Israel and the Never-Ending Gaza Situation

Israel has had its fair share of issues with the West-Bank and Gaza Strip since its mandate in the 1940's, but a particular issue has spiraled out of control. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu, links between the semi-autonomous Hamas government and Israel have been far from peaceful. Netanyahu's conservative approach to the expansion of Israeli settlements and the lack of care for the poverty-striken Gaza Strip has aroused much anger from the International community.

But this last week thing hit a boiling point when a Turkish ship set a course to the Gaza Strip to give much needed aid, was attacked by Israeli commandos in a helicopter raid. The attack left a few Turkish workers dead, and ignited an already scorned international community. Since this act, many ships have dispatched to the Mediterranean with much needed supplies and a "no holds barred" attitude towards a potential Israeli threat. The never ending issues between Israel and the Palestinian territories ignite once more.

This time though, the international community seems more on-board.

The Longest American War

The War in Afghanistan was just recently crowned as "America's Longest War", out-doing the Vietnam war by one month, and we don't look like we're pulling out soon. The criticism of the war stems from its length, and the fact that little has been accomplished during it. The Iraq war was drawn out, but many would call it a success in retrospect due to the ground being made in installing a new democratic government. The entrance into Afghanistan was mostly focused around the goal of capturing Bin Laden, and nine years later, our goal is yet to to be completed. Besides that point, we entered the country ousting the Taliban, and now we are still battling insurgent forces due to many factors, such as loosing sight during Iraq and lack of forces physically in the country.

Some would argue that terrorism is supposed to be a drawn out war, but at what point does it become a futile effort? The US forces have done a prime job in adapting to fighting terrorism, however, the focus seems to constantly move around the map. Sticking with our plan and having a solid plan to begin with works the best, and will be better for the region and the world as as whole. Let's not turn this war into the next Afghanistan. Well, as we just learned Afghanistan is the longer Afghanistan.

The Big Oil Snafu Double Standard

By now everyone has heard of the oil disaster that is leaking in the gulf of Mexico, and the strew of adversities making the situation more comlicated than it should be. Besides the leak itself, British Petroleum (BP) the company ultimately responsible for the platform, has been worrying more about covering their own mess than cleaning up the spill. On the other end of this is the Obama administration which is being hesitant to truly crack the whip with BP, and instead is "overseeing" the mess.

This whole incident sounds vaguely familiar to something very newsworthy five years ago. It involved a president being sctrutinized over a lack of response to a disaster, a problem that effected many people, and millions of dollars that had to be spent fixing this problem. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm describing Hurricane Katrina. Yes, I understand that one directly effected human lives more than the other, but why does Obama not get the same level of public backlash that President Bush did only five years ago? The Bush administration was slow, but when public outcry became larger than life, the Federal Government did step in. With this disaster, Obama's attitude has been more like "well, we'll pledge out support, but I trust BP to handle it". When this (paraphrased) statement wasn't enough, Obama passed down the job to the rear admiral of the US Coast guard. Then we hear a statement from a political figure of the New Orleans parish who had this to say about the Coast Guard's leadership:

"Thad Allen (US Coast Guard Admiral)should resign. He's done absolutely nothing. He's an embarrassment to this country."

So now we see ourselves stuck in a more bureaucratic mess than Katrina, and yet not much has been said against Obama. A double standard perhaps? Or maybe the situation just isn't that bad.

The Mess of Arizona

Arizonians has put themselves in quite of a pickle with a bill that has passed, and they are in for some more headaches as well. The bill itself is quite controversial; that goes without saying. What makes this bill especially heated, is how both sides of the argument have valid points, but fail to see how the opposition sees it. Typical of most political discussions, but I find this one more unique

Pro-bill arguments:

Arizona has been swamped with illegal immigrants for years. Some of the more unnoticed news stories have been cities and public works (hospitals specifically) going bankrupt from the thousands of illegals that use services, but lack to finances to pay the state back. Most commonly is a person coming through the desert who needs medical attention, is given it, but has no money to pay back these services through insurance.
Besides this, the federal government has done little to help the influx of illegal immigration, so states have no choice left but to take action themselves.

Anti-bill arguments:

regardless of the problem, a dangerous legal precedent is set with the passage of this bill. Having the right to detain people based on their legal status allows law enforcement to racially profile. Also there are previsions in this bill that allow for certain areas of education and how it is taught to be scrutinized as well. The Federal government has not been responding to this problem because it is sticky-er than some people see it. Some of these illegals have children now in the US, so how should the deportation go? Allowing a rogue state to go out and pass legislation like this is borderline unconstitutional and will most likely be challenged in appellate court

My opinion?

A hybrid of both points to be exact. The federal government has been lacking on a response which has pushed states like Arizona to react this way. However, creating a precedent like this is tricky in our court system and is not right. But what exactly *is* being done about this problem?

A sticky situation indeed....

The Situation with Greece and the EU

The situation with Greece has reached a boiling point that may make the European Union question certain aspects of their supranational government. Last week the Global Markets took a nosedive which was initially brought down by the European market after Greece's debt woes got worse See the Story here.

The problem lies with this new concept of "artificial money". Started by the Obama administration's deeming of certain companies "too large to fail" during the recession, throwing tax payer money at problems seems to be the new trend, but with Greece the stockholders did not like it. Yes, a country is more than worthy of a bailout, but what about the responsibility of world governments to not get into debt like this? The US is equally or more guilty of this without question, but politics once again rears its head as being more concerned about votes versus long-term responsibility. The US, for example, has the largest deficit and debt in the world (Debt Clock). It is only our $14 Trillion economy that holds us up. Greece isn't that lucky, but her European partners are there to help not see that she fails.



A little responsibility can go a long way, right?