The speech Barack Hussein Obama gave before the UN General Assembly aimed to assure the world that the Atlantic Empire was still the world’s hegemon, strong as ever, and committed to persevere in the historical mission of ridding the world of things that weren’t nice. While meant to sound inspirational and even triumphant at times, it came off more as an attempt at self-reassurance, a plea to the world to ignore the observable reality and continue to accept the myth of Imperial omnipotence.
Almost at the start, Obama began making excuses. He inherited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, but is about to end them "from a position of strength." Those who have to say they are strong usually are not. And though he claimed both countries will soon enjoy a "normal relationship" with the U.S. as "sovereign nations," Obama promised an "equal partnership" with Iraq and "enduring partnership" with the Afghan people – meaning that in practice, they won’t be rid of U.S. garrisons, drones, spies and bribes just yet, and maybe not ever.
So, in Empire-speak, "sovereignty" is entirely meaningless, and "partnership" means taking orders without question. File that for future reference.
Though the Emperor painted an optimistic picture of human progress, declaring that the entire world needs to band together to achieve democracy and freedom from poverty, global warming, discrimination and all the usual utopian shibboleths, his vision lacked any grounding in reality.
It is not at all clear whether events in Africa are really as connected as Obama claims, or if the only thing they have in common is Empire’s hope to direct and control them. Such a delusion would be no less dangerous than the pernicious belief in harnessing the power of Islamic jihad to achieve geopolitical goals – a belief that persists despite the proof to the contrary offered by that September morning ten years ago.
