No oil rigs at the Florida coasts!

One would imagine that the current oil flood in the Mexican Gulf next to the Louisiana shores and the frightening news of the environmental impact would have an impact on the advocates of the Florida offshore drilling. Not so! We did not hear any comment from the authors of the bill who presented the offshore drilling at the Florida legislation.

Luckily governor Crist did not sign it to enter into law and it is unlikely that he will under his tenure.

It is sad that it had to be a disastrous event for the wake up call.

Are there still supporters for drilling at the Florida coasts? The current catastrophe hopefully convinced even the hardcore supporters that this is a dangerous business where the outcome is unpredictable.

The pro drilling people say that we do not want to rely on foreign oil. Of course we wouldn’t if we had a choice. However even if we had a 100 more oil platform at the Florida shores, we would still need foreign oil. That would not change a dime of the current dependence. Consequently we would not solve any problem by opening for drilling. On the contrary: we would create an even bigger one!

They also say that drilling is safe. Sure. It is just demonstrated how safe it is.

Their next argument is: it brings “royalty fees” to Florida. Of course it does; which become to be peanuts compared to the damage what the drilling causes even without a disaster.

The White House communiqué indicated that new oil drilling will be permitted only once the necessary “safety measures” are in place. What does that mean in plain English?

Oil Companies were always obligated to operate under “safety measures” and with “contingency plans”. Where are those now? Where are the safety measures? Where is the “contingency plan”? By pouring in tons of poisoning chemicals to disperse the crude oil? Or by putting up the useless orange color “retaining booms” working only under calm weather conditions – which is not the case most of the time in the Gulf!

The fishermen are the ultimate defense at the shores of Louisiana! Not the Oil Companies. BP said that they are welcoming all help from any source. That’s good to know. But why didn’t they do something before? Their 2009 $4.9 billion profit did not make them possible to build in safety measures to their drilling platform at the Louisiana shore 1 mile deep at the ocean floor? They should have had a plan what happens when there is an accident! But they did not have a Plan! An estimated of 200,000 gallons of crude oil pours into the Gulf daily, however no one knows the real number. It can easily be twice as much. The oil sleek tripled in size just within 2 days and it threatens the entire coast line of Florida from the Panhandle to the East cost.

The unimaginable turned reality. “Safe” drilling does not exist. We either turn Florida to be an “Industrial Battlefield” or we want Florida to be a good place for living, a prime tourist destination for the rest of the nation and the rest of the World.

The choice is ours!

In the wake of this still-unfolding incident this would be the perfect time for the Florida lawmakers to postpone indefinitely plans for oil drilling operations at the Florida Coastlines!

United States Security

The “security hysteria” of the United States is exactly what the attackers wanted to achieve. Their goal was not just to kill, but also to give an ‘insecure” feeling to the American people within the US. Unfortunately they succeeded not just with the result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but also with the aftermath of it. They dragged America into a two front war: with Afghanistan and Iraq.
While there was a good reason to attack Afghanistan, since the Taliban were harboring the Al Qaeda leadership, it is more than questionable the reasoning behind attacking and occupying Iraq.
Iraq was harboring neither terrorists, nor Al Qaeda members. Saddam Hussein brutal regime did not tolerate another brutal entity like they were within the country.
By attacking and occupying Iraq, the United States lost the balance of power in the region which has been there for decades between the two rivals: Iraq and Iran.
It is not an accident that Iran became so “strong” in the last couple of years. Iraq which caused them so much trouble, with which they were in war for almost a decade, does not exist anymore. Instead there is an Iraq which is Iran friendly. The US set free an enormous capacity in Iran, which has been tied up for decades with a hostile, Sunni ruled Iraq.
Where do we stand with the security of the United States now, after 9 years of war with Afghanistan and 7 years of war in Iraq?
The situation is much worse than it was before. While both countries are occupied by US forces (and this was the easy part) there is no (short) way out from the conflicts. If and when the US forces leave Afghanistan, there is an almost sure possibility that the country (or at least a good part of it) will descend back to Taliban rule. This radical Islam ideology is against everything what the Western democracies stand for. And the US is their number one target and enemy.
Can the US afford to leave Afghanistan completely? Probably not, for a long time. Today there is more radicalization in the region than ever. And the Big threat is emerging:
Pakistan
with their close to 200 million people from which 97% are Muslim. There are a growing number of people in Pakistan who are against the West, against America and pro Taliban. Partially because of choice, partially because of the threat how the Taliban treats the locals in the lawless tribal area bordering with Afghanistan. Then here is the threat that Pakistan nuclear weapons may fall to the hands of the radicals.
In the meantime Iraq, which has never tolerated the terrorists under Saddam Hussein, became a magnet for the various radical groups and terrorist from all over the world. It is now the favorite battle field - where they can fight directly - against the Americans and the allies.
Solution? I do not think there is any short term solution. The job (whether it was right or wrong) has to be finished the best way possible. There was a quick military victory but in order to keep the victory in the long run proves to be much more difficult. As long as America is alienating the local population – there is no long term solution. To build up the trust and turn the population pro American is a long way to go. The Obama administration understands this and works in that direction. I hope we will see at least some results during his first term.
Do we feel more secure now because of all the actions our government did? Unfortunately the impact – especially what the previous administration was suggesting – was, that there are enemies everywhere and we are not secure. By attacking two countries and drag the nation into a two front war did we become more secure? I do not think so.
What Obama inherited is a huge task to absorb and solve. I strongly believe that he has the correct approach in both countries and he is doing the best it is possible under the very bad and complicated circumstances.

Security

Airport security

It is only one segment of the American life style, but Air travel is an important and integrated part of the way we all live. The United States is a huge country and Air travel became an everyday event whether it is a family visit, business travel, or a vacation.

666 million passengers were traveling just for domestic flights in last year within the US.

This is more than 1.8 million people daily. Would it be important for the government - besides maintaining the security - to try to keep this exercise as pleasant experience as possible? Yes it would! After all we are talking about the mood of 1.8 million people daily!

But that’s not happening. It looks like that the government is too busy with the security itself and ignores the human effect of the security procedure. With a few exceptions, the airport security is handling and talking to the crowd as we were hogs in a pen; in most instances their behavior is superior and not service like, their instructions are commanding and not requesting and I could continue the bad experiences I have had as a frequent traveler. In order to be just to the entire TSA staff, I have seen many instances on the contrary as well.

Unfortunately I do not see that trend which would make the Air travel less painful and make the 666 million traveler less disappointed by the security procedure experience. No one is disputing that security is the #1 priority. But why should the security procedure spoil the day of so many people if this could have been done the other way as well. We do not need the ‘humorous” shouting security personal herding us like animals. We need polite and professional security staff who does their job serving the traveling public.

It would make a big difference in the public spirit of the day. And there are 365 of these days with close to 2 million American passengers every single day!

Think about that!