Category Archives: Foriegn Policy and War
COVID Reveals US National Security Vulnerability
It occurred to me last night just how vulnerable the United States is to Biological attach from a cultural perspective. There is a substantial segment of our population that does not take pandemics seriously or take orders from our government … Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War
Tagged Biological Warfare, contagious, high mortality, National security, US
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President Who Speaks with Forked Tongue
“Man who speaks with forked tongue” has been attributed to how the Native American Indians described the White man throughout history. It describes a person who says one thing but means the very opposite. It is an apt description of … Continue reading
My Thoughts about President Trump
For some time now I have been trying to think of good things to say about President Trump. But the longer he has been President the fewer things I can think of. I feel that he is out of place for this century… Continue reading
Posted in Domestic Issues, Economy, Foriegn Policy and War, Government, Political
Tagged accomplishments, Trump
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Shouldn’t Other Lives Matter too?
Recently there have been Blacks Lives Matter demonstrations throughout our nation due to the disproportionate numbers shootings of Black people by police. There have also been retaliation shootings and killings of law enforcement offices. Black communities for decades have complained that far too often law enforcement have used excessive lethal force (guns) targeting Black people… Continue reading
What PEACE Means to Me
PEACE is an attitude, not a conviction. It is the will to avoid conflicts and war, not to totally eliminate it which is passivism. It is the equalizer of social and political behavior. Its fig leaf sends a signal that I am open to dialog and am interested in hearing and understanding what you have to say about yourself and about me. It is about the absence of ego, that threats real or perceived will not hinder my pursuit of a peaceful resolution and harmonious relationship. It is the fundamental basis of most mainstream religions. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government, Morality Values, Social Issues
Tagged and Respect, compassion, ego, high moral standards, humility and forgiveness, love, nurturing lasting relationships, peace is an attitude, social and political behavior, taught by Christ, The Golden Rule, The Good Samaritan, vengeance
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US Iranian Agreement and the Lifting of Sanctions
I feel really good about President Obama’s agreement with Iran to lift US/UN sanctions. Assuming it is not stopped by Congress this will be another legacy to Obama’s credit. I have been quite critical about Obama in the past and continue being skeptical. But in his second term he is starting to really get things done. My criticism with him is that he is not proactive. He is often not in favor of something until it becomes more mainstream then he changes his position on it. He is very cautious about his image. He was not proactive about the open gay in military and gay marriage issues until it became more widely accepted. Continue reading
Dealing with Iran
I know there are many people including our President and Congress who feel that lifting sanctions against Iran must be strictly dealt with tit for tat regarding nuclear inspections to assure they are not making more weapons grade fissionable material. My contention is that it is in part our sanctions against them that created an atmosphere of hostilities between them and us that created the need, in their minds, for nuclear armament. Israel’s nuclear threat also plays a significant role. Had we not imposed sanctions on them in spite of their government’s religious leader’s distrust of the U.S. I honestly feel that they would not have perused nuclear capability as vigorously as they have and relations between us would have improved over time. Continue reading
Is the Price of Peace necessarily the Cost of War?
I have always wondered why we spend so much money and sacrifice so many young and aspiring lives on wars in the guise of peace. It is almost as if peace was an afterthought and war the goal. If war is the means to peace and stability then why do we wage so many wars and achieve so little peace? It is more likely the wars we lose end up in peace and stability than the wars we win. If one is so the antitheses of the other, how is it possible that it can bring about the other? Continue reading
To Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States
All American solders swear an oath “..to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic” because that is the primary purpose of our armed forces. Yet since the end of the Cold War almost all of our foreign conflicts have not involve people who posed a direct threat to the United States or its Constitution. And as for enemies, we made them enemies of us when we took it upon ourselves to interfere in their affairs to protect the oil interests of Saudi Arabia, a dictatorship that share none of our values of freedom, equal rights, and democracy. Continue reading
US-Iran Nuclear Deal is a Good Thing
I view the framework of the nuclear agreement between the presidents of the United States and Iran as a very positive beginning. Getting two enemies talking is always better than rattling sabers. I think these talks between alien enemies continents apart are going far smoother than dialog between our two alienated parties only feet across the aisle from one another. What is the alternative? Iran continuing its production of fissionable uranium and plutonium at the rate it is? Continue reading
Moral Values
My all time favorite Post is Imposing Human Rights and Moral Values on Others. It is also my most read post since its publication in December 2013. It gets to the essence of my values as outlined on the Home page. … Continue reading
The Consequences of Pulling out of the Middle East
The Middle East is a very confusing place with complex political, religious, cultural, and boundary disputes. It is this very complex multidimensional aspect that is so difficult for anyone to understand making peace so problematic for the U.S. and even people living in that region. It is the U.S. failure to appreciate the complexities of such human behaviors and interactions in the Middle East that has led to our continuing attempts to unsuccessfully solve the problem of stability over there using primarily military means. The best thing we can do is withdraw all our troops from that part of the world. Pulling out of the Middle East will be no different. There will be a power vacuum that needs to be filled. Various militant and religious factions such as ISIS will want to fill that vacuum. Continue reading
What do we have to fear from ISIL and Al Qaeda Terrorist
Let us suppose the U.S. government decided that enough was enough and totally withdrew all military presence in the Middle East. What proponents of the war here fear most is that this would allow ISIS to increase (start) terrorist activities in the U.S. because they hate us so much for killing so many of their countrymen that all they want is revenge. Let us consider how reasonable this assumption is. First of all I am assuming that ISIS leaders are smart and rational men as we have seen of Al Qaeda leaders. Though there are some here who do not believe this the evidence is quite strong. One must wonder why ISIS terrorist have not yet struck on U.S. soil. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged fear of terrorism, withdraw from Middle East
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Do We have a Moral Right?
Since the 1950s we have had political/economic interests and a military presence in the Middle East. It is no secret now that we are there because of Oil. In our self-interest we have attempted to maintain stability in that region so that the price of oil would remain under control. In spit of our claim of being civilized we seem to have a proclivity towards war and violence. I am sure that those who have been victimized by our civilized manner do not see us in the same light. So what Moral Right do we have for spending more money on killing people than education or any other worthy cause at home? The question of Moral Right begs an answer. I am Not asking if Arabs have a Moral Right to terrorize us. I’m asking does a civilized nation such as the U.S. have a Moral Right to impose its military might on other nations abroad who originally posed little danger to our nation? Continue reading
Posted in Do No Harm, Foriegn Policy and War, Morality Values
Tagged civilized, harms way, moral right, morally reprehensible, oil, rightious, value of human life, war
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Ebola: Fight-or-Flight
Survival by flight when confronting an unknown threat or overwhelming foe is one of man’s strongest survival instincts. In the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa there are many who demand that the only course of action is to contain this deadly disease by isolate the nations where it is ravaging by closing boarders and ban flights from these areas or even the entire continent of Africa. On the surface this seems reasonable. Closing the boarders to Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will simply cause people in fear of contracting Ebola to cross the borders to other African nations illegally and spread it unchecked not knowing where it is coming from or going. As it rapidly spreads throughout there were be not enough world resources to contain and treat it from spreading throughout the world. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government, Personal Perspective
Tagged deadly, disease, ebola, fatal, survival, underground
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Terrorism: Pure Evil or a Matter of Perspective?
According to the dictionary terrorism is “the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.” Wikipedia expands upon the definition as “those violent acts that are intended to create fear (terror); are perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal; and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants.” Most ordinary people living in Iraq simply want to be left alone to make a humble living. They don’t know what freedom means nor is it important to them. They simply want to be left alone to live out their lives. Being shot at and bombed terrorizes them to death. So there are some who hate us and want to rid their nation of these foreign terrorist who killed and maim their family member. Some have lost their families and have nothing to live for so are willing to fight evil Americans to the death. So they join al-Qaida or ISIL and practice that form of jihad against American terrorist. Regardless of who is terrorizing who on whose homeland people who are being terrorized will consider the other side terrorists and pure evil. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged Al-Qaeda, American troops, evil, hate, intimidation, ISIL, ISIS, matter of perspective, political aim, ruthless, terrorism, terrorist, violence
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Terrorist and Terrorism
When one hears the word terrorist one usually conjures the images of Osama bin Laden or Al-Qaeda Islamic extremists suicide bombers blowing them selves up and killing many Americans such as at the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001. The problem with our view of terrorist is that we have been brainwashed by our government and media (news, TV, and film) to think only one dimensionally about this subject. As a matter of fact Arab Islamic extremest such as the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda are not the only ones to employ terrorism. Looking at this through the eyes of many Arabs the U.S. is the terrorist. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged 9/11, Al-Qaeda, civilians, intimidation, invation of Iraq, Islamic extreamist, Taliban, terror, Twin Tower
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Is Al-Qaeda bent on Killing Americans?
There are those who see Al-Qaeda as a militant group of mad Taliban jihad terrorist who are out to kill all Americans at any opportunity. That may sometimes seem the case on the surface but if you really pay attention to what they do and especially what they don’t do you might come to a somewhat different conclusion as I have. First of all it would be a gross underestimation to assume that the leaders of Al-Qaeda are crazy madmen. They are quite sane and very rational people. They may hate us but their actions are very measured and well planned and executed to gain the greatest effect of demoralizing us. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged 9/11, Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, demoralize, Homeland Security, Islam, jihad, Near East, suicide bomb, Taliban, terrorist
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Failing Policy of Meddling in the Revolutions of Other Nations
The U.S. has a long history of meddling in the politics and revolutions of other nations throughout its history. But we have gained little advantage and much disappointment in the majority of our interventions, often at great cost in both … Continue reading
Department of Peace – Conflict Resolution worth consideration?
Conflict resolution has been a popular technique to resolve conflicts between individuals and group. Family and marriage councilors often use conflict resolution to resolve interpersonal relationship problems. Hostage negotiators use these techniques to talk down a hostage situation. And employers … Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged conflict resolution, conflicts, peaceful, peaceful solution, war
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U.S.’s Responsible for World Instability
Just as the US bears much responsibility for the violence and instability of Near East countries due to our oil interests and because of our friendship with Israel, we also bear much responsibility for the drug wars and political instability … Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged Ceneral America, demoracy, drug war, foriegn policy, freedom, moralistic, Near East, oil, political instability, resources, South America, war
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ouR Social Conscience 