(Photo by Pete Souza)
1. Senator Obama impressed the Democratic party convention with a stirring speech that promised he would close Guantanamo Bay prison if elected President. Guantanamo remains open and contains prisoners who have now been incarcerated for 14 years without ever being charged with a crime. Leaving Guantanamo open all these years is a symbol to Muslims in the Muddle East. Its sheer existence, in my opinion, foments hatred toward America.
2. Obama inherited several serious messes when he took office in 2009, including an economy in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Wall Street speculators bet massively on derivatives, loans, and other products. Deemed “too big to fail”, companies such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and AIG shook the economy, as my retirement account can attest. Obama propped up these criminal companies in the aftermath, but none of the savvy businessmen were ever charged with a crime and none served time in jail.
3. In February 2016, I attended a workshop at Malcolm X College in Chicago, IL as part of Obama’s effort called “My Brother’s Keeper.” The portion of MBK at MXC dealt with efforts to reintegrate low-level offenders incarcerated in Federal prisons to society, rehabilitate those released, and provide educational and economic opportunities. As you probably know, the USA has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Obama rolled out MBK in his sixth year. Why did he wait so long on the mass incarceration issue that has disproportionately adversely affected African American men? Why does America place prisoners in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, including Menard in downstate Illinois? And Obama had the gall to lecture Cuban officials about human rights violations on his recent trip there.
4. Earlier this month the Obama Administration released a “playbook” for its lethal drone program that explains the circumstances and alleged legal standards for deciding who to kill. In July, his administration claimed that since his 2013 inauguration, 2,581 “combatants” have been killed by drones. (The Washington Post article did not include the number of noncombatants, i.e., women and children, killed by drones.) While Obama has avoided enhanced interrogation and torture, he has chosen to kill with drones as part of his never-ending war in the Muddle East, including countries such as Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. Obama’s senseless drone program has resulted in serious blowback from those directly affected.
5. President Obama has continued to increase the budget of the Department of Defense during his tenure. In fact, the DoD received the largest spending increase in the 2016 budget, according to the financial weekly newspaper, Barron’s. Here are two examples of this folly. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project – at this point a $400 billion boondoggle – continues to put my taxpayer money in the coffers of Lockheed Martin. Another example is the increase in DoD’s training-abroad program. (I wrote about the dismal failure in Syria nearly a year ago.) Last month I heard Chuck Mertz, host of a radio show called “This is Hell”, interview investigative reporter Douglas Gillison of 100 Reporters. Mr. Gillison spoke of his research that revealed the DoD trains “approximately 200,000 foreign soldiers, police, and other personnel… at no fewer than 471 locations in 120 countries.”
I know my conclusion is harsh, but I guess my hopes for change were too naïve.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Barack Obama.
Of the increase of his government and of war there will be no end, on the drones of Barack and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with hegemony from his election and forevermore.
Isaiah 9:5-7 (ESV, adapted by Mark Erickson)
– Mark Erickson
