Yet Another Obama Failure
It’s getting to be pathetic to watch how many ways he has gone back on his campaign pledges, implicit and explicit, as well as what one could reasonably expect him to do from his pre-Washington writings and speeches.
U.S.: Groups Denounce Obama Rejection of Landmine Treaty
By Jim Lobe*WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (IPS) – Human rights and disarmament activists reacted bitterly Wednesday to the decision by the administration of President Barack Obama, who will receive the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize next month, not to sign the 10-year-old treaty banning anti-personnel landmines.
The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL), a coalition of scores of activist groups, called the administration’s decision “shocking”, while Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the Campaign’s most influential members, described it as “reprehensible”.
“President Obama’s decision to cling to anti-personnel mines keeps the U.S. on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of humanity,” said Steve Goose, the director of HRW’s Arms Division, who also noted that Washington stood alone among its NATO allies in refusing to sign the treaty.
“This decision lacks vision, compassion, and basic common sense, and contradicts the Obama administration’s professed emphasis on multilateralism, disarmament, and humanitarian affairs,” he added.
A leading Democratic lawmaker, who spearheaded the drive in the early 1990s to ban Washington’s export of the weapon to other countries, also decried the decision, which was announced by State Department spokesman Ian Kelly Tuesday.
Sen. Patrick Leahy said the decision constituted a “default of U.S. leadership” and charged that it appeared to be based on a review that “can only be described as cursory and half-hearted”.
Let’s see – from January 2008 when he was still running for the nomination
(Guardian)One little-mentioned split occurred on a proposal to restrict Pentagon spending on cluster bombs, which explode and scatter thousands of tiny weapons over a vast area. Those small bombs are prone to going off years after a battle, sometimes killing and maiming Middle Eastern children who mistakenly trigger them. Israel came under fire from the UN and international human rights groups for its use of cluster bombs during its 2006 war with Hizbullah forces in Lebanon. In the autumn of that year, with memories of the conflict still fresh, several Democrats sought to limit US defence spending to cluster bombs that would not be used in civilian areas.
[snip]
Obama voted in favour of limiting use of the bombs, while Clinton and 69 other senators opposed the spending limits, defeating the proposal.
His stance to support the arms manufacturers over the lives of men, women, and especially children, (not to mention US troops) all over the world in exchange for his 30 pieces of silver from the MIC makes an even further mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded this year.
Related posts
Write a comment
Commercial advertising not accepted. Comments linked to commercial sites will be deleted as SPAM
