What If The US Went To War And No One Knew It?

Courtesy of The Guardian

The US just fired ship-to-ground into Yemen.  Did you know?

Probably not.  Only a catchy headline made me look.  Meanwhile we have the air sucked out of our whole world’s news organizations by an orange haired buffoon…

Shouldn’t we be talking about Yemen in this presidential campaign?  Apparently not. Instead all the weekend’s attention is focused on a “hick” sheriff wearing a cowboy hat two sizes too large, talking into a camera saying he and his comrades are bringing out the pitchforks… Talk about crazy….

Here is a brief rundown of the REAL crazy of this week.

Saturday 8 October, a 500lb laser-guided US-made bomb was dropped on a funeral procession by the US-sponsored Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels who, the Saudis say, are backed by Iran…

This bomb killed more than 140 people, mostly civilians, and wounded more than 525 people. Human Rights Watch called the incident “an apparent war crime”.

The US strongly rebuked Saudi Arabia between the $110 billion of arms we’ve already sold them since Obama took office, and the newest $1.5 billion, just approved for future delivery.

The US also supplies the Saudis with necessary intelligence and logistics to prosecute its war, as well as aerial refueling of the Saudi’s strike-bombers…

The US is concerned we will be implicated in future war crime prosecutions.

The US announced we would use a heavy hand with the Saudi’s and force them to be more humane in their killing of Yemeni’s.

The guerrillas fired on US warships in the Red Sea. .US Navy countermeasures caused the missiles to fall harmlessly in the water.

The US retaliated on Thursday the 13th by taking out 3 of the rebel’s radar sites with a barrage of cruise missiles from a destroyer.

This attack marked the first time the US has fought the rebels directly in Yemen’s devastating civil war… though we have been behind drone strikes against Al Qaeda there for years.

The US has a historical tendency to get mired down in Middle East Conflicts.

 

I Was Recently Reminded Of How Great The Economy Was During the Jimmy Carter Years.

Yeah, I know. You are surprised.  After all that Reagan said, surely I must jest? Actually no.  Today we have access to data; back then we really didn’t. We depended upon perception and that can be easily flipped with distraction.  Sort of the way the Greenville barons of Delaware have totally destroyed Mike Protack as a viable candidate…  Same thing.  Innuendo, Innuendo, and repetition…

In Carter’s defense this tactic was new, so Carter was sitting up there, like “no, I don’t have to respond to that outrageousness, everyone knows it is not true…”

Funny how things get manipulated…  But look at the Carter years on this chart… 1977 through all of 1980.

We had massive investment in our business community.  Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.  What these to charts show, is that America turned its profit from its corporations, to itself.  Investing in capital improvement at the greatest height since figures were started in 1948.  Jimmy Carter still rules the chart….  It is exactly what we lack now.

The top personal bracket was assessed at a rate of 70%…..  yet the effective Corporate Tax rate was steadily falling from its WWII high.

(Footnote — Notice how the Ronald Reagan recovery of 1983-84 was created?  Increased Corporate tax rates in the Great Reagan Compromise.  Raising taxes is what made Ronald Reagan so well loved and appreciated; not cutting them.   For future reference, just remember the effective corporate rate dropped under Jimmy Carter, and ROSE under Ronald Reagan.)

Social Security was at it’s best ever.

Pension Plans at their highest ever…

And for a closer look an employment, one can see here why and where we have lost jobs…

And most importantly, the era of Jimmy Carter was when the 99% owned it’s highest share of wealth, ever…

A lot can be said for Jimmy Carter.  He got such a bad rap.  When Ronald Reagan himself was overwhelmingly RE-ELECTED in 1984,  his unemployment level was only 3 tenths of a percent under Jimmy Carter’s back on the previous election day…  If one clicks on the link above which delineates the unemployment rate month by month, ones sees that unemployment did not return to the best of Jimmy Carter’s years, until the waning months of the the Reagan term….

The only class of America that wasn’t better off in the Carter years, was the wealthy….  And that is why, just as today, we had a smear campaign to discredit the person who did the most ever, to help the middle class….

The record shows that America’s middle class peaked in 79.  Then came Reagan.

And if we were totally fair with ourselves, the reason Carter was so throughly dissed was because we were embarrassed with ourselves in the seventies… Our cities in decay, our youth on drugs, the early creative musical giants had dissolved into disco.  We didn’t really like who we were. We had to blame… someone…  After all, this look was actually cool in 1979.

(Thank you Fullerton College)

Gee, no wonder we like Reagan so much…

“How Do You Ask A Man To Be The Last Man To Die For A Mistake?” Those Were The Words Of John Kerry On April 22, 1971,

it’s over.  We may attack despite it being over.  That would be a mistake.  Just looking over support for an attack shows it disappearing faster than a party where the last one left pays the check….

Assad will win us over tomorrow.  Clips have been reviewed already.  Obama will state his case, but offer no evidence. It will not even be a wash.

The American People, have decided we should not go to war.  That decision crystallized this afternoon.  It would be wise to accept their verdict, and begin work on Plan B.   It also might be wise to get rid of your staff in the White House who brought you to this catastrophe and replace it with those who have recently lived outside the beltway.,…  Just sayin’…

Talking Turkey….

Turkey Erupts Into Protest

Photo courtesy of Seattlepi.com

An amazing thing happened in Turkey.  Something probably that could happen no where else in the world!… A spontaneous demonstration against the government bulldozing a centuries old park into a shopping mall, erupted into a large wave of protests across the Anatolian peninsula that is known to most simply as Turkey.

The protest was supposed to be minor, but a vicious crackdown on families for the most part, launching tear gas and water cannons into their midst, now has the talk of bringing down the current government.

Of particular interest, the Turkish military which was on hand in case things got out of control, which was repeatedly asked by the police forces to assist, refused to side with the police or with the government.  It appears they like the park too.   In fact there were many anecdotes of the military encouraging the protesters and advising them where and when to protest so they would not receive the full force of the police.

The idea of the government, representing the top 1%, kicking regular citizens out of a park to build a mall as their investment, became the straw breaking the camel’s back.

The ATP, has been the ruling party since 2003 which would make it 10 years.  Although Muslim it is very business oriented and is responsible for rebuilding Turkey into the powerhouse it is now.  This is almost a miracle if one considers its neighbors, Cyprus, Greece, the Balkans, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the principalities of the Caucasus….

Coming into power off the backs of the economic crash or 2001 and 2002, the ATP first rebuilt the banking industry, then focused on the economy and unemployment, get the budget under control, and then invested everything it could into its infrastructure, health, education, and technology.. .  Now home to some of the top construction firms in the third World, it is landing contracts though out Asia and Africa. It has invested heavily into renewable energy, and is exporting energy to its energy starve neighbors.

The ruling party and its leader, Erdoğan, have been re-elected three times, each time with a consistent higher percentage of the vote.. Ironically what no one inside Turkey could accomplish, Erdoğan has done himself.  Put his government in jeopardy, and solidified opposition to his rule.

He has made some mistakes.  Most particular are his cozying up to the influence of Allah.  Turkey is mostly Muslim but… it has one of the largest populations of non-Muslims of any other Muslim nation.   Turkey since Atatürk founded it in the 1920’s has had a secular constitution.  Recently, the curtailing of late night selling of alcohol, has as one would certainly expect, made a lot of people angry.  He also alienated a large population by naming the third bridge across the Bosporus, after an Ottoman sultan known for his massacre of minorities….

So when the bulldozers started uprooting Century old trees in one of the few green parks in its largest city, it was as if Saruman had come back to life. The arrogance was too much for large numbers of its citizens.  Taking children in hand they occupied the park in a silent and peaceful demonstration.  Without warning, the trucks moved in, water cannons fired, and tear gas cannisters launched..  It galvanized the opposition.

By the third day, protests, some violent, had taken place across all of Turkeys cities, and in foreign countries with numbers of Turkish immigrants.

Although the park was the instigator, the cause is arrogance.  There may be a big price to pay.  Will investment flee turkey?  Already as this is written, the Turkish Lira is dropping on the Asian markets..  The press which has so far been supportive of Erdoğan is very harsh to him right now.

Perhaps he can hang on, but his once untouchable position has head of the most stable of muslim countries, is now a lot closer in reach.

On a personal note, I can see parallels with our own Governor in his arrogance towards our current schools, teachers and districts, as possibly being the step for him that undoes his aura of invincibility…. People are angry.

Syrian Refugees Flood Neighbors

Senator Coons just returned this week from the Middle East. Lindsay Graham, Kelly Ayotte, John McCain, Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal went as well.

Jordan and Turkey have welcomed Syrian refugees with open arms. The camp visited, Zaatari, is at a population of 42,000 and absorbing 2000 a night. They need help before their scarce resources cause tensions within their own country.

This affects the US… Aid is in the United States’ interest. If we can provide aid to the rebels on the ground inside Syria we are preventing a much greater future cost of a full blown jihadist regime sharing a border with Israel….

Currently the aid we actually are providing is going through NGO’s into Damascus, where the Syrian government is distributing it to their supporters and away from the rebel towns who are hardest hit. The American people believe this aid is reaching the population they see on their televisions. Sad thing it isn’t.

The Assad administration is” dug in pretty hard.”

It is clear that air power is needed to protect people from Syria. A no-fly zone would even the odds. Currently the jihadists can stir up unrest. The war gives jihadist opportunity, The jihadists are the better fighters. When you as a people are being tortured and killed, the people fighting alongside of you gain legitimacy. Extremism always thrives inside anarchy. Any money now spent to facilitate the end of Assad is cheaper than what we will be grappling with jihadists at a later date.

It is time to give the Syrian Opposition Council more legitimacy, by recognizing it’s rightful representation of the Syrian people

The window is closing for the US… Either we act now, or get caught inside another Mid East bubble just as it explodes….

Here is how we move forward.

A) Step up Aid to Syrian People
B) Send aid to Turkey and Jordan and direct to refugee camps.
C) Apply to Assad to US to accompany aid into Syria and to those opposition towns inside.
D) When he refuses, enable a No-fly zoned over the Rebel held zones to enable OUR AMERICAN aid to get through.
E) Step up diplomatic pressure on Assad and his supporters to step down…..
F) Invite China to be part of the peace process and send humanitarian troops and infrastructural aid…..

Message for Assad

You need to use your chemical weapons and you need to use them now.

You really have no choice. Conventional weapons have failed you. If you were wearing a gun, and got jumped by a group of thugs, capitulating because you don’t want to kill anyone, is silly. Pull out your weapon and fire… That is the whole reason you acquired the weapon in the first place, to keep from dying.

They will run, since they don’t have weapons with which to respond.

People will say you shouldn’t have. But you will be alive to hear it. Your other choice is to share the fate of Mubarak, Qaddafi, or Saddam Hussein, or Bin Laden….

Assad, you really don’t have any other alternative. Use them.

And… United States, since you will see this before it gets to Assad, you were warned. He has no other choice. Threats are meaningless at this point. So what if he kills innocent children? If their deaths are what will keep him alive, what is to stop him?

Romney’s Big Character Flaw

The Salt Lake Tribune article quoted in the post below, puts their finger directly on the problem.

We don’t know which Mitt Romney will show up!

When he’s with Tea Partiers, his policy bends to the Tea Party.
When he’s with corporate moneybags, his policy bends to their needs.
When he’s courting a liberal audience on the debates, his policy bends to liberalism.

There appears to be an urgent need to please. A psychological urge to say the right things, and avoid confrontation whenever possible.

Tonight, he sat with the President.

He said fourteen times: I agree with the president, then goes on to repeat verbatim what Obama just said. Because he was repeating Obama, even I found some of what he said was agreeable, presidential, and the correct assessment. It appears that in foreign relations, we will not have any “daylight” between what Romney would do, and what Obama would do…

There’s a problem.

Just last week, Romney said something else. On Iran, he said we needed to draw a line and go to war with Iran. Tonight, he said war was off the table.

Just last week, Romney said we needed to get tough on China. Then tonight, in a very revealing episode that I hope America caught, he said: We need China. I would do nothing to offend China. Then 2 minutes later, he says on day one he will lable China a currency manipulator, and get tough on everything else, (back to where he was two weeks ago.)

If you don’t listen to what he says, it sounds nice. A gentlemanly man, nice suit, looking earnest, likeable, sophisticated, makes a good presentation.

If you listen to him on the radio, you miss all that. You get what he says. And what he says, is all over the map.

He will say anything to get elected.

Now that’s the joke of politicians every where. But is it good for America? If we tell the Israeli’s we will bomb Palestine, and tell Palestine we will defend them against Israel, then one of them is going to start something just because they think we got their back…..

So, what’s he going to do about China.
He’s going to be tough and be concilitory.
So, what’s he going to do about Iran.
He’s going to do what Obama did, sanctions.
So, what would he have done in Egypt?
He would have done what Obama did.
So, what is he going to do in Afghanistan?
He will do what Obama did.
So, what is he going to do with Russia?
He will do what Obama did.
So, what is he going to do in Antarctica?
Uhhh, President Obama, would you like to go first here?

If you are a dumb American, you probably don’t know that Romney campaigned on the opposite of all these up until this one debate.

Russia is our number one enemy.
Obama is indecisive on Israel.
Obama is indecisive on Iran.
I will put more troops back into Iraq.
I will put pressure on China and show them who is boss.
I would have supported Muburack.
I would have stayed out of Libya.
I would not have gone after Osama Bin Laden.

Now, he says he never said “let Detroit go bankrupt?” When that has been the campaign for 18 months?
Now, he says he will increase the deficit by $8 trillion and balance the budget?
Now. he says the deficit is our number one priority and he will cut the money coming in to pay our bills by 5 trillion to balance the budget?
Now, he says he is for abortion, when last week he would overturn Roe versus Wade on day one.

And it all depends upon the audience he is with, at that moment. He doesn’t even know what he believes in it seems. He just wants you to like him; he’ll tell you what you want to hear….

And as the Salt Lake Tribune puts it, it is not coy. It is a shameless disregard for the truth.

Romney’s character flaw, is dangerous. Who is he going to be in office? The guy who was crashing in the polls until he reinvented himself in the first debate by being Liberal? And, if we are to truly believe this guy… where are those missing tax forms?

Hey Romney! Walk Like An Egyptian….

As usual… when you tie a cow bone to a string, and a string to a used broom handle, and then, dangle that string before an American Reporter…  they jump up and down like Pomeranians…. “yip, yip, yip”…  hind leg dance…. “yip, yip, yip”.

99.0% of American news media coverage is focused on Romney the man.   And with an election approaching it is probably safe to attribute that to human nature…  Even I was  sucked in for a while.  But being an election year, that makes it rather hard for our government (yes it is still intact) to rectify its newest foreign relations problem, the  Arab Inflammation as it is now beginning to be called….

Since the more intelligent of our species tend to browse these pages, lets investigate the history, and delve into both short and long term solutions.   This may be long.

No matter what the crises,  and no matter at what level, there are some elements of truth that remain consistent.  Lack of communication always creates problems; it never solves anything.  Are you divorced?  Could be perhaps that better communication might  have prevented it?  Are you fired?  Could be perhaps that better communication might  have prevented it?  Are you in competition at work over something?  Gee, wouldn’t all being on the same team working together be much better?

In fact, most wars are started over misunderstandings.  The only truly reasonable excuse for starting a war, is…. “you have something I want, and I’m taking it by force”; and the other side’s response is… “over my dead body….”

That is one,  boiled-down reason for starting a war.

Every other excuse is superfluous.  It doesn’t  mean we don’t sometimes go to war for superfluous reasons…  But all those silly reasons can somehow be twisted back to that maxim mentioned above:   “You have something I want, (___________), and you won’t give it up unless I force you, It.. is.. on….”

There is one more thing to keep in mind.  A lot, a lot, a lot of people make a lot of money when there is fighting going on…  Therefore even in very peaceful times, you will hear made-up reasons as to why we should go to war…   They are created around boardroom tables,  they are fed to gullible people, then those people are whipped up by whips, and the leaders have no choice but attend to their follower’s needs or get replaced….   Some of those:

Pride, Prestige, Patriotism, Patrimony, Alliances, Reputation, Religion,  and Idiocy, all get exploited to further the economic gains of those few involved in producing war’s items.

This movie now at the epicenter of global outrage is a case in point.  Have you ever noticed how these hate religions now popping up in the USA preaching  hate, and have no sense of decency (as in protesting at military funerals) are always boasting they were founded by “former Marines”?  Steve Klein who produced this latest clip, is no exception.  Whether true or not, he is definitely boasting it.

Now, we all know someone who is a man of the cloth.  Some of us  are lucky enough to know many from across a very wide religious spectrum.  Not just the European religions, but those also spread across other continents and yes, sub-continents.  No matter what the name of the God is, to which they pay reverence, in every form of a religion there are consistently two types of preachers.  Those who are there for themselves; versus those who are there to help others.  No religion is immune; no religion just has only one side.

Therefore, something like this hate group, which only does have one side, fails the test of all religion.  How does or will it’s philosophy make all people better?   How could any religion that you know,  show sodomy of young children? Really?  How could any religion that you know, show cunnilingus?  Really?  As a religious person, you might at some point in your life have to allude to it, but actually show it?  It goes against your own core.   Even if you were using those scenes to put down someone else or describe evil,  as long as you had any religious bone in your body, you couldn’t do that.  Just couldn’t.  You would be worried about your own life in the hereafter.

So who could?

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that all the acts portrayed in this movie were the exact same ones used at Abu Ghraib  in Iraq by our counter-intelligence staff as forms of torture?   Women’s periods, homosexuality, child molestation, cunnilingus, sexual arousal, falsifying  the Prophet…. Someone from that environment has a history of knowing exactly what hot buttons these are to Islam’s believers.  And I bet, they could even rank them in order of effect.  Someone from that environment who has perfected that technique upon individuals,  who has crafted the technique to elicit the desired responses, has now for whatever reason, chosen to use a broader medium, Youtube,  to foist that  knowledge upon 1/7 th of the world’s population.

It is pretty obvious to all, that this film’s raison d’etre comes from some intelligence or military network, and the easiest way to mask those origins is the time-honored way of using the untraceable networks in religion.

And from those of us who know people, (you know, like that sixth sense of when you walk into your home, and something has been done, you know who did it because you know they are the only one whose framework is wired as such that they could think of it?)  the one place on earth where you are guaranteed to find people who would see no qualms with using anything in this film to achieve their end, and who also would profit from a holy war involving West versus East,  is Arlington, Fairfax County, Virginia.  Incidentally (for those of you outside the Beltway) that is the home of the Pentagon and the headquarters of what a really good man, Eisenhower, once called the ” growing military-industrial complex.”  That is where the focal point of finding who is behind this, by the investigations of the fourth estate,  by he next wave of investigative hard copies for sale at Barnes & Noble, should be aimed.   Weird, fake, made-up  religious groups are just the patsy. They don’t make a penny if we suddenly go to war.

But to return the focus,  why the Arab violence over some really dumb film made by someone supposedly in California that surfaced and we didn’t even know about it,…  create such a fracas?  And can any of it be blamed upon any administration?

To understand the answer, there is one important thing you have to understand about Arab governments.  They killed all the liberals off a long time ago.  As autocratic powers,  anyone who challenged their religious government or was thought to one day possibly have the future presumption to challenge the religious government in the future, was made to disappear.   There are no liberals to provide a balance in Arab populations.   To even imagine what that is like as an intellectual exercise, imagine a society where there were no Democrats to say, “hey, that is not right!”  Imagine an America ruled by only Republicans headed by the Tea Party.  Give all the money to the wealthy?  No problem.  Take all the money from the middle class?  No Problem.  Instigate wars and draft and send the middle class out to fight them?  No problem.  Cut your benefits because you don’t worship our God?  No Problem.

Arab countries have what we consider as our center, anchoring the left end, and the caliphate anchoring the right.  In that environment it is easy to see, that the middle, is one who conforms with the caliphate, but provides a little balance against them by nuancing the edges.

Both Ronald Reagan and Romney would be too liberal to govern Egypt today.  Paul Ryan would be about right in the center.

Against this, no leader can go against the Caliphate.  It will take the development of a large cadre of liberals to rebalanced the power structure of every Arab nation, in order to deal with them in a rational and secular method….

It is to that development that the American foreign policy needs to point.   The very fact that America itself  has as large liberal population, speaks solidly that a free environment, wisdom tends to flourish and rise to the top.

The easiest and simplest method to accomplish this task, is to figure how to combine these liberal aspects and marry those to Islamic principals.  After all, how can the Caliphate denounce Islamic principals?  When we stress a policy we believe will help the Egyptian people become stronger,  we need to provide the Muslim framework coupled to it so they see it as part of their religion.  Failure to do so,  makes all our good ideas appear to be nothing but a method of control…  We laugh at that over here, but in our history, whenever someone tried to control how our money was spent, how our possessions belonged to us, whenever someone “far away” tried to control our life, we rebelled.  (A lot to think over in that sentence).

That is human nature.

Another prime factor that pushes Arabs to embrace the caliphate, is shame.  Yes, shame.  It is unspoken to foreigners and one has to deeply know someone who Arab before he is let in on a secret.  There is shame at being an Arab.  When one looks across the spectrum of the Muslim world, who are the successes?  Turkey.  Iran. Indonesia. Malaysia.  None of these are Arab.  Compare those successes  to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Qatar, Ali Dubya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and of course, now Syria?

There appears something to be really wrong with being an Arab… Really wrong. “Why can’t we get it right” is on every Arabs mind twenty-four seven.

Of course the four success stories have outside influence.  Turkey has tried hard to win EU status.  The changes it had to undergo to get there are what has propelled it forward.  Iran is Persian and as a former US satellite under the Shah, had enormous gains in infrastructure, and has been able to maintain and grow it primarily because it did keep its intelligent liberal and social force intact. The two eastern Asian countries have embraced democracy and are flourishing as a result.

Turkey is the player in Palestine.  Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, and Iran, are concerned about what Turkey does.   Iran is challenging the USA.   Palestine, Saudi, the Gulf Region, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, are day to day, concerned about what Iran is doing.   Indonesia has economic clout. China, India, and Australia keep tabs on it.

Against this.  Egypt can’t control what happens on the Sinai Peninsula.

The creators of the concept of  empire-building 7000 years ago,  a brave wonderful people who ruled the entire known world at that time , now, can’t control what happens on the Sinai Peninsula.   It hurts.   Just like it would hurt us to go to China in fifty years (5 if Romney gets elected) with hat in hand, asking for money to buy some food for our citizens.  Yes, we will have to do it so we can live… and yes, we will be grateful for our politicians who brought back the goods, but yes, it will hurt our pride still the same.

This feeling is exploited by the Caliphate.  “Join us and be great again.  As Mohamed hath declared, we will be feared.”  or something along those lines.   So set fire to a few cars, and whoa….  television crews pop up all over your city. You are important.  Set a few more and the leader of the entire world, the most powerful person in humanity, the President of the United States, is asking to meet your feeble countries leader.. He’s asking you (for a change), not the other way around, remember?  Where you had to take a number, and then do your best to convince him to put you on his busy schedule?

Suddenly you are powerful again.  It feels good.

How does or can the US combat that influence?

Ahh ha, the trillion dollar question with no yet known answer.  But here is what not to do.

One, go to war.  That solidifies resentment, and even upon a total USA victory, you did nothing but simply reinforce the root of the problem.  They are still ashamed of how weak and non-influential they are.  And all you did, was just shove that in their face one more time again.

Two, use shame.  It too solidifies resentment.  It too, builds resolve against us.

Three,  isolation.  It proves the Caliphate was right.  We, the West, obviously cannot be trusted.  Look how quickly we turn our backs. Better to suffer in squalor of poverty and abuse, but have consistent attention, than  it is to “flee to what they know not of”.  (Battered Spouse Syndrome).

So the one method that will work, and ironically Arabs are so good at this, is to make it our policy to divide and conquer, to separate the Arab’s well-being apart from their religion.   We use the rewards of recognition,  of extending equality, of true respect,  and bestow that upon the elements of the country who are not so inclined to follow the 1000 year admonitions of the Caliphate.

Somewhere in the future, someone there will stand up, and say:  “wow, look at all the rewards I was able tol get by disavowing the Caliphate!  How prosperous are you, who are still following them?’

Crazy as this sounds, if Obama were to visit Egypt,  not in an official capacity, but to tour the ancient ruins, and make a few remarks of how inspiring it was to see people of ancient times who then were so far ahead of  everyone else, so advanced, and to hope that he would live to see the day when the entire known world may once again come together and be prosperous as the known world was back in that time, some indirect captured  off- mic comment  like that would go a long way to counter the influence the caliphate now has over the Egyptian people.  An influence no one there really wants, but all there are powerless to now obstruct .

We then open up American colleges and universities to Egyptians, and pay their way.  We then advise them on regional disputes but allow them to make their own mistakes and revel in their own successes.

We help make Alexandria the financial headquarters of the Eastern World.  No where else, except  Israel and Iran, will you have access to a smarter bunch of people.

We then  invite their soccer teams to tour America and compete against our National League….

We invite their military to Fort Ord to teach them our desert techniques and partner with them.

All of these are aimed at building up the pride of the Arab and Egyptian.  With self pride and self confidence,  one is never defenseless.  One can grow on its own.  And as their national pride over their own accomplishment grows within themselves, the old ideas of the Caliphate are seen in their true perspective, as being  over 1000 years old.

With the Arab Spring, the USA has inherited a foster home full of growing young rambunctious teenage boys.  We have the duty to grow them into men.  As with any dad, sometimes you will have to be tough.  But to succeed, your goal has to be clearly that you do not wish to turn them into carbon copies of you, clearly.  Instead, you wish to give them the tools and advice they will need to chose, to pick through all the options in order to decide who and what they want to be.  But as it is with every child, it is always those honest and non-bullshit moments of tenderness that we remember which are actually the ones that  make the real difference in our lives.

The US Foreign Service is being very ably guided.  If  we threw our own children out on the streets to fend for themselves, every time they got mad at us, we’d have a very sorry, poor, and sinful society right now.   Obviously we don’t do that to our own flesh and blood for good reason.  Instead, we set the limit. We contain the anger. We provide a better alternative. We let them make their decision.  Then we provide the consequences, good or bad, for that decision they chose to make.  That is exactly what we are doing on the global scale under the able leadership of Obama and Hillary Clinton, and the public servants who make up our State Department, many who were hired by the previous Republican Administration.

The Republicans are trying to capitalize on violence right now.  As expected, they are failing miserably.  It would be wise to remember that it was the fruits of their philosophy that gave us  9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda,  Iran,  and super-de- dooper high oil prices.  They also sent trillions to the development and building of the tools of war.

The Democrats are responsible for calming the Balkans.   How is that going now?  Exactly.

We are on the right track.  Romney is on the wrong.  What we have accomplished so far in three years, will be views by historians as amazing.  We have inherited a home of children who have no dad, or mom.   We have the obligation to make them full members of society.  It will be a miracle if we get them all to succeed, some kids break bad.  But the obligation is there nevertheless to try for a 100% success rate.

The fact that Romney doesn’t “get it” and Obama does, is reason enough not to vote for Romney. The fact that Romney’s foreign advisors are the exact same hard core right wing people (Boulton? Seriously?) that embarrassed the USA of the Bush administration over it’s 8 years of  activity,  is reason enough NOT to vote for Romney.

You in the military-industrial complex can yell, scream, holler, hoot, high-five all you want.  But when it comes down to facts.  Romney is very bad for this country.

Mitt.  You’ve never heard of the “Bangles”?  I don’t believe it. You copy her eye motions exactly when you are before a camera.

For Those Who Follow DelawarePolitics.Net

I’m trying to put all your ideas together into one package. So, let me get this right… All you are asking is for, is a country where:

1) There is no universal healthcare.
2) Few entitlement programs.
3) Low Flat Tax System.
4) Faith based Government.
5) A deep reverence for God.
6) Extremely strict rules against abortion.
7) Marriage has already been strictly defined as between man and woman.
8) Homosexuality is a sin, and illegal.
9) Dress Codes are strictly enforced.
10) Tattoos, piercings, baggy pants, are banned.
11) Has the Death Penalty which they aren’t shy about using.
12) Strong private school system with religious focus.
13) Widespread dependency on oil and natural gas drilling.
14) Growing nuclear program
15) Nonexistent environmental nuisances
16) Culture that promotes family and stereotyped roles for men and women.

I’ve endeavored to put all your values on one page. I share your frustration because today, ever since 2008, it seems like America is moving further and further away from these values.

But you don’t have to be frustrated anymore. I have looked far and wide and have discovered a place already in existence that has those values in place, and more. If you sorely long for those values above, it is sincerely a place where you and your family would be very happy.

It is Iran.

You don’t have to pay me. I don’t need any commission. Just glad to help a fellow Delawarean out…. No problem.

Egypt vrs Iran

For those of us privy to being on the inside of the collapse of the Shah, these times are eerily familiar.

“The palpable sense of relief. The euphoria among the government’s opponents. The carnival-like atmosphere. The explosion of national pride. And the blind faith that the new regime would be more just, more equitable and more democratic than the old. Iran’s masses were no less hungry for democracy than the Egyptians who crowded into Cairo’s central Tahrir Square to demand an end to Mubarak’s rule. Where the Iranians put their trust in Muslim clerics to bring about a just and equitable society, the Egyptians turned to the secular-minded army to give the Mubarak regime a final push.”

The hated autocrat was gone. A new era was ushered in with cheers, tears and the cacophony of car horns.

And so it was in Tehran – 32 years before to the day.

“On Feb. 11, 1979, the commander of the Iranian air force announced on national radio that the armed forces were withdrawing from the fight to save the American-backed regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who had already fled the country three weeks before in the face of burgeoning street protests against his autocratic rule. With the military gone, the Iranian monarchy collapsed and with it any chance that the shah would return from what had been spun as a vacation – ironically to Anwar Sadat’s Egypt. As the troops returned to barracks, Tehran erupted into wild celebrations – punctuated by the deafening din of thousands of horns. ”

Whereas Iranians turned to their muslim clerics, today’s Egyptians are internet savvy. Messages and directives back then, were smuggled over months into Iran on cassette tapes. Today technology could reach thousands within one hour…. But for the sake of remembering, despite the differences, all of us should be wary… For a vacuum has been created. What goes in, will depend for the most part one nothing less than “idealism.” of the Egyptian people. They have the numbers, but do they have the will.

All it takes is one person withing the military of Egypt, to say…. “why not me?” Egypt then goes down the road of ruin similar to the Myanmar Empire (old Burma)…

Turkey faced a similar situation. One idealist, Attaturk prevailed and today Turks are for the most part, a very happy people.

What is best for the US?

Obviously if we learned anything from Iran, it is not to make Egyptians our enemy. That is the single most important objective that the United States must take away from Iran. That anti United States rhetoric from the Ayatollah Khomeini, has dominated our foreign relations from that moment on. All our problems with the Middle East, stem from that denunciation by that one man. How can any Arab do business with the “Great Satin” and go back home to peace? He gets taunted relentlessly by his peers, and therefore because of that, the United States has an uphill battle communicating even the simple basics of diplomacy to those who could be our friends and partners. We have a difficult time persuading them to accomplish things that work best, even in their own self interests, simply because we, … are the ones proposing it…

We, as the father of democracy, need to support those who our daughters pick. Even if it goes against our grain. If a majority of Egyptians pick the Muslim Brotherhood, so be it; we need to treat it as a wise father treats his daughter’s choice of a mate….

“Uh, … are you sure? Well, that’s a surprise. But you know, I raised you to be independent, and if this is who you want, and if this one makes you happy, and if this one you really, truly believe is the right one for you…. and I want you to be honest with yourself right now, well, as long as you are happy, I think it’s a great choice, and I will support you all….”

That solid support hinges on the words…. as long as you are happy. Were it to become known, that their spouse, (new head of government) was to start siphoning out of their bank account, we again side, as should the father of democracy, with the people, and help them explore the options of divorcing and rediscovering who they are….

That was our failure in Iran. Had we supported the Islamic revolution, it would have had to live upon it’s own devices, which were paltry. Instead it lasted fiercely defiant against the Great Satin; in fact, that was the only thing it had going for it. Able to fire up anger over our nations support of the shah, it didn’t need to take care of its people to stay in power…

We cannot give the next ruler of Egypt that option. Instead, we must embrace their choice, and accept that what makes our nation happy, like crappy private healthcare, like working long hours with little to show for it, like having false news broadcast over our corporate media, like working hard hours to pay back the bank collectors, utility company collectors, hospital and medical collectors, as well as paying up front for insurance policies that don’t cover anything,….. may not be their idea of a perfect society…..

We have to wise up and understand that as the father of democracy, our getting pushy and saying: ” I forbid you to marry that man” may actually be the very thing that makes that man appear attractive .. ”

Therefore we have to do the manly thing, swallow our pride, forget our ego, realize our grace, and accept what the Egyptians want, should be what we want too. Only then,… will no interruption occur within our relationship….