1) Obama promised to end the occupation of Iraq, instead he appears to be laying the ground for a continued US presence; the army chief of staff, Gen. George Casey, has said the military is preparing to keep troops there for another ten years
2) Meanwhile, Obama is not only escalating the occupation of Afghanistan, but continuing and escalating drone attacks on Pakistan, both resulting in continuing civilian deaths, which only create more anger toward the US
3)More generally, Obama has “changed” virtually nothing in US foreign policy. He continues to support the American empire in the same way Bush did, and the same way both democrats and republicans have for two centuries
4)We need to recognize that neither party will end the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, nor any other aspect of American imperialism. Too many “antiwar” groups were co-opted by Obama and the Democrats in 2008. We cannot allow that to continue. We need to build truly independent movements in this country that don’t rely on electoral politics to change a corrupt system, that don’t support either of the two corporate parties, but that stay focused on ending US wars of aggression, and fighting for the needs of ordinary people here at home
