This week, two different religions were mocked and disrespected in the United States and the followers’ reactions couldn’t have been more different.  While a lone preacher in Florida burned a copy of the Koran, a Broadway show opened in New York making fun of the Mormon faith with irreverent humor and sacrilegious musical numbers.  Some Muslim followers in Afghanistan reacted to the burning by storming the UN compound and killing innocent international public servants.  The Mormon Church reacted to the musical by pointing the public to the superficial nature of it and the supernatural power of their faith.

America’s involvement in conflicts for the foreseeable future will be determined by Washington’s appetite for nation-building and debated by asking tough questions about whether or not we will be temporary occupiers or outside supporters. Americans, after all, have spent billions of dollars, and thousands of lives have been lost, fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban from inside Iraq and Afghanistan.

After 17 months of diplomacy, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice was only able to get 12 of the 15 countries on the United Nations Security Council to vote to place increased sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons. Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, Rice jumped to defend the Obama Administration’s lackluster performance by claiming that previous Iran resolutions were not unanimous during the Bush Administration and that there were “abstentions”. Her strategy to minimize the Bush team’s performance in order to make her own poor performance look better isn’t factual. After so much hype about…

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al-jazeera/ a year of little change Barack Obama’s First Year in Foreign Policy This past year has not been a successful year for the 44th President of the United States. Although the Barack Obama Administration has had the incredible luxury of having its own political party – the Democrats – control the House of Representatives and the Senate by wide margins, there has been little progress on domestic and international issues. Obama and his team have the ability to pass any bill and create any new law they want without relying on a single Republican vote. And yet, the Obama…

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USC.AnnenbergSchool/grenell CNN ran an op-ed by Richard Grenell of the USC Annenberg School about the challenges President Obama faces. “President Obama is in a unique position these days. As a Democratic president of the United States, he has a House of Representatives with 258 Democrats and only 177 Republicans and a Senate with 58 Democrats and only 40 Republicans,” Grenell wrote. “Obama is laying out a new Afghanistan policy and will be able to count on the Republicans to make sure it is funded. While members of the president’s own party were working to delay and stop his decision, the…

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/01/grenell.obama.afghanistan/index.html

http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Richard_A__Grennell_2095BCF6-16DC-4DCF-9A83-CE6F04FFABED.html

Since Tom Brokaw was tongue-tied on Meet The Press on Sunday and Andrea Mitchell was unable to think clearly about a man she covered for 4 years, I thought i should suggest some questions for any other reporters who get a chance to interview former Secretary of State Colin Powell. 1 – First and foremost, if you are so concerned about the direction of your so called party, why didn’t you get involved or even speak out during the Republican primary? 2 – Why did you wait for the last 16 days of the GENERAL ELECTION to speak out if…

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