President Obama: Go for It

[dtotire]

President Obama: Go for It

M.J.Rosenberg


It is impossible to get Mumbai out of my mind. I keep thinking about two-year-old, Moshe, sitting in his parents' blood, crying out to a mother and father who are gone forever.
It is hard to imagine how anyone can justify terror against children, but many people do. In fact, fanatics of virtually every faith and nationality justify killing kids or leaving them orphans. It is sickening. Until humanity comes to the understanding that there is no justification -- none, whatsoever -- for killing children or making them orphans, we remain uncivilized.

Since the early twentieth century, the slaughter of innocents has been considered a legitimate military tactic or, not much better, unavoidable collateral damage. The Arab-Israeli conflict has not yet fully descended into mass carnage (with the awful exceptions of the Hamas suicide bombings and massacres like Baruch Goldstein's Hebron slaughter) but, no doubt, that is where we are heading unless we begin treating the Arab-Israeli conflict with the urgency it warrants.

So far that hasn't happened. Here in Washington, otherwise intelligent people say that immediate action to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict might be nice, but isn't critical. Invariably, the people who make this case are strongly attached to Israel and believe that the certainties of the status quo are less threatening to Israel's future than the uncertainties of negotiation.

They could not be more wrong. The status quo is destroying Israel.
A few hundred thousand settlers are holding the entire country hostage. The once universally respected Israeli army is now treated with scorn by rightists who view them as symbols of the government of Israel, the legitimacy of which they reject. Settlers abuse and humiliate Palestinians, steal their homes, and destroy their livelihood. They are on a continuous rampage -- grabbing Palestinian homes in Hebron, terrorizing olive farmers and destroying their crops, poisoning the land so that sheep and goats cannot graze, and snatching territory in the heart of Palestinian East Jerusalem.



more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/president-obama-go-for-it_b_149206.html

[xen]

1. SAD

This is right on time.We will slowly self destruct if this status quo remains.This idea that might makes right, and that we can bomb people into submission to do as we want is slowly destroying mankind and the ecology.Trying use the military solution to solve this problem of so Called Terrors ism,has only created and is creating more enemies as time goes by,Bush and the warmongers calls this success.Al quieda was in 2 countries before the invasion of Iraq,now they are in 78 including Iraq,and counting,This kind of success is killing the world.
The warmongers prescription for this? more wars and militarism.

Believing that some how we are the just,and is justified in doing whatever is in "OUR INTEREST" no matter whose country we occupy,without ever thinking,what is in their best interest?,is causing many of the main problems we are having today.

[Vegasaurus]

2. That's a bit simplistic

The US occupying Iraq has been a major major blunder by the Bush administration, but terrorism was here before the invasion, and it is here for the foreseeable future.

We can cocoon ourselves into isolationism here in the US, but it isn't going to make terrorism go away, as incidents of the past years have shown, even as recently as this past month in Mumbai.

While we cannot solve all problems militarily, clearly there are times when military might is necessary.

President Elect Obama realizes that, and sees the real threats in Afghanistan, for example.

Mr. Obama plans to draw down troops in Iraq, but send more into Afghanistan.

We are not going to solve terrorism by turning our back and pretending it doesn't exist, any more than we are by bombing people into submission.

And the self identified terrorists are clear in their goals, which are much broader than I/P.