Greatest Challenge Before Obama

4 July, 2009 is a special day for the people of United States of America. The dream that Martin Luther King visualized has attained reality—the first national day after July 4, 1776 celebrated under an Afro-American president. The downtrodden Americans—irrespective of colour and race—waged a long, untiring struggle and became victorious. The day also holds a great lesson for the oppressors; they are doomed to fall—sooner or later—being victim of their own wrongdoings. History confirms that oppressive policies, denial of rights to the oppressed and exploitative means do not last forever. Every oppressor lives under the deception of being invincible, but ultimately faces his inescapable fate—humiliating defeat at the hands of the oppressed.

American people were torch-bearers for those struggling against colonial forces. The great and historic liberation movement against the colonial rule was pioneered in this land and acts of the founding-fathers shone as a beacon of hope for all the subjugated nations. They started a new beginning of self-rule. It took many hundred years for American society to struggle on all fronts and make its mark as one of the leading nations of the world. For many countries, the USA became a role model in political evolution, achieving great cohesion and solidarity amongst federating units within the constitutional framework. Great movements for human rights made the place a noteworthy example by others to follow. The democratic set-up, quite different from conventional monarchical British system, stemming from indigenous roots established and developed its own unique principles.

By all standards, the USA proved that winning of independence and sustaining democratic dispensation are inseparable as well as continuous processes. It proved that a true rule of people means their participation in attaining social justice and that “dispensation of justice is the main pillar of democracy” [this statement is inscribed on the New York building of US Supreme Court]. The great people of USA undoubtedly deserve salutation on their national day as they have produced in the modern era scholars like Edward W. Said and Noman Chomsky, who showed the world how, while living within the system, one can struggle and expose those who exploit others for their nefarious vested interests. This great intellectual tradition makes USA a vibrant nation that has produced a leader like Barak Husain Obama.

The USA of Bush-Cheney was different from what its founder fathers had conceived. Bush and Cheney made America a hegemonic State indulging in wars for oil. It is a matter of record now that their enthusiasm for war(s) was not solely driven by their “philosophy” (sic). Cheney’s old buddies at Halliburton made billions out of these war bonanzas. Halliburton's construction and engineering subsidiary was paid nearly $1 billion through government contracts containing profit-guarantees, and various other contracts initiated since the company's former CEO, Cheney, arrived in the White House. Halliburton built military bases in the former Soviet Union and Turkey and also made $33 million building jail cells for “terrorists” (sic) at Camp X-Ray. Just before the Iraq war started, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton an "emergency" contract for oil fields reconstruction, which was awarded without the usual government bidding process because of said "emergency" (and despite the fact that the invasion was not according to any particular timetable and the fact that it had been in the works for a year and a half).

The reality of ‘war against terrorism’ (sic) by now is now well-known to independent scholars and investigators. The authors of this grand agenda have common UNOCAL connection covering George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Zalmay Khalilzad, Hamid Karzai and many others. It is a matter of record that much before 9/11, the US and its NATO allies had already decided to invade Afghanistan. The decision to this effect was taken in Berlin during the joint meeting of Council of Ministers held in November 2000 exposing the claims that 9/11 was the sole reason for invading Afghanistan. The actual cause was apprehensions regarding Turkmenistan Gas Pipeline Project in which powerful corporate entities, who actually rule USA and other capitalist countries, had financial interests.

After Bush was installed as president by a 5-4 vote of the US Supreme Court, Khalilzad headed the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Defence Department and advised incoming Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Significantly, however, he was not named for a sub-cabinet position, which would have required Senate confirmation and might have provoked uncomfortable questions about his role as an oil company advisor in Central Asia and intermediary with the Taliban. Instead, he was named for the National Security Council (NSC), where no confirmation vote was needed. At the NSC, Khalilzad was reporting to Condoleezza Rice, the national security advisor [later US Secretary of State] who also served as an oil company consultant on Central Asia. After serving in the first Bush administration from 1989 to 1992, Rice was placed on the board of directors of Chevron Corporation and served as its principal expert on Kazakhstan, where Chevron was holding the largest concession of any of the international oil companies. The oil industry connections of Bush and Cheney were well known, but little was reported in the media about the prominent role played in Afghan policy by officials who had advised the oil industry on Central Asia.

One of the rare commentaries in the American media about this aspect of the US military campaign appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on September 26, 2001. Staff writer, Frank Viviano, observed: “The hidden stakes in the war against terrorism can be summed up in a single word: oil. The map of terrorist sanctuaries and targets in the Middle East and Central Asia is also, to an extraordinary degree, a map of the world’s principal energy sources in the 21st century…. It is inevitable that the war against terrorism will be seen by many as a war on behalf of America’s Chevron, Exxon, and Arco; France’s TotalFinaElf; British Petroleum; Royal Dutch Shell and other multinational giants, which have hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the region.” This reality was well understood in official Washington, but the most important corporate-controlled media outlets — the television networks and major national daily newspapers — maintained silence for obvious reasons.

The invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq by Bush-Cheney, using the myths of Al-Qaeda and a weapon of mass destruction, both proving to be hoax—confirms beyond any doubt that the real motive was nothing but quest for OIL. Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele [TIME, May 19, 2003] remarkably exposed the dark side of American oil policy from classified government documents and oil industry memos, involving a pair of Iraq’s neighbours, Iran and Afghanistan.

In this backdrop, the greatest challenge before Obama is not only to undo the war-oil-terrorism-drugs legacy of Bush-Cheney but also to show the rest of the world that USA is still a role model for democratic countries and cares for world peace.