Obama denounces pastor's inflammatory remarks

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has railed against the United States and accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.

And

In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks.

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Wright said. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."

In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no..."

He also gave a sermon in December comparing Obama to Jesus, promoting his candidacy and criticizing his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

More here.

I'm also going to add, just for argument's sake, and because my dad says he heard it on FOX News, that Rev. Wright has claimed that the US government created AIDS as a way to kill black people--to be fair, I don't know that he actually said this, just that my dad appears to think so, you know, the point of view of the average FOX News consumer.

Anyway, I'm finding this latest primary controversy fascinating. Wright's remarks are controversial, but not too terribly far from the truth, either, as far as I can tell. No big deal in the real world, although very dangerous for Obama in the reality-challenged world of politics.

For starters, the US really did unleash mass terror and destruction on the Japanese in WWII, and not just with nukes: we started firebombing civilians in Japan very early on in the war, and continued it until its end. The US has also continuously supported, with weapons, dollars, and rhetoric, Israel's government, no matter how many Palestinians they barrage with artillery. And, yes, the US also supported South Africa's Apartheid regime for decades until popular protests here in the 80s pulled our political class away from its inexplicable endorsement of brutal white minority rule.

Wright is right about the roosting chickens, for many more reasons than listed above: 9/11 happened not for the comic book motivation of "their hating our freedom;" it happened because we've treated the world like utter shit for many many years. It all could have been avoided. Sure, saying so causes controversy, but it's the truth.

But is Wright right to say that Blacks should condemn the US?

I assume that Wright is referring to the US government rather than its people, and he's certainly correct when he says that the government gave African-Americans drugs. (Click here for more on this.) He's certainly right about prisons and Blacks and Draconian sentencing laws. Fuck man, everybody should condemn the US government for this shit. Controversial, but the truth.

Okay, Obama's no Jesus, but so what? A minister should be allowed a little hyperbole. Besides, these preachers are always using Biblical metaphor: better Jesus than Jonah or Job, I suppose.

But what about this AIDS thing my dad says he heard on FOX? Well, I think it's safe to say that the US government did not create AIDS to kill Blacks, but the US government is responsible for Nazi like medical experiments performed on poor Black Southerners as recently as 1972: if you can't forgive a Black man a little paranoia about shit like this, you're as big of a monster as Hillary Clinton.

One last thing: Wright visited Khadaffi in Libya with Nation of Islam kook Louis Farrakhan. Okay, this was dumb. But Obama's already denounced Farrakhan, and you know, a local preacher visiting with Khadaffi really does pale in significance when compared to, say, high government officials visiting with, well, check it out:



Yeah, that's Donald Rumsfeld.

This is all such bullshit.

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