When your policy decisions are made by a bunch of spin doctors to improve your opinion poll ratings then expedience overrides principle and conscience. Barack Obama boasts repeatedly of being the commander-in-chief but actions based on popularity ratings are bound to be wrong. He is right to say " Don't do stupid shit ", given the reluctance of Americans to get involved in any military adventure overseas after the debacle in Iraq, but his craving to appear presidential impels him to kill civilians indiscriminately by using drones, so that he has been named the Drone Master by his admirers. The stupid killing of Gaddafi by NATO bombing has resulted in the Islamist takeover of Tripoli. Libya is in the grip of a civil war just like Syria and Iraq. When Bashar al-Assad used violence against civilian protesters he was demonised by the western propaganda press. The neo-Nazi, anti Semitic Ukraine government is using tanks, artillery and aerial bombing against towns in the east only because they speak Russian. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee in a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing with encouragement of the US and Europe, who want to spite Russia. Sanctions have been imposed on Russia which has retaliated with its own sanctions against imports of US and European goods. Russia has been forced into a 30 year deal to sell gas to China at dirt cheap rates while it has cut off all gas supplies to Ukraine. Europe is already reeling from an inflation rate of just 0.4% which has raised expectations of deflation. Even the German economy, the largest in Europe, has felt the pain of Russian sanctions. Even after the disaster of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine Obama thought that he would get some cheap approval at home by humiliating Putin. Gasbag versus KGB agent, who will win we do not know or care but by boosting the Chinese economy Asia has become immensely dangerous. The killing of the US journalist, James Foley, in response to US bombing, has suddenly focused US attention on the Islamic State which has won large tracts of land in Iraq and Syria. Americans do not want to get militarily involved in Iraq but they want action for Foley's death. If he can get the killer that will add a few more points to his ratings. Seems that Obama is now considering talking to Assad of Syria and to Iran to stop the Islamic State. All killing is wrong whether it is James Foley or Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown or blowing up babies and pregnant women by using drones. You cannot bring peace by more killing. For once Obama should think of others as human beings and not just of his ratings. Be human.
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