Obama's wars

This new year of 2013 takes us well into the 21st century. To many people, the turn of the century was not the 31st of December, 1999, we all expecting some disaster from the “2KY” effect that never happened. Nor the following year 31st of December, 2000 which mathematically puts an end to the 20th century. Most would date the 9/11 tragedy as the opening event of the new century. For many intends and purposes, there is a “before” and “after” 9/11, 2001.

However, many events during the first decade of the century have been considered belonging to the previous one. Notably so, the long lasting armed conflicts around the world, including even the Second Iraq war of infamous memory. And that, as the said reason for the invasion of Iraq was the search of unexisting “weapons of mass destruction” hoarded by Sadam Hussein after the first invasion of Iraq in the nineties.

Out of Barak H. Obama second inauguration speech, open to many comments and considerations, comes just a brief sentence “…A decade of war is now ending…”

What’s ending? Just the decade?, the war? The last decade of war, wars, warmongering?

BHO is holder of the 2009 Nobel Peace Price for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”, as the nomination says. Good enough.

It is not to criticize the politician, the president. But considering presidencies as just periods of time in the evolving of history, whatever decade we may consider, just the period of time between 2002 and 2012 encompassing the WH Bush second term and BHO first with wars galore, I just can’t see an “ending” in sight in the incoming future.

The list of active armed conflicts is staggering. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_military_conflicts) lists at least ten conflicts causing more than 1000 deaths per year, and some 40 others less deadly. Many are just forgotten as they hardly ever reach the frontlines in international media. And some others are just not recognized as actual wars, with identifiable armies and military operations; just violence and killing of people.

Some have ended having reached a peace treaty like the Moro war in the Philippines, and others are just in some sort of standoff-lack-of-activity like the Moroccan-Western Sahara conflict. But many others are wildly raging away with their sequences of loss of life, misery, destruction of property and disaster.

To put an end to all that will prove to be too big of a task for even a powerful country like the US or the even more powerful coalition of countries like NATO or whatever could enlist the UN to impose peace on a given conflict.

But make no mistakes. BHO is not a weak or peaceful type of guy, ready to withdraw or shun off from wars. In his record is the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the ongoing drone attacks in North Western Pakistan, not bad for military action on a supposedly allied country’s territory. And the drone attacks may well expand to other geogaphical areas.

BHO has nominated John Brennan the new director of the CIA, pending of confirmation by the Senate and after the Petraeus affair, previously Director of the national Counterterrorism Center and not particularly a "dove".

Violence not necessarily considered “war” is usually attributed to terrorist groups of which the CIA lists more than one hundred and forty. So whatever “War on terrorism” means it could include all of them, and is likely get a push by the new CIA director.

The US Defense spending will continue to rise despite the tremendous weight it carried on the already monstrous US deficit of several trillion dollars.

All that said, the armed conflict that calls more my attention and for various reasons, is the Mexican Drug War. Just at the US doorstep, mounting over 60.000 deaths and fought mostly with US provided--legally for the Mexican government or illegal for everybody else--weapons.

I would be interesting to see what the US and its Defense community thinks and does of such a murderous situation in the coming months.

X. Allué

Un fantasma recorre los países árabes

Por los países árabes un fantasma está extendiendo su influencia como al parecer recorría Europa hace 164 años. Túnez, Egipto, Libia, bahrein, Yemen, Jordania… Los viernes, festivo en los países musulmanes están siendo el día en que las gentes se reúnen a orar en público y, de paso, para expresar su disgusto con la manera como les van las cosas.
En Túnez ya lo consiguieron y, además, el disgusto que le dieron a su dictadorcillo Zine ben Alí, le ha costado un accidente vascular cerebral que lo tiene en coma en un hospital saudita. En Egipto consiguieron echar a Mubarak—aunque sólo hasta un retiro dorado en Sharm el Sheik—y ahora celebran el éxito en medio de incertidumbres. En el resto andan a los tiros y el recuento de muertos va creciendo sin que se puede predecir hacia dónde van los acontecimientos.
Por la radio del coche me llegó la meliflua voz de un Javier Rupérez que fue, entre otras cosas, embajador de España en Washington, entrevistado en RNE porque ha escrito un libro. Evidentemente no he leído el libro ni, habiendo oído lo que se ha dicho, pienso leerlo, pero no me hace falta para emitir un juicio. No sorprende el interés de algunos en intentar escribir la historia a su gusto y preferencias. El libro lo prologa el otro innombrable, Josemari, lo que obliga al autor a asegurar “… pero el libro lo he escrito yo!” levantando con esa misma información las dudas. O confirmando que lo ha escrito al dictado del susodicho.
A estas alturas nadie va a explicarnos las razones de las intervenciones de los EEUU—y también la OTAN—en Oriente Medio en éste primer decenio del milenio. La patraña de las Armas de Destrucción Masiva para justificar la invasión de Irak ya no necesita explicación ni nadie puede clamar inocencia. Los que tenían que saberlo lo sabían de sobra, aunque luego hasta en el cine se continua contribuyendo a la ceremonia de la confusión. Bush quería hacer una guerra como su papá, y junto con Toni Blair, andaba en busca de petróleo porque en Irak está el 10% de las reservas mundiales. Mientras Dick Cheney y sus coleguis en Halliburton, Greystone y Xe Services LLC, andaban a la caza del dólar rápido con los que se llama seguridad privada que ya sabemos de que va. Y no les ha ido nada mal.

Pero si Wikileaks vigila, resulta que Echelon está en la luna y la gente utiliza las TICs: Facebook, Twitter o YouTube. No van a pararlo con tiros ni con buenas palabras.
El fantasma es el ansia de libertad—y libertades—y la sábana del fantasma las TICs.