Barack Obama, RFK, and Blackwater

Forty years ago, in 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy started his campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, he made a point to travel to what today would be considered "red" states. Five days after he announced his candidacy, he visited Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. At the University of Alabama, Kennedy said:

I have come here because I seek to join with you in building a better country and a united country. And I come to Alabama because I need your help. This election will mean nothing if it leaves us, after it is all over, as divided as we were when it began. We have to begin to put our country together again. So I believe that any who seek high office this year must go before all Americans: Not just those who agree with them, but also those who disagree; recognizing that it is not just our supporters, not just those who vote for us, but all Americans, who we must lead in the difficult years ahead. And this is why I have come, at the outset of my campaign, not New York or Chicago or Boston, but here to Alabama.

Barack Obama, in his victory speech last night following the Iowa caucuses, struck similar chords. He made an impassioned appeal to voters in "blue" states as well as "red" states. His primary campaigns have a grassroots fervor not seen in American politics since 1968, and he has sparked a nerve among young people who desire to move their country in a new direction away from the dismal politics of inaction, limitation, and scarcity to a new politics of hope and collective effort toward building a better future. It took forty years but perhaps today with Barack Obama we are seeing the continuation of the project that Robert Kennedy started in 1968.

In 1968, when Kennedy was gaining momentum and piling up primary victories it looked as though he would win the presidential nomination. But before he could be safely ensconced inside "the bubble" of 24-hour federal protection he was assassinated. And his progressive challenge to the war in Vietnam and to poverty at home was stopped in its tracks.

In 2008, Obama is gaining momentum, and hopefully people inside his organization are cognizant of the fact that he constitutes a very real threat to the likes of Blackwater, Dyncorps, Halliburton, and the hundreds of other private companies currently profiteering from the Iraq occupation.

Blackwater, that reactionary private mercenary outfit headed by the right-wing Christian nationalist Erik Prince stands to lose big time with an Obama presidency. Under George W. Bush Blackwater went from a marginal company with about $27 million in government contracts to a behemoth currently receiving over $1 billion in federal largesse.

It was revealed after the massacre of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad by Blackwater mercenaries that the U.S. State Department cannot function in Iraq without the services of the well-connected private company. Blackwater has a lot riding financially on keeping the Iraq occupation going and a lot to lose if it is ended. (Please read Jeremy Scahill's book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.)

Under an Obama Administration Blackwater would no doubt be cut down to size along with Bush's other crony capitalist entities. The Blackwater Boys no doubt have close friends and ideological soul mates deep inside the federal security services.

In 1968, immediately following the killing of Robert Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order providing Secret Service protection to all viable presidential candidates. His decision came as a result of the RFK assassination. But it was too late to prevent a tiny piece of lead from disfranchising millions of American voters.

Let's hope that the Blackwater elements can be thoroughly flushed out of the federal security services. Let's also hope that the Secret Service does a better job protecting Obama in the coming election year than Pakistan's ISI did in protecting Benazir Bhutto who didn't live to see election day.

What must be done with Blackwater is what President John F. Kennedy said he wanted to do with the CIA following the Bay of Pigs disaster: Tear it up into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the wind. FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and JFK are rolling in their graves at the privatizing of the armed forces that George W. Bush has rammed through. With privatization comes a lack of control on the part of the government over its own military and security services. Bush gave Blackwater and companies like it a free ride on the government's dime and they no doubt want the gravy train to continue. Obama promises to apply the brakes. He therefore has some well-armed and lethally trained enemies that stand to lose their livelihoods if he follows through on his promise to end the Iraq occupation.

When the political winds blow toward radical change our recent history shows that there's a tendency for popular leaders on the left to face some form of unexplained tragedy. Let's hope the primary campaigns of 2008 only mirror those of 1968 in their grassroots energy, enthusiasm, and vision for the future.

Comments

[bigdaddyvike]

All the Dems better watch out for that little aerosal can of Polonium with the little elephant on it....

[yappnmutt]

please give me a break. barack does not have the legacy of fighting the status quo like RF AND JF K ennedy. he is much more like the receiver of the baton from the old guard to the new guard. he is safe and secure except maybe from some of the neanderthal race conscious people the red states are known for.

[castlerider]

This is the true result, actually, only one of many, of the criminal aspects of the Bush administration.

So much more crime in terms of smashed hopes, denied freedoms, and outright murder has already occurred and will continue to occur as a result of this criminal, corrupt and dispicable administration.

[LionelMandrake]

To Obama's campaign handlers. An urgent message.

Please, please, please, hire some serious security protection for Sen. Obama as he heads to N.H., and onwards. I am particularly concerned about his health in our nations south, where inbred elements might rather die, or kill, than see an African American lead our country.

I would say hire Blackwater, but they might be just as likely to kill him as protect him.

The senator is a huge threat to many of the big players who have so enlarged their coffers under the corrupt Bush Cheney regime/cabal.

Those enlargements are likely to end under a President Obama. And those BILLIONS will not go down without a fight, even if it takes murder. Many would believe that billions are worth killing for. Just look at Iraq.

"They" murdered Bobby Kennedy, how much more so will those who targeted Kennedy, come after Obama with full force?

This man must be protected. Full time security is in order. A bulletproof vest would be a nice start, (and not the cheap, compromised kind that Bush gave our troops.)

Please, please, please, protect our candidate.

I cannot urge this more vociferously.

If you are not getting the protection that is needed from the government, then I would say spend a few million from your campaign funds to hire a platoon of non partisan Gurkhas. Seriously.

[schatsie]

I hope Obama's handlers and Edwards as well remember Paul Wellstone and others.. Back to 68 is a long time, back to Wellstone is nothing...

[Driver125]

Even if it can not be proven (yet) that they were directly involved, I believe that 1963 and the assassination of JFK will mark the turning point in this country's existence, the point where the forces of extremism finally stepped over the line and plunged into the dark side. As Malcolm X said, "The chickens have finally come home to roost." And so they have, worse and worse with every day since that one in '63. Is Bush/Cheney only the worse so far?

[Hugo de Balsac]

to Obama

He dare not dangle his comma
nor wear duds hewn from a Llama
tho he uses his feets
when he's walkin the streets
he'll never speak foul of yer mama.

[Kevin Law - Huffpost Blogger]

While I think you have good point about the similarity of Obama's and RFK's messages of unity and the value of that, I think you're wrong to assume Obama is the man to fight the influences of over-strong private interests. He talks it but has not walked it. I'm sorry, but his work in Illinois doesn't reflect it. Neither does his negligent senate record. He is too concerned with conciliation. If you want the Blackwater's to be defeated you'd better choose a man like Edwards. He's got the backbone for the fight. He's also not anti-business or even anti-corporate. He's anti-UNDUE influence. It's a balance that needs to be struck and it will take a fighter to make it happen. Obama is no fighter. But he does have fantastically huge ambition and the media adulation to match. I think it would be a real loss if he gets the nomination based on a cult of personality.

[Oldchef]

I would hope that Mr. Palermo is wrong about the danger to Obama, but none of us would be surprised should it occur, at least not those of us who lived through 1968 to see the beginning of 40 years of domination by large multinational corporations after the murder of RFK. It caused me and millions of others to abandon politics in disgust. i do question the comparison of Obama to RFK. From what I can see over the past year, Edwards is a lot closer to the RFK legacy than Obama, the only similarity between RFK and Obama is the enthusiasm of his youthful supporters. If Edwards should fail, I would hope to see Obama back away from some of his corporate support and get closer to the RFK message, and that probably would increase his danger.

[KISSME]

I find it the height of hypocrisy that the Iranian national guard is declared a terrorist organization by the Americans, a legitimate arm of the Iranian military whose only crime is that it poses a resistance to the American Zionist NeoCons agenda.

However,extremist christian militia group Blackwater keeps getting more money and more protection and more guns from the American tax payer.

Who do you think believes that America is the good guys anymore?

No one.

If American voters don't step up and reclaim their nation and democracy from their religious groups (both Jewish & Christian) and lobby groups and corrupt politicians we the world are going to have to deal with them for you and that means; isolation, sanctions and even military aggression.

As a Canadian, the last scenerio makes me nervous because I am tired of being dragged into Americas endless wars and consequences for it's pet Israel (like 9/11) -- your' nations foreign policy is endangering mine & the world.

[fairwitness]

It's difficult for most to admit the truth of what you've written about the real threat to Obama from the neofascist right. They have proven to be ruthlessly willing to steal every public dollar available and kill literally uncountable American, Iraqui and other living human beings to gain and exert their power.

Who will be really surprised if Obama suffers some new, high-tech, untracable version of Bobby Kennedy's fate? These last seven dark years are no fluke--the Bush/Cheney fascists hold no love for actual humans and their crimes against humanity have been enabled by millions of followers.

Obama now represents the hope of anti-authoritarians and genuine patriots everywhere. Hope for the best, indeed, but the worst is more possible than generally admitted. These are dark times and in this increasingly fascist state there are many dark, conscience-less and power-mad people and groups active, both within government and without.

After Bush/Cheney's degradation of everything they touch, who now trusts that the government and it's massive secret military shares our democratic ideals and will act honorably if they must keep power and access to our treasury by other means???

[Boobaloo]

Bush & the maniacal Christian right have gotten us into a religious war; the professional Christian killers of Blackwater are the second phase of their global holy war, Iraq was the first phase.

Iran is the third phase.

Nuclear war is the last phase.

I've said from day one, Obama is going to be the next president of the United States of America.

[hopeless277]

The Secret Service has already broken the law at the order of GWB by turning over the visitor logs. I don't see any reason to doubt that they would allow Obama to be assasinated if GWB ordered it. Actually Obama has nothing to fear. There will be no elections. A terrorist attack will 'force' GWB to declare martial law. He will announce that since the Nat'l Guard is so decimated by the Iraq occupation that Blackwater will be allowed to patrol the streets and have carte blanche and total immunity with regards to deadly force. GWB will then 'postpone' the elections and remain in power. Pakistan was just a dry run. We will live in a Soviet style police state before the end of the year.

[tandrmcdonald]

You describe Erik Prince as "right-wing Christian nationalist Erik Prince."
Don't you mean fascist? If anyone is a threat to this country and everything its citizens stand for, this mutt is it. He has assembled George Bush's private army, and I have few doubts that he will not hesitate to "setloose the dogs of war" if and when Dubyuh gives him the nod. Few things scare me, Erik Prince is one of them. Elitist, mercenary and corrupt to the core.

[RickO]

Bill Clinton once said (on the Daily Show) that "when people begin to think, Republicans begin to lose" referring to the warped ideology of the far right that simply cannot survive in the light. I guess you can take that a step further and say when right-wing idealogues begin to lose, they begin to kill.

A key part of the exercise of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. Your post suggests the unthinkable but it's not impossible. It's happened before in this country and happened just last week in Pakistan. One would be naive to think these things occur in a vacuum.