When is a Bow not a Bow? Wow! wow.

The recent fabricated flap over Obama's "tell tale" bow to foreign leaders neither shocks or amazes me. Remember the blood lust that was fabricated in preparation for both Iraq invasions which had the net effect of killing over one million (some estimates are as high as three million) innocent human beings? The same infantile "logic" is at work now. Our "friend's" enemy is our enemy. How soon we forget the slant wells that first got Iraq in trouble, not that they got caught stealing Kuait's oil, quite the opposite! Kuait was stealing Iraq's oil. Kuait got our support throughout and when no action was taken to deprive them of the stolen crude, the Iraqi leader sent troops to storm the border. It has been a while, but to refresh your memory, our blood and treasure were called upon to get Kuait back on the map. Foolishly we were investing in a tinderbox. Rather than honoring the foreign leader who had a legitimate gripe, we went in with guns blazing, terrorizing innocent people, adding another layer of oppression and death in our wake. The senseless bombing of civilian targets in the hopes of getting Saddam "by chance" only served to take out sources of fresh water and electricity effectively changing a modern, secular culture back into a third world nation virtually overnight. I watched it on CNN. It was "pretty".

My point is that we have the choice to believe whoever we want. Perhaps by honoring other world leaders instead of telling them in no uncertain terms what we want to hear, we would find a way to peace that would save lives and further our interests instead of creating untold havoc that can only breed contempt. We have trouble spending a single night without power. People in much of the world have found ways to exist with just a few hours of juice (sometimes even less) per day. The unpatriotic people who said that it was unpatriotic, or at least unamerican to say the war was wrong are now eager to question our current, fairly elected commander in chief. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we see how flimsy their paper tigers truly are. The malarkey about what nation our President was born in, questioning his faith, color, and motivation are all ruses designed to question, not the man's ideas, not even his desire to help us regain standing on the world stage, but his legitimacy. People who find fault with intellect are as dangerous as the times we find ourselves in. Putting their faces and ideas before the public with a twenty-four hour news cycle has crippled public opinion, taken focus away from real issues, and created a culture of despots willing to say anything if it will get them a shred of notoriety.

The complete fabrication of evidence for Iraq II, as well as the strengthened alliance with Saudi Arabia, who issued passports to the majority of the 9-11 conspirators, must give us pause. When we support police states, or agencies of torture, human trafficking, corruption and terrorism of their own citizens, it cheapens us. It undermines our lofty goals of self-determination for all humans on the planet. Perhaps, if we all got behind an honorable man, with an honorable message, we would regain a bit of respect in the world. Obama's bow gave him a chance to visually confirm that he respects the leader of another country. It is a good feeling to be respected. Wouldn't it be a breath of fresh air if we were to be respected back? Sabre rattling only assures that you will have to unsheathe the weapon at some future date. Offers of meeting people on an equal to equal basis is our only hope for peace and respectability in the future.

As I told many before the election, "We may get Obama on the ticket, he may even win the election, but I guarantee even after he gets in office, we will still have to fight for him." This is the part where we have to fight. Let the media folks who incite argument, even when we all agree, know that we won't take their pablum anymore. If we let all the scared, paranoid, hateful people keep spewing their lies, who will be informed enough to see through their veil of ignorance? I contend that there are things far more important than Wall Street, more important than the earnings of insurance companies, yes, even more important than auto makers. The future of our planet may hinge on decisions we must make today. I'm all for a leader who knows enough to respect our fellow travelers on Starship Earth. Now, all we need is to convince the talking heads.