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Obama See’s the Light

It seems Obama has seen the light and today quit his church. I applaud the decision he has made.

It does bring up a few questions though.

Are we to assume that this sort of hate filled speech is a recent thing in this church? After all, Mr. Obama has been a member of this church for twenty years, was married there, and had his two children baptized there. Are we to assume that this sort of thing only happened once Mr. Obama decided to run for President, and that the leadership of HIS OWN church decided that they would sabotage Mr. Obama’s chances?

According to NPR, Obama said “This is not a decision I come to lightly … and it is one I make with some sadness.” He also said “I’m not denouncing the church and I’m not interested in people who want me to denounce the church.”

Are you kidding me? “With some sadness.” “Not interested in denouncing the church.” How about, at the very least, denouncing these views.

He did not do that though. He did say “This was one I didn’t see coming,” Obama said Saturday when asked if he had anticipated the firestorm that would erupt over his relationship with Wright, which had previously caused such an uproar.

And this is the problem with Obama’s candidacy. Senator Obama is a smart guy. He did go to Harvard after all. If he didn’t see anything wrong with these views for twenty years, it indicates what his true feelings are.

There are two logical choices here. And only two. One is that this hate-mongering has been going on in this church for a very long time and Mr. Obama didn’t have a problem with it. The other is that it’s a recent thing and the church leadership doesn’t want Mr. Obama to win the election.

From my point of view, it looks like Senator Obama went to the Mitt Romney school of political expediency.

Tags: Politics by Cynical Optimist
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More controversy from Obama’s church

Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s South Side, recently hosted Rev Michael Pfleger. The good Reverend made remarks for which Obama felt compelled to apologise.

Here’s the clip:

I would suggest that if Obama wants his message to be credible he quit associating with this church and it’s “Culture of Victimology.”

Both candidates are going to be defined, to some extent, by the company they keep and that plays to McCain’s advantage overall. I’m surprised the Clinton machine didn’t start digging up this stuff earlier.

Tags: Politics by Cynical Optimist
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Will We Attack Iran?

I think the real question should be…

Should we attack Iran?

Well, maybe, but not yet.

There’s no doubt that the current regime in Iran is very dangerous, but that doesn’t neccessarily mean we should attack the country. Iran isn’t Iraq. The dynamics inside Iran are completely different.

Iran has a functioning political system. We may not like who is elected, but they are elected.

A sizable segment of the Iranian population is moderate, and they have some ability to influence events. In addition to making it impossible for the moderates to exercise their influence, why would we want to alienate them?

Iranian society is more cohesive than in Iraq. If we really want to see how bad an insurgency can be, attacking Iran would be the way.

Read about Iran

  

The thing to do is to more effectively isolate the Iranian regime. Make it impossible for them to operate internationally. At the same time, do what we can to enhance the position of the moderates in the country.

You might say “well, we’ve been trying that for years and it hasn’t worked.” And this is true, but the critical part of my sentence was “more effectively.” Thus far, our efforts in regards to Iran have been amateurish, and that has to stop.

Tags: War by Cynical Optimist
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The War on Error

The New York Times recently reviewed Charles Ferguson’s ‘No End In Sight’, the companion book to his documentary of the same name. Nothing that Ferguson asserts is new of course. People have been saying for years that disbanding the Iraqi Army was a huge mistake, we didn’t have enough troops, allowing the looting and purging the government of professionals were the primary components of the disaster Iraq has become. It kind of reminds me of David Halberstam’s ‘The Best and the Brightest.’ Not as a comparison to Vietnam, the war, but as a story of colossal ineptitude.

There is no doubt that the principals involved, possibly with the notable exception of the big guy himself, are incredibly smart people. And you have to wonder how people that smart could be so stupid.

How can you invade a country, destroy it’s army, and then not worry about securing that army’s ammunition dumps. How many of our soldiers died because of that one example of stupidity?

How can you allow people to loot at will, and then expect them to respect the rule of law? Not to mention your authority and will power.

How can you dismiss the professional administrators in government, and then expect society to function? Who is going to do the 18 million little things that governments do? The U.S. Army? The U.S. Military is trained to utterly destroy our enemies, and in the entire history of the world, no one has been better. Issuing licenses for taxi cab drivers is not what they are for.

Despite the apparent success of the surge in troops in tamping down the violence, the question remains…

What do we do now?

Tags: War by Cynical Optimist
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