Issues Under Fire

Apparently unconcerned with the finer points of international law governing such circumstances the Obama administration seems intent upon waging war in Syria against the Bashar alAssad government and only using ISIS as an excuse to be there Since the Obama administration failed to seek and obtain a UN mandate to enter Syria the US is proceeding without establishing clear objectives or a coherent strategy

Although President Obama should be praised for his efforts to reform Americas Criminal Justice System and provide some form of relief for those stained with a criminal record it will take a major shift in Americas willingness to forgive before any real progress can be made for exoffenders Because America descended into an unforgiving revenge driven consciousness decades ago the odds of someone getting a true fresh start after breaking the law is rather rather low America neither forgives or forgets anything anymore

Of all the issues plaguing the world today, currently the al-Aqsa Mosque actually trumps the Syrian civil war, even with the European refugee catastrophe it triggered. Arab Israelis are literally trying to slaughter Israeli Jews in the streets of Jerusalem with knives, meat cleavers and any other sharp blunt object they can commit mayhem with. Jewish Israelis are arming themselves, forming gangs and hunting down anyone that look suspicious or just look Arab. And neither the Israeli government nor its regional partners have clue as to how to stop the violence. 

While US Secretary of State John Kerry reported he remains cautiously optimistic for prospects of deescalating the violence between Israelis and Palestinians UN General Secretary Ban Kimoons analysis of current conditions was far more dire And from this observers perspective far more realistic Still how these two men could come to diametrically opposite assessments of this latest uprising is a not exactly a difficult mystery to solve A quick look at the history will provide some clues

It may be early in the game to play the holocaust card but in a desperate effort to hold onto the radical Right Benjamin Netanyahu took a page out of history erased all evidence of accuracy and rewrote a version palatable only to the most rabid of rabbis So consumed with the need to remain in power Netanyahu is willing to give Adolph Hitler a pass on being the architect of the HolocaustIn order to cast the Palestinians in the worst light possible to date Netanyahu told the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem that it was the Palestinians who gave Hitler the idea of exterminating the Jews Without a shred of proof to back up the outrageous claim the distressed leader went on to relate a farfetched tale of a meeting between Haj Amin alHusseini the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem at the time and Adolph Hitler himself where the Nazi maniac sought Husseinis advice on what to do with his Jewish problemAccording to Netanyahu Hitler only wanted to expel the Jews from Germany but Husseini convinced Hitler to burn them because

 Issues Under Fire: Canada Elects the Future While U.S. Courts the PastIn a stunning upset in the race for Canada’s top political post, the young handsome and very liberal Justin Trudeau won convincingly. With his beautiful wife and family at his side, he thanked Canada for their support and vision for the future. And apparently, there is no doubt as to what Canadians want for their future. Canadians are moving left. So tired of  Stephen Harper’s neoconservative policies and flunky-like loyalty to the United States, Canadians gave their next Prime Minister a mandate to move the nation in the opposite direction.Canadians want lower taxes for the middle class, they want to legalize weed, they want the rich to contribute significantly more, they want more investment in vital infrastructure repairs and they want to reduce the role of its military in the middle east. In fact, Canadians when polled, want less military intervention period. While Trudeau promises to continue providing training, hum

Whether this recent rash of rabid violence eventually flares up into another Intifada or simply fizzles out until the next issue is ignited will largely depend how Israelis respond to the crisis If the countrys citizens are allowed to take the law into their own hands you can expect the violence to intensify at every level and on both sides of the divide Panic and hysteria has led to crazed irrational acts of violence no civilized society should tolerate let alone embrace When mob rule becomes the rule youre living is a place without any rulesWhen trying to coexist in a tiny space with people who strain to get alone under the best of circumstances are subjected to higher than normal levels of stress and mistrust it dont take more than the slightest of slights to trigger an episode of violence With deep seeded animosities always simmering below the surface of every interaction any false move misstep or misunderstanding is cause for preemptive action In an environment like this being safe is always better than

Quickly descending into street level savagery its clearly evident Israels leadership has failed miserably in mitigating the hate driven violence now consuming the socalled holiest space in the world Allegedly fighting off hand to hand knife attacks from juvenile assailants Jewish citizens have been authorized to carry handguns and given the green light to shoot to kill if they feel the need Although this observer has witnessed human butchery like this before its never been seen in a high tech civilized environment This is something very new and exponentially more dangerous

Interrupting daytime programming on network and cable TV outlets to announce a major aboutface in its Afghan strategy President Obama told the nation the military and their families the mission in Afghanistan was not over When the Taliban took control of and held Kunduz the sixth largest Afghan city for two weeks while only encountering mediocre resistance at best from Afghan forces it was clear major deficiencies still plagued that countys ability to defend itself And with word that alQaeda and ISIS was turning a foothold into a stronghold there was no other option but to remain engaged