Today’s Post Global GPB

http://www.secure-x-001.net/SecureGeo/Issue/SecureObservationComments.asp

And the topic of discussion is...

“Will Bush rescue the Annapolis accord as he visits the Middle East for essentially the first time?”

And the answer provided by the author is...

No Annapolis rescue...just another photo op to enable radical Islamists.

“Most analysts believe President Bush won't start crafting constructive policies now, in his last year, when he has had no vision for the region for 7 years. What most thought leaders are asking is whether the President has any real priority beyond an attempt to reach for some type of better legacy than he has now. Few believe he does and that will make it difficult for this trip to achieve much if anything other than photo ops. Unfortunately, it provides the opportunity for US opponents, particularly radical Islamists, to achieve much as they direct anger and rage toward the most unpopular US President in memory.”

I concur. Ata boy W!

Wow!!!! A PostGlobal critic attacking Bush!!!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so surprised!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Sir, thank you for your message. Now let us ask you to tell the world to stop sending us terrorists, to stop hijacking our planes, to stop killing our citizens (ie Sudan),to stop bombing our embassies, to stop bombing our naval ships, to stop insulting our president (chavez), to stop hating our cultural and our western ways. I got tiered of trying to understand why the world dislikes America, I have come to the conclusion that much of the dislike is a knee-jerk reaction due to resentment. I no longer try to understand, I just dislike back.

a looter? excuse me while i keep from coming unsprung. send them hollywood and starbucks while they send us a nuke. the other countries of the world should understand that when we are gone the next stalin-hitler clone will arrive. we are the only thing that stands between you and putin right now. get a grip.

The United States got to where it is in world leadership by, as Theodore Roosevelt said so well, "Speak softly, but carry a big stick". We defeated the State-sponsered Barbary pirates with force. The US "opened" Japanese trade with a "gunboat". We defeated Fascism with blood and bullets. We defeated Communism with a combination of blood and money. We subdued a rising terrorist in Libya with a few well-placed bombs. During this time, we neglected a growing terrorism threat. Now we are using blood and money again to defeat it. Sorry, but Starbucks has done nothing for world peace. Time and again history has shown us that force is what evil men respect and fear. Negotiations have a place, but as was the case with Iraq, the interests of Nations differ. France, Russia, and others that opposed the invasion had their own interests in mind, just as we had ours. The same people that curse us for invading Iraq, curse us for not invading North Korea. The US cannot solve the world's problems, so like EVERY other Nation on Earth, it will solve the ones that are in its' interests and should not apologize for it.

A. Musa - thanks for engaging in this debate.

I am a Political Science major from a California university. I listen to neither Fox nor Rush on a regular basis but in addition to frequenting these Newsweek sites (where I learn much of the global scene in facts and culture but discount most opinion), I also visit CNN daily but count on Longwarjournal.org to tell all good and bad about the current war for and against Islamofascism being fought around the globe (from Africa to Philippines to Pakistan). I also like in terms of talk radio - Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager - a pragmatic center right Christian and a disenchanted former liberal / practicing Jew respectively.

I think you are engaging in changing the subject by bringing up the past 500 years though there is merit in comparing our histories if you put it in a more logical fashion. (In fact you blow a hole in your accusations of religious motivation by bringing up Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot where their faith or appeals to religion are immaterial to their ideology and terror) I certainly admit even that a 150 years ago we went thru a civil war like most of the developing world has suffered, we have engaged in ethnic cleansing of a sort and had repeatedly to revisit the issues of the unchaining, enfranchising and equal treatment of blacks and immigrants. But HOW did it change - we FOUGHT a civil war and MODERATES and progressives ACTED both in civil disobedience and positive social change. I find in Islamic culture that an internal jihad (struggle) for justice and improvement of human rights thru good government is lacking.
What are YOU and GOTH doing about it?

I still question your blanket pacifism though you seemed to have changed it from “to have to kill innocent, non combatant person” from “Please and please no more killing in any shape or form”.
Which is it? There’s a difference - do you believe in police having guns or murderers being executed, for instance? And was the bombing of Germany and Japan unwarranted even if it degraded the aggressive ability of the Axis powers because the civilian death count during World War II far exceeded the “shock and awe” directed assaults of today?

-Bashir- Ok, deal. We won't export our military might and countries around the world can provide their own security. Win win for the USA.

There are people that think a McDonalds is a way US has to expoil their country. Of course is ridiculous, but this kind of people is the same that don't understand any other language than force. They use force to protest and didn´t feel any regret to destroy a McDonalds, even if the most harmed are their fellow national investors and employees. When they get the power, they don't mind to kill or destroy people freedoms. I am not a US citizen, and I think sometimes US acts irresponsible or stupid, but many other times I have to thank the universe we have a superpower that is a democracy and have the guts to employ force. I doubt any Starbucks or McDonalds would be of any use in Darfur, the Balkans or Afganistan to apeace fanatics and terrorists.

Our President has duties assigned by the Constitution - but he has more important duties in a global community with mass communications - The Presidents represents all Americans to the world.
Ohg.
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/01/06/representing-us-to-the-world/

"There is your human garbage and it will still be there in 2009. What is moderate Islam doing about it? If nothing, expect more bombs in backyards of these terrorists."
Robert Of Los Angeles;
I think you may be one of those new Americans, who are informed solely by Rush Linbaugh and Foxnews. I bet also you are not student of history. What Islamic radicals in Sudan and Somalia has to do with hundred years war in Europe where Christians were slaugherting each othe? Was Hitler Radical muslim or radical Christaian? Was Stalin Radical Muslim or radical Christian? Was Pol Pot of Cambodia radical muslim or radical whatever religion he claimed to believe?
Where those first gernations of Americans who cleansed Red Indians many parts of USA Muslims or Christians?
Ruthless criminals and blood thirsty indiviuals who kill for any name of any religion are what they are criminals, being Muslim, Christian, Jew, Budhist, or Atheiest.
It is sad, one who is in the great city of Los Angeles is falling very bigotory, short mindedness, and exposing himself for the whole world to read him.
For the record, I oppose anyone, no matter what ever relgion one claims to have to kill innocent, non combatant person no matter one's color, creed, religion, or ethnicity.

A. Musa, my due respects to you. Unlike some, I'm not in the practice of asking why immigrants are joining our great nation. It is for opportunity and for freedom. But the issue is whether America (and the world) is better off when America (whoever is president) is a determined force of protection or whether it willing to accept the lowest common denominator of international consensus.

Let me give you a good book and movie that yes must be better than a gun or a ship. The Kite Runner. It shows a few "religious figures" who proved to be heinous in honor killing, Buddha blasting, child raping, mass executions of women for showing their face on the street. Somalia and Sudan are reservoirs of these vermin, who know nothing of kindness and moderations and good governing and they have been haven for the Al Qaeda gang since the 90s.

There is your human garbage and it will still be there in 2009. What is moderate Islam doing about it? If nothing, expect more bombs in backyards of these terrorists.

Bashir,

You have written an eloquent message for our candidates. Ron Paul might even borrow some of the phrasing. I hope Obama will pay it very close attention. As for the rest, I'm afraid it will be in one ear and out the other.

Good post A. Musa. You are right on the money.

"A. Musa - My question to you is : If what the Peace Corps and USAID did was so wonderful, what are you doing here in the US?"

Robert of Los Angeles;
Due respect to you, that issue of why I and first generations of all Americans stayed in America and decided not to go back where they first came from including your ancesters, I bet, is for another day.
The issue on the floor is American better off by spreading wars around the world or using its know how,wealth, literature, and principled idealogoy?
I and Bashir and other like minded argue the later.
I do remember when the great African Learder Nellson Mendela addressed join Congress in his first visit to the United States of American he said among other things in his speech;" We befriended your heroes and founders through literature."
All the hateful war mongering and arial bombardment can not competere with a good book, CD, or movie.
America was the shining star that people from all corners of the world looked up to.
Now all the prestige is gone because of the Iraq depacle among other things.
In my world's dreams I will never thought that I will live to witness US airplanes and ships chasing few Somali religious figures at the shores of Somalia and keneya.
What a fall from the greatest and the only super power reduced to that law level of mediocre.
I hope a new beginning and a new change of direction.
I hope the best for the new president who can bring back the United State of America to its princpled leadership in the world.

Bashir says:

“My message would be simple and clear: Use the great American values of liberty, equality, and human dignity for all that are enshrined in the American Constitution…

Let the civilized, cultured and sophisticated and humane face of America obliterate the brutal, savage and inhumane images that the world has seen in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. There is no doubt that the whole world will follow America if America chooses to be a leader and not a looter.”

What do you think Bashir means by “be a leader and not a looter”?

The first things that leap to my mind are our invasion of Iraq (to loot their oil) and our support of Israel’s invasion of Palestine (to loot their land). We certainly aren’t concerned for the human dignity of the Palestinians or Iraqis who have been driven from their homes by the millions into horrid refugee camps in adjacent countries.

I intend to vote for Barack Obama in November, but I’m very disappointed in his stance on the Israel-Palestine issue. The problem is that this issue is not given an honest airing for the American people. As a result, the American people are basically ignorant of this issue, and it would be political suicide for an ambitious politician to address this issue fairly. Just as it would have been political suicide for Hillary to vote against the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Here is an article that shows what we are up against. It shows how Barack Obama executed his abrupt flip flop on Palestinian support when he began his campaign for a US
Senate seat from Illinois:

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6619.shtml

How Barack Obama learned to love Israel

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 4 March 2007

...“In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”…

…“But Obama's gradual shift into the AIPAC camp had begun as early as 2002 as he planned his move from small time Illinois politics to the national scene. In 2003, Forward reported on how he had "been courting the pro-Israel constituency." He co-sponsored an amendment to the Illinois Pension Code allowing the state of Illinois to lend money to the Israeli government. Among his early backers was Penny Pritzker -- now his national campaign finance chair -- scion of the liberal but staunchly Zionist family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain. (The Hyatt Regency hotel on Mount Scopus was built on land forcibly expropriated from Palestinian owners after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967). He has also appointed several prominent pro-Israel advisors.”…

…“If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama's about-face is not surprising. He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power.”…

“Only if enough people know what Obama and his competitors stand for, and organize to compel them to pay attention to their concerns can there be any hope of altering the disastrous course of US policy in the Middle East. It is at best a very long-term project that cannot substitute for support for the growing campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions needed to hold Israel accountable for its escalating violence and solidifying apartheid.”

It is clear to me that our only hope for an honest government is campaign reform with total taxpayer financing of political campaigns. All lobbying must be totally banned.

" you can not help them, please do not hurt them"
http://quotes.zaadz.com/Dalai_Lama

From the Dalai Lama.
Yes, Great thoughts, and my own belief system of Jesus Christ includes turning the other cheek.

But my goodness, do you know the word "irony". He is another EXILE like you and Goth, driven out by oppression (China)and violence. Protected in exile in a strong nation (India) that resists Chinese intrusion.

"As Bahir elequently articulated, the rest of the the Third World needs programs like Marshal Plan, Peace Corps or some contructive programs like those no matter what one calls."

Why, they can suckle off our teat for 50 years and then turn their backs on us when they are on their feet like Europe did?

I've got a better idea. Let the world solve its own problems. This notion that we have to spend money until liberal pundits from around the world approve of us is absurd.

Plenty of us are as disgusted with "the world" as "the world" is disgusted with us. Who cares what idiot pundits from Brazil or Somalia think?

Wow! Four opinions from four writers who espouse four Repulican-bashing screeds.

The Post is a exclusivley liberal echo chamber. So much for hearing multiple view points.

A. Musa - My question to you is : If what the Peace Corps and USAID did was so wonderful, what are you doing here in the US? What we did as with the Marshall Plan was to help Somalia so Somalians could have a better life.

So what are YOU and Goth doing to make Somalia a better place? I thank you for your taxes here, but what will make Somalia better. Why indeed is the US better than Somalia - it's not just the wealth I hope you realize, its that we are able to DEFEND ourselves here and well beyond our borders, and we have defined and protected our freedoms so we are UNITED in purpose even as we do a million different things. Somalia is united only in suffering and chaos. What are YOU and Goth doing about it?

"The U.S. starts to choose a president this week. If you could send the candidates one message, what would it be?"

I do concur with Bashir Goth that America is and was at its best by using its soft power instead of its hard military ware.
I would say to the New President whom I hope to be Baraka Obama or Hilary Clinton, by quoting a great philosopher whom I do not remember his name," If you can not help them, please do not hurt them."
As Bahir elequently articulated, the rest of the the Third World needs programs like Marshal Plan, Peace Corps or some contructive programs like those no matter what one calls.
I am a product of the Peace Corps. If I was not taught English in the jungles of Amoud Intermediate School at Borama, Somalia now called Somaliland I would not have been tax paying productive US citizen for quarter of a century.
Not only was I taught English by peace corps but my father's religous group's agricultural project at Ceelbardaale near Gabilay was built with USAID's know how and equipment.
I will use another verse hear that goes like this," Bee if you can not produce honey, please do not sting."
Whoever comes to power, " Please and please no more killing in any shape or form,'

AgentG - while you may fear a single world power meaning the US providing fairness, I fear progressive one world government controlling all our options. As Post Global loves to point out here, we've probably seen the best and the most that the US is capable of. Judging what we've seen of the UN always too little, too late, I may have little to fear but also little to hope for. And the real bad guys - both fascist and communist, both theocratic and atheist are still out there. Or haven't you noticed?????

AgentG - while you may fear a single world power meaning the US providing fairness, I fear progressive one world government controlling all our options. As Post Global loves to point out here, we've probably seen the best and the most that the US is capable of. Judging what we've seen of the UN always too little, too late, I may have little to fear but also little to hope for. And the real bad guys - both fascist and communist, both theocratic and atheist are still out there. Or haven't you noticed?????

I wonder if the ideals of America are really illusions we have of a better time in the past. I mean, America has always been out for commercial dominance of world markets and for exploiting natural resources of underdeveloped nations, wherever we could get away with it.

Perhaps, we need to develop an entirely new concept of fair international trade, with a level playing field for capital, labor and environmental policies. That would appear to be the best result for a human face on globalization. I would be wary of a single world power providing fairness for all participants of the global marketplace.

I wonder if the ideals of America are really illusions we have of a better time in the past. I mean, America has always been out for commercial dominance of world markets and for exploiting natural resources of underdeveloped nations, wherever we could get away with it.

Perhaps, we need to develop an entirely new concept of fair international trade, with a level playing field for capital, labor and environmental policies. That would appear to be the best result for a human face on globalization. I would be wary of a single world power providing fairness for all participants of the global marketplace.

Well, I'm not so sure about Starbucks and McDonalds, although it kind of made me chuckle, but otherwise pretty good stuff.

George Washington's foreign policy "avoid foreign military entanglements" was great for the time, but stupid now.

We traded with the Kaiser, with Hitler, with Stalin, what the freak does that have to do with what we HAVE to do, either as moral imperative or more generally to protect our interests, which include that free trade!

Here's a story about one of Goth's former Peace Corp volunteers "A group calling itself the Partisans of Monotheism in Sudan claimed responsibility Friday for the shooting death of an American diplomat and his driver early New Year's Day. "The soldiers of monotheism carried out their operation in killing the U.S. diplomat John Granville..." Granville's family said he became passionate about Africa after helping build a school in a rural Cameroon village as a Peace Corps volunteer

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/01/04/sudan.diplomat/index.html

Does anybody think Somalia and Sudan will change for the better UNTIL there is ENOUGH international military presence, and I do include UN peacekeepers as such to make a difference????

If nothing else, the world needs and we will see a United Nations surge this year and the foreseeable future.

Bashir Goth hits it dead on. Free trade and commerce with all nations and avoid foreign military entanglements. Sounds like a message straight from candidate Ron Paul.

First, I am not "degrading" Goth as a Somalian. He just has no credentials in my book to speak about these matters.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali HAS credentials, and not just because of her good looks. She was a victim in Somalia but did not let that stop her from participating vigorously in European politics. This again targeted her but her voice is a clarion call for change in Muslim countries.

Second, FORCE was the only thing that brought down Nazism. STRENGTH - brought to bear literally on or by proxies over many years an occasion, threatened in an arrogant manner but what WE called Containment and Deterrence, and used even the prospect of fanciful future strength (strategic use of "space") as bargaining chips.

We're not the only ones that bring economic prosperity to the world - free trade and liberty can do that for any land. Europe and parts of Asia, including the petro-aristocracies should take the lead as they are more prosperous than US now while they lay prostrate until the Marshall Plan ( a humanitarian effort created by a GENERAL and protected by NATO forces).

Reverse your WW II question for the present time - who will fill the vacuum? Who can take the US place in protecting global systems? Nobody, or nobody you would want (party leaders in Beijing?, Putin??).

No, force aint everything and occupation can't be a global strategy. But no city goes without a police force to protect its populace with only talk. Talk is cheap but backing it up with men and resources willing to take action costs, sometimes dearly.

Robert of Los Angeles,

There were many things that brought down the Soviet Union, force being but one of those that put an end to the USSR. The reality is that it takes more than force alone to change people's ideas and ways of life in a meaningful and lasting manner. What would have happened after WWII if we did not invest the years that we did to rebuild and help Germany and Japan? What would have filled the vacuum if we had only used force alone, then left? I don't think you are thinking through this very carefully or clearly. Afterall, if it only took force alone than the US would not have any problems now, would we. The author made some very valid points about the level of strength that this nation wields because of it's own ideas and way of life. Your intial response degrading the author because he is from Somalia is an indictment on you and portrays you as someone with a very limited view of the world.

The "...inhumane images that the world has seen in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay" are an infinitesimal blip on the last century's litany of terror and oppression. Yes, I omitted "brutal and savage" since naked chorus lines and prescribed waterboarding on scum like Khalid Sheik Mohammed (Danny Pearl personal beheader and planner of BOTH WTC attacks) hardly qualify to such pejoratives when 100 millions went thru Gulags and various reigns of terror.

Sorry Starbucks did not NOT bring down the Soviet Union. And John Wayne movies did not bring down the Nazis. Force did. Descendants of Peace Corps types are the ones arrested as "spies" in Iran and killed and abused for humanitarian work by rebels and theocrats around the world. Yes we negotiate, but from Strength not giving away bargaining chips at the start. Ask yourself what Putin and Khamenei respect - a good diplomatic agenda or an aircraft carrier. Be honest - thank you!!

Agreed, Mr. Goth. America, rather than taking steps forward to move closer to the principles enshrined in the Constitution or to the principles it helped draft in the UN Declaration on Human Rights, has taken leaps backward and the only way to turn it around is to begin acting in a more principled manner and interacting with the rest of the world (and American citizens and residents) more diplomatically and humanely. The reason many note for terrorist organizations not doing as well here is that the Muslim and immigrant populations (until recently) were encouraged and allowed to become part of the fabric of this nation - religiously, culturally, financially. While many still dislike US cultural imperialism around the world, what they hate even more is the bullying, military arrogance and lack of diplomatic discussions on tough issues and forthright support on resistance to tyrannical violence and silencing by other world actors who gain much of their financial and military support through overt and black market trading with the West. If America is to bounce back and the world is to bounce back, it must be done through clear, positive leadership.

On the contrary most civilizations actually decline when they cannot protect their borders, devalue their own cultural assets and devolve in many moral arenas. Corruption is part of that but that is not a key charge against the West. The British and now the Americans have "looted" their own treasuries to manage global systems and defeat such threats as the Nazi powers and Communist expansion.

It is always laughable to hear from Bashir on these matters. He comes from Somalia where looting by its active political citizens (i.e thugs and theocrats) have bankrupted any chance for a decent life, and lives in the UAE, part of a petro-aristocracy that "loots" the world and gives back so little, even in benovolence let alone "leadership"