by ERIC LONDON
Guantanamo Bay Prison
Obama’s place in history: Permanent war and the breakdown of American democracy
The year 2016 is the last full year of the administration of Barack Obama, the 44th US president. Accordingly, talk of the administration’s impact on history has become a frequent theme in the corporate press and political establishment.
Obama’s “legacy,” as it is called in the media, is not an insignificant matter. But a correct appraisal of a president’s place in history must begin with an understanding that the conduct of a government is not merely the product of the subjective aims of the president and his cabinet members.
The administration’s programs and policies are the outcome of the interaction between the material needs of competing sections of the American ruling class and the developing logic of world events. As events drive the ruling class’s policy choices, the consequences of those policies in turn impact events, and vice versa. Through this interaction, the true state of social relations and class rule under capitalism emerges.
In this context, Charlie Savage’s new 769-page book Power Wars: Inside Obama’s Post-9/11 Presidency is a chilling account of the true state of class rule in the United States.
Savage’s book, published by Little, Brown and Co. in November 2015, examines a major aspect of what the Obama administration will be remembered for: institutionalizing the Bush administration’s anti-democratic state repression and establishing a state of permanent war.
Savage, who has been writing about war and constitutional issues for the New York Times since 2008, deserves much credit for this meticulously researched work. The author draws on over 150 sources from the Bush and Obama administrations as well as hitherto unreported internal administration documents to give an inside view of the crucial discussions within the Obama White House.
In the course of his book, Savage addresses the Obama administration’s role in institutionalizing drone assassinations, military commissions, the use of offshore prisons like Guantanamo Bay, indefinite detention, expanded presidential war powers, whistleblower prosecution, mass surveillance, etc. For those readers interested in a detailed, honest, and serious review of these issues, Savage’s book stands alongside James Risen’s 2014 Pay Any Price.
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