Voteting UK View of Politics USA

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Organizing For America

The honeymoon period of Obama may be over as he has now decided to send and extra 30,000 troops to afghanistan with apromise than in 18 months troops will be comming back home.

It is huge gamble based on information that with right numbers, the war can be won although everyine has an opinion of what will be decided as a win. The TV camera went out to the USA citizens with some claiming they though Obama was for peace not war and they felt a bit cheated. However whether these were carefully chosen people to get the drama of the news or the general opinion of the masses we still don’t know.

What we do know is that comming home without any achievement will leave the critics open to say all lives lost in Afghanistan would have been for nothing and Obama needs to achieve to go down in history as a great President. A difficult decison with no supporters either way.

The Labour party have accused David Cameron of Dithering on the Referendum on The Lisbon Treaty and others have accused him of a U turn and a previous promise. This treaty would in affect bring in a European Union President, but with Ireland ratifying the treaty, with only Poland and Czech Republic still to vote, David cameron has said he will not hold a referendum until he knows the resulst from these two and even then has not promised one. This has left many accusing him of back pedaling on a previous promise and is creating headline news as the Conservatives head into their annual conference in manchester.

The Eurosceptics want a retrospective referendum and those in support of more power going to Brussels do not want his to go ahead in case the result is a resounding no.

You can read more about David Cameron Dithering at the Gardian

As the great and not so great leaders of the world come together, we look forward to an intersting time of bonding in the hope that the world will be a safer place. Obama started off the speeches as the United States in teh host nation this year, but then followed by Libya’s leader. As I write this, he is just starting his speach with a thank you to the American President.

These are moments of opportunty, making the most of them can bring the world together, ignore them and find hostility and mistrust can be instilled in many nation.  The UN website states “its your world” what it does state is that we have little control over our leaders actions even in a democracy.

Obama mentions that no one form the outside can instill democracy on a country, something that the United States have been trying to do for the last decade, so lets see if his more balanced approach realyy does make a difference.

Playing the “stay quiet” game regarding the Lockerbie bombing affair is gradually building up steam like a steam train about to blow its whistle.  Gordon brown was in a no win situation when the Scottish Government decided to let the convicted bomber go on compassionate grounds. To criticise the move would strain relations with a huge deal with Libya, but to endorse the decision would create huge issues with the UK’s biggest friend the USA. The decision was to stay quiet and hope other issues and news took over and state is was a Scottish decision not a UK one.

But as the steam gathers pressure there needs to be a release soon, as today it emerged that Jack Straw sent a letter to Scotland stating that it would be in the UK’s interest for the bomber not to be excluded from the prisoner transfer agreement. This did not endorse a release but did endorse that the bomber could be included in the prisoner transfer agreement and therefore being moved home. Jack Straw has commented that because the exchange was refused the letter then the letter was irrelevant and that any deal with Libya was “just not true”.

This will of course add fuel to the whole concern, especially as there had been a promise to the USA that the bomber would serve his who sentence on Scottish soil. The Brown government is unpopular at home with current polls suggesting a conservative win, but now this is likely to expand worldwide, with trust being lost from the USA, Scotland and the East. Gordon brown can’t win on this one, so it is probably time to decide which side he is on and cut his losses, at least some credibility may be saved not just for the Prime minister but for the UK too.

It seems a friend of Obama Henry Lewis Gate lost his keys and attempted to break into his own home with a second individual. Unfortunately some neighbours saw him and phoned the police of whom a white police Sergeant James Crowley turned up to the call. A little while later the sergeant arrested Henry Lewis. President Obama felt he needed to comment on this incident, claiming the police had not acted in a way they should, especially as this suspect was black.

However as the real facts emerge, it turns out that this police sergeant is very much respected and works for his black superior. Witnesses say it was not the police but in fact Henry Lewis that overacted to the situation, would not identify himself and refused to come out of his home. Working with the information in front of him, Crowley arrested this unknown intruder only to find out late he was the resident of that home.

With the new facts in front of him, Obama was forced to add extra comments about the situation and state his intention was not to state that the police “acted stupidly”. Neighbours claimed the police acted correctly and no racial tones were ever there. They were acting in a way they should to a call that 2 people had broken into a neighbour’s home.

Comments were not favourable to Mt Lewis suggesting he used the racial issue because he had a chip on his shoulder. This first slip will be a lesson for President Obama also, to ensure he gets the full picture before commenting, after all this became international news.