American Democracy - A Silent Spectator to the Pillage Underway

Press reports out over the weekend are strongly hinting that President Obama will choose the politically safe middle ground and give the green light to a troop escalation in Afghanistan. In doing so he will aim to appease both his critics and his supporters by sending in ~20,000 troops, which is less than the 40,000 troops requested by McCrystal. Some of the troop shortfall is to be made up by requesting about 7,000 additional troops from NATO allies. The announcement is conveniently planned for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, when much of the nation will be too busy to devote any serious attention to the issue. And all this at a time when the American fiscal train is careening off a cliff.

For Obama supporters, many of whom jumped the gun and put a tremendous degree of faith in him, this will prove to be the final wake-up call. His plan to escalate the war is in stark contrast to his pre-election promise of bringing troops home, having a timeline for withdrawal and a defined exit strategy. Obama is rapidly proving to be nothing more than a 'movie-star' president who talks a great talk but lacks the leadership skills and sheer guts to make the tough choices necessary to put the nation on a path of recovery.

Just like his predecessor George Bush, he has reduced himself to being a puppet at the hands of the vast military, financial, energy and healthcare corporate complex that control this nation. So entrenched are these corporate interests that regardless of which party is in the White House the nation's policies remain the same - favoring corporate interests and sacrificing ordinary American lives. One only has to look at the financial crisis and realize that even though more than a year has passed, no has been held responsible or brought to justice and no laws have been passed to stop the vast fraud perpetuated by the financial giants against the American people.

It saddens us greatly to say that America is no longer the land of equality, freedom and justice for all. What we have become is a nation of serfs at the hands of the corporate lords who control: our access to healthcare, our right to a strong and stable currency, our right to information (usurped by the mainstream media who is hell-bent on dumbing down the population), our access to a healthy and local food supply (food that has not been genetically modified to fit the goals of corporatized farming) and most importantly our right to have our elected representatives in Congress follow the will of the people who elected them. Instead, the American democracy has been reduced to being a silent spectator to the pillage of all the ideals this great country was founded on. What we need is for the American people to wake up, get educated on the real issues and demand real change.