His uneasy first encounter with a domestic terror spectacular.–Financial Times.
“..the US has not learned to live with terrorism, as it may one day have to. For now, the expectation of safety is unreasonably high. People believe that if the system is well designed and officials do their jobs, the enemy will not get through.”
Get out, says The Guardian.
“…stop the fighting by offering the Quetta Shura, the Taliban HQ, a ceasefire. Progress should not be contingent on a ceasefire. The Shura have said they will only stop fighting when the foreigners leave. But this is a matter of sequencing, if a ceasefire entails, as it must, a commitment to leave.”
Obama’s getting off on the wrong foot, says Rami Khouri of Beiruit’s Daily Star. First, Obama tried to kill the Goldstone report on Israeli and Palestinian war crimes in Gaza. Then a huge (non-binding) majority of the U.S. Congress rejected Goldstone’s findings without refuting any of his facts. Then Hillary Clinton bowed to Israel’s rejection of a freeze on new Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory.
These three moves by the US are more about domestic politics than Middle East diplomacy, but they augur badly for peace-making prospects if they point the way to future American positions.
Thinking “engagement” will work when pressure is required.–bitterlemons.org
That blade-wielding woman known as Machetera writes,
“Piedad Córdoba, the brave Colombian senator whose efforts in search of peace for her violence-ridden country largely deserved to be rewarded with the Nobel Prize was tossed to the wayside so that it might be granted to the American president. … [Obama] delivered gentle speeches and made rather nebulous exhortations to end violent confrontations. The Colombian senator, on the other hand, has spent the last ten years in a tireless effort to put an end to armed struggle and to pacify her country. She put her own body and her actions on the line. But the Norwegian Committee did not share this appreciation and Piedad was once again passed over. A woman, black, leftist, and Latin American: too many flaws and defects for the cautious members of the Committee, always politically correct, forever sanctimonious…”
Kenyans are less likely than Americans to debate whether President Obama deserves a prize for peace.
The butcher of Iraq and Afghanistan (and Pakistan) has won the Nobel Peace prize. Congratulations! [Mabrouk!] It’s a great day for world freedom. Obama, Manachem Begin, Henri Kissinger-–all men who made this planet a great place to live in. Why can’t Mubarak and Habib el-Adly get it too?
