Your heart's an empty hole,
Your brain is full of spiders, you have garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch,
I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot gasoline hose!
A new era for America begins with the agreement of a security pact with Iraq. Many months of negotiations paying off with a signed agreement to pull troops out of Iraq buy 2011. It is hard to tell at the moment whether this move for the removal of troops over time is going to be able to be pulled off without a hitch. Many Iraqi extremist are protesting the arrangement stating that the troops should be pulled out “immediately”. On top of the protest, a U.S. Marine and soldier were shot during a humanitarian mission north of Baghdad. All of these unfortunate situations taking place during the time this security pact was in the process of being agreed on. It seems to me that it is going to be a difficult transition for the citizens of Iraq who loathe American presence in Iraq. These nationalist are pushing for a quicker removal then the agreement has in mind. These complications I believe may pose a threat to the safety of American soldiers during this transition.
As I view into my crystal ball I can see many more negotiations in the future, some explaining the actions of Iraq, and some explaining that of America. The world is at a brink of chaos, wars are being waged in other countries and we sit in our homes in luxury not knowing of the situation that awaits us in the real world. It would seem our leaders have their work cut out for them; funny thing is it always seems that most wars are waged to keep the peace how ironic.
The elections are close at hand and the candidates both seem to be in full war mode on each other. Both there negative ad campaign which in today’s society seems to be the only way to address the public with enough force to where the public will respond in shock or awe. These tactics are what work best and to be honest these tactics are the only methods that work well enough to get the people’s attention. It is sad to think… no, know that as a society we are blinded with mere commercials and picture ads to even know the truth about who is representing our nation. We rely heavily on what we see in commercials (which are mostly negative ads) to even know a candidates stand on the issues plaguing or society. Don’t get me wrong there are those out there that do their homework and know what’s going on but, for those who don’t it is they who really need to wake up and take a look around. The nation is not ran on hopes and dreams it is not a movie and it does not always end happily, and if they think their vote counts without any knowledge of what they are voting for they are severely mistaken. It is not difficult to put a check on a ballet, the difficulty lies in whether what you are checking is the right box or just an excuse to be able to say “Yeah I voted, too.” These people vote because it is what our society expects of them not because they really care of what they are voting for. I am not claiming to be an expert I don’t know if my theories are fact, I am just stating what I observe and believe whole heartedly. So, by all means jump on the voter’s bandwagon and vote, be sure to watch all your commercials and read all your negative campaign ads. That way when a political conversation does arise you can be like half the naïve Americans out there and know what little/distorted truth to discuss and be able to have that moment you dream of every night. The nation is at a peak of change do you really want to be left out of that transition if you are thinking no, then maybe you should read a little more about what is going on. Hopefully when voting time comes you will have enough information to make a educated choice and help pave the way for a better future.
In an editorial, Nixon, Bush, Palin, in the Opinion section of The New York Times, the author Roger Cohen discusses our current economic and market status, while also addressing the cost left by the Bush Administrations mistakes. Roger Cohen, the International Herald Tribune's first editor-at-large in 2006, and former foreign editor for the New York Times begins his editorial with a quote of former president Richard Nixon made in 1970, “Frankly, if I had any money, I’d be buying stocks right now.” At this quote Cohen comments a plea that Bush will not follow Nixon’s example believing the market would tank if Bush made such a remark. Cohen begins to discuss the gambles the current administration made and the price to be paid. He begins with the gamble of going to war with Iraq, which cost an estimated 700 billion dollars (much like the amount selected for the bailout plan). Around the same time Bush according to Cohen; “opted to allow an opaque derivatives market to grow into the trillions without supervision, regulation or information”, the result of which was markets ability of turning “capitalism into a pyramid scheme for trading worthless paper.” Now, do to these mistakes we have been forced into financial alertness. Cohen states that already banks in Europe of failing, soon after maybe even the dollar. Will we be forced to the gold standard again? “We are getting closer to a tipping-point,” a comment from Benn Steil, an economist, satisfies the verdict that our economy may plummet. According to Benn Steil this economic down fall is causing people to ask, “Can we really trust the dollar as a store of value?” With the financial stability who knows. A lesson learned and it only took 8 years, according to Roger Cohen, “when power is a passport to gamble, people can end up seriously broke or seriously dead.”
I am in full agreement with Roger it is one thing to run a country it is another to gamble its stability. War was an unnecessary tactic and could have been avoided, if Bush had the competence and was not so gun-ho we would not being in the financial situation we are in today. It’s as Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “How far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?” Question comes to mind how much further will we go?