oja oba !!!

American government's job is to protect Americans. ISIS harmed American's and thus drew the nation's ire, and rightfully so. Assad continues to kill Syrians, but inherently, that is a duty for Syrians. If America were to attack every nation that harms or kills its own people, the US will have to invade China, Russia, and many others. So, Obama's foreign policy, while derided by some, is perhaps America's first realistic foreign policy in decades. The US cannot, and should not become the world's policeman. If Assad makes the mistake of harming Americans, then he would have rightfully deserved attack by the US government. The so called Syrian opposition that wants America to help it get rid of Assad, so that it can then "deal" with ISIS is living in lala land. The Syrian opposition remains fractious, and unsure. Like the Shia opposition against Saddam, it lacks a national structure and basis. Obama is right to avoid turning the US into Syria...

A play from Natanyahu's playbook - "when your enemies are fighting each other..." Civilized people across the globe must come together and fight the evil menaces that threaten the global order, but it is imperative that the ones who are charged to lead or who have chosen to take on leadership role remember the value of consistency. Terrorist groups, Islamic or otherwise are a threat to human civilization. They work to overturn existing orders and re-impose primitive  social and political orders. However, in fighting them, we cannot turn a blind eye to atrocities against humanity committed by our "friends" and "allies" or those committed in our backyard. President Obama's measured, calculated and deliberate approach may seem a bit "too cautious" to some, but the last time we avoided being to cautions, America and the West was led into a quagmire in Iraq whose cost to global stability, human lives and suffering, and fiscal ...

"When the only tool you have is retreat, every problem looks “manageable.” " --- Mr. Lowrey's attempt to paint the administration's foreign policy as feckless forced him to create his own axiom. But saying it doesn't make it so. The world is a complex place with various actors, each playing its own game, often to its own tune. The rise of China did not start in 2009, nor did the belligerence of Putin. Leaving thousands of American troops in Iraq would not have stemmed the rise of violence in that country, only good leadership stood a chance, and Maliki was not it. America has a choice to make in Afghanistan, but short of a coup, it was near impossible to remove Kazai outside of elections and get good governance. It is easy for McCain and his ilk to act as monday morning quarter backs, but engaging in every oversea conflict only weakens America the more. And after two expensive wars in the 2000, and soaring public debt, caution will only give America...

The boko haram group is a reflection on the distaste of a group of Nigerians to the idea that another group "runs" the country. Since The Brits "divided and ruled" the Niger area (Nigeria) since 1914, the tug of war between North and South, East and West etc have continued unabated. While Nigeria became the identity of a people, generations later, the issue of spoils continue to dodge the nation and its people. For years, it was the Ogoni's in the delta area, and then it was the Ijaws. For a while the Ijaws and the Urhobos were at each others throat, just as so many of the different groups that were clobbered into a nation state have been at each others throat at some time or the other over the last 100 years. What Nigeria, and indeed many of the states created as a result of European empires need is a rethink of what it means to be a nation state. Is there an overriding reason why oil discovered on Isoko land must be used to fund development in Ni...

The World dropped the ball! When the latest Ebola epidemic was first identified in Spring, most policy makers in the across the world must have concluded that another "African" problem should be left the "heck" alone, even as a growing number of mostly religion based western charity raced to Liberia and Sierra Leone to help the struggling people of the poverty and war ravaged region cope with another epidemic.

To many in the Republican party, making President Barack Obama fail is an all out war, even if the collateral damage is America's image abroad. In the past, as Americans wage ideological battles at home, there was always an unwritten rule that all politics must stop at the water's edge - i.e. at the nation's vast borders. However, in the last 5 years, since Republican's first announced their overriding goal of making Barack Obama a one-term President, that waters edge has broken, and US politics has spilled into Beijing, Moscow and every Capital in-between. Perhaps, this madness did not start with Republicans in 2009, but goes all the way back to the "liberal" War on Bush who many saw as an "illegitimate" usurper who was selected by five Supreme Court justices in 2000, or perhaps, this was all on show during the Vietnam War as American local opposition turned the War into a disaster for Politicians. But, driven by the internet, twenty-four hours n...

  Too often, western journalist ignore history , and the tension just below the surface in the "nations' stitched together by false threads by colonial Europe. The only thing holding many of the middle-eastern nations "together" are the dictators. And the dictators achieve the presumed piece through suppression of rights and patronage. America's failure in Iraq is not its refusal to arm "moderates", because there are no moderates in these fights, only sectarian agitators. Iraq and Syria, like Saudi Arabia have been ran by Sunnis for generations now, and the Shiites will like to change that order. President Obama must refrain from being dragged into the morass in Baghdad. If Maliki and other Iraqi politicians trully care about Iraqi as a single, united state, they must make the political accommodations and compromises necessary. The same is true for Syria (and America must be willing to give Assad a pass,  and a dignified transition). ...

The community of nations that evolved after World War II is largely a set of nations, stitched together by a false thread, woven in the image of a collection of mostly failed European empires. The Middle-East, Africa, and south Asia still bursts with amalgamated "nation states", while Europe continues to purge itself of the relics of the great Wars. In Africa, Nigeria, Sudan (now split), Zaire (Kinshasa), Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire (to name a few) a European colonies of multiple nations, bundled together into nation states for ease of European empire-state administration. Anglo-Nigeria was so named, since it was the homogenous land claimed by Britain and all its neighbors where French colonies. Some parts of Eastern Nigeria and Western Cameroon changed hands from Germany to Britain and France after World War I. Iran, Syria, Jordan, Palestine (now Israel, West Bank and Gaza) where relics of the Ottoman Empire that fell into the hands of European conquerors from...

Another faux punditry. Cantor's loss is less of a "conservative" / tea-party win. Many of these pundits forget that Eric Cantor worked hard, at least in the last couple of weeks before his defeat. They also forget that Dave Brat got little or no support from the tea-party guards who are now claiming his "victory" as their own. The true narrative the pundits are working so hard to supress, or are two ignorant to recognize are 1) Mr. Cantor's arrogance and 2) Mr. Cantor's lack of conviction. For 5 years, he yearned to one-up Obama, and soon after the 2010 elections began to angle for the Speakership. His hubristic ambition, in many ways, paved the way for the do-nothing congress of the last 4 years - led by a spineless speaker. These are men whose interest in being "leaders" far outweighed their sense of responsibility to the nation they purport to lead. Many of the faux pundits parroting of Republicans recently found (5 years ol...

The Emir is not a Muslim leader in the same way a Pope or an Archbishop is a Christian leader, or even the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist leader. An Emir is more like a traditional leader, a King, if you may. The Emir of Kano is the traditional ruler of Kano, just the same way the Ooni of Ife is the traditional ruler of Ife. Indeed, the predominant religion in Kano has been Islam for centuries and the Emir has acted in both roles of spiritual and temporal leader. But casting the Emir as a Muslin leader understates his role as one the of the leading traditional rulers in multi-sovereign nation state called Nigeria. The Alaafin of Oyo, the Soun of Ogbomoso, the Oba of Benin, The Sultan of Sokoto, The Olu of Warri, etc are examples of the legions of traditional rulers in Nigeria, each with differing level of authority and influence - based, not on religion but on the historical power base of the region he rules over. It is true that #goodluckjonathan   is inept, and remain...

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Once labelled Terrorist by the West, Mandela triumphed to be awarded the Nobel Peace Price, and at his internment, the accolade of an adoring world. He overcame adversity in life, and towered over his detractors in death. Madiba's example is proof that the oppressed people of the world, including those in Palestine, will one day have their day of glory, just as the Biblical Israelites. -- ref : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nelson-mandela/10507394/Nelson-Mandela-memorial-service-live.html

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Shared Endorsements Google makes it easy for you to get great recommendations from your friends.  For example, when you visit the  Google Play music store , you may see that a friend has +1'd a new album by your favorite artist. When you search for a restaurant, you may see an ad including a 5-star review by another friend.

When Democrats and Independents sat out the 2010 election, mostly because many remained disillusioned about the state of the economy, some where unhappy that the newly passed Affordable Care Act did not go far enough, and some just could not be bothered to vote in a non-presidential cycle, they opened the way for a fringe group of self-styled tea-party, who some have credited with racist tendencies, to ascend into the United State Congress, the US Senate and most Governorship and State legislative bodies. In 2010, the extremist seized the reign of government, and nothing has been the same since then.

After forcing a gleeful government shutdown, an aftermath of their previous success in blackmailing the nation into a near default and a downgrade, and extracting huge concessions, even after loosing at the ballot box, Republicans across the land are now running over each other to claim the mantle of reasonableness. They want to negotiate. Al Shabab too wanted to negotiate, during its weeklong siege in Nairobi. The Arab nations too wanted to negotiate with Isreal in 1967 during the 7 days war. But what is the point in a negotiation aimed solely at defeating your opponent? 

In the early twentieth century, The British decided to amalgamate the regions north and south of the Niger and Benue rivers and renamed the entity Nigeria. European colonial masters (British, French, Germans, Portuguese) overlorded the entire Western African region.

The "War on ..." as a phrase snuck into our lexicon sometime after World War II and for some reason we have not been able to shake it off. There was the war on poverty, then the war on drug, and now the war on terror. These three wars have at at best mixed out comes for the west, particularly for the US. As a result of the war on terror, American black males are more likely to go to jail today, than go to college - 40% more likely today than in the 1960s, just before the assault on their liberty, tagged the war on terror became the law of the land. 40 years on, American has become the incarceration capital of the world, with its prisons bursting at the seams, literarily. This one war, America lost.

Assad will have to go. Sooner, rather than later. A Global coalition may even have to play some role in his removal. But today, Barack Obama showed some uncommon strength, that for years have been bereft in occupants of the oval office, and continues to be wanting in many so called world leaders. He stepped the US away from the brink, even if for another 10 days.