Since being elected, President Obama has withdrawn much of the military might from Iraq and accelerated the war in Afghanistan, and yet instead of winning either war, he seems to be flooring the gas pedal while holding the emergency brake on an icy road.  He’s tried to do everything at once and not progressed any significant agenda to a stage where it has a chance to flourish and develop.

Afghanistan, unlike the economy and health care, kills people when mistakes are made.

A friend of mine by the name of Sgt. Robert D. Sanchez was a serviceman killed Oct. 1 by an IED in Afghanistan.  He was a soldier who had the respect of his friends, family and those who were lucky enough to have known him.  As an American, he believed in a free way of life and spreading freedom to those who have been oppressed.

But while he and the men and women in the military live day to day, unsure if they will see the next, we have the White House and all of Obama’s ‘Czars’ and advisers wavering on what the correct course of action is and dragging their feet on making a firm decision. Obama ‘made the decision’ to go into Afghanistan stronger, yet backed off when things got a little ugly and as many a Democrat before him, he’s playing off media reaction and the supposed response the public has.

Essentially, he’s trying to lead a war like he’s playing chess with no timer.

I’m sorry Mr. Obama, but either you support the soldiers you put there or you pull them out.  America does not fight the war like the Chinese where every other soldier gets a gun and the other gets a chopstick.  A better course of action might have been to decide whether the Afghan people even want freedom like America, or whether their oppressive Holy Law is better suited for a people of their beliefs.

At least then we’d know what Americans are dying for.

Maybe I’m just another ignorant American, but the first thing to strike me after reading about this story was the “youth club for gay teens” and the fact that this place is in Jerusalem.

Just when I thought America was getting more liberal…

According to the Associated Press, a witness at the scene called it a “hate crime,” and a police spokesperson pointed out that he didn’t believe it to be an act of terrorism.

A hate crime? A man opening automatic rifle up on a club, an association with the job of providing support to gay and lesbian teenagers…a target of hate? I would never have thought it.

Authorities are still looking for the hater, ahem, shooter.

Also reported by the AP, one lawmaker said it was “without a doubt the biggest ever attack on the Israeli gay community, we are all in shock.”

That lawmaker was also “openly” gay.”

I had no idea Tel Aviv had such an “openly gay” community. Maybe Tel Aviv will be a little more open on its laws against hate crimes in the future after this terrible crime.

According to the Associated Press, Edward spent his life conducting orchestras around the world as head of the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Opera House. Joan was a ballet dancer, choreographer and TV producer who has been battling liver and pancreatic cancer. They had been married 54 years.

Downes’s manager, Jonathan Groves, described the couple as inseparable. “Sir Edward would have survived her death, but he decided he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to go on living without her,” Groves said.

When Joan was told that she only had weeks to live, the Downeses began to think about their options. The decision: double assisted suicide.

Because assisted suicide and euthanasia are banned in Britain, the couple traveled to Switzerland to end their lives together. Switzerland welcomes any foreigners to travel there for assisted suicide. The company that the Downeses used is Dignitas.

Dignitas charges 10,000 Swiss francs, which is about $9,200 per person. The AP reported that the almost $10,000 a person charge covers all legal arrangements as well as provides the doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of barbiturates.

Last week, in Zurich, the two drank some clear liquid and died hand-in-hand. Their two adult children were by their side.

Il has yet to confirm the news, but we know that he’s been suffering from health issues (also the obvious mental issues). In some of his recent appearances, he’s been looking especially rough. Still, North Korea is never willing to share any sort of information, really, with anyone. The initial speculation came from South Korea’s YNT TV station. It reported that he was diagnosed with cancer when he had a stroke last August.

So, we can only cross our fingers that the news is true. It’s doubtful that Korea will come right out and admit that their brilliant ruler is weak. That’s not the North Korean way. If it is true, we should expect him to be gone pretty soon. They’re saying less than five years, but the American Cancer Association says it shouldn’t be much longer than one year.

Still we shouldn’t get too excited since we all know he’ll pick someone just as crazy as he is to be his predecessor. The AP report suggests that his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, will be the next ruler. I’m sure we can expect wonderful things from him as well.

For now, we can cling to the hope that Karma will bring justice in the end.

While the exact identities of the hackers who launched their assault on government Web sites will be unknown for quite some time, if ever, it has been made public that the IP addresses from the source of the attacks all originated within North Korea.  This isn’t to say that the North Korean government is responsible, or even endorsed the attacks, but it also isn’t to say it is not.

With the situation in Pyongyang, from a strategical standpoint, it makes sense for it to explore possible avenues to wage war against larger and more developed countries that have the ability to convert a smaller country into a parking lot with the press of a button.

With that in mind, the attacks could be seen as a success, even though no lasting damage was done.  It showed that the defenses of a country such as the United States ride on guns, missiles and military, while the interlocking web that connects and controls all these elements is vulnerable.

At the same time, it now proves to the think-tank in Washington that network defense may be just as important as a missile defense.

What Kassim Bakari didn’t know was that it would be the last time he would see his wife alive.

While they were on their last leg of the trip, the jet couldn’t win against the rough turbulence and went tumbling down into the Indian Ocean. Bahia Bakari is the only survivor.

Bakari survived by holding onto floating debris from 1:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., which is when a passing boat rescued her.

Bakari remembers what happened and recounted it to her father.

Kassim Bakari told the Associated Press, “Papa, we saw the plane going down in the water. I was in the water, I could hear people talking, but I couldn’t see anyone. I was in the dark, I couldn’t see a thing.”

Bahia Bakari is now in a hospital in Moroni’s El Maaruf Hospital. As the 14-year-old girl sits in the hospital, she wants only one thing: to see her mother.

“I have told her that her mother is in the next room,” the girl’s uncle, Joseph Yousouf, told The Associated Press.

As for wounds, she has a broken collar bone and some scrapes and bruises.

Bahia Bakari will likely heal from these wounds quickly. What will take more time is learning to live without her mother.

She will be returning home to her father and three younger sisters.

Recent headlines don’t quite justify the ‘elation’ most media have reported on.  Violence has claimed more than 200 Iraqi civilians in 10 days, all of them leading up to the June 30 pull out, leaving many Iraqi’s afraid to step outside.  

Since the U.S. has pulled out, there have been reports of corruption within the Iraqi security forces, such as a police chief kidnapping civilians and holding them for ransom.  Others have said that red “X’s” have appeared painted on their doors, marking which are homes to the Sunni.  Without the United States to act as a neutral buffer to religious tension, the indoctrinated hate between religious sects may soon be a focal point of the struggles in Iraq.

Still, Iraq believes it is on its way to becoming self-sufficient, and there have been significant gains made by the security there in recent months.  The main concern the U.S. troops have now is the lack of ground support for intelligence that may be crucial to rooting out insurgents, but they have faith in the Iraqi’s ability to take care of themselves.

And they hope that trust isn’t misplaced.

A similar situation is currently happening in Italy.

Silvio Berlusconi is Italy’s prime minister and was recently sold out by Patrizia D’Addario, his “escort girl,” whom he spent the night of the American election with at his home in Rome. D’Addario even claims to have audio and video proving that they were together that night.

There is one difference here between what American politicians deal with in this situation and what Mr. Prime Minister is dealing with in Italy: we actually hear about it here.

According to the Times, Berlusconi owns Italy’s three main television stations, and none of them are saying anything about this entire situation.

The state broadcaster, RIA, is placing a severely low emphasis on Berlusconi’s shortfalls and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to budge.

Augusto Minzolini, the news editor of TGI (RAI’s main news service) was quoted this week saying that TGI will not run any stories that “lack evidence.”

I guess the evidence is in the eye of the beholder.

The best line from Minzolini, by far, is: “In this story full of illusions, more or less reliable witnesses and personal rancor, there is still no sure news, nor any evidence that a crime has been committed involving the premier or his aides.”

That ridiculous statement begs the question, “Does it even matter?”

But those days are over and we have a new monkey-like caricature as the face of our nation.

Unlike Bush’s black and white stance on virtually everything, Obama has taken ’shades of gray’ and turned it into a political decision making process.

Since his election, Obama has been greeted warmly, given the benefit of the doubt, allowed certain freedoms that previous presidents weren’t given (like his trusty Blackberry), and dinner dates with his wife.  He’s also had ever every one of his policies meet a brick wall of real-world concerns that he needed not contend with while he preached bunnies and magical rays of sunshine during last year’s election campaign.

He’s also been the easiest president in modern history to break under pressure.  Republicans have blasted him for all manner of policy inadequacies; his socialist health care reform, and now his inability to decide foreign policy…or lack of foreign policy, if you don’t count dinner dates with foreign leaders to apologize for the last eight years.  

Until the death of Neda in Iran, Obama has been a spineless diplomat, frowning on the obvious atrocities taking place in Iran, while pushing his cigarette agenda and trying in vain to get people to blindly sign off on socialist reform.

Now, Obama has decided to threaten Iran with consequences if it does not resolve its conflict by the election on June 12, stopping short of cutting off a chance for diplomatic solution.  This comes after Republicans lambasted him for tap dancing around the crisis, essentially labeling Obama an ineffective humanitarian.

I’m not a fan of going in or staying out, but I did appreciate the days where we had a President who had some semblance of moral fiber.

A 19-year-old boy was standing at an intersection returning from class.  He was going to be married, and was taking classes in acting.  When he never returned home, his family searched for him only to find out that he had been shot in the head, apparently at random or just by bad luck.  As has been the case in Iran, the authorities have allegedly killed people who had virtually no participation in the rallies, to going so far as to breaking up couples walking down the street to prevent civilians from grouping together.

When the family went to collect the young man’s body, they were met with a $3,000 fee. A fee for what, you may ask?  To pay for the bullet that killed their son.  Unless that bullet was made of platinum infused with unicorn blood and blessed by an Eskimo medicine man, that’s a serious case of extortion by the Iranian government.

It’s amazing to hear about the $3G bullet-fee extortion.  With the world’s eye on Iran, things like this won’t pass by unnoticed as they have before.  The more that comes out about the insane things that take place there, the more the public opinion on Iran turns against it.