Stuart Littlewood

Stuart Littlewood argues that, as president of an internationally hated terrorist state that is godfather to thuggish and criminal regimes like Israel, President Barack Obama should stay at home and save our hard-earned tax money from being wasted in a frenzy of ridiculous security measures to protect the pretentious pomp and circumstance of his sinister presidential circus.

You have to laugh.

Mr Obama comes to London for the G20 summit with 500 hangers-on, including 200 secret service goons and a guy with America's nuclear missile launch codes in his briefcase. He arrives in Air Force One accompanied by cargo planes bringing an estimated 35 vehicles for the presidential visit including “The Beast”, the president’s armour-plated limousine.

This, the ultimate personal protection commuter vehicle, is fitted with a 5-inch steel plate floor and bodywork made of dual-hardness steel, titanium and ceramics to break up any incoming projectile. The doors are armour-plated and 8 inches thick, and the window glass will stop high velocity rounds and a .44 magnum at point-blank range. It is fitted with kevlar-reinforced tyres on steel rims with run-flat ability.

The Obamamobile is also armed with pump-action shotguns, tear gas cannons, night vision cameras and a GPS system. There are oxygen cylinders in the boot and a supply of presidential blood just in case...

So heavy is “The Beast” that its 6.5-litre diesel engine struggles to drag it from 0 to 60 mph in 15 seconds, even slower than my Aunt Bessy's ageing Nissan Micra.

Then there's Marine One, the helicopter that transfers Mr Obama from the airport to the US ambassador's residence. Marine One never flies alone for security reasons. A number of decoy helicopters also take to the air in order to confuse imaginary terrorists.

Mrs Obama has her own bodyguards, who are part of her eight-strong support team.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt, nicknamed the “Big Stick”, is also on hand during the summit, cruising off Britain’s shores. The 90,000 ton super-carrier comes with a wing of 90 aircraft, including FA18 Super Hornet multi-role fighters and Sea Hawk helicopters.

They've just completed a seven month gung-ho tour supporting troops in Afghanistan, where the carrier's aircraft flew 3,100 sorties dropping 60,000 lbs of ordnance as part of the International Security Assistance Force. So, we can count on these swell guys if there’s any local difficulty.

Is this Obama’s idea of cool? How eco-friendly is all this, just so that one person can go to a meeting? When the leader of the western world gets this twitchy, haven’t the terrorists won without detonating a single device?

Meanwhile, Scotland Yard is on high alert and has called up 2,500 extra police officers to patrol the G20 meetings. Road closures are planned in the City and West End, including major arteries such as Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. People trying to get to work face disruption, delay and great inconvenience.

And I for one am not best pleased to see my hard-earned tax money disappearing down the tubes in a frenzy of ridiculous security measures to protect the pretentious pomp and circumstance of this sinister presidential circus.

Gee, Mr Obama, you should stay home. It really isn't safe out here mixing with us less precious folk, the reason being, of course, that your country is a terrorist state and godfather to thuggish and criminal regimes like Israel, and generally hated the world over.

You surround yourself with the same sort of political low-life that orchestrated Bush's atrocities. In your short time as president you have already jeopardized any chance of a just peace in the Holy Land. And nobody remembers you complaining, while in opposition, about the way America’s greedy bankers were screwing the world’s financial markets and precipitating the global meltdown that has impoverished us all.

As for global warming of the other kind, hang your presidential head in shame again.

Keep Air Force One in its hangar, Mr Obama. Chain up “The Beast”. Stay home snug and safe. Quit meddling. Put away your military toys. Leave the world alone. Show respect.

And be kinder to the planet.

Do that and we less precious people might start loving America again.

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.

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Source: http://www.redress.cc/americas/slittlewood20090401