October 4, 2012
By Saeed Qureshi
The answer is emphatic ‘No”. What
the watchers marveled was that why president Obama a fiery speaker and an
expert in the art of debating chose to be shy and unresponsive to the overblown
arguments of his Republican rival. That unexpected change in an otherwise vocal
and eloquent Obama's posture was a sheer disappointment for countless of his
fans. But there could be a method in his studied oblivion and avoidance of stern
retort that he could have easily whipped up.
Speculatively, he wanted Romney to
dish out any amount of claims with a tinge of falsehood and distortions. He
might have left it for the people to judge how ill-informed, deceptive and
evasive his opponent was with regard to the grave and monumental national
issues.
It would not be difficult for the perceptive
citizens to figure out that Romney was making false and frivolous pledges that
were simply unattainable. He was trying to vouch even those claims that were
primarily on the agenda of the Democratic Party.
He made such catchy and rosy claims
as to save 5 trillion dollars and tax cuts for the middle class and offer
another version of Medicare that he tried to argue was better than that of the
Democrats. In fact that five trillion would go to the rich robber barons
because of low taxation on them.
In an inane rhetoric that rang
hollow, he was trying to pamper the armed forces by offering a 2 trillion dollar
trough which the discerning observers know was the token or down money for
starting the war against Iran. He pledged to make the armed forces stronger. But
the nagging question is: for what war that posed a danger to America? The irony
is that the military has not even asked for that money.
Is he not aware that since WWII
America has been involved in distant wars every single day and without any
respite. These wars had remained inconclusive and counterproductive with regard
to realizing the American dream of lording over new world order under its
aegis.
The Korean War divided that nation
into two hostile parts. The Vietnam War not only divided that small land into
two ideological adversaries but culminated into a hasty and ignominious
withdrawal from that country.
The Iraq war has been a lingering trauma
and a bleeding sore for the Iraqi people. It cost American tax payers a mind
boggling trillion dollars or more. At the end of the day the civil and
sectarian strife has returned to that bedeviled country. The Afghanistan war
can continue till eternity without any outcome in favor of the occupation
forces.
So if Romney wants to engage Iran
in another military conflict then he seems to be grossly detached with the
history of America wars after the Second World War. Or he is simply playing
with American people by exploiting the patriotism card that has been a favorable
pastime of the successive Republican dispensations all these decades.
Or he is trying to curry favor with
Israel to win the support of the unassailable Jewish lobbies within America for
winning elections. Or else he wanted to perpetuate the clash of civilizations doctrine
to attack and demolish another country that rivals Israel.
Despite a sluggish and low key
display by Obama, the American people do not want to believe in the claims that
Mitt Romney was blurring out. The people know a pervasive mess and chaos what
the 8 years of Republican administration under a hawkish ultra-right Evangelist
president Bush has landed this country into.
They also know that four years of
Obama’s presidency have been like an oasis in a sizzling desert or a coveted spell
of rainfall after a long phase of stifling drought and suffocating stagnation.
All the calamities that befell America in recent times can be solely attributed
to that era of G. W. Bush that ravished this country with uncalled-for jingoism
and mindless saber-rattling in the distant lands either to cheer the radical Christian
lobbies within America or to cajole and pacify Israel.
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