THE HERALDED “change” from Bush’s foreign policy which Obama supposedly represents, is increasingly looking like a simple shift in geographical focus. The tactics used in Iraq – bribing past opponents and using a surge of military force – are to be employed in the coming months in Afghanistan. The justification is also largely similar to the rhetoric of Bush – a war against “terrorism” that knows no borders.
In scrambling to avoid a break-up of the eurozone, the approach of the elites in Europe has been characterised by two common themes – austerity programmes to make the working class pay, and a further diminishing of democracy to facilitate the implementation of that austerity.