A Concerned and Disappointed American!!!!

More and more it seems this world we live in is becoming more on edge and agitated. I am by far no Ph. D. in Political Science, far from it. However, I am a concerned American who has become very disappointed with the image we have in the world's eyes. I think we would be very hard pressed to go to any country and ask the every day citizen what their perception of America is and find a majority that would be favorable. There are many issues I may not agree with President Obama on, however, his views of meeting on common ground and being diplomatic when dealing with the world I do think are essential to our success. I think in the state that we have fallen to as not being the great producer we once were puts us in a position whereby we must accept that the playing field is becoming more level as each decade passes. We must come to grips with the idea that the day approaches when we will not be able to negotiate with guns or check books in our hands. China is a perfect example. With a 2 trillion dollar surplus of cash and a 1 million man army, we can't just "strong arm" them and push them around, so we must implore more diplomacy. I am not saying fear them by any means, we must simply use more diplomacy sometimes. Just a couple of years ago at the United Nations Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez referred to our then President George Bush the younger as the Devil. As the cameras panned the audience, many dignitaries from the represented countries were applauding before they quickly cued from them back to the speaker. If this is the growing sentiment of the world's countries, we cannot have them thinking they are on God's side in a holy war against us. This is why I have paid very close attention to the Raymond Davis case!

My interest isn't in his guilt or innocence of the shooting. It seems that his diplomatic status is what's important. Quite naturally, the Pakistani government is saying that he doesn't have diplomatic immunity and the government is saying he does. In this situation we know that someone is not telling the truth. This is what troubles me, in some of the articles I've read, it seems that America is threatening to withdraw the 2 billion dollar annual funding to Pakistan to aid in their war with Afghanistan. Again, negotiating with a check book in hand, if Pakistan doesn't hand over Raymond Davis. On the other end of the equation, if Pakistan does hand him over, they face nation-wide, civil unrest as had Egypt the last couple of weeks. I think in either direction this whole mess turns out, it is safe to say the people of Pakistan and other countries in that area of the world will take an even more negative stance against the United States.

This whole media frenzy over detaining those who have diplomatic immunity gave me a flash back to a 2002 media frenzy over H.E. Diplomat Consul-General Dr. Malachi Z. York-El. To bring the reader up to speed, Rev. Dr. Malachi K. York, is a Consul-General of Liberia, Africa. In 2002, he was arrested in Milledgeville, GA, on charges of child molestation and transporting children across state lines for the purpose of engaging in illicit acts with them(Mann Act). Interestingly enough, he was proven innocent of all those charges in federal court. After that first attempt to incarcerate him was defeated, the prosecution trumped up a RICO charge which he was proven to be innocent of also and was still put in prison, the most isolated prison in the United States might I add, Florence AD MAX, in Florence, CO.

Now, how does this look to the world? We have a person who supposedly has diplomatic immunity, that has gone to another country and killed two people, allegedly in self-defense with an alleged un-registered gun. He was allegedly in an area that was restricted. He was allegedly spying. He makes a call to the consul for a speedy evacuation and the extractors run a native over and kill him on the way to get the alleged murderer. In support of our own, we quickly put pressure on the home government to release our fellow citizen for a speedy return back to the United States, which I agree we should do for one of ours first and foremost. Again, how does this look if we demand the Vienna Convention Treaty's codes and articles are observed for one of ours and we turn around and violate them ourselves??

With all that, we can hold Diplomat Consul-General Rev. Dr. Malachi K. York, who made it clear to the arresting officers of his status. Not only that, he presented his foreign dignitary card, Diplomatic Passport Number: D/003828-04, and his Liberian Permit of Residence- permit number: 108208, and was still arrested and detained. When Dr. York was arrested, Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Article 41 and Article 3 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations was violated. When he was denied the right to have his consular notified, Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations was violated as well. It must be stated that we cannot continue to show a blatant system of double standards and expect to be respected as the world police of democracy and justice for all on a world-wide scale. After expressing this, I hope the reader can understand why I am a now more concerned and disappointed American!!!!

Atun Sen Goreg