I believe that Obama honestly means well. Unfortunately, I think he's also naive to a fault and doesn't seem to understand that the US has enemies. I'll give him credit for his PR attempt, but this is really a bad move, IMO. Now, if he's going with the "keep friends close, but enemies closer" idea, eh, risky, but that would make sense.
His sensibilities seem to come from the same cloth as Neville Chamberlain.
Providing for the common defense in important, but we are beginning to look like an empire, we NEED more diplomatic relationships. I dunno, i wish to believe that Obama really has good intentions, but i feel he is constantly steered towards anything but what he wants, or would do, just as Bush was. That said, the odd thing about his situation is he is very centrist. Yet all the republicans yell and scream liberal without actually looking at any of his policies or anything he says or does, so then all the die hard liberals yell something back, and then all the focus is lost on what is actually going because half the country is to busy arguing over nothing.
Hugo Chavez, he is a savior to the Venezuelan people. The "left wing gorillas" which have finally gotten a good foothold are not "gorillas" and they are what the people want. Funny considering IT WAS A FASCIST STATE one in which was controlled in large by US corporate greed. SO, what happens in the US??? mass propaganda, oh he's evil, hes a communist, blah blah blah, he's stealing our money, so we need to mislead the people to convince them he is evil..... bullcrap. Something else VERY interesting, and one that the US does NOT want US citizens to see is their direct democracy, they hold meeting, people explain their problems, the advisors listen, and something happens.... I mean, its still not perfect, but its working, and it would be a issue if the majority of US citizens understood a system like that.
Lastly... once we find an alternative to oil, many of these types of issues will dissolve, almost all this garbage is over oil.
