John Pilger on the Obama foreign policy

06 Nov 2008

Speakers: John Pilger

The Intelligence Squared debate 'Obama's foreign policy is a gift to his enemies', featuring Simon Schama, Bernard-Henri Levy, and General Jack Keane, will take place on the evening of Thursday May 27th.

Standard tickets and 1/2 price student tickets are still available for this event.

In the immediate aftermath of Barack Obama's election to the Presidency, John Pilger begins his assessment of the then future President's election promises by pointing out that 'anything is better than Bush and the Bush administration'. Pilger's assessment is a more sober analysis of Obama's election promises on foreign policy, cutting through the emotional post-election response all around the world. As he points out, there was very little between Obama and John McCain when it came to foreign policy, and in some cases Obama's foreign policy was more radical than that of his opponent.

If Obama is to dismantle the 'ideological machine' that is the American empire, then he has to break his electoral promises and drop the embargo on Cuba, reach out to the governments of Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, and face the reality that the war in Afghanistan is colonial in nature. Even if he is able to do only one of these things, he will show that he is completely different to his predecessors.