cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/16304
Despite his active war-mongering and mass killing of civilians in the name of drone attacks against terror groups, Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
On Thursday (June 22), former US President Barack Obama courted controversy by virtue-signalling India about its ‘human rights’ record.
Obama, who has a notorious record as a potential war criminal, suggested that the Indian Prime Minister must be told by the Biden administration about protecting the ‘Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India.’ He also hinted at another ‘partition’ if India, under the Modi government, did not mend its ways.
The former US President made the contentious remarks during an interview with CNN news host Christiane Amanpour, just hours before PM Modi made his historic address at the joint session of the US Congress.
He said, “If President (Joe Biden) meets with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, the protection of Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India is something worth mentioning.”
Barack Obama also claimed, “If I had a conversation with Prime Minister Modi, then, part of the conversation would be that if you do not protect the rights of minorities, then there is a strong possibility that India at some point starts pulling apart…That would be contrary to the interests of India”
The former US President, who is now mouthing platitudes about protecting the interests of Muslims in India, has been single-handedly responsible for the death of 100s of innocent people in Muslim-majority countries.
Human rights record of ‘war monger’ Barack Obama
Barack Obama scripted history in 2008 by being the first African-American man to become the President of the United States. In 2016, he also created another record of being the only President to take the country to war during the entirety of his 8-year term.
As per a report by the ‘Bureau of Investigative Journalism’, Obama oversaw more drone strikes (54) in his first year than George W Bush did in his entire term. Prior to his Presidency, he would talk about ending ‘dumb wars’ but did the opposite when he came to power.
Barack Obama, who holds the distinction of being a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, reportedly launched airstrikes in at least seven Muslim-majority countries of Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Pakistan.
He sanctioned the use of a whopping 563 drone strikes and killed 3797 people in this process. In one instance, a CIA drone strike targeted a funeral in Pakistan, which led to the death of 41 civilians in Pakistan.
More than 89 civilians in the same country were killed by the Obama administration over the course of 128 targeted drone strikes. The US President was aware that the drone strikes were far from accurate and were increasingly leading to the death of civilians.
But this did not stop him from continuing with such attacks in Somalia (2010) and Yemen (2011). Reportedly, 21 children and 12 women (five of them being pregnant)were killed by the Obama administration’s first strike in Yemen, with the aim of targeting Al-Qaeda.
It also came to light that in 2016 alone, the US government under Obama carried out at least 26,171 bombings, which translates to 72 bombings every day on civilians in other countries.
Mass civilian casualties were also reported in Afghanistan. An average of 582 people were killed annually in Afghanistan by the US, its allies and the Afghan government in Kabul between 2007 to 2016.
The Obama administration has also been accused of conducting ‘double-tap drone strikes’, which means that the site of a drone strike is attacked again. This is despite knowing the fact that such follow-up strikes lead to the death of first responders, which is against the guidelines laid down by the 1948 Geneva Conventions.
Obama administration warmed up to Muslim brotherhood, oversaw the rise of ISIS
During the tenure of Barack Obama, the US government warmed up to the radical Islamist outfit ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ in Egypt during the Arab Spring. It was a complete departure from the approach undertaken by previous US administrations.
According to author Hany Ghoraba, Barack Obama believed that he could separate the terror outfit ‘Al-Qaeda’ and Muslim Brotherhood. “Empowering the Muslim Brotherhood would, according to Obama, weaken Al-Qaeda in a decision that can be considered as one of the severest cases of political naiveté in modern times,” he noted.
“The core fault of the Obama administration was its adoption of a false rhetoric, presented for years by Islamist activists and later liberal Western politicians and pundits, that there is a distinction between the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda,” Ghoraba pointed out.
The Arab Spring led to significant political changes in several countries, including the ousting of long-standing autocratic leaders. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, namely, the Freedom and Justice Party, emerged as a major political force.
In 2011, the Obama administration thought it was a great idea to engage with the Muslim brotherhood-led- government, mistaking it to be a ‘new democratic force’ and looking past its radical Islamism, dangerous ideology and its mistreatment of religious minorities.
Later when protests erupted against the government in Eqypt, the Obama administration quickly took a U-turn and called for the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed-Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Documents now reveal that the US government funded anti-Morsi activities.
The Presidential tenure of Barack Obama was also marked by the rise of the dreaded terrorist organisation, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria aka ISIS.
One of the major contributing factors was the withdrawal of the US troops, failed negotiations with the Iraqi government and lack of residual US military presence in the country. The security vacuum left in Iraq gave opportunities for radical Islamist groups to expand.
Conclusion
Barack Obama has been at the helm of building secret drone bases in the Middle East and Africa and increasing the deployment of warships and troops in the Western Pacific and Eastern Europe.
He has been accused by his first three Defense Secretaries at the Pentagon of micro-manging the military from the White House. Through the killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Barack Obama ensured that Libya plunged into complete chaos.
Later, the oil-rich nation became a magnet for terrorist groups. Despite his active war-mongering and mass killing of civilians in the name of drone attacks against terror groups, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. With the left media acting as his PR agent, Obama has been able to keep up with the false image of being a ‘great ex-President.’
At the time of PM Modi’s visit to the US on the invite of the incumbent President Joe Biden, Barack Obama is pontificating the Modi administration about human rights and peddling the distorted narrative of ‘Muslims being in danger in India.’
