Et tu, Barack?

Anyone who has ever taken high school Brit Lit knows the symbolic utterance of my title question. It is, next to the “Judas Kiss,” the quintessential expression of betrayal. In Shakespeare’s play (and according to some, ‘true’ to history) when Julius Caesar mouthed the words, "Et tu, Brute?", as his friend Brutus stuck the knife in, it was followed by the line, “Then fall, Caesar.”

“Then fall, Caesar.”

And so it is with that remembrance of the knife that I ask, “Et tu, Barack?”

For we have been betrayed. You have been betrayed. You, who argued for his Presidency on the basis of his opposition to the war with Iraq. You, who told me to vote for him because his was a different vision for the future. You, who defended his Nobel Peace Prize by arguing from potential. You, who found in him a hope for a NEW way. YOU, who saw in him a different kind of humanity; a different kind of leadership; a different kind of HOPE; a new idea of peace. We have been betrayed.

His golden tongue is still mesmerizing.
He appeals to 9/11. He exploits the old wound. He appeals to the future of our children and grandchildren. He tugs at the heartstrings. He appeals to right and virtue and nobility and freedom. The rhetoric is astounding.

And then there are the 30,000. The 30,000.

And I am heart sick.

And all are silent. The only outrage I have heard has been from a dear friend of mine; a seasoned war protestor; a staunch Obama supporter who is prepared to protest and to march against her beloved Barack, because as she expressed it to me, “Right is right.”

In the past few days I have engaged in conversations with a few people about the escalation of the war (let me repeat that—the ESCALATION OF THE WAR) in Afghanistan and have been confronted with comments about how Hillary "would be doing the same thing." I am speechless and insulted. Why do they invoke her name? It seems somehow they think my criticism stems from my initial animosity towards Obama during the Democratic Presidential primaries. Huh?

They think I take pleasure in this? They could not be more wrong. It has always been my heart's desire that Obama BE who you thought he was and DO what he said he'd do. What kind of American would I be if I had not wanted that?

As an aside, I think it an absolutely stunning turn of events that those who tell me now that 'Hillary would be doing exactly the same thing,' are the same people who just a few short months ago were arguing against Hillary's candidacy in favor of Obama's on the basis of their radically (O, so radically) different positions on war. And now, they seem to defend him from some appeal to their standing on the same hawkish ground. Don't you just LOVE irony?

I listened to his speech and I am not moved.
His rhetoric was predictable and lackluster.
I could have been listening to LBJ or John McCain or George Bush.

I expected more. I expected audacity. I expected peace. And so did you.

And the hope is dashed.

Et tu, Barack? Then fall, the 30,000.