Obama follows Bush's steps naming the countries of the axis of evil

I think that it's not that off-topic talking about Obama's foreign policy. This is a mental health advocate blog but Obama is far from doing any change in American health system.

As a citizen concerned with the world I am amazed with the news today.

Let's just take a look at this excerpt from The Haaretz

07/04/2009 by Zvi Bar'el

What Obama promised:

"The repairing of relations with Turkey following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq - when Turkey refused to allow American forces to use its territory as a base for launching attacks - also presents an opportunity to fix America's broken image in the Arab and Islamic world. It appears that the era of dividing states along "moderate and "extreme" lines and between good Islam and "the axis of evil" is over.

According to Obama, America's strategic relations with Islamic states can not solely rely on joint opposition to Al-Qaida, but must also be supported by other shared interests and mutual respect. This is, perhaps, the most significant strategic change that Obama has offered as part of his solution to the deterioration of the U.S. position in the region during the Bush era. Obama deliberately left the section about Muslim states in his speech until the end so that it would be remembered."

Wrong guess! President Barach Obama has announced the list of high risks countries:

What Obama is doing:

"All travellers flying into the US from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and nine other countries considered high risk will be patted down and have carry-on luggage searched under new security procedures starting Monday.

In addition, all international passengers will see enhanced random screening, which may include pat-downs, explosive detection testing (swabbing of luggage) or body scans, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)announced Sunday.

The new procedures follow the botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound US airliner blamed on a Nigerian man who US officials believe was trained by al-Qaida in Yemen. Pakistan's border with Afghanistan is also considered a key battleground in the US-led battle against al-Qaida and the Taliban.(emphasis mine)

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen are on the list as "other countries of interest". Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria are listed because they have long been identified as "state sponsors of terrorism" by the State Department.

This list was developed between Homeland Security and the State Department using the latest intelligence, NBC cited a senior federal official as saying.

"The new directive includes long-term, sustainable security measures developed in consultation with law enforcement officials and our domestic and international partners," the TSA said in a statement.

"TSA is mandating that every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world travelling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening," it added.

"The directive also increases the use of enhanced screening technologies and mandates threat-based and random screening for passengers on US bound international flights."

The TSA said the ability to enforce the new security measures is the "rcesult of extraordinary ooperation from our global aviation partners." Effective aviation security "must begin beyond our borders," it added.""(emphasis mine)

Maybe I am too pessimist or alarmist or... I am wrong. I'm sure there is a good reason for that.

A good news today:

HIV' positive foreigners can enter US. There are countries that still ban or deport who are HIV positive and the countries at Obama's axis of evil list are among them but since last Friday US no longer discriminate HIV positive people. Good! This is a good news and it should not even had to be announced because US should never have had such a discriminatory law.

It is a disease not a moral certificate.