it looks like the obama administration is continuing the long american tradition of maintaining a sham list of countries that support terrorism.
the state department is required by law to maintain such a list. i don't have a problem with such a list in principle. but if there is one, countries should enter the list if they are shown to support terrorism and come off the list when they are shown to no longer support support terrorism. being on or off the list shouldn't be a bargaining chip in negotiations over other issues, like a nuclear program. nor should the administration use listing or delisting to signal approval or disapproval of another country's non-terrorism supporting policies. but that, unfortunately, is how the list has been used for the last few decades. rather than actually being a list of state supporters of terrorism, the list has just become a list of countries currently on the outs with washington. it's really just an official american shit list.
i made this same criticism last year when bush was still president. it seems to apply just as much today as it did then.
