It looks like Obama, considered the pacifist candidate during the election campaign, is in the process of constructing an Administration comprised of old guard politicians who do not publicly question–either for moral, legal, economic, or strategic reasons– the general idea of America as an offensive war machine.

American militarism will continue under Obama: Escalation in Afghanistan, an expanded 21st century US military, possible incursions into Pakistan, a Secretary of State Clinton who is on record threatening to attack Iran, openness to continued corporate mercenaries supplementing US war and occupation abroad, and a continuation of the illogical War on Drugs in Latin America. As for Iraq, Obama is on recent record as stating that he wants no US bases or combat troops left in Iraq, although he has wavered on the extent of withdrawal throughout the year and, while the Iraqi government has apparently come to a clear decision, US plans continue to be in flux.

Obama’s unnecessary militarism may also include a continuation of the Bush plan to install new missile launch sites far from US borders in Eastern Europe to provide a military threat near the Russian border, not far from the Middle East. Bush falsely justified this project as necessary to protect the West from Iran although both US and IAEA intelligence finds no evidence that Iran has or is currently developing nuclear weapons since at least 2003.  Nor does Iran possess missiles that can reach the US much less Western Europe, which is not seen as a realistic threat anyway, leading the Center for Defense Information to conclude that the plan is "dumb beyond words" and would pit "weapons that don’t work against a threat that doesn’t exist."

The US missile defense program is an unnecessary and technically unproven project according to the Pentagon itself that also doubles as an annual $10-$13 billion gift to weapons and aerospace corporations. It could instead be turned into smart investments…like badly needed basic infrastructure, for example. Despite the Orwellian monikers, "Missile Defense" and "Anti-Missile Weapons" are understood by experts to comprise a clear offensive threat, with possible future attack capabilities entirely feasible. More to the point: "A weapon system is either offensive or defensive depending on which end you are looking at." Installing missile launch sites in Eastern Europe is both wasteful and bellicose. 

NOW is the time to send an email or make a phone call to Obama–he’s still publicly undecided and apparently listening–urging him to be bold by terminating this backwards, expensive, and dangerous project. 

Help push Obama to take a stand against defense industry lobbyists, Congress, and military brass on a technologically, strategically, and morally inept program. Democracy doesn’t stop on Election Day!  http://change.gov/page/s/contact

An email takes just 2 minutes and can in fact make a difference.

To participate simply copy the template below or make it your own and submit it at http://change.gov/page/s/contact

To President-elect Obama and VP-elect Biden,
Please act boldly by immediately terminating the wasteful and bellicose missile defense program in Eastern Europe. This project is unnecessary, technically unproven. Worse, it amounts to a yearly gift from taxpayers to aerospace/weapons corporations. That $10-13 billion could be turned into smart investments like basic infrastructure. I strongly urge you to do the right thing and drop missile defense.

Click here for more detail about US missile defense plans: http://www.globalpolitician.com/24417-america-europe-military-missile-defense
http://www.cdi.org/missile-defense/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6720153.stm

 

 

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