Stephen Lendman
His speeches make painful listening - a litany of deception, Big Lies, and for Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims and survivors, continued coverup of one of history’s great crimes - massacring civilians gratuitously.
Obama saying “(w)e come to mourn the dead” ignores US responsibility for mass murder and endless wars of aggression - notably post-9/11.
Saying “(w)e stand here in the middle of this city (and) force ourselves to feel the dread of children…listen to a silent cry…remember all the innocents killed” in global wars, especially WW II, begs the question of why America nuked Japan twice when it was defeated in process of surrendering.
Obama: “(W)e have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again.”
Fact: US wars of aggression against countries threatening no one leaves millions of casualties in their wake, endless suffering over and over again.
Obama: “(T)he memory of the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, must never fade. That memory allows us to fight complacency. It fuels our moral imagination. It allows us to change.”
Fact: America is morally depraved, change unattainable, its aim for unchallenged world dominance overrides peace, stability and other considerations.
Obama: “(S)ince that fateful day, we have made choices that give us hope.”
Fact: Today is the most perilous time in world history. Reality is polar opposite the fantasy Obama presented - claiming “international community established institutions and treaties…work to avoid war.” They rage out-of-control in multiple theaters, America bearing full responsibility.
Obama: We “aspire to restrict and roll back and ultimately eliminate the existence of nuclear weapons.”
Fact: America intends spending a trillion dollars in the next 30 years upgrading its nuclear arsenal, making it more ominous and destructive than ever.
Obama: “We must change our mindset about war itself to prevent conflict through diplomacy and strive to end conflicts after they’re begun.”
Fact: The self-described peace candidate waged and continues waging endless wars of aggression every day throughout his tenure. They serve America’s imperial agenda. Peace defeats it.
Obama: “The irreducible worth of every person, the insistence that every life is precious, the radical and necessary notion that we are part of a single human family - that is the story that we all must tell.”
Fact: Longstanding US policy since the beginning of the republic reflects contempt for human life and welfare, insistence that government serve its privileged elites alone.
Social Security, Medicare, civil rights legislation and other beneficial measures enacted earlier were more about saving and preserving capitalism than instituting social democracy.
Obama saying “we come to Hiroshima (to) think of people we love” mocks the reality of daily life caused by US lawlessness, the endless pain and suffering, the possibility of US-launched nuclear war consuming us all.
Imperial madness makes today’s threat greater than ever.
