Obama’s Rollback Strategy: Honduras, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan (and the Boomerang Effect)

Obama’s Rollback Strategy: Honduras, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan (and the Boomerang Effect) by Prof. James Petras on Global Research.

An excellent article that deserves to be read in its entirety.

The recent events in Honduras and Iran, which pit democratically elected regimes against pro-US military and civilian actors intent on overthrowing them can best be understood as part of a larger White House strategy designed to rollback the gains achieved by opposition government and movements during the Bush years.

In a manner reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s New Cold War policies, Obama has vastly increased the military budget, increased the number of combat troops, targeted new regions for military intervention and backed military coups in regions traditionally controlled by the US .

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Obama’s rollback strategy is evident from his very first pronouncements, promising to reassert US dominance (‘leadership’) in the Middle East, his projection of massive military power in Afghanistan and military expansion in Pakistan and the destabilization of regimes through deep intervention by proxies as in Iran and Honduras.

Obama’s pursuit of the rollback strategy operates a multi-track policy of overt military intervention, covert ‘civil society’ operations and soft-sell, seemingly benign diplomatic rhetoric, which relies heavily on mass media propaganda.

OK, I'm a pretty consistent critic of President Obama. This isn't anything personal as I've never met the man. But, I've long had this feeling that Obama consisted of a weak and phony progressive cover over top of someone who would follow the same policies demanded by those with power. Now, as we near the 200 day mark of the Obama Presidency, isn't this becoming very apparent?

We have a Hoover-esque economic strategy that involves pumping trillions of dollars into the Wall Street firms that financed Obama's campaign. This is doing little or nothing to reverse the economic downturn that is clobbering most American citizens these days. But it has rescued the balance sheets of the Wall Street firms and created a phony stock market rally that is going in the opposite direction from real economic activity. Which means of course that it can't last for long.

We have a foreign policy that Reagan would seem to admire. We've expanded our war in Afghanistan, doubling the number of troops there. We've escalated that same war across the border into Pakistan, with both 'drone' strikes and a proxy military war there. We've attempted a coup \ 'color revolution' in Iran, and continue to threaten military attacks on Iran. Now we've orchestrated a coup in Honduras.

And here's a key point. Personally, I've been overjoyed watching watching the people of Central and South America elect populist leaders that actually seem to try to represent their citizens instead of making government just a tool to further enrich wealthy elites. Yet, the Obama administration has clearly always regarded these elections as 'set-backs' that need to be overturned and reversed. Obama's echoing of right-wing lies and rhetoric about President Chavez is a key sign of this attitude.

Of course, its no surprise that an Obama administration would oppose other Presidents who put the interests of their citizens ahead of the interests of wealthy elites. Clearly Obama is an opponent of such views. After all, his Hoover-esque economic policies and his Reagan-esque foreign policies are a clear declaration of his own dedication to serve the wealthy elites over the interests of ordinary American citizens.

If you doubt this, just watch what comes out of the 'health care reform' process in this Democratic government. Will it be a single-payer health care system that provides care to all at lower costs to the nation? Or will it be something else that protects and expands insurance, HMO, and pharmaceutical company profits? Wanna place a small bet who Obama and the Democrats are going to represent and serve?