Bitch 1 says..............
What has happened in the last two days stretches the imagination; Obama speaks to the Arab Street, speaking first on Arabiya before he even gives his first State of the Union address, to the leaders of which including al queda give him a thumbs up, saying "it's a step in the right direction." A step in which direction? In a year Iran will have the capacity, if not the finished product to build fourteen nuclear weapons and they have sworn to eliminate Israel form the planet. What does anyone think will happen when negotiation, when Obama's pandering to our enemies fails? And it will fail; the greater of Europe may kneel to their muslim oppressors but America will not, and we invented nuclear warfare. It was not lost upon us that for the first time in our history, a new president invoked an enemy with American blood on their hands. We will not mourn a few million deaths in Tehran. If one remembers Obama's campaign speeches regarding Iran he is not opposed to full confrontation, and maybe this is really what he wants. But then we know him to be a liar. Last Memorial Day he told the nation how proud he was that an "uncle" in the armed forces during WWII had marched into Auschwitz to liberate. His father was African and his mother was an only child, nevermind Auschwitz was liberated by the Russians. The "bailout." At least more conservatives had the intellectual decency to say "hey, this is NOT a good idea, let's think it over." Today the liberals embraced their savior and damned a nation to years of deficit spending on MORE GOVERNMENT. Only eleven dems in the house and senate had the balls to oppose it, all of the republicans opposing but the mob ruled. "Go along to get along," ask a surviving German of nazism and see what they think about the statement.
9 comments:
Blue-y,
why no criticism of YOUR former president that left this coun try in such financial strife?
Listen sister, it all comes down to class warfare and the sooner you jump on the Socialism bandwagon the beter it shall be for all.
"leftisthebest"
Its a funny old world. My entire police service was overshadowed by Irish republican terrorism. I went to several bombings in London. I watched bomb disposal heroes doing their heroics almost weekly during the `70's and also in my 2nd force out in the counties. Most every week, something IRA related required us to guard someone, deal with threats to our military, public buildings and institutions etc etc. We got so used to this that it wasn't until we stopped and thought about it, we realised how much of our time was taken up with counter terrorist ops.
A lot of funding for the IRA came from the US, in particular those cities with a large, proud ex pat Irish heritage (respect to them), where well meaning people contributed to something they believed in,ie Irish independence from the British. They felt their contributions were justified. The reality from over hear was that I had many police brothers and sisters killed or maimed by IRA bombings and shootings (the Royal Ulster Constabulary was a British Police Force - but of course the staunch republicans will argue it was an occupying force).
This fact never once stopped my respect for the US as a 20th century friend and ally of my country and I stated as much when I spent an exchange with police forces in Michigan at the height of the IRA campaign.
Today, several men who were on our `most wanted` list as terrorist suspects, are now in government in Northern Ireland. My point? Well I absolutely will not enter into debate about politics or religion, but I guess what I'm saying is that the British Government ended up talking to the IRA through their `political` wing which I suppose meant they were actually talking direct to the IRA. Eventually we got the Good Friday agreement. Lots of terrorists were released from jail as part of the deal. We haven't had an IRA bomb in mainland Britain since I don't know when. Our people, subjected to security measures since 1969 of the sort that the US now experiences post 9/11, have almost forgotten what a shadow over their daily lives this was. It's now been replaced, in London and elsewhere by Islamic terrorism. History, at least the version I study, tells me that as strongly as we must resist murderous maniacs from wherever they come, it was talking and listening `to the other side` that gave this country of mine a peace that it couldn't achieve through its military.
I don't know sh1t about Obama and all I know about GWB is what I perceived as I looked at the worlds press. It grieves me to read and to see and hear for myself, that the word "America" has seriously lost its shine around the world. Seriously, there is a bad feeling in the air about America and has been for quite some time. It may or may not be justified, but I can tell you it's there none the less. I just want America to come out of this situation and be perceived as something much better than it is at the moment, I really do. If Obama is the person to give the rest of the world that `perception` and after all perception is a powerful thing even if it falls short of the actuality, then great. But I just hope he doesn't put down his big stick in the process.
Sorry I rambled on, but that thought provoking last post made me do it. It threw up a good argument and I wanted to join in the discussion. QED?
great site, I am a cop in Canada and have a blog called www.acopsthoughts.com and also do a vidcast with a buddy called www.2guysunleashed.com.
Your welcome to stop in anytime and check us out.
great site, I am a cop in Canada and have a blog called www.acopsthoughts.com and also do a vidcast with a buddy called www.2guysunleashed.com.
Your welcome to stop in anytime and check us out.
To Hogday:
what about investigations that have shown some bombings blamed on the IRA were in fact not, but done by agents for the British government?
The British history is full of its own shame. The things done to the peoples of Africa and India for instance?
How many individuals have been released from British jails after it was shown they were wrongly jailed? just like here in the United States.
The British government have not been angels. i am not saying you personally did anything wrong but please be fair. Finally you cannot deny much of the things done in the North, or in Ireland before, were done because of anti-Catholic feelings. Once again, I am not saying you are guilty of such terror, but there are two sides to a story.
Hogday,
Very interesting post!!! Thank you for sharing it..... I have alot of friends who are Bobby's on the otherside of the pond. And we have discussed what you have brought up at length.......
From studying terrorism in college a few years ago, i was shocked to see that the first terrorists were the IRA...... There was great debate in class. But they were the first and basically wrote the book on it.....
Growing up, and reading our news here, the Northern Ireland thing was always confusing, and still is. Yes there was and is a large population of the US Irish heritage that supported and supports the IRA.... again i do not know enough about it to understand the whole thing.
I do not believe you can get anywhere with violence, and as you stated, they had to perceived as "legitimate" before anyone would come to the table with them. I am not sure if that is going to happen in our country with the Obama thing....... I think it is just going to swing farther and farther in one direction, where we can't correct the damage that has been done.
Obama should have addressed his people first, in a state of the Union Address to thank his country for electing him. Then went and addressed the Arab world. It just sent the wrong message.
I am going to post and article on my blog i found interesting about Obama. And frankly, I don't believe he has true respect for our country and its traditions.
It saddens me as well that we have lost our shine around the world. Once a great nation is in tatters over foolish bickering and greed.
PS... I am adding you to my blog roll... Glad to have you aboard.
Hi Again `BIB`. This time I have a bowl of porridge laced with honey in front of me and not a cold tube of Fullers London Pride (supreme British beer) - and yes, I did say it was COLD so lets dispel that other rumour you guys put about re our beer ;)
To The Anon correspondent I say, `Yes, I totally concur with your points`. I didn't want to monopolise BIB's post with a 5000 word dissertation. My point was indeed a one sided observation based purely on how it all affected me personally, someone just trying to do his job who didn't start out with an axe to grind, but who had over 300 police brothers and sisters killed and over 9,000 injured by terrorist bombs and bullets and that doesn't include the poor ordinary people caught in the awful crossfire or the attacks in mainland Britain. But now all the tears are dry those poor souls have just become statistics.
(A quick note; Yesterday police defused a 300 lb terrorist bomb in Northern Ireland, so nobody put your handkerchiefs away just yet).
But despite all the years of horror that overshadowed my career and of the colleages I lost or had maimed, I have no hatred of the Irish race, quite the opposite. This is exactly how `bad politics` polarises and divides ordinary people. And still with `Anon`, thanks for absolving me personally of any blame for acts of terrorism and miscarriages of justice (lol), I didn't take it that way so you'd no need, but I respect the fact that you didn't want to offend - a rare quality!:)
As you rightly stated, the British past is full of shameful acts of both the government of those era you hinted at and the entrepreneurs who lined their pockets on the back of it all eg The East India Company, complete with its own private army! Old hat traditional school history of my childhood told of the Royal Navy protecting British interests and keeping trade routes open when the reality was they would blockade a place so that they could only trade with the British. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 is another shameful example and is fascinating, harrowing reading. (If interested I'll recommend an excellent book). As for the great continent of Africa, there too the shameful acts can be found. This touched my own family in that my great, great uncle was slaughtered by Zulu's a mere 130 yrs ago at the famous battle of Isandhlwana (the same day as Roukes Drift, you know, the film "Zulu"?).But I don't hate the descendants of King Cetshwayo. The British `invented` the concept of the concentration camp (South African War 1880's), but we also had William Wilberforce to thank for the abolition of slavery. My point in this ramble is that I am not blindly proud of my country and many of the things that its past rulers did. Britain has a lot of history NOT to be proud of, but I am British, I served my country in the police, my nephew does so in Afghanistan, I will serve again shortly, in a foreign field trying to bring peace and stability because I want to do good and for Britain to be a part of something good. Bloody naive and gullible aren't I?
As a police officer, I would sooner talk a beligerant drunk out of a bar than throw him out on his face or lay him low with a taser, I would much rather see my country's elected leaders talk a beligerant opponent into peace than try and bomb them into it.
Finally, Anon, I won't comment on your heartfelt point about Protestant v Catholic in the Irish troubles other than to say I didn't mention it in my first post, but neither will I deny it. Thats because I have seen this religeous divide throughout British history and, in it's wake, the the slaughter. I do not want to offend strangers or friends with my views on religion, but offer my respects to you and your comment and may your God be with you always.
CPDCop: Yes, The Fenian's were the forerunners of the modern IRA, rowing their way up the River Thames blowing up British ships. What committment! The same spirit that drove brave men to man the Confederate Navy's submarine "Hunley". There's nothing so frightening or magnificent as that sort of committment. We are seeing that stuff in the terrorist groups of today, which again was my point about the power and wisdom of dialogue and persuasion over the blunt instrument. To quote The Duke of Wellington after his defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo "Nothing, except a battle lost, can be half as melancholy as a battle won".
I didn't know about Paddy O'Bama and his first address. There's an unofficial mantra in the Army over here that goes something like this, "For Queen, For Country, but most of all, for Each Other". Perhaps he should have been told about the sentiments of that one first, by one of his bright young things? I hope the new kid on the block does better. In the eyes of a large portion of the rest of the world, America really needs it right now. I hate the fact that the US is perceived so badly at the moment. The Americans that I've met, and millions like them, don't deserve it.
Thanks to BIB, Anon and CPDCoppurr for firing up a good chat on a freezing cold Sunday morning. Walk safely, all of you and I'll see you again soon.
Hey CPDCoppurr, Quick PS/Update: Last night, on National TV, there was one of the ex IRA chiefs, Gerry Adams, once most wanted and now an MP in the power sharing NI Gov't, talking about the need to engage in dialogue between the Israli's and the various Palestinian groups in Gaza. If the IRA wrote the book on terrorism, perhaps they are the best ones to write the one on peace negotiations? QED?? ;)
Hogday,
I am thinking you are right on with your post........... Maybe someone will be smart enough to have them brought in as counsel, or have them at least teach how to get through such a mess. The only problem I see is the cultural differences.
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