The number of countries in which the US runs covert operations, drone raids, military training exercises, and other violent interventions has soared from 60 at the end of the Bush term to 134 nations today—70 percent of the world.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/2014/04/04/the-warfare-state-at-work-the-peace-candidates-secret-wars-in-134-countries/
Let's contrast that with what the "peace candidate" said in his Nobel Lecture:
I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict – filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.
The concept of a "just war" emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when certain conditions were met: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the force used is proportional; and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence.
I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war. What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace.
We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes.
Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct. And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight. That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions. We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor – we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard.
Yes, I cherry picked excerpts from his Nobel Lecture, and you may read the rest of his gibberish here:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/obama-lecture_en.html
Clearly he told a lot of lies in that lecture, but one thing he said was true:
We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes.
By the way, I would like to point out what I believe to be the most serious lie he told that day:
But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation ...
He took no such oath. The Presidential oath of office reads as follows:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
He is not sworn to protect and defend the nation. He is sworn to faithfully execute his office (including the faithful execution of the laws) and to defend the Constitution, and he has done none of these things.
It's appalling that a former "constitutional law professor" would fail to understand the basic requirements of his office. Instead he has revealed himself to be a heartless and petty dictator who in most respects is no better than his predecessor, and who in many respects is worse.
America's Founders took great pains to ensure that traitors, criminals, and morons could not rise to the highest office of the land. They put in place strict controls on the right to vote, and they specified that an Electoral College of the wisest people in the land should choose the President. Instead we have stripped those controls away and allowed morons to elect a moron. We now live in one of the Founders' worst nightmares ... and I fear that even worse things are to come.
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