James Andrews

Before I start this post, I want to just clue people in to what kind of person I am if they don’t know me very well. I consider myself a citizen of the world. I was born in the US, I have friends of different nationalities, many of them I consider close friends. I hold no grudge towards someone based on ethnicity or social group. My only prejudice is against stupidity. If you are stupid enough, I will frown upon you.

I would also like to say that only one time have I ever shed a tear for someone I didn’t know. That moment was hours after 9/11 when things started sinking in. 3,347 died because of a conflict in the middle east that in my opinion shouldn’t be our problem, but because our government has decided we are responsible for policing the world, we are stuck in the middle of it.

Earlier today President Obama gave a speech in Egypt. The target audience was the muslim nations of the world. It was a speech typical of Obama. A speech aimed at mending fences instead of tearing them down. In my eyes a speech aimed in the right direction.

Now I am not one for taking sides, but I have to agree with President Obama that the Israeli people need to stop settling in the west bank. This area was given back to the Arabs by Israel in 1967. Now they take it upon themselves to settle there, and when asked to stop so that the peace process can try to move forward they basically say, no we’ll do what we want. Its no wonder the Palestinian’s are prepared to fight, how would you like it if you’re neighbor decided that your swimming pool looked nice, and decided to fence it off as part of his yard, then have the city/town/legal system take his side and say too bad. If Israel really wanted peace, they would work towards it instead of allowing their people to slowly take over the west bank.

Now I am a registered Independent, I have voted both Republican and Democrat in the past. Recently though the GOP has not been in my favor. They are far from it. They keep saying stupid things, that put us in bad light with the rest of the world. Let’s take House Minority Leader John Boehner’s blasting of President Obama’s speech. Then there was former Governor Mitt Romney ( as a Massachusetts resident’s opinion (that’d be me) needs a big spoonful of STFU) who decided to further criticize President Obama. Israel gave back that land to the Arabs after some conflict in the 60s they should not be moving into that territory and trying to settle there. President Obama is right in demanding that Israel not move into that territory. It’s not theirs, and the GOP has to figure that out, or else STFU. If Israel wants peace concessions should be made whether they have made too many or not. Going in and further taking land from the Palestinians will just continue the conflict, and we’ll get nowhere.

Again I would like to thank the British for starting this mess some 90 years ago, then handing it off to the U.N. in the late 40s and leaving it up to the rest of the world to figure out. I would just like to go a week without hearing about crap in the Middle east….