ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: Renowned American writer, intellectual and broadcaster David Barsamian has said that Barack Obama’s election as president is a symbolic change. George Bush was a nightmare for the US people as the country was ruled by ‘war criminals’ throughout his tenure, causing a colossal damage to the social fabric of the US society, scientific thinking and environment, he said adding this was why Obama victory was greeted with joy.

However, he expressed his skepticism about the initial appointments in the presidency, which he described as an indicative that he was not breaking with the past and would continue to save the empire.“The vocabulary may be eloquent and articulate, but the content is expected to be almost the same”, he said while delivering a lecture on “US-Pakistan relations – Obama’s direction”, arranged by monthly Urdu magazine Badalti Dunya in collaboration with Awami Jamhuri Ittehad (AJI) at Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) on Thursday.

He specifically mentioned the retaining of General Robert Gates as Defence Secretary and appointment of Senator Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State who had criticized Obama when he had said that he would enter into a dialogue with Iran.

He said Obama was never against the US invasion of Iraq, but was only critical of the way it was being fought there. He said that the invasion was a major war crime and the perpetrators must be tried for that, but regretted that there were no such indications from Obama.

He welcomed the decision to close down Guantanamo Bay, but said it must be returned to Cuba from which it had been stolen some 100 years ago. He said all other security bases and torture cells around the world including the one in Bagram, Afghanistan should also be closed down and those responsible for them should be tried for war crimes.

About US policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan, Mr Barsamian said he Obama seemed to be adopting the Bush framework on war on terror, which was disappointing citing his statements.

He also talked about the drone attacks inside Pakistan and pointed out that a “don’t ask, don’t tell’ agreement was said to have been reached between Bush and Zardari. Under the understanding, the drone attacks would not only continue but expand and cosmetic protests would be lodged over the attacks.

The US scholar said one rationale given for that was that Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives based in Pakistan attacked Nato and US troops in Afghanistan. “Withdrawal of US and Nato forces from Afghanistan is one of the solutions. When there will be no target, there will be no question of attacks”, he remarked.

He said the justification was flimsy since otherwise as well that they did not want the Afghans to defend themselves and were waging a war in their country against all international laws.

Expressing his concern over Obama’s direction, Barsamian said as the bombing intensified in Fata, the war will expand. “The longer this war continues, the more the chaos will spread”, he said.

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy on the occasion said it was not appropriate to hold US responsible for all ills. He was in favour of US forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan but that must not be done in haste. He was of the view that an immediate pull out of US troops would mean a return of Taliban rule wherein carnage like 1995 would take place, people would be publicly hanged and there would be a ban on women education. He said there should be a suitable time-frame for it.

Tahira Abdullah said the more the US troops stayed in Afghanistan, the more radicalization of youth in Pakistan would take place as both had a direct link.

Dr Tariq Rehman, Dr A.H Nayyar and Prof Khwaja Masood also spoke on the occasion.