The Black World of Obama

Dear Mr. President,

“President George W. Bush was criticized… for vastly expanding the black world but it has not been reined in by the Obama Administration.” (The New Yorker, October 22, “Prying Eyes”) Little has changed since Bush turned the White House over to you. In many ways it is worse. Secrecy is the enemy of democracy and justice and secrecy is the hallmark of your administration. The artist Trevor Paglen is quoted in the above article: “secrecy nourishes the worst excesses of power.” I agree. The black budget is estimated to be $50 billion but no one is sure because this information is classified. The budget for national security agencies is estimated to be $80 billion but that too is classified and not for public consumption. The cost of the war in Afghanistan is estimated at about $100 billion this year but probably more because contractors, aid and other supporting costs are buried elsewhere in the budget. The cost to the government for a typical extraordinary rendition flight from, say, Germany, Afghanistan or the U.S., to a black site in another country like Egypt, Syria or Libya where suspects were tortured, appears to have been about $300,000. The cost of a Hellfire Missile: $68,000. The cost of a Predator Drone system (4 aircraft and the control system) $20 million. Who benefits from all this? The military, the politicians, the merchants of death. Who loses? The civilians, the innocent, the collateral damage, but especially the children. Those like Malala Yousafzai, Borjan, Sardar Wali, Khan Bibi, and the tens of thousands more killed, maimed or otherwise traumatized in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The thousands of orphans who have lost parents and family, villages which have been reduced to rubble and cultures destroyed and in chaos. But we too, in America have lost. The trillions wasted on war and death instead of education, health and a livable environment. You have abandoned your own people to kill others, ignored the real danger of global warming for the false glory of Empire and the War on Terror, a war without victory, a war without end. You pander to Big Oil and guarantee a bleak future—or no future—for the rest of us. You now justify the killing of children as young as 8 by declaring them bomb diggers and insurgents. You exhort us to vote and “lean forward” with you for another term but a vote for you makes us complicit in your war crimes and crimes against humanity. No war criminal in the White House! Jill Stein for president!