Join thousands of others who rely on our journalism to navigate complex issues, uncover hidden truths, and challenge the status quo with our free newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox twice a week:

Join thousands of others who support our nonprofit journalism and help us deliver the news and analysis you won’t get anywhere else:

President Barack Obama’s highly anticipated inauguration speech has been widely praised as serious and/or somber. Pepe Escobar argues that for all its soaring rhetoric, it was very short on specifics. It did not even mention China and Russia. It made a cursory acknowledgement of the Muslim world. It ignored the Americas – and native Americans. It did not renounce the war on terror framework. It certainly encouraged honesty, hard work and determination. But while claiming to set a new era of responsibility, Obama seemed to place most of this new responsibility over God’s shoulders. Dr. Martin Luther King in his own time had been much more incisive.