Left I on the News

The illusions (or delusions) about Obama and what he actually stands for persist. To this article in the latest issue of The Nation, I just sent off the following letter:

The Nation's assertion ["Ending the Mindset", 12/22/08] that "Neither [Obama] nor his advisers advocate the Bush doctrine of unilateral military action and preventive war" is utterly false. Gates, Clinton, and Jones all supported the unilateral, unprovoked invasion of Iraq, and while Obama himself did speak against it, he did so only on "practical" grounds, essentially that it was "the wrong war and the wrong time" and that the benefits didn't outweigh the costs. Not once before or after the invasion has he denounced the invasion on principle, calling it "illegal" or "immoral." Furthermore, Obama has repeatedly used the "all options are on the table" formulation with regard to Iran - not in regard to any actual attack by Iran on either the U.S. or Israel, but solely in regard to Iran's hypothetical development of nuclear weapons. Such an attack would certainly constitute "unilateral military action and preventive war" in contravention of international law.