice President Biden and Attorney General Holder changed the subject.

In the process, they became laughing stocks, outdoing Larry, Moe and Curley Three Stooges tomfoolery. More serious, however, is what comes next.

On October 16, DEBKA/file headlined, "Big US Airlift drill starts Monday," saying:

A large-scale Middle East exercise will involve "41 giant transports of the 22nd Airlift Squadron....The US Transport Command and its Air Forces Transportation will be testing its ability to provide a rapid strategic airlift response to major crises and contingencies."

Command and control elements will be involved with combat units. Transports will practice landings in Israel and Saudi Arabia.

After completing the exercise on October 21, US air contingents will remain "in Middle East skies ready to land at any moment" for any purpose.

Israeli, Saudi and Egyptian armies "are on a high state of preparedness." In addition, the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier group is heading from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.

It includes eight warships, nuclear armed and dangerous. Its Air Wing CVW-9 is also involved, ready to provide combat troops support and lay mines in strategic locations.

Middle East saber rattling is common US policy. Iran is target one. Relations have been tense for decades. Other inflammatory charges accuse Tehran of threatening Israel and world peace, as well as involvement in targeting US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, Washington and Israel alone jeopardize regional peace and stability. Iran hasn't attacked another country in over 200 years. It threatens none now.

America wages permanent wars. Israel's ready to help when asked. and practices state terror as official policy like Washington.

Whether Iran will be attacked isn't known. Threats come and go. Eventually one may be real, but if war's planned, expect no announcement.

So far, previous harsh rhetoric and saber rattling has been just that. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

Rage across America wants imperial wars ended. Hopefully it'll prevent new ones, but never underestimate the intent of a rogue state to incite fear to attack any targeted state.

Given Pentagon power and a warrior president, anything is possible. Hopefully street protesters know it and will strongly oppose further aggression before it starts, besides taking a stand against current US imperial wars.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

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