Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
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Question: Obama should show black lives matter by hosting relatives of those killed by cops at his State of the Union. Tuesday at President Obama's penultimate State of the Union address , when Obama points for effect at someone sitting with the First Lady as her guest , every single guest around her should be a family member of someone killed by a police officer . I want to see Michelle Obama sandwiched between Erica Garner - whose father, Eric Garner, was killed by an NYPD officer using an illegal chokehold- and Tamir Rice's 14-year-old sister , who was tackled and shackled by police when trying to help her dying 12-year-old brother . I want to see Leslie McSpadden, Michael Brown's mother there tonight, and a relative of Tasha Thomas, John Crawford's now-deceased girlfriend , who was interrogated by the same police department who'd just killed the father of her children for shopping at Wal Mart . Let America look upon the elder Michael Brown, Kadiatou Diallo (Amadou Diallo's mother), Constance Malcolm (Ramarley Graham's mother), Sylvia Palmer (Akai Gurley's mother) or any of the thousands of relatives of the 1,100 or so Americans killed by police in 2014 . This of course will never happen , but it's what I want . President Obama should use the political theatre of his "Skutniks"- the humans used to give a face to presidential pet problems since Ronald Reagan invited Lenny Skutnik to the State of the Union in 1982 - to focus American's attention squarely on the loss of human life when cops kill black civilians . If President Obama wants us to believe that he thinks black life matters , it's not enough for him to form a task force on 21 century policing : task forces and commissions are where serious reforms go to be forgotten . One police shooting victim's family member up in his box with a nice cop like Richmond, California Police Chief Chris Magnus(who famously held up a #BlackLivesMatters sign) is not enough . We don't need a black kid-white cop hug moment . When the President paired up a black victim of racism with kindly white folks at his "beer summit" in 2009 it was a disaster - at best a distraction, and at worst a prevarication that racism is anecdotal and not systematic . If President Obama is serious about showing black and brown life matters in this country - he's made some progress showing this overseas by winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, though not so much by employing drone warfare in Pakistan - he needs to go big at the State of the Union . He's taken on black lives falling victim to gun violence at his annual address before by inviting the parents of Hidaya Pendleton, a black Chicago teenager who was killed in 2013 shortly after performing at Obama's second inaugural . But as Commander in Chief, with all those black folks at his side, Obama could challenge the mortal violence the state itself wages against its citizens through the local police and say to them: Enough . Ronald Reagan, whom Barack Obama uses as an example for how to sell himself as president, used Lenny Skutnik as an example of how"we saw again the spirit of American heroism at its finest," after Skutnik jumped into icy water of the Potomac River to help the drowning after a plane crash . But are not the kin of those killed by police violence also displaying "American heroism at its finest" in helping those who can't breathe? It is women like Tawanda Jones who are creating a more perfect union when she boldly speaks out about her brother being killed by police - even when dissent is under attack and Fox News broadcasts lies about her . When Erica Garner visits the site where two NYPD cops were killed to offer her condolences, she is saving the union . Every time a woman like Michael Brown's mother calls for non-violence - when she could instead, understandably, lash out with a fraction of the hatred which killed her son- she is keeping the nation from ripping itself apart and acting with the kind of American heroism that presidents should applaud loudly and publicly . Skutnik helped save one woman . The black women who bury their sons and husbands and seek to change the systems that caused their deaths may save countless of lives - and maybe even the soul of the nation . The Black Lives Matters movement is a testament that, once again, black Americans are being called upon to force all Americans to examine our addiction to the violence and militarism that oppresses everyone in different ways . Our first black president, riding an 18 month approval rating high, could choose to do some of that himself tonight, by acknowledging those left behind when black lives are ended by the state and who still choose to use their grief to effect positive change .

Answer: President Obama should use the political theatre of his "Skutniks"- the humans used to give a face to presidential pet problems since Ronald Reagan invited Lenny Skutnik to the State of the Union in 1982 - to focus American's attention squarely on the loss of human life President Obama is serious about showing black and brown life matters in this country


Question: The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero? I have to confess : I was suckered by the trailer for American Sniper . It's a masterpiece of short-form tension - a confluence of sound and image so viscerally evocative it feels almost domineering . You cannot resist . You will be stressed out . You will feel . Or , as I believe I put it in a blog about the trailer , "Clint Eastwood's American Sniper trailer will ruin your pants." But however effective it is as a piece of cinema, even a cursory look into the film's backstory - and particularly the public reaction to its release - raises disturbing questions about which stories we choose to codify into truth, and whose, and why, and the messy social costs of transmogrifying real life into entertainment . Chris Kyle, a US navy Seal from Texas, was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and claimed to have killed more than 255 people during his six-year military career . In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as "fun", something he "loved" ; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a "bad guy" . "I hate the damn savages," he wrote . "I couldn't give a flying fuck about the Iraqis." He bragged about murdering looters during Hurricane Katrina , though that was never substantiated . He was murdered in 2013 at a Texas gun range by a 25-year-old veteran reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder . However we diverge politically, I have enough faith in Eastwood's artistry and intellect to trust that he is not a black-and-white ideologue - or, at least, that he knows that the limitations of such a worldview would make for an extremely dull movie . But the same can't be said for Eastwood's subject, or, as response to the film has demonstrated, many of his fans . As Laura Miller wrote in Salon:"In Kyle's version of the Iraq war, the parties consisted of Americans, who are good by virtue of being American, and fanatic Muslims whose 'savage, despicable evil' led them to want to kill Americans simply because they are Christians." Adds Scott Foundas at Variety:"Chris Kyle saw the world in clearly demarcated terms of good and evil, and American Sniper suggests that such dichromatism may have been key to both his success and survival; on the battlefield, doubt is akin to death." Eastwood, on the other hand, Foundas says, "sees only shades of gray" , and American Sniper is a morally ambiguous, emotionally complex film . But there are a lot of Chris Kyles in the world , and the chasm between Eastwood's intent and his audience's reception touches on the old Chappelle's Show conundrum: a lot of white people laughed at Dave Chappelle's rapier racial satire for the wrong reasons, in ways that may have actually exacerbated stereotypes about black people in the minds of intellectual underachievers . Is that Chappelle's fault? Should he care? Likewise, much of the US right wing appears to have seized upon American Sniper with similarly shallow comprehension - treating it with the same unconsidered, rah-rah reverence that they would the national anthem or the flag itself . Only a few weeks into its release, the film has been flattened into a symbol to serve the interests of an ideology that, arguably, runs counter to the ethos of the film itself . How much, if at all, should Eastwood concern himself with fans who misunderstand and misuse his work? If he, intentionally or not, makes a hero out of Kyle- who, bare minimum, was a racist who took pleasure in dehumanising and killing brown people- is he responsible for validating racism, murder, and dehumanisation? Is he a propagandist if people use his work as propaganda? That question came to the fore last week on Twitter when several liberal journalists drew attention to Kyle's less Oscar-worthy statements . "Chris Kyle boasted of looting the apartments of Iraqi families in Fallujah," wrote author and former Daily Beast writer Max Blumenthal . "Kill every male you see," Rania Khalek quoted, calling Kyle an "American psycho" . Retaliation from the rightwing twittersphere was swift and violent, as Khalek documented in an exhaustive (and exhausting) post at Alternet . "Move your America hating ass to Iraq, let ISIS rape you then cut your cunt head off, fucking media whore muslim," wrote a rather unassuming-looking mom named Donna . "Rania, maybe we to take you ass overthere and give it to ISIS... Dumb bitch," offered a bearded man named Ronald , who enjoys either bass fishing or playing the bass (we may never know) . "Waterboarding is far from torture," explained an army pilot named Benjamin, all helpfulness . "I wouldn't mind giving you two a demonstration." The patriots go on, and on and on . They cannot believe what they are reading . They are rushing to the defence of not just Kyle, but their country, what their country means . They call for the rape or death of anyone ungrateful enough to criticise American hero Chris Kyle . Because Chris Kyle is good, and brown people are bad, and America is in danger, and Chris Kyle saved us . The attitude echoes what Miller articulated about Kyle in her Salon piece : "his steadfast imperviousness to any nuance, subtlety or ambiguity, and his lack of imagination and curiosity, seem particularly notable" . There is no room for the idea that Kyle might have been a good soldier but a bad guy; or a mediocre guy doing a difficult job badly; or a complex guy in a bad war who convinced himself he loved killing to cope with an impossible situation; or a straight-up serial killer exploiting an oppressive system that, yes, also employs lots of well-meaning, often impoverished, non-serial- killer people to do oppressive things over which they have no control . Or that Iraqis might be fully realised human beings with complex inner lives who find joy in food and sunshine and family, and anguish in the murders of their children . Or that you can support your country while thinking critically about its actions and its citizenry . Or that many truths can be true at once . Always meet your heroes .

Answer: In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as "fun", something he "loved"


Question: Iran: A not so unlikely ally. Following the reports of Iranian aircraft attacking ISIL targets last week, Iranian and US officials issued statements to emphasise that they are not coordinating their air strikes . Despite these denials, there is an ironic element to this strike that both sides cannot deny . The Islamic Republic of Iran used US-produced, Vietnam-era F-4 Phantom aircraft against a common foe, ISIL . Contextualising these Iranian air strikes within the greater history of how these planes ended up in the Iranian air force in the first place demonstrates a geostrategic reality for US foreign policy : Iran's geographical depth means the US has needed Iran during both the Cold War and post-Cold War era, regardless of the government in Tehran . The Islamic Republic's fleet of F-4s and F-14s were inherited from the Royal Iranian Air Force of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi . Iran under the shah was one of the few US allies that could purchase the advanced F-14 Tomcat interceptor of "Top Gun" fame, with one of the most sophisticated radars at the time . The shah's shopping list of US-supplied aircraft boosted the economy of the US defence industry, as well as served US geopolitical interests during the Cold War . Iran's advanced military allowed it to emerge as a regional hegemon . Since it shared a long border with the Soviet Union , the shah's armed forces served as a bulwark against Communist penetration in the Middle East and the oil-rich Gulf region, and a deterrent against an anti-western Baathist Iraq . Iran's geostrategic location has not diminished as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union . No US or NATO ally, including Israel, Turkey or Saudi Arabia can cover Iran's geographical depth . Iran's location means it can influence events from Iraq to the Gulf, from the Caucasus and adjoining Caspian and Black Seas to Central Asia, and from Afghanistan to South Asia . Video footage . The video footage released by Al Jazeera of Iranian F-4s attacking ISIL forces in Iraq's Diyala province is reminiscent of another attack when two of the same US-supplied Iranian aircraft bombed Iraq's nuclear facility in Tuwaitha in 1980, during the first year of the Iran-Iraq War . In this first air strike, the US and the Islamic Republic shared the same interests, albeit for different purposes . The Islamic Republic feared Iraq could develop a nuclear option as it fought a two-front war for its survival, including a domestic Iranian Kurdish uprising, and a potential pro-shah counterrevolution launched from within the Iranian air force - the same unit that was needed to target Iraq . The US, despite its tensions with Iran during the hostage crisis, did not want to see Iraq develop a nuclear capability that could threaten its ally Israel during the 1980s . Israel successfully followed up the attack against Iraq's nuclear facility in 1981 , and the US-led air strikes during the 1991 Gulf war were designed to destroy this nuclear infrastructure again , which had been rebuilt despite the Israeli air raid . Thus the air raid Iran conducted against ISIL was not the first time both Washington and the Islamic Republic might have both wished for a successful sortie of Iranian F-4 pilots . Despite this common interest during the Iran-Iraq War, the US titled towards Iraq and directly engaged Iranian naval forces in the Gulf to protect Kuwaiti oil vessels, downing an Iranian civilian aircraft in the process . Iran fought a proxy war against US forces in Iraq following the 2003 Iraq war by supporting Iraqi militias during the insurgency . Both the US and Iran will continue to clash over their respective relationships with Israel . Yet despite these differences both the US and Iran cooperated with each other to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 . The joint cause against the Taliban in 2001, or ISIL in 2014, demonstrates that despite the decades-long mistrust and proxy conflicts between the two sides, geographical realpolitik can force both states to engage in alliances of convenience . In an AP interview, the new US ambassador in Baghdad, Stuart Jones said,"Let's face it. Iran is an important neighbour to Iraq. There has to be cooperation between Iran and Iraq." Such a statement is significant . The Iranian government has been trying to force the US to concede this geographic fact since 2003 . Indirect evidence . This statement serves as indirect evidence that the US and Iran appear to have worked out a modus vivendi in dealing with ISIL in Iraq . Yet when Al Jazeera released the video of the air strike, the Iranian government initially denied the report, only to confirm it days later, adding the caveat that it was launched at the behest of the central government in Iraq . The initial denial raises the question as to whether Iran did not want to upset this alliance of convenience with US by launching its own air strikes . In this case, rather than upsetting the US, both the Iranian and Iraqi governments probably wanted to keep this air strike quiet for domestic Iraqi politics . The close cooperation between the post-2003 Iraqi government and Iran has been criticised by critics within Iraq over the last decade as a surrender of Baghdad to "Safavis", a reference to the 16th century Shia dynasty in Iran that tried to secure what is today Iraq from the Ottomans . This footage, along with pictures of Qassim Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Quds Force, training Iraqi forces on Iranian equipment used by both the Iraqi military and Shia militias, have only alienated Iraq's disenfranchised communities with whom Baghdad needs to ultimately reconcile . This modus vivendi over Iraq will hinge on the future of the ongoing nuclear negotiations and the Syrian civil war . But in both cases, there could be an endgame that resolves the mutual antagonisms between Iran and the US . Media coverage acknowledges that despite Iranian-US cooperation in Iraq, they still support rival sides in the Syrian civil war . However ,  even in that conflict, they do share a mutual desire for that conflict to end with a political solution . Such a solution will save Iran from the huge financial costs of subsidising the Syrian military and end a conflict that the US has been hesitant to engage in since its onset in the summer of 2011 . Al Jazeera's correspondent in Iraq, Imran Khan, in an article in November raised the question: Are the US and Iran on the same side in Iraq? The answer to this question is not only a "yes" in Iraq, but could also be a "yes" in terms of the long-term stability of Syria and Afghanistan . It is domestic politics in both the US and Iran that prevent any official from saying this publicly .

Answer:
Iran's geographical depth means the US has needed Iran during both the Cold War and post-Cold War era, regardless of the government in Tehran Both the US and Iran will continue to clash over their respective relationships with Israel