BBMing about BP

I have a friend from England and recently we were debating the issues surrounding the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He was making the argument that President Obama had completely and utterly dropped the ball on this crisis and all the blame Obama was crediting the Brits with was unwarranted and was severing relationships with Americas strongest ally, the United Kingdom. My friend offered that the British Petroleum oil rig was operated and managed by American employees and therefore Agamas charge on the executives of BP was all for naught. “Obama had lost its last remaining ally in Europe, now the whole world hates him.” Considering this debate occurred over BBM across two continents and a vast ocean I kept my rebuttals short. What’s most disturbing is all the finger pointing and the lack of solutions presented while oil keeps leaking into the Gulf. Whether it’s the right wing, the media or drunken Brits over BBM it seems people are most concerned with blaming one another instead of fixing the problem. The failure of BP executives to except blame for this man made crisis is startling and another reminder of the large multinational corporations lack of accountability. In an era that has seen large corporations such as AIG, Fanny May and other financial institutions threaten the livelihood of every working class citizen worldwide, this is just another reminder of the need for aggressive reform… on all levels. The need to move from fossil fuel based energy is now more apparent then ever.
Furthermore my mate’s argument sounds similar to an adulterous husband blaming his wife for not putting out enough for his philandering. Should we punish the messenger who alerts the wife of her husbands cheating or the husband who actually performed the act? All too often it seems the messengers are found at fault.
Either way I could not blame my friend for his anger… I figured his resentment was less about Obama’s 20 billion charge for BP. He was just upset that the United States men soccer team had won Group C in the World Cup, one spot ahead of the second place Brits