The other day I was listening to a Black radio program where there was a discussion concerning Afghanistan.� The interviewer and the interviewee went back and forth discussing that it is hard to understand what could be going through the mind of a suicide bomber.� So far, so good.� But then the discussion took a very weird turn.� The otherwise progressive interviewer (I have heard her on other occasions) went into attack mode suggesting that it would be impossible to negotiate with the Taliban or Al Qaeda because of how fanatical they are and how much they hate the USA.� The interviewee, building on this, then made an extremely derogatory comment saying that Allah spelled backwards was �Halla.�� Somehow this �funny� point supposedly explained Muslim radicalism.

I turned off the radio and found myself thinking about this radio interview as representing one response to President Obama�s announced escalation of the Afghanistan war.� If this response were one that was immediately condemned or eclipsed by a massive Black anti-war initiative, I would feel differently.� There has, however, been no outcry against Obama.� Yes, Danny Glover, a renowned actor and activist, got onto radio almost before Obama�s speech was completed, to speak out against the escalation.� But this was more the exception than the rule.�

There is a silence in Black America and that silence is very disconcerting.� It is even more than disconcerting when otherwise progressive African Americans turn away from criticizing a policy initiative that under other circumstances they would condemn.� The example from the radio program mentioned above is such a case.� How could these individuals think that it is funny to make fun of the name Allah?� How could they suggest that negotiations with the Taliban are impossible when it was the Taliban that suggested negotiations with President George Bush immediate after the 9/11 terrorist attacks (when the Taliban was prepared to turn over Osama Bin Laden!!!)?

Too many in Black America remain entranced with President Obama.� We are so afraid that our criticism of President Obama will somehow dovetail with right-wing criticism of the President that we withhold comment.� We do so at great risk, however, since our voice could actually be central to a mobilization that would shift the policy of this Administration.� We continue to pursue an approach taken toward Obama during the campaign:� to see in President Obama what we want to believe is there rather than acknowledging precisely what and who is standing before us.�

Whereas Black America is often among the most progressive and critical sectors of US society when it comes to responding to US foreign policy�such as in the lead up to the Iraq War when 60%-82% of us condemned the US aggression�in the face of an escalation carried out by a Black President too many of us are choosing to take a pass.� I do not use the word �choosing� lightly.� We are coming up with excuses, whether along the lines of the insulting comments from the radio program mentioned earlier to suggesting that Obama has no alternative otherwise there might be a military coup in the USA to it is not all that bad because he set a rough date for withdrawal.�� The bottom line is that the escalation does not make us any safer because it does not destroy the force that led the 9/11 terrorist attacks:� Al Qaeda.� Instead, it suggests a counter-insurgency war against a movement that did not want a war with the USA in the first place but is gaining strength as the US backs one criminal leader after another who claim to be against terrorism and are willing to play paddy-cake with the USA.

If we, as African Americans, are seriously confused about what stand to take in the face of this escalation, then let�s have a debate.� Let�s have special community meetings where intelligent and useful information is provided and where we can actually debate the issue.� But in either case, let us not pretend that because a Black American occupies the White House that aggression has somehow mutated into justice.� It simply does not work that way.

BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and co-author of, Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice (University of California Press), which examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA. Click here to contact Mr. Fletcher.