World Can't Wait

Kenneth Theisen


The New Normalcy Established During the Bush Regime

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By Kenneth J. Theisen

Will this election result in significant change? Don't count on it!

Obama has won the election and tens of millions of people in the U.S. now expect significant change in the political trajectory initiated by George W. Bush. But the reality is that they will be deeply disappointed if they expect Obama and the Democrats to deliver on the promise of change.

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What Obama Could Do if He Really Wanted to Implement Change

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By Kenneth J. Theisen
 
Barack Obama was elected because millions of people believe that he can change the political direction of this nation from the fascist trajectory that the Bush regime has been traveling over the last 7 plus years. When he takes office in January he will have the power to undo some of the damage of the Bush administration. But he will not do so because he does not owe his political allegiance to the masses of people in this country, but rather to the small class of people who live on the exploitation of the masses here and throughout the world. These are the people he will serve, regardless of the wishes of millions of people that voted for him.
 
I have listed a few of the actions Obama could take if he was a real agent of change. I invite readers of the World Can't Wait site to add others in the comment section after this article. I do not expect Obama to actually accomplish any of these items, but I think it is worth reflecting on how much damage has been done and then to think about what it will really take to reverse the course set by the Bush regime. We can not rely on false saviors from the ruling class such as Obama. We must rely on the masses to become politically active in a mass movement to actually have any hope of making real change possible.

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Covering up NSA Spying: Obama Continues Bush Regime Policies

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By Kenneth J. Theisen
 
On February 25th, Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) again went to bat in court on behalf of the police state begun under the Bush regime, by arguing in favor of the legality of the telecom immunity provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) bill passed by Congress last summer. Under the amended FISA law, courts are required to dismiss a wiretapping suit against a telecommunications company if the Attorney General (AG) explains the firm's role in a confidential statement presented to the court. In the statement, the AG would affirm that the firm either had no role in the wiretapping or that it participated based on assurances that the executive branch had approved the eavesdropping to protect the nation from terrorism.
 
The latest legal position taken by DOJ should surprise no one since Obama, when he was still a senator, voted for the legislation strengthening the unconstitutional FISA. Obama’s DOJ also went to court previously this month defending other lawsuits, arguing that the federal government was entitled to keep its dirty “state secrets” in the interests of “national security.”

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Obama’s Justice Department: Defending the “National Security State”

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By Kenneth J. Theisen

You have to give Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) credit for consistency. In every so-called “national security” case they have argued since Obama took office, they have defended the interests of the national security state over the rights of the people. They did it again on Friday, February 27, 2009. 
 
The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation had previously brought a suit alleging that the federal government, under George Bush, had illegally conducted surveillance of the group. The case is in federal court before Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. (Walker has dozens of “national security” cases pending before him.) DOJ has maintained the case should be dismissed because the Foundation can not prove it was a target of surveillance without the use of a classified document.
 
 On January 5, 2009, Judge Walker ordered DOJ to explain how it would let attorneys for the Foundation review the classified document in the case after the attorneys obtained security clearances, which he expected would be provided to the attorneys by the federal government. At that time, Walker stated that Al-Haramain had demonstrated through government officials' statements that the Foundation had probably been wiretapped. This then put the burden on the government to let the plaintiff’s attorney examine the document. Walker ordered DOJ to provide the explanation to the court by February 27th.

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Obama Calls for Record Military Spending!

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Obama is a War-Time president!
 
By Kenneth J. Theisen
 
When George W. Bush was president he often referred to himself as a “war-time president.” And with two official wars and military attacks against many other countries he deserved the title. But most of the American population got tired of more than seven years of war and Barack Obama was elected. Despite what he actually said, many that voted for him expected him to end the war policies of the Bush regime. But with the submission of his record military budget; his decision to increase the size of the military by nearly 100,000 troops; his decision to send 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan; and his decision to leave tens of thousand of troops in Iraq; it appears that Obama also wants to be known as a “war-time president.”  Okay! I know he really does not want to be called that, but he certainly deserves the title as much as Bush did. At least Bush was half-way honest about it.

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Hillary Clinton in Israel: Support Israeli Onslaught on Gaza, Demonize and Threaten Iran

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 By Kenneth J. Theisen

 This week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is on a visit to the Middle East and Europe to mobilize support for U.S. imperialism. On March 3, 2009 she gave a press conference in Israel. Once again, she made clear that the new Obama administration is dedicated to pursuing continued U.S. dominance of the Middle East. In the pursuit of this dominance, Clinton emphasized that Israel is a key U.S. ally and Iran is a key enemy.
 
Clinton stressed the importance of Israel at the conference when she stated, “President Obama and I believe that the bond between the United States and Israel, and our commitment to Israel’s security and to its democracy as a Jewish state, remains fundamental, unshakable, and eternally durable.” She talked about the need for a “durable ceasefire” between Israel and Gaza and then blamed Hamas for the war on Gaza. She said, “But that can only be achieved if Hamas ceases the rocket attacks. No nation should be expected to sit idly by and allow rockets to assault its people and its territories. These attacks must stop and so must the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. These activities put innocent lives of Israelis and Palestinians at risk and undermine the well-being of the people of Gaza.”

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The World Can’t Wait: Why We Demand U.S. Troops Out of Afghanistan Now

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by Kenneth Thiesen
 
On October 7, 2001 the U.S. attacked Afghanistan. Many lies have been used to justify the continuation and escalation of this war. Obama is sending tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan and is conducting a policy review in order to achieve victory for the U.S. empire there. But victory for the U.S. is not in the interests of the Afghanistan population or the people of the world.
 
LIES USED TO JUSTIFY THIS INCLUDE:
 
Afghanistan is a “good war” against the “real terrorists” who attacked Americans
 
Barack Obama referred to the war as the "the central front in our battle against terrorism." According to our the new president, "I think one of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job. …We got distracted by Iraq."  
 

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Weekly News and Outrages Roundup

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By Kenneth J. Theisen
 
Bush Official: Many Gitmo Prisoners Were and Are Innocent
 
On March 19th, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, told the Associated Press, "There are still innocent people there [at Guantanamo]. Some have been there six or seven years."
 
He told the AP he learned this information through briefings and by communicating with military commanders. Similar information was reported by Jane Mayer in her book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals. In that 2008 book, Mayer told of one U.S. commander at Gitmo who estimated that at least one-third of the prisoners there were totally innocent of any terrorist connections. But they were still held for years.

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Israel Uses Palestinian Children as Human Shields

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By Kenneth J. Theisen
 
On Monday, March 23rd the Israeli Army was accused by two different sources of using children as human shields in its recent war against Gaza. The British website guardian.co.uk reported that Israel was accused by three Palestinian teens of using them as “human shields” during the recent Gazan massacre. During the war, Israel frequently defended its killing of Gazan civilians by claiming that Hamas was deliberately hiding among the Palestinian population and that civilians were merely “collateral damage.” But now the Guardian is reporting that Israel is in breach of the Geneva conventions by putting civilians deliberately in harm’s way.
 
Three teenager brothers (Al'a al-Attar, age 14, Ali, age 15, and Nafiz, age 16) told the Guardian that on January 5th they “were taken from their home at gunpoint, made to go in front of tanks to prevent Hamas fighters from firing, and sent by Israeli soldiers into Palestinian houses to clear them.”
 
Article 28 of the fourth Geneva Convention states, "[T]he presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations." This has been interpreted to prohibit the use of “human shields” in military operations.

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Obama Escalates War in Afghanistan; Threatens Expansion to Pakistan

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By Kenneth J. Theisen

 
President Barack Obama continued with his latest escalation of the war in Afghanistan by announcing his plans to send an additional 4,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to train Afghan government puppet forces. He also announced plans to send hundreds of diplomats and civilian officials to the country, in what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called an “integrated military-civilian strategy”. Like his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama raised the specter of “terrorism” to justify his actions.
 
Obama stated that, "If the Afghanistan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaida to go unchallenged, that country will again be a base for terrorists." Obama warned that the al-Qaida “terrorists” were actively planning further attacks on the U.S. from havens in Pakistan. He stated, “So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future." He went on to claim, "That is the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you." Does this sound a little too much like Bush’s excuse for the initial invasion in 2001? I was waiting to hear Obama say, “bring ‘em on.”

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Obama Asks for Billions More in War Funds

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By Kenneth J. Theisen

 On April 9th, President Barack Obama requested another $83.4 billion in supplemental funds to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama also requested $400 million in counterinsurgency aid to  Pakistan. This supplemental request will pay for the thousands of more troops that he intends to send to escalate the war in Afghanistan. This latest request will push the total outlay for those two wars to nearly a trillion dollars and will only cover military costs into the fall of 2009. This money is addition to the hundreds of billions spent on the military each year for its normal costs of keeping imperialism safe. Obama’s latest request will further provide $2.2 billion to speed the overall increase in the size of the U.S. war machine. Obama wants to increase the military by nearly 100,000 additional troops.

In Obama’s written request to the House of Representatives he stated, "Nearly 95 percent of these funds will be used to support our men and women in uniform as they help the people of Iraq to take responsibility for their own future (Italics added) — and work to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan…I also urge the

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World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.

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