Counselor, A Life at the Edge of History, By Ted Sorsensen

Have just finished Counselor, A Life at the Edge of History, By Ted Sorsensen. Ted Sorsensen was Special Counselor to President John F. Kennedy. I have to admit I was wary of reading it, Mr Sorsensen is the last of the Kennedy Loyalists and he still loyal. I thought I should start to understand Liberals, they will be in power in D.C for the next four to eight years, so thought it might be easy to understand a Liberal through one of the best known Liberals and a good writer. Thus bought the above book. My wariness was miss placed, Mr Sorsensen has written a very honest book, but he still loyal. The book is frank about the Kennedy weakness of women, but what is important is the negatives and positives of the Kennedy Administration. One can disagree with Mr Sorsensen's view of events in the past but one does get to understand Liberals and the mind set. I have always been a JFK fan, of the real JFK faults and all, this book should be read after you read all the negative stuff about JFK and Camelot, its an excellent counter balance, you have to accept that Ted Sorsensen will always be the last Kennedy loyalist, but you get to understand him and JFK. Excellent Read.

Obama 1 - Pirates 0

BBC News: Reports on the release of the US hostage held by Somali Pirates, the US Navy took military action at the end of the day. The US Navy is seems from various wire reports had the ability to take action when the US hostage, Captain Richard Phillips jumped for freedom from the lifeboat that he was held on by the Pirates. Three things spring to mind, Captain Phillips is a hero, he volunteered to be the hostage rather than his crew, this was the second time that he escaped, the US Navy got luck, it was ready the second time. Also President Obama must get of the political glory, he must have green light the operation, this will show that Obama will not allow pirates or terrorists push him around. One should note this operation took place on the sea, the next time could be on land, and in that dilemma Obama could face the same problems as Carter and Reagan.

Update:

BBC News: Reports on the actual process that lead to the release of Captain Richard Phillips, it seems that the pirates made the mistake of being on deck and thus open to action by US Snipers. Thus the end result, three dead pirates and one in custody. One of the main lessons one can learn from this process is not to trust first reports. The original post is correct minus the method of release, the rest is a fair view of the events. I will not edit the original post, a mistake was made, bloggers are not news networks, they have to be trusted what comes over the wire reports. In future this blogger will wait to get the full story on current events before posting. Again sorry reader for not being factual, this blog will always try to be truthful about events eve if the opinions are open to debate.

Split in New Labour Foreign Policy = Pakistan

Guardian: Reports on a split in the Brown Government, the Social Cohesion Minister, Sadiq Khan argues that the UK has to show that it is different from the USA when it comes to its policy on Pakistan. This opinion will not go down well UK PM Gordon Brown, he has enough problems without junior ministers going off the New Labour reservation. One can see the point of Mr Khan, he argues that the Obama done attacks in the badlands of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has not gone down well with the people of Pakistan. The effect of this anger is the terrorists arrest of late. But at the end of the day the Obama Administration has no choice when it comes to Pakistan, they want to end the War in Afghanistan, to do this they have to remove the threat from the Taliban/Terrorists that are in Pakistan. In fact one can postulate that the USA will increase attacks this year, the military expert predict heavy fighting this year, thus the USA will chase the Taliban/Terrorists back over the border.

What a Disgrace

The Times: Has a in depth report on the emails that bought down a close aide of UK PM Gordon Brown. They are worse than I thought, false sex stories, attacks on wife's, creating false health issues. How low can you go, no wonder the BBC went out of its way to say all Parties do it, they are so in the tank for Labour, Labour and BBC a disgrace.

Modern Pirates

The New York Times: Reports that talks between the US Navy and modern Somali Pirates that are holding a US hostage have broken down. Lets hope the West Wing is keeping this to below Presidential level, Jimmy Carter had the hostages in Iran and Reagan had the hostages held in Lebanon. Carter allowed Iran to twist him the wind, he lost his re-election bid in 1980, Reagan allowed his concern for the hostages to move the Administration to talk to Iran, thus Iran - Contra, the selling of arms to Iran and the money being divert to the Contra freedom fighters of Nicaragua. The USA should have one message to the modern pirates, you have one hour to release the hostage or will you blow you out of the water, if you kill the hostage will blow you out of the water. The message should be that simple, any money given or freedom for the pirates will show that Obama is even more weak than he looks now, this is another test for President Obama.

Obama's UN Role = Failure and Weakness!

WSJ: Reports on the failure of the Obama Administration to get the UN to take action over the North Korean Missile Launch. The failure President Obama to get the UN to move and his weakness in the face of modern Pirates has shown that Obama is another Jimmy Carter. After the North Korean Launch Obama stated that words must mean something, e.g the UN resolution that forbids North Korea from taking such action, but North Korea is protected by China and Russia. This failure by Obama means that Iran will go nuclear within the year, they will see that Obama is desperate for not taking action, thus they will postulate that he will never order a strike on Iran's nuclear plants. They will postulate that Obama will be afraid that Iran would take action in Iraq should either the USA or Israel hit their plants. Thus the Taliban/Terrorists in Afghanistan will figure out that all they have to do is cause Obama pain, and the young President will buckle and take the troops out. Thus expect heavy fighting in Afghanistan and the moving of Taliban to taking over Pakistan.

Has New Labour gone all Nixon or Chicago Politics ?

BBC News: Reports on the political dirty pool at the heart of the New Labour Government. A close Aide to the UK Prime Minister had sent an email to a friend with an ideas for a new web site that would put out false stories about the the Conservative Party. Well folks it is under a year to the next General Election, the Labour Party must be worried that what happened to the Tories in 1997 will happen to them, in other words a political wipe out. Thus New Labour has gone all Nixonian or even Chicago politics. They want to win at any cost, no matter about decent, honourable action. Thus except more sleaze out of No.10 before the General Election.