Spare us and the US public the apologies, the psychiatry, and more useless trials and meaningless investigations.
By Marwan Bishara
Al-Jazeera
"I am sort of glad President Obama didn't apologise for the recent US soldier killing spree in Afghanistan, leaving it to his "inferiors" to do the embarrassing bidding.
Obama's failure to apologise was not for the same reasons as Newt Gingrich, who reckons the US president shouldn't apologise - rather Afghans should be making apologies for getting in the way of occupying their country, or for getting killed by US troops!
Obama's campaign advisers have their own reasons for not wanting him to apologise: namely, forthcoming US screw-ups overseas will require too many apologies for an incumbent president, especially one who didn't "serve" his country.
After all, it has been only days since Obama apologised for the presumed "accidental burning" of Qurans by US soldiers in what appears to Afghans as an anti-Islamic ritual.....
The 'right war' is wrong
Afghanistan was supposed to be the "right" war, and Iraq the "stupid" one, according to Obama.
Now the US is out of the latter and stuck in a 10-year war that seems to get worse by the day.
Regardless of why this was ever considered "right", the horrific attacks of 9/11 withstanding, it has certainly gone terribly wrong.....
More importantly, there is no longer majority support for the war in the US. There's even less support in Europe.
The wise and arguably the popular, decision to take now is to find a political exit and withdraw sooner rather than later.
This is best achieved by involving all the regional players with a stake in Afghan security and stability.
This, of course, takes more than psychology, investigation and apologies.
It takes leadership."
By Marwan Bishara
Al-Jazeera
"I am sort of glad President Obama didn't apologise for the recent US soldier killing spree in Afghanistan, leaving it to his "inferiors" to do the embarrassing bidding.
Obama's failure to apologise was not for the same reasons as Newt Gingrich, who reckons the US president shouldn't apologise - rather Afghans should be making apologies for getting in the way of occupying their country, or for getting killed by US troops!
Obama's campaign advisers have their own reasons for not wanting him to apologise: namely, forthcoming US screw-ups overseas will require too many apologies for an incumbent president, especially one who didn't "serve" his country.
After all, it has been only days since Obama apologised for the presumed "accidental burning" of Qurans by US soldiers in what appears to Afghans as an anti-Islamic ritual.....
The 'right war' is wrong
Afghanistan was supposed to be the "right" war, and Iraq the "stupid" one, according to Obama.
Now the US is out of the latter and stuck in a 10-year war that seems to get worse by the day.
Regardless of why this was ever considered "right", the horrific attacks of 9/11 withstanding, it has certainly gone terribly wrong.....
More importantly, there is no longer majority support for the war in the US. There's even less support in Europe.
The wise and arguably the popular, decision to take now is to find a political exit and withdraw sooner rather than later.
This is best achieved by involving all the regional players with a stake in Afghan security and stability.
This, of course, takes more than psychology, investigation and apologies.
It takes leadership."
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