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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Uzee's letter to Barack Obama

Uzma Aslam Khan has written a letter to Obama in which she asks a number of questions which, needless to say, no one in the US media has bothered to ask--but which many people both inside and outside the States would love to have answered. It's posted on the always-lively-sometimes-shocking alternative news site, Counterpunch. Take a look:

http://www.counterpunch.org/uzma03152008.html

Or there's a link from her own blog:

http://uzmaaslamkhan.blogspot.com

Please take a look... even if you're a supporter of Obama. Maybe especially then.

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE THE POLL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE!

2 comments:

Will C. said...

David,

Thank you for this. I was thinking of voting for Obama, but after reading your wife's letter my mind has changed very much.

Peace.

David Maine said...

Willsy,

Thanks for reading it. Uzma is a good writer and I think she brings up a number of valid (and often overlooked) points.

That said, I'm not sure the purpose of her piece was to change anybody's mind about anything, so much as to just raise question that are never raised. She says in the letter that she's writing to Obama, not Clinton, because he is the front-runner, but that the same questions pertain to Clinton. She also says that it's worth asking Obama these things because maybe he will reflect on them and alter his methods, whereas McCain won't.

So the problem remains: who should a thoughtful person vote for? The answer is certainly not McCain, and Clinton is just as problematic as Obama. Looked at from another angle, Obama is better than McCain and probably no worse than Clinton. Uzma's point was simply to prod and poke and ask questions about Obama'a mantra ("CHANGE") which she sees precious little evidence of.