Carter meets with exiled Hamas leader

I read an article on CNN about former President Jimmy Carter's controversial trip to the Middle East to meet with leaders of Hamas, a Palestinian political party. The U.S. Department of State objected to his trip, because many think Hamas is a terrorist organization.Several countries like UK and Israel believe that with such political meeting the Organization may get encourage to do more damage for the rest of the world. On the other hand, Carter, as a citizen, believes differently. He thinks that someone has to start from somewhere to negotiate two different polar thoughts to get to the peace process. He expressed in his own word, I’m not a negotiator. I'm just trying to understand different opinions and communicate, provide communications between people that won't communicate with each other."

I believe that what Carter thinks is right. Forget about the regions only in the Middle East, even the rest of the world is fed up with seeing day to day killing, suicide bombing, missile attack in that area. Killing each other is not the solution for the existing problem. If you talk to these Islamic people, they think Israel and the US are the ones who stipulate violations. On the other hand, Israel and other countries believe that the terrorist organization like Hamas is out there just to break the Middle East peace process. I do not think blaming each other will bring the solution towards the peace process. Israel says that the military is the only solution, but I do not think this is a good idea. The US government should initiate talk with all parties in the region and encourage leaders like Carter to get involve in peace process rather than criticizing what Carter is doing at the moment. From the fighting no one but innocent civilians are getting victimized. So, I have a strong support for Carter for what he is doing for peace in the Middle East.

Comments on **Star and Stripes**

Whitney has commented about the risk of going into yet another depression in her Original Editorial posted on **Stars & Stripes** . I do agree with her in a way that the current economic condition of the country is not in a good shape. As we heard from Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke that the overall economy is slowing down and we are very close to get into recession. But I do not believe that High energy price is the main reason for this cause. It is, in fact, is mainly caused by mortgage market failure. Many banks like Citibank are in big trouble for not getting payment from consumers. Records numbers of houses are going out for foreclosure. Many financial companies and banks are laying off records numbers of employees. Therefore, I believe that the mortgage market failure is the main reason for the US economy downturn and then comes the rest.