A likeable bloke in a difficult scenario

I like Barack Obama.

Barack Obama

He appears, and I say “appears” as I have never meet him and so depend upon media images to form my view, to be a genuinely pleasant bloke with life-affirming values.
However, and as with everything there always seems to be a “however”, he is ensnared in an unsettling political structure deemed democracy, but is really something quite different.
Should the fellow, described as “the most powerful man in the world”, be allowed to implement, unfettered, his ideas then America would unquestionably be a better place.
Sadly, because of the political intrigue in which he is enmeshed and the irrational fanatical-like beliefs and the neo-liberal forces he confronts, his political survival is at best, tenuous.
Whatever he may or may not be, the US president is heavily influenced, some say “controlled”, by the military/industrial complex that revolves around short-termism that give precedence to corporate profit ahead of the broader welfare of the people.
Australia has long supped at the US dinner table, or more correctly scrounged the scraps, and always been in bed with them, but now the electric blanket has been cranked up another notch.
A US military base will soon be a feature of the northern Australian landscape further implicating Australia in America’s hegemonic plans, something about which we should be remarkably cautious considering their successes, read failures, in the past century.
Americans generally, but not specifically, have an arrogance about their way of life and are so sensitive about it, that they undertake in other countries a style of social engineering that many see as simply a military invasion.
They are legendary for claiming their actions as self-defence and within that, helping build democracy.
Comforted by such self-congratulatory thoughts, they killed thousands in Vietnam, mostly children, women and peasant farmers, and despite some of the heaviest bombing the world has ever seen, the Americans, and of course us, were chased out of the country by a rag-tag army – democracy, of a type, had won the day.
Conscious that America has been involved in historical events, historical means “to this day”, that if perpetrated by others, they would be considered war crimes, we need to be cautious about aligning ourselves with such a questionable friend.
America should look to its own troubles before turning its attentions to the world’s dilemmas.
Considering the hierarchy of those matters on which a nation’s wellbeing is measured, America has much social engineering to do at home to help the legions of their own who are falling through the cracks in its societal structures.
American life may look glamorous, but reality is different with millions struggling to maintain even the rudiments of life.
Obama is a nice bloke, but rather than accommodating America’s imperialistic ambitions, we should suggest he invest his time, money and effort at home.