Obama giveth and Obama taketh away

Just a reminder to those of you who're new to this blog, or may have forgotten: there is no pro-freedom, anti-war candidate with a prayer of winning the White House. Yes, 68 percent of the American people oppose the Iraq war, but that means nothing to our handlers except that they must continue to handle us. How? By offering an "anti-war" candidate who, if somehow elected, will only divert resources to another front. Our tax dollars will continue to flow to the military/industrial racket. So Obama's just managing our expectations -- and he is good at it:

Obama campaigned Saturday in the Northwestern city of Bend, Oregon, and again said he would end the Iraq war as soon as possible. "Our nation is involved in two wars--one war that has to be won, the war against al-Qaida and the terrorist networks in Afghanistan and in Pakistan--one war that was a war of choice and I believe should have never been authorized and should have never been waged, the war in Iraq that I want to bring to an end," he said.

If McCain loses in November, Obama will instantly pump up operations in Afghanistan, continuing DC's hare-brained scheme of forging the tribes there into a Western-style nation-state, while making a show of withdrawing from Iraq. Of course he won't really withdraw -- as this story reminds us, the US has a cozy little castle for its permanent occupation forces, and it would be a shame to let it go to waste. And who cares what the Iraqis think? It's the price of being libertated:

"It is a symbol of occupation for the Iraqi people, that is all," says Anouar, a Baghdad graduate student who thought it was risk enough to give her first name. "We see the size of this embassy and we think we will be part of the American plan for our country and our region for many, many years." The 104-acre, 21-building enclave – the largest US Embassy in the world, similar in size to Vatican City in Rome – is often described as a "castle" by Iraqis, but more in the sense of the forbidden and dominating than of the alluring and liberating.

The Empire intends to continue growing, no matter what we silly voters say.