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 normal very politcally correct Question Time has fallen into troubled times recently when it was announced that Nick Griffin from the BNP party would be on the show. The BBC has been heavily critised for its decision, but defended itself by claiming that it had a responsibility to allow members of any political party that has a representation through the councils of the UK.
The results was demonstrations outside of the BBC and headline news which must be great news for the BNP who are getting a massive amount of publicity both positive of the event and even those who disagree with the BNP party views still believe that in a democracy he should be allowed to be on the programme than it is up to the voters to decide the issues.
The papers the next day were full of opinions of one sidedness and some claimed the audience had been chosen for the night. The BNP have far right views but recenetly have had some success at the polls which many belive is due to the lack of performance from the Labour and Conservative party.
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.
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.
Who would have thought that after nearly 13 years getting a Lokerbie Bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi behind bars, 8 years later he would be released on compassionate grounds. “Deeply upsetting, deeply distressing” was the words from the UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband as the bomber gets a hero’s welcome in Tripoli. There is outrage in the USA as the Scottish Attorney General released the agent who was parts of the plot to bomb flight Pan Am 103, back in 1988. The reason was that this agent only has less than 3 months to live and it is Scottish law that prisoners can apply to be released to spend his final days at home.
However the reception in Tripoli put salt into the wounds and as Scottish flags were being waved (where do you buy Scottish flags in Tripoli?) as it was pretty obvious that the reception was staged by the Gadaphi the leader.
Both President Obama and Hillary Clinton have thrown strong words to the Scottish government, stating this decision was wrong. The USA victims have also stated strong words, such as being physically sick with the news. There was a slightly warmer response from some British families, stating that this agent was not part of the plot and someone who agreed to do a sentence on behalf of other Libyan terrorists or even a group based in Syria and it was he who initiated the plot to bomb 103. In 2003 Libya admitted responsibility of the crime, even so this sole individual took the full blame. There was a lot of evidence contributing to his involvement, but little that he made or placed the bomb.
Whatever the opinion there has been worldwide condemnation with a hint in other circles that this my help grease the wheels of better relations with Libya, who has already disbanded its nuclear programme and weapons of mass destruction, with both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown both meeting the Libyan leader.
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.
UK and Iran have never seen eye to eye for some time now, but relationship with the USA was normally worse. After President Obama opened his arms to better relationship a few months ago, there seems to be a greater emphasis against UK at this time. It is not that the USA and Iran are now good friends, but it almost as if Iran does not want to cut it bridges of with the USA should they want to talk. Great Briton on the other hand is pretty much seen as an enemy and currently being blamed for the post actions of the Iranian people after recent elections.
Last week 9 British Embassy staff was arrested for “improper Conduct” accused of encouraging the post election protests, sending relationships even lower than before. David Milliband (Secretary of State) has stated that these accusations are unfounded and up to date has managed to aid the release of 8 of the 9 held. However the 9th individual appears to have been charged with “acting against national security”, something totally denied by the foreign office, there is an expectation that this worker will stand trial of some sort.
Ironically this staffs are all Iranian and from the outside it appears that Iran wants to set an example, to the world. Right across the EU, Iranian Ambassadors’ have been called to receive official protests. This may be a UK fight, but the EU are clearly with Great Briton and we wait to see if the Whitehouse will keep its distance or state it’s objection also.
Gordon Brown has been criticised for dragging his feet over the current expenses embarrassment, but today the Labour party will lay down the rules for how to deal with MP’s that may have taken advantage of expenses or have just down right fiddled them. The last few weeks has seen many examples of questionable expense claims that have had the British vote furious that on the surface appears that MPs can get away with something normal employees would be at least sacked for and some cases a possible police record.
The current events have put normal political arguments on hold as honesty and moral issues have taken over policies. That has opened the doors for independent parties to market themselves on TV through the normal political information broadcast. Arguments that 74% of all political decisions that affect England are in fact made in Brussels and that Scotland have the best of both worlds with their independent assemblies. It seems that even though Scotland and Wales have their own parliament, England does not as it still represent all of the UK.
We all as voters wait for this to be sorted so we can look our MP’s in the face with a trustworthy respect even if we disagree with their political views.
Obama inherited a huge issue with the Taliban in Afghanistan and beyond. Although the reports that are coming back home is that the Americans are losing the war, just as the Russians and others before them it is inconceivable that we should pull out in defeat. This week saw Pakistan going to war with the Taliban in North East, this should be of some release of pressure of what was going to be an another war ground for the USA and possibly UK troops.
Pakistan had signed an agreement with Taliban not to go to war, providing they followed some specific rules and did not expand their territory, at the USA’s disapproval of negotiating at all with them. Of course they totally ignored the signing and not have almost taken over many areas of Pakistan. This week saw local troops going into battle with reports of 150,000 dead or wounded already.
Whether we believe those figures or not is irrelevant at this point, what is correct though is now Pakistan has also gone to war, which is good news for Washington. There will be hope of success and as it is predicted that Bin Laden is held up somewhere n Pakistan, the war may create unrest and challenge his position there in time. Obama message was that everything cannot be achieved through fighting alone, there still needs to be some talking, to what level he was refereeing to is unsure. With the UK troops now officially finished in Iraq and more USA troops to be deployed in Afghanistan there could be some hope to turn things around.