Once again, the US government got it wrong in a big way, and President Obama donned the hat of Apologizer in Chief. The transgression this time around is the US drone missile deaths of two American civilians during a rescue operation in Yemen.
Before that, the President gave a speech during the Selma march’s 50th anniversary which acknowledged America’s role in erecting barriers to racial equality….
Which was preceeded by another apology from the President after US troops were caught burning Korans in Afghanistan….
An anteceding apology came from Obama after the Ed Snowden leaks revealed that the National Security Agency tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone….
But not before the cancellation of people’s existing health insurance plans due to Obamacare and the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov led to another “Our bad” moment by Obama….
And while I partially agree with Nancy LeTourneau’s opinion in Political Animal that an apology from a superpower can be courageous, The collection of Obama’s mea culpas illuminates an important point that Liberals and Conservatives seem to neglect.
The fact that Obama’s healthcare reform does not insure everyone and keeps the insurance company middlemen in place to drive up costs explains why we need insurance exchanges, as well as complex—and apparently crash prone—systems in place to power these exchanges.
Your “I Love You” text messages to your sufnificant other are still being captured by the NSA for review—even if you’ve never discussed blowing up buildings in the name of your God.
US foreign policy created the post-Soviet crisis in Afghanistan, which provided a safe haven for terrorists determined to attack America in September, 2001. The same policy failures are driving the same instability in Afghanistan today.
If Obama Apology Futures traded alongside corn and pork bellies, you could make a fortune from this investment tip: people of African descent have a near-nil net progress gain in wealth and well-being since MLK’s Selma march. Guess what outcome you can bet on since no radical policy has been created to drive equality?
Back to the drones and civilians. Research shows that the US has not only been killing civilians with drones for years, but the drone strike decisions also came from the highest levels of government.
Apologies are not courageous, nor do they indicate cowardice or weakness. Bravery means the creation of policies which correct the conditions that made these apologies necessary. I’d rather see the President pick up a pen than a mic….
song currently stuck in my head: “get a grip on yourself” – the stranglers
mentalunrest.com 