By Debra Sweet

Recently, the current commander in chief made highly provocative visits to countries that the United States did the most significant damage to in the last century.

In Vietnam, where more than 2 million were killed in the illegitimate U.S. war on the people, the words "napalm," "B-52 bombers," "tiger cages," and the words "My Lai" did not come from Obama's lips.

He was there to tighten up military alliances with subordinate countries, hand out weapons, and to regain US access to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam's deep water port from which the U.S. made war, and from which it could challenge China.  U.S. warships are frequently in the South China Sea; U.S. military aircraft fly over it as a show of military dominance backing up the huge amount of U.S. trade flowing through the region.

Thanks to Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist Mike Hastie, who was in Vietnam in April, for getting to the heart of the empire:

I am standing next to a silk cotton tree and a marker with the names of fifteen Vietnamese civilians who were murdered at My Lai on March 16, 1968. If you look at the December 5, 1969 issue of Like Magazine, you will see one of Ron Haeberle's pictures that was in the article graphically covering the massacre. Seven people appear in a vertical picture, with a Vietnamese woman wearing a red blouse, that was taken at the exact location of my self portrait.

This is a quote from the article on page 36: " Guys were about to shoot these people, photographer Ron Haeberle remembers. " I yelled, ' Hold it, ' and shot my picture. As I walked away, I heard M-16s open up. From the corner of my eye I saw bodies falling, but I didn't turn to look."  From Vietnam to The Middle East, The American Empire has never stopped killing. The My Lai Massacre is a metaphor for the entire Vietnam War. My words on the front of my shirt read: " America is going to war itself into oblivion."

Mike Hastie
Army Medic Vietnam
Photograph taken April 5, 2016

Above, Hiroshima, Japan, shortly after the US nuclear bombing

Next, Obama, who approved $1 TRILLION to overhaul the US nuclear arsenal in 2014, tried to play off the nuclear crimes of the U.S. as those of "mankind." The State Department made it clear Obama was not in Hiroshima, Japan to apologize for the U.S. first use of a nuclear bomb on the people there.

Obama's performance was more than hypocrisy — it was an assertion of U.S. power over the region, and especially, a challenge to China.  Revcom.us reported, "since he has taken office, Obama has visited Asia 10 times, and worked to strengthen relations with countries in the region. This is why, even as the U.S. and China collude and negotiate sometimes when it serves their interests, the U.S. military has built a chain of air bases and military ports to encircle China. This is a big reason Obama has fought to push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would set new, U.S.-favored terms for trade and business investment among the United States and 11 Pacific nations—and exclude China."