A Brave New World With Barack Obama

"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided," Barack Obama declared Wednesday, to rousing applause from the 7,000-plus attendees at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference.

But a campaign adviser clarified Thursday that Obama believes "Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties" as part of "an agreement that they both can live with."

Does Barack Obama switch his opinion more often than a parent changes a baby’s diaper? Guess it depends on whom he is pandering to on any particular day. “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful,” said George Orwell, “and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”



For more than 20 years, Barack Obama gloriously sung doxological hymns, praising roots in the Black religious experience: "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian....We are an African people, remaining "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization."

• I agree with Trinity United Church of Christ supporters who argue that

Black Liberation theology is not ethnocentric. Neither, however, should these same advocates assume a Caucasian congregation solemnly upholding their own trust in God through cultural expression of a White worship service and ministries—remaining true to their Euro-centric values—is necessarily embracing superiority and the view that everyone else is inferior!

Hostilities between Iran-Iraq. How I miss the Imposed War, which lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Bayonet charges by human-waves of boy-soldiers running into known minefields, aerial bombardment of urban centers, and static trench warfare—aside from fanatical Muslims killing other fanatical Muslims (for the glorious afterlife paradise where they can each marry 72 black-eyed virgins) - all abortive blunders leaving borders unchanged in the end.

Do not call me inhumane, for the "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." That said, this infidel's heart skips a beat when dwelling on the economics of the conflict status quo ante bellum: An estimated 500,000 Iranian dead (disputed), financial losses exceeding $500 billion, and a damaged oil infratsructure hurting oil production to this day.

If not for Sadam Hussein's personal miscalculation to invade Kuwaiti oil fields in 1990, leading to the cascade of events that culminated in his swinging from a rope on December 29, 2006, a parity might still exist between Iran and Iraq. Sadly—and thank you Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfield—Iran has emerged as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf.

• In the historical context of the interminable Arab-Israeli conflict, few do-gooders—would that include ex-President Jimmy Carter?—seem to recall that in the period immediately after World War II, none of the Arab states was enthusiastic about setting up a Palestinian state. In fact, Transjordan, Syria and Egypt intended to carve up Palestine between them, or parts of it, and to prevent each other from having too large a slice of Palestine.

Fast-forward to 2008—Why must the Islamic dimension of the Palestine conflict leverage an illegitimate claim to sovereignty over Jerusalem? Kneeling on a musalla, Muslims perform their compulsory daily prayers in supplication to Allah facing Mecca. Wake-up, Barack!

…. Another inconvenient truth.