Stop the War Coalition
19 May 2011
The facts and videos below show how the Obama who promised "hope" and "change" when he was running for president became a more-of-the-same president once elected. All George Bush's "war on terror" policies remain in force, and some have even been extended. On his record so far, Obama has betrayed the faith he inspired in so many Americans who voted and campaigned for him as the candidate who could make a difference.
Barack Obama 2009: I will end the war in Iraq. You can take that to the bank.
9 April 2011: A million Iraqis march to tell America to get out of their country.
Is Barack Obama the the most pro-war president in living memory?
What Obama said and what he did about Guantánamo and US torture policies
The torture of Bradley Manning that Obama called "appropriate and meeting our basic standards".
War
In just two years since becoming president, Barack Obama has ordered military attacks on six countries: Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, all predominantly Muslim countries. George W Bush only managed four.
Afghanistan
Obama has escalated the Afghanistan war far beyond George Bush's administration. He has tripled the troop numbers to over 100,000. The two years of his presidency have been the most violent in the country since the invasion in 2001. The paltry troop withdrawal the US will make in July 2011 will be an attempt to appear to drawdown the war without actually ending it. Obama's pledge that by 2014 the US will hand over security responsibility to the Afghan people, looks no more solid than his other promises.
Obama's Drone Wars
Obama has escalated the drone wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere. He has more than doubled the number of unmanned bombing raids -- directed by computer operatives in Nevada USA. Estimates suggest that for every "militant" killed by these extrajudicial strikes, at least ten civilians of all ages are killed.
Iraq
In his election campaign, Obama promised to end the war in Iraq within a year and withdraw US troops. There are still over 50,000 American soldiers in Iraq, to kill and be killed, plus an even higher number of US mercenaries. A network of giant US military bases remain in place.
Libya
In 2007, Obama said, "The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." Words seemingly forgotten in March 2011, when he launched an attack without getting authorisation from the US Congress on Libya, a country which was neither an actual or imminent threat to America. Within two months, Obama had spent $750 million waging an unconstitutional war.
Israel/Palestine
Despite repeated declarations that bringing peace in the Israel-Palestine conflict is a priority for his administration, and voicing his opposition to coninuing expansion of Israel's settlements in the occupied territories, Obama's support for Israel has been unflinching. Armaments have been sold at higher levels than ever before, aid payments continue to be the largest the US gives to any country, and a blind eye is turned to all Israel's countless violations of international law. Obama showed that he was indeed Israel's "best friend" when, on 18 February 2011, the US vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that was supported by virtually every other member state, which called Israel's settlement activity on the West Bank illegal.
The Arab Spring
However much Obama praises the Muslim world yearning for democracy, the rule of law and basic civil liberties, he continues to sell weapons systems and military equipment to Arab dictators and despots. Egypt's Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali were only dumped by the US when it was clear they were about to be overthrown by a people's revolution. Obama has very little to say about Saudi Arabia, one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world, which gets unqualified support from the US, or Bahrain, another vicious dictatorship, where the US has the biggest naval base in the world, home to America's 5th Fleet.
Military Spending
US military spending in 2011 will exceed $700 billion — the most since World War II. That is half of all US government spending and represents 35% of total military spending on the planet. Since Obama took office, the US has been almost entirely responsible for the global rise in military spending: $19.6 billion of $20.6 billion since 2008. On the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone, Obama will spend more this year -- $150 billion -- than China, the world's second biggest military power, will spend in total on its armed forces.
Guantánamo
Obama said he would close the Guantánamo Bay concentration camp within the first year of taking office. More than two years later it is still open. In March 2011 Obama announced that the military tribunals for detainees -- widely condemned as show trials and a travesty of justice -- would be resumed.
Torture
When campaigning for president, Obama said, "The practice of shipping away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, of detaining thousands without charge or trial, of maintaining a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of law" had to end. In office, Obama has continued to use rendition of suspects to foreign countries for the purpose of torture.
Wikileaks and Bradley Manning
In 2010, Obama said, "I believe the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world, can hold their own governments accountable, they can begin to think for themselves." A year later, his administration was hounding Wikileaks, which has done more in recent times to make Obama's rhetoric a reality then any other source of information. When the alleged Wikileaks' whistleblower Bradley Manning, who has yet to be charged, was held in solitary confinement for seven months in a military jail, in conditions tantamount to torture, Obama said, "The procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards."
