Supporting people like Osama Bin Laden is not just offensive and upsetting for Americans it should be an affront to all decent people because we cannot live our lives with a 'hate culture'.
Despite the deeply aggressive and murderous foreign policy agenda that the US has employed since the 2nd World War it does not justify people like Bin Laden or Al Qaeda or Isis because even though they have only killed a small percentage of people that the US and its allies have killed their intentions are much more dangerous and harmful, their rule of law bears no resemblance to that which is sustainable in a multi-faith, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural world.
Obama has actually been criticized recently for not being more active in his foreign policy, which is quite ironic seeing the criticism Bush faced for the Iraq War in 2003, this is because the US has founded it's foreign policy agenda on direct military intervention or indirect intervention via arms supplies, etc.
The US has to find a new way with its foreign policy, not just a do nothing strategy that Obama has adopted, it is too late for that as the fate of Iraq/Syria/Palestine/Afghanistan/Sudan is already so intertwined with US foreign policy that walking away and taking your arms with you is not an option as the military/security/political vacuum it leaves offers too much opportunity for the bad guys to step in and take control.
If that is the case then do nothing is not an option but doing something becomes a bit more tricky, Obama has already suggested he is sending planes in on bombing missions inside Syria upsetting our mate Putin, surely as the Ukraine situation rumbles on this was a too little, too late foreign policy faux pas from a President who is way out of his depth on foreign policy. Talk about wade in late and jump in with your size 12 boots on (memories of other wars spring to mind).
What is needed is a change in foreign policy from the US but this could take years to unravel some of the complex and unstable political situations they have supported around the globe e.g. support of Karzai in Afghanistan, Netanyahu in Israel, Mubarak, etc, etc, etc.
In fact making poor foreign policy decisions has never deterred or taught the US anything as they don't seem to be getting much better at this game.
How did we end up with this deepening rift with Russia, ever more violence and death in Israel, half of the Middle East up in smoke. It would be naive to put it down to militant Islam or extreme religious Jihadists, that is good enough for Fox News but not for Al Jazeera, there are some serious questions that need to be asked about future direction and strategy of US foreign policy, but Barack has already been interviewed for the position and realized he can't do the job, Tony Blair has been about as effective as a chocolate fireguard in his role as Peace Envoy to the Middle East.
We need a 'Hope not Hate' agenda and many of us thought Obama was the man but he will be remembered for the killing of Osama and not much else, both men followed diametrically opposed foreign policies but both failed miserably because they offered no hope for the future, no way forward. Maybe the Al Qaeda and US foreign policies are different but ultimately the same as both lead to more fighting, more division, more bloodshed, no peace.
Are we destined as a planet to continually fight and destroy each other with ever more sophisticated and deadly weapons, if that is the case how long before places like London or Washington or New York become a target for mass destruction.
Maybe once we see the back of leaders like Putin & Netanyahu & Assad we could see a potential change in the various current conflict hotspots, but without new policies how can we hope to sustain peace in other areas, if you do what you always did you'll get what you always got.
What Maple is doing for us in his own inimitable style is shine a light on what is happening today, he is trying to shake us very gently by the throat in the hope that we wake up and smell the cappafrappachino before it is too late.
I include the UK and Europe in this as well, maybe Russia and Israel also, they must share the burden of responsibility, it cannot be done by one nation alone.
So although I do not condone the hateful and offensive comments in his posts Maple seems more concerned about the plight of this planet than many of the commentators on this forum, and maybe if we were all that angry and upset about what is happening in the world today we would bring about political change at all levels of govt that had an agenda beyond the small-minded partisan politics we currently see, there is so much more to this world than the Reds & Blues and who lives at the White House. We need to engage in a much wider debate, probably driven by social media as that is becoming the biggest arbiter of change we have ever known, shaping the collective conscience of our world, Zuckerberg is not an elected politician but has become one of the most powerful people in the world. Politicians will not end the fighting, they are busy funding and arming the fighters.
In this time of hate and war we, not the politicians, have to look for the answers.
Hope not Hate ..... we have more power than we think when we act together, how empowering was it to join millions of people the world over chucking buckets of cold ice water over our head. Fuck the useless politicians, if we wanna see peace in every corner of this planet more buckets and more ice will be needed..... nuff said.
September 11th 2014----
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