The Virgin Galactic spaceport is near Socorro, New Mexico, USA -- sorry, no go. OTOH, US cannot currently put people in space; perhaps Ed should riddlemestupid 12 July 2013 1:41pm Recommend 186 DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA As an African, I prefer never to comment, especially negatively, on what goes on in other countries, especially as too many of our countries’ governments are basket cases of the world. So when you won the US Elections, I had hoped you would serve as a role model for Africa, on what a modern day leader should be. I remember your campaign promises of: “I will close Guantanamo Bay” “I will end the wars” “I will hold the banks accountable” “I will uphold the constitution” “I will restore the reputation of the US in the rest of the world” When you recently visited Africa, I remember seeing a photograph of you in Mandela’s jail cell on Robben Island and your quote afterwards: "The world is grateful for the heroes of Robben Island, who remind us that no shackles or cells can match the strength of the human spirit." How then do you square away Gitmo, where there are +80 ‘technically’ innocent people still in captivity, or the other’s who have had no charges brought against them and will probably never see their day in court. While the similarities between the two prisons are profound, even with regards to the ‘terrorists’ housed in both in that Nelson Mandela and co. were also considered too dangerous to be let out either, there is also one glaring difference, in that nobody equated Robben Island to a concentration camp. Did you actually say that Gitmo detainees would only be force-fed at night, in accordance with Ramadan? I’m paraphrasing obviously, but if you did, all I can say is WOW! Also in SA an article on the SABC website says: “Obama told his daughters the idea of non-violent resistance, an important tactic in the U.S. civil rights movement, had taken root in South Africa where its chief proponent Mahatma Gandhi worked as a lawyer before returning to India.” But then you defend force-feeding the next day. WOW!!! Also, please refrain from any comparisons of yourself to Mandela or Ghandi, rather stick to some better suited to your ilk, like Mugabe of Mubarak. They too were more than willing to sell out their citizens and use their defence forces against them. The NSA is part of the US Defence Force and spying is an activity geared at rooting out enemies, so I don’t think it’s too farfetched to think of the average US citizen as your enemy. Worse yet, so too are we global citizens the enemy too, especially if our Governments are as dirty in their spying activities on us. You may be ending the physical wars, but I’m guessing that we really are only just scratching the surface of the information wars, economic wars or proxy & remote wars still to come, that have been disguised up to this point. And as for asking Americans to spy on their colleagues, the implications for abuse are astounding. I know this tactic was used against Muslims after 9/11 but that it can so easily be moved away from racial profiling to all races in America. Germany didn’t transform into a monster overnight. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 paved the way for the Holocaust. I’m sure that many of the Germans who reported the Jews to the Germans, didn’t do so with the knowledge of what the Nazis had ultimately planned for them. So, with your new war on whistleblowers, I can’t help but wonder whether those new one’s identified will simply be fired or whether we are going to be in for more Michael Hasting’s type accidents. Comment from a disgusted African “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” (Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321)
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 15:25:40 +0000
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