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Letters: Does Obama stand for change?
All through his exhaustive journey through primaries to date, I have been (and am trying very hard to remain) President Barack Obama's ardent admirer, but it looks like he is bent upon changing my opinion
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ll through his exhaustive journey through primaries to date, I have been (and am trying very hard to remain) President Barack Obama's ardent admirer, but it looks like he is bent upon changing my opinion.
Recently I came across his speech in Russia where he said, "The notion that prestige comes from holding these weapons, or that we can protect ourselves by picking and choosing which nations can have these weapons, is an illusion. In the short period since the end of the Cold War, we've already seen India, Pakistan and North Korea conduct nuclear tests."
He thus erroneously equated India with Pakistan and North Korea on the issue of acquisition and proliferation of nuclear weapons. This set me wondering whether Obama really stands for "change" or is he similar to Reagan, Bush-41 and Bush-43. Then the question comes: Who gave nuclear capabilities to Pakistan? Wasn't it the "hawks" in the Reagan and Bush-41 administrations that let Pakistan have this know-how?
Didn't they persuade co-workers to deliberately mislead the US Congress about it to avoid being affected by Pressler and Solarz amendments? (see http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/04/top4.htm published in Karachi's DAWN, dated May 4, 2007). Was it India who clandestinely sold this know-how to Libya, Iran and North Korea? Was it Israel? Who was it?
Bush-43 coined the phrase "Axis of Evil" for these countries, but wasn't it Bush-41 and 43 who created the "Axis of Evil" Club as well as its full current membership? If things go wrong, as they may, will Al-Qaeda get its hands on these weapons? Will they train them on the US as Mustafa Abul-Yazeed told Al Jazeera on June 22?
One must thank Richard Barlow. He blew the whistle to expose the powers-that-be behind the silly decisions made from 1981 to 1992. Today, Rich Barlow, who did just what his job paid him to do, has suffered big including his broken marriage. He presently lives like a pauper in a trailer home in Montana. President Clinton awarded him compensation of US$1 million but this was not passed in time by the labyrinthine procedure in the US government. When Clinton left office, Bush 43 was not in favor of paying.
Are the US patriots treated in such partisan manner? Didn't Reagan and Bush-41 make Pakistan a nuclear power well before 1990? Doesn't Obama know that India tested her devices in 1998, and Pokharan-1 in 1974, notwithstanding?
K. B Kale
Jakarta
