Obama's Postponement Response

I am in complete agreeance with how the author of the 'New News' blog responded to Obama's postmonement of the withdrawl of our American soldiers from the Middle East soil. The role of the United States political system as the "World Police" has gone on for far too long. In other words, "you can lead a horse to water but, you can't make it drink." We can stay in this war for years on end, but our goal of making these foreigners accept the idea of peace and loving their neighbors is only something that can be done from their own will. This war's foundation is on revenge. That revenge has taken the form of teaching our opponent a life lesson. Sure, defeat on their behalf might put a dent in their terrorist attacks. However, it's the character behind these attacks that needs to change. Their reasoning for causing such travesty is what needs to change. Changing their way of reasoning is a difficult task which is most likely not achieved through a war. That kind of change takes root in culture, tradition, and familiarity. An outside force telling them "no, this way is right" is a strange idea and therefore, harder to accept. Withdrawl from this war is an absolute must. Sending more young women and men abroad to sign their life away for reasons that they may not even be aware of, is absurd. Also, a great level of hypocrisy on Obama's behalf should be considered. His platform for presidency was "change." He promisd a withdrawl from this war. Yet, his actions continue to prove that this promise to the his nation will go unfulfilled. How many other promises will we see go down this path as well? To conclude, a withdrawl from the war is a clear win. Great deals of money would be saved, lives would be spared, and promises would be fulfilled.

"Inconvenient" Time

Global Warming, it’s been a long time since I heard that phrase. Thank goodness for Copenhagen and the International Climate Change Summit or the media might not be talking about climate change. The country is getting really tired of hearing the words “Health care” at least I am because that is clearly the topic on the news. Ok, so cry me a river. That’s exactly what is going to happen if we don’t participate actively in the climate summit. The polar ice caps are melting as we speak and will catastrophically fill our rivers, lakes, and cities. The Republicans have been ignoring this because to them it sounds like a science fiction movie. History does repeat itself. The world was once comprised of one continent, Pangaea. Look how much the Earth has changed. It is forever evolving and we have the ability to see this evolution. Animals are dying, entire continents are having changes in weather and scientists have been warning about this for years. Don’t you think there would be even a slightest chance of a phenomenon change in our environment that might ruin our world? It’s bound to happen sometime. One thing I like about our President is his vision for taking on the environment; to create a strategy that will eliminate most of the emissions that are consuming our atmosphere. In the article from Boston Globe, “Finally, US leads on our environment,” the author revealed a statistic that was startling to me. The U.S. is about six percent of the world’s population and we consume about a quarter of the world’s energy and are responsible for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases. Overwhelming-considering the industrial production of Asia and their greenhouse gases while they are on the brink of their own Industrial Revolution. The EPA is now encouraged that we can possibly move forward on this issue due to the tolerant attitudes in the White House. We are spending too much time on a Health Care bill that can change at any time and may not even work. There are other more pressing matters to consider. We must remember that we are on Mother Nature’s watch now. Our strategy in the White House is and should be to gather the most talented scientists on the planet to activate a strategy that will reduce our emissions to preserve our planet.

30,000 for a good cause

President Barack Obama has ordered a deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. His intention is to provide enough support so that we can teach Afghan security forces how to control their own borders and control extremists. Troops will be deployed mainly in the south and east borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. At the same time he announced the additional troops, he announced that they would start returning to the US in July of 2011. The additional deployment of troops in this region will give the United States a greater capacity to partner with Afghan security forces along the border and to go after insurgents along the border. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has pledged cooperation with the increased number of troops and has pledged to “spare no effort” to cooperate with the United States war strategy. While grouping with the Afghan security forces the U.S and NATO will be able to train and increase the capability of Afghan security forces. Army General Stanley Mc Chrystal requested even more forces in a report to Congress earlier in the year, but respects Obama’s recommendations. Congress is considering the order, but has questions about the cost of such an operation ($30 Billion per year) and whether it was smart to mention a date for removing the troops. Afghanistan is very mountainous and has a difficult terrain. Opium is quite prevalent and poppies are the largest crop grown by the Afghan people. This war is very different from others the United States and NATO forces have been involved in. Even though the President has ordered more troops, it will take months to get equipment and troops deployed. Some people say that it may be fall of 2010 before all of these troops are in place.