jokes of this kind are not ok

I just read a news article at ABC News about Presidential Candidate John McCain making incredibly inappropriate jokes about the Middle East. The only thing that infuriated me more than his comments was the results of a poll on Aim News in which more than half of the viewers didn't think the joke was inappropriate at all.

I want to make it very clear that I am not a Democrat and I have nothing against Republicans. I happen to be fairly conservative myself. I'm just a guy who wants to live in a world of peace where our political leaders don't sing "bomb-bomb-Iran" to the the tune of Barbra Anne, sending the totally wrong message to a country we already don't see completely eye-to-eye with. We're not at war with them right now, and we have no need to make enemies of potential friends.

I don't think people in America understand the importance of good foreign relations. We think we can say whatever we want about whomever we want because we have freedom of speech, but that doesn't nullify the repercussions of our actions. Too many Americans think that the rest of the world isn't important, that we don't need them because we're "independent". Where the hell did we get that idea, when we import so much more than we export and we consume nearly a quarter of the Planet's goods? This topic brings me back to 10th grade history class (in 2003, not long after the September 11 attacks), when during a discussion about 9/11, a student in my class seriously asked, "Why don't we just nuke Iraq?" Are you kidding me? Not only did Iraq have absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, but our country isn't wasn't even claiming to be at war with the people of Iraq but rather with the terrorists within the nation.

Seriously, it's times like these when I can't honestly say I'm proud to be an American.