Stephen Lendman

His deplorable record speaks for itself. He’s no JFK, just the opposite, an unindicted war criminal unaccountable for eight years of high crimes against peace.

He enforced police state harshness, waged war on Islam, Latino immigrants, environmental and animal rights activists, whistleblowers, and others challenging his ruthlessness.

He force-fed austerity on America’s most vulnerable to benefit Wall Street, other corporate favorites and the nation’s privileged class, accelerating the wealth disparity between rich and poor.

He boasted about being at war throughout his tenure after promising to end them in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He bombed seven countries, naked aggression by any standard, raped and destroyed Libya and Syria, replaced democratic governance in Ukraine with Nazi-infested tyranny, partnered with the Saudi dictatorship in waging genocidal war on Yemen.

His drone wars in multiple countries largely massacred defenseless civilians. He supported Israeli apartheid, backing its occupation harshness and aggression on Gaza.

On Sunday, he was given the 2017 JFK Profile in Courage Award, the Kennedy Library deplorably saying:

“Throughout his two terms in office, President Obama upheld the highest standards of dignity, decency and integrity, serving not just as a political leader, but a moral leader, offering hope and healing to the country and providing young men and women of all backgrounds with an example they can emulate in their own lives.”

Fact: Throughout his public life, he spurned “dignity, decency and integrity,” serving wealth, power and privilege exclusively.

Fact: He’s a serial liar, a moral coward, never “offering hope and healing to the country,” and people, except privileged ones running it.

Fact: He showed ordinary “young men and women of all backgrounds” that America operates lawlessly and ruthlessly - under him, his predecessors and Trump, the most vicious regime over a longer duration than any others historically.

Obama promised “change you can believe in.” He delivered eight years of betrayal, contemptuous of popular needs and rights, serving monied interests exclusively, now cashing in with a multi-million dollar book deal and six-figure speaking addresses, payment for services rendered.

In Boston Sunday night at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, he said “I hope that current members of Congress recall that it actually doesn’t take a lot of courage to aid those who are already powerful, already comfortable, already influential - but it does require some courage to champion the vulnerable and the sick and the infirm.”

His deplorable (Un)affordable Care Act rationed healthcare to enrich predatory industry providers. Calling Obamacare his signature legislative accomplishment ignores the harm inflicted on millions of America’s most vulnerable it left out or provided too little coverage to pay for serious illnesses, diseases or injuries.

Obama: “I hope (congressional members) understand that courage means not simply doing what is politically expedient, but doing what they believe deep in their hearts.”

Fact: Courage, honor, integrity, fairness, virtue and high-mindedness are attributes he totally lacked throughout his public life, notably as president.

He shamefully called congressional members supporting deplorable Obamacare “profile(s) in courage.”

They betrayed Americans by rejecting government sponsored, single-payer, universal coverage for everyone, the only equitable system, no others, notably not Obamacare or Trumpcare.

Throughout his tenure, Obama never exhibited “courage to champion the vulnerable and the sick,” as he claimed - only America’s privileged class at their expense.

Presenting him with the JFK Profile in Courage Award mocked the legacy of what America’s 35th president stood for - notably his opposition to imperial wars, support for Palestinian rights, wanting nuclear weapons eliminated, a “general and complete disarmament,” the Cold War ended, and other responsible polices absent under bipartisan neocon rule today.

All presidents since JFK were loyal servants of wealth, power and privilege - none a profile in courage.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.