Should Obama grab a sponge then?

Ok, quick rant. Like him or hate him, the oil spill is NOT Obama's fault. I get the anger, I get the comparisons to Katrina and Bush, but this is not something that can be fixed easily.

Some people say Obama is not doing enough to get the leak stopped. What would you have him do? Take over for BP? Do you really think the US government is going to be more effective at stopping the oil leak than say a privately held company who employs specialists and sees money flowing at thousands of gallons per day? Having anyone but the oil company stop this is ludicrous.

Some people say Obama needs to step in and clean the spill. Far as I can tell, every available resource is already deployed. Can we do anything else with it? How do you clean a spill that has yet to stop spilling?

Some people say this is Obama's Katrina. Night and day here people. There were colossal failures at many levels of the Katrina relief, most of which centered around the failure of our government to release enough aid, and what aid that was released being stuffed fraudulently in the wrong pockets.

Once BP has stopped the leak, and lets all hope that is soon, then we shall see what Obama does. Clearly we need a regulatory overhaul of the drilling industry. Many investigations as to how this happened in the first place are in order. Gut the departments that let this weak system go live in the first place, and replace them with stronger bodies that have the authority needed to shut down companies that endanger our environment.

Shame on you BP for not having a backup plan. Shame on you for pointing fingers, and shame on you for creating the worst man made environmental disaster in history! Now, Obama, the clock is ticking. Shame on you if you don't take action to prevent this from happening again.

The Great War: Part III?

Well, I almost never go political in any of my ramblings (as a rule of thumb I try to avoid discussions of politics or religion), but I get the feeling that the world is ready to bust at the seems. Today there are reports that Israel will attack Iranian nuclear targets in an effort to prevent them from creating an Atom Bomb.

These attacks are to be done with or without help and coordination from the U.S. and our lame duck president. "Still President Bush" as John Stewart of the Daily Show likes to call him, has nothing to say about this. I fear that the unstable and perhaps even psychotic leadership of Iran, who openly has promised to "wipe the stain of Israel off the map", will see this attack as an extension of the United States (oh, and guess who will have to back them up/bail them out if Iran retaliates? Yup, us).

Our country is still abuzz with the hope brought by the recent election, and like him or not, Obama will certainly take us in a new direction. One of his first pledged actions would be to withdraw from Iraq and turn over security to the people of the country (ready or not). He would presumably then turn his attention to Afghanistan. Makes sense in that there is a terrorist strong hold there, but we have heaps of political trouble with local ruling governments of the area, and you can bet our presence will not be welcomed with open arms given our recent track record.

All of this happens while the Russians are getting increasingly bold with their political and military moves. Putin, who should have been out of office by now, has managed to retain power and has all but restarted the cold war. Take the Georgia invasion for example (and I am talking about the country, not the southern state in the U.S. as I heard one very confused person say a few months back, "How can we just sit back and let Russia invade one of our states?").

Now Putin is parading around his navy and has set a Russian battle ship on course to run through the Panama Canal and to dock in a former U.S. naval base...posturing a bit? I think so. The so called experts maintian this is a harmless tit for tat due to our tisk tisking response to their invasion of a democratic nation in Georgia. I am a bit nervous about Putin becoming buddy buddy with Hugo Chavez, another political leader who might be a bit crazy and has no love loss for us.

Seems to me that the world gets itself into a big mess once every thirty to forty years (give or take). The Great War, 1914; WWII, 1939; Vietnam, 1965. (Vietnam technically started in 1950, but it was just a cival war until we started sending advisors in 1960. This war could have easily turned into WWIII with the tensions involved and the communist vs. democrat overtones that peaked interest in countries such as Russia and China). The point of all of this? I just wonder if we are not the bully hitting the bee hive with a stick with our global policies and allies as of late.

I saw a funny bumper sticker the other day that sort of sums up my opinion of recent American diplomacy: "Be nice to America, or we will bring Democracy to your country!"

Here's hoping we have learned a lesson or two and can avoid the third world war...

Sick of this war!

Today I read an article that breaks my heart. Found on CNN.com, 'It's gonna be a bloodbath' sort of brings light to the reason I chose not to enlist in the armed services.

Let me break here to say that I support our troops. Not the reason they are there mind you, but I support the hell out of the brave men and women fighting for our country. This topic is usually a hot button issue and I don't mean to touch off a debate over the merits of our political agenda in the Middle East, but it really grinds me that we are still there.

Each of our young men and women who have signed up for duty did so of free will (undue influence of pushy recruiters, miserable home conditions and family disputes aside). To a certain extent you cannot say they were 'victims' or walked into this blindly. To a certain extent.

Having said that, I just don't understand why our military continues to repeat the same mistakes. This example comes from Afghanistan...Where you say? Afghanistan...you remember, the place we landed first all those years ago to rid the world of terrorism and spread democracy, irregardless of whether it was wanted or not. We were supposed to have won victory and crushed the Taliban into oblivion just before we left for big oil in Iraq (I'm sorry, that is why we went there, plain and simple).

Now we have reports that on July 13th, a handful of America's finest were 'scouting' for a remote outpost in what they described as the 'most dangerous part of the world'. Needless to say, the outnumbered brave soldiers were overrun by a group of Taliban numbering in the hundreds. It was the highest US military fatality rate in three years.

Why are we playing cat and mouse games with an enemy that has continuously proven a desire to bring the fight to us anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances?All of the political stuff aside, what makes this worse is among the dead are several soldiers who were in the last days of a 15 month tour of duty. Tell me how it makes any sense that these people, who were about to rejoin their families, were sent out in what even the soldiers new was a bad situation?

I have read my share of gut wrenching tales about young men and women dying without ever meeting their newborn children, or leaving behind young spouses and other beloved family members. This one makes no sense because these soldiers were in an area that was clearly not secured. They weren't hit by a roadside bomb, or an RPG. They were attacked by a group of people who have nowhere near the level of sophistication and technology that we are supposed to have.

Either we occupy an area and clear it of all threats using superior technology and numbers, or we move on. What is with the 'outpost' thing? I am so sick of hearing us declare victory over an enemy only to be smacked in the face a couple short years later.

My heart goes out to the family of our fallen soldiers. I hope they all come home soon. God bless.