Archives: 2007 August

With September fast approaching and General David Petraeus’s long awaited report on the effectiveness of the Iraq troop surge soon due the Iraq debate in the US Congress and among Presidential candidates is still focused on the level of the US troop presence in Iraq.

What a political sham the entire “troop level” issue has become. For one thing the US will have to draw down troops soon. The level of combat operations over the past five years has placed such a strain on the US military that the present level of troops deployed is not sustainable.

There are troops who are on their fourth tour of duty in Iraq over five years. These guy and gals are going to need a lot of help adjusting to life back in the States whenever they do return. How can you keep sending the same troops back to a war zone over and over again without serious consequences? There is already a large but unknown number of troops suffering from PTSD. Another deployment or two will send some of them over the edge.

In addition, great amounts of military equipment is just plain worn out. The time and money that it will take to refurbish our military is going to be a big number. So the US will have little option by next Spring. Forces can not be maintained indefinitely at current levels.

What the administration, congress, and Presidential candidates will not admit is that there is no plan or desire to bring all of the troops home. Not next Spring or ever. This is what the national debate should be about. Is it right for America to invade, occupy, set up a puppet government, and to permanently garrison troops in another nation? Are we as Americans comfortable in being an imperial power?

I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I am in Barack Obama. For awhile he had me fooled. I thought that finally we had a Presidential candidate, while light on experience, who at least had integrity, a cool head, and a few smarts inside it. Was I ever wrong.

His recent speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center revealed just how inexperienced and outright dangerous Obama is. Sen. Obama launched what he foolishly thinks is a bold and acceptable foreign policy initiative: Add another 100,000 troops to our military and invade Waziristan which is the tribal area of Pakistan that not even the Pakistani government can control.

Obama was clearly attempting to place himself on the hawkish side of opponent Hillary Clinton. However to anyone who has a knowledge of the political dynamics within Pakistan Obama proved himself to be a complete fool.

Says fool Obama. “When I am President, we will wage the war that has to be won, with a comprehensive strategy with five elements: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Obama told the foreign policy establishment. “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”

Wow! Here we go again. The George W. Bush imperialistic policy that claims that the US has the right to attack any nation at anytime that doesn’t dance to our exact tune is declared to be Obama’s policy as well. And by none other than the man himself, Obama.

The man is an imperialist pure and simple. One who thinks it is perfectly OK to commit acts of war against other sovereign nations. One who has no respect for the rule of international law, treaties, or even decency. A man who will shamelessly try to reinvent himself on the fly in an effort to secure votes.

Karl Rove, the President’s right hand political hack , albeit a highly successful one, and the architect of the divide and conquer tactics that have so poisoned American politics during the election and reign of King George, today announced his resignation from the White House staff.

The reason given?

It’s time he spend more time with his family. Pardon me Karl. Isn’t that a bit of a dumb overused reason in a town where the family is accustomed to being in a supporting role in exchange for the country club, fame and fortune? But then I suppose that after so many years of, shall we say, being creative in politics it must be difficult for you to tell the truth.

Just how stupid do you believe the American people truly are? Do you really think Americans are so stupid that they will think that your role in attacking any and everyone who even remotely criticized the Nazi like, errrrr, strike that, the Bush secretive administration, had nothing to do with your resignation now that you yourself have been and are under investigation?

You served as a top advisor to an administration that believes it is American and perfectly OK to torture and to imprison people without due process of law, to capture and to whisk them off to secret prisons without charges ever being filed, to spy on ordinary Americans who are living in America, to “out” CIA agents for political reasons, to leak classified information when it suited your purposes, and probably much, much more we haven’t even heard of yet.

My only hope for you Karl Rove is that your retirement years are filled with trying to defend yourself from the indefensible. You have done more to destroy decency in American politics than any man in history. Put that in your resume and upcoming book.

The majority of Americans have turned against the war in Iraq but usually, as is understandable, their objections are strictly from the American point of view. Objections like how much the war has cost us in monetary terms and how many American troops are being killed or wounded.

As terrible as these costs are they pale in comparison beside the cost to the Iraqi people of this misguided, mismanaged misadventure in the expansion of the American Empire to the Middle East region.

The following excerpt is from The Tenuous Case for Strategic Patience in Iraq, A Trip Report, by Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Mr Cordesman made a trip to Iraq prior to publishing his report. To see the full report in PDF format go here.

“The US intervention in Iraq has driven more than two million Iraqis out of the country, including much of its most educated and professional citizens. It has displaced over two million more Iraqis inside Iraq, many of which have lost their homes and their businesses and jobs. Estimates of the total percent of underemployment and unemployment exceed 50% in virtually all of the country.

The number of Iraqi civilian dead now total at least 100,000, and no one knows how many have been wounded. Basic services, infrastructure, and security do not exist in many areas, and sectarian and ethnic cleansing continue in much of the country, including the area around Baghdad and virtually every area with mixed Sunni and Shi’ite populations.

Various estimates put the number of Iraqis that have suffered severe hardship as a result of the war and its aftermath at close to 8 million and rising — although such estimates are really “guesstimates” at best.”

When you need printing for almost any occasion there is an online printing shop ready to serve you at any time of night or day. The convenience of having access to an online printing shop that is always open to you is a huge benefit to the busy business person.

It’s really amazing at all of the printing materials that you can source all from one place and at such reasonable prices. There is even an offer for free business cards to new users of the printing services. The offer is on the up and up too. If all you want are the free business cards all you have to pay is a small amount for shipping and handling. That’s a great deal.

In addition to printing services there is also a wide rage of business services offered, like logo design, premium business cards design, letterhead, and checks.

Do you require promotional materials? Look no further for postcards, brochures, mailing services, and fliers.

How about cards, notes and stationery? You bet. You can get note cards, note pads, sticky notes, and holiday cards.

Believe it or not there are even more services offered. Vistaprint really does have all of the bases covered. For your best solution for an online one stop printing shop you need to visit the Vistaprint website.

Disclosure Notice: This is a paid post paid for by Vistaprint.