Seduction Par Excellence!

The following confession is a bitter lesson for women of all ages: You would think that a sixty-four year old woman (as I was, at the time) would know better than to be seduced by any man! Unfortunately, and as I have admitted on numerous occasions, I am naïve and gullible. Following in the footsteps of numerous vulnerable women, I allowed myself to be drawn by his smile, his eyes, his words. Oh! Those beguiling words that wrapped themselves around my heart and captivated it! How could it be that he charmed me out of all my senses like that? But, it did occur, I reluctantly declare! A few friends tried to nudge me into reality, to warn me. I was too enraptured to heed any of them! Too late, I found out, that he had never really meant what he had promised. The honeyed words were just so that he could have his way with me – which he did! Oh, the disappointment of it all! Much worse for an older woman than it is for a young ingénue! It seems that all of life’s lessons had been wasted on me! There was no damage control mode to refer to; no amount of regret could ever reverse what had occurred! Yet, I have no one to blame but my dim-witted self! It was a seduction par excellence!

There was one consolation, though, if it could be called that. I was not the only one to be thus seduced. Barack Hussein Obama had seduced the whole world. Even the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded him before he had even stepped into the White House, or made one foreign policy decision from his Oval Office! How could those sane and calculating mavens in Oslo have been so misguided? Shouldn’t they, now that they have realized their error, rescind that honor, if for no other reason than to redeem their own tarnished reputation? I am, admittedly, one foolish old woman, how would they justify the collective wisdom that seduced them so?

Renditions are still afoot!

Secret prisons continue their operations!

Torture has been enshrined as a staple of interrogation techniques!

Cowering to the Israeli government, the neo-cons and all the war groupies has become a signature Obama foreign policy doctrine despite all his rhetoric otherwise.

Cowering to the multi-national corporations, the pharmaceutical industry and the lobbyists has become a signature domestic policy doctrine despite all the arousing speeches to the contrary.

They say he is concerned about his legacy. What legacy, pray? Hasn’t it been shred to bits already? But wait! We live in the United States of America, the most successful environment for reinventing one’s self. After royally messing up, our President could probably go on to reinvent himself, to cash millions for his speeches, to perhaps become even more famous than he already is. It has been done before, hasn’t it?

However, for those of us who were so magically seduced, so bitterly betrayed, it is not acceptable. And for those human beings around the world who have suffered unbelievably dire, tragic and serious outcomes due to Obama’s choices there will never be an excuse that assuages their pain. No amount of revisionism and no number of words in an autobiography can ever change the outcomes of their lives. As I write this, I do not know what the consequences of our Syria fiasco will be; what lasting damage they will incur. That script is so déjà-vu, though! The dramatic orations fall flat on my cynical ears! All the arguments for punishing the war-mongering Syrian leader by going to war ourselves are so banal! And dangling that tired carrot of peace between Israel and Palestine as a price for kicking Bashar in the crotch excites us not! We have heard this stale song before!  Most Arabs are very well aware that Israel has for long strived to diminish and emasculate every Arab country surrounding it. That has always been the strategy! And that is precisely why millions across this globe have developed sympathies for Al-Qaeda, and not for ideological reasons at all. They have become so because of America’s foreign policy debacles. Our indignant stance at Bashar’s alleged use of chemical weapons stands in sharp contrast to our acquiescence to Israel’s use of white phosphorous and other lethal weaponry in Gaza in 2008/09, let alone all of the Israeli government’s continuous, unashamed and outrageous transgressions on every level. And the fact that we are using a flagrantly staged event – totally choreographed by criminal minds and Maoist propaganda – of children killed by chemical weapons as a tool to go to war is outrageous! And the fact that we are goading Iran and Hezbollah to retaliate so that Israel will be rid of its foes is despicable! The hypocrisy is so brazen! Are we honestly that stupid?

The President renders incredible speeches! He orates splendidly! But that’s not a legacy, is it? I mean, he still reads from a teleprompter after all, while that other fellow, who seduced me as well, ad lib-bed most of his superb speeches. Bill Clinton, too, seduced the whole world. The adulating millions and billions around the world who still gather in droves everywhere he goes attest to that fact. But, wait! He, too, messed up didn’t he? Why though, I wonder, is his legacy intact? Do the hordes around the globe really know the details of Bill Clinton’s policies? I bet that few do. Very few! But what is very clear to those worshiping multitudes is that the President of the United States of America was dragged through the mud and impeached because he had indiscreet sex with an intern and lied about it. I have yet to meet that bold man who is caught in a peccadillo and who admits it up front! Have you? The huge crowds around the world do not know the real reasons as to why a posse of angry white boys whipped up the masses and decided to do Bill Clinton in. But, oh how they realize deep in their guts, by their sheer common sense and in their inherent sense of justice that impeaching and humiliating the President of the United States because of sexual transgressions was unjust, unfair and plain wrong. They know, and though they can’t articulate it, though to sound smart they avow that they loved his domestic policies – of which they know very little – or his foreign policy – of which they know less – that the impeachment was iniquitous and egregiously erroneous! The billions around the world who are still passionate about Bill Clinton to this day know in their gut that he was done in unfairly. And that’s what I believe, and am convinced, is the main reason why he is still so adored. And, that is why his legacy is untarnished around the globe from Africa, to Asia, to Europe and all over. (The same cannot be said about the war-mongering Hillary who will never get my vote!)

And the same cannot and will not be said about President Obama. There are seductions and, then, there are seductions! Sexual transgressions cannot ever be equated to foreign policy blunders! (And no, I will not discuss herein that other blundering president who started all of these tragic events!) However, some seductions make us whimsical, others are betrayals that turn us into supporters of the devil due to our anger, our desire to avenge, our embarrassment for having been thus mercilessly seduced! Most Americans and the world’s people know in their gut, by their sheer common sense and inherent sense of justice that Obama is just totally wrong.

But, this, too, shall pass! It always does! And, though I swore: Never Again, I will, nevertheless, be ready for another seduction once more come Election Day USA! Yes, again, I will allow another contender to beguile and enthrall me. It is just what happens. To me, to you, to most of us! And, let me tell you, that fellow Rand Paul is growing more attractive by the hour! Bring it on, Rand! Strut your stuff! If you are half of what your father, Ron Paul, is I will succumb shamelessly and endorse you unequivocally – that is, unless I am in good old Guantanamo by then (President Obama has kept it open for business, as I last heard!) or worse! Or, just maybe, and even though I am not one tenth as heroic as they are, I’ll simply join Assange in London, or Snowden in Moscow, or Greenwald in Brazil! That’s where, it seems, all those who speak truth to power end up, right? That’s democracy a la NSA Americana! Putin, with or without a shirt, you’re looking very good, my man! Very good, indeed!