Views in brief

Obama's Afghanistan escalation

I REALLY appreciated your editorial "The party of which people?" but disagree partially with one point.

You were right that President Obama has continued Bush-era policies of endless war, including expanding the number of wars with the NATO bombing of Libya. However, you state that he has continued these wars "with downsized but enduring occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan."

While it is true that the occupation of Iraq has been "downsized," the opposite is the case in Afghanistan, where Obama has increased the number of troops occupying the country. And despite his announced withdrawal, there remain tens of thousands more troops in Afghanistan than when Obama took office.

In December 2009, Obama announced a surge of 30,000 additional troops, which were deployed over the following months. This was coupled with a more-than-threefold increase in air strikes in Afghanistan in 2010, including major offensives in Marja and Kandahar, as well as a qualitative increase in cross-border drone attacks in Pakistan.

All of this made 2010 the deadliest year since the war began, both for civilians--according to Afghanistan Rights Monitor--and for occupation troops.

The fact is that the Nobel Peace Prize winner and so-called "antiwar candidate" has escalated, not downsized, the occupation of Afghanistan, killing civilians and U.S. troops at a greater rate than Bush ever did in that nation.
Gary Lapon, New York City

Throwing a generation away

I JUST want to say that the words written in this article ("Urban rebellions and social change") are extremely accurate. The politicians can't hide forever from the effect of austerity politics by pointing the finger at the people who are, and will, suffer the most from the very same politics.

This kind of false moralizing is, among other things, unfortunately proof of the widening class gap in society. Needless to say, in the case of Britain, on one side, you have a prime minister educated at Eton and Oxford and, on the other side, you have the so-called "NEET" (not in education, employment, or training) youth.
Goran Lukic, Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, Slovenia

No surprises from Obama

IN A mostly good editorial, SocialistWorker.org made the following statement which I find truly baffling: "Obama's decisive swing to the right will be disorienting and demoralizing to millions of working people, including the activists who are central to social struggles, from trade union shop stewards to people organizing around issues, from housing rights to defense of public services" ("A stake in the heart of the welfare state").

Swing to the right? What on earth are you talking about? I have to wonder where people who think Obama's politics have "swung to the right" have been for the past seven years.

And how is it disorienting or demoralizing to anybody for Obama to continue the policies he's been pursuing ever since he came to Washington? Perhaps if they haven't noticed what his policies were like before, it could be demoralizing to finally realize that Obama isn't on the verge of pursuing a new New Deal--but "disorienting"? How is it disorienting for anyone to realize, if they haven't before, that the Democratic Party is a tool of Wall Street for whom the interests of ordinary people are not something to be taken seriously?

Isn't that, in fact, what we want people to realize? Isn't having one's illusions in Obama and the Democrats shattered the exact opposite of "disorienting"?
Jeff Melton, from the Internet

Vanishing civil rights

THIS WAS an excellent article ("Civil liberties under Obama"). It opened my eyes to the truth that was nagging at me in the back of my head, but I did not want to fully appreciate.

I have often said to some friends how much I admire the Irish people, who I see as struggling for the same rights that we ourselves fought the British for. When I read Thomas Jefferson in his letters to King George, and Benjamin Franklin on creating the middle class, I see the same parallel between what they did and what the Irish are doing.

At the same time, I see how we are losing all of these rights that we fought so hard for, and this article reinforced that point for me. I had been wavering back and forth with Obama, hoping that the doubt I was feeling was wrong, and that he would eventually come through for us. Thank you, now I know the truth.
Mary Price, Denver