Archive for April 14th, 2008
The fallout from the Maliki/Sadr Showdown in Basra is still being felt today as Iraq fires 1,300 Soldiers and Policemen who refused to fight during the conflict.
Why should Americans be aware of this? Why should we care?
Because this means that Iraq is far from being free or unified or cohesive. They can’t function without us and they can’t function with us (ah, the modern marriage!). And we are probably going to be in Iraq for the foreseeable future! I’m talking generations.
Now this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Bush wants us there (and if we succeed we would have to leave). Chaos and clans still reign in the country. And we have yet to train a capable Iraqi Army.
We have no business being there, but we have no business leaving either! It’s not a good situation for anyone. Remember that old phrase: “Leave a place better than you found it”? Right.
But, Americans are keeping their heads buried in the proverbial sand with regards to everything except Britney Spears while troops are dying and money is devaluing and houses are foreclosing and salaries are decreasing and the earth keeps on heating up.
What’s it going to take for us to wake up and take back our country??? Restore our values and dignity, self-respect and self-worth? I thought maybe it was going to be Obama, but I’m doubtful now.
I have to sign off since I have just written myself into a black hole. I’ll try to come up with something constructive to write. I don’t have any answers to these questions … but the more we talk about them the sooner we will discover a better path.
The announcement of Wachovia’s “surprise” losses today were no surprise to me. A simple awareness of Wachovia’s super-rapid warp-speed expansion across the country should clue any sentient being into the fact that Wachovia is expanding too fast, in saturated well-served markets, in a period of economic uncertainty and decline. Hel-lo! Who’s running Wachovia anyway???? Whomever has been overseeing Wachovia’s overzealous expansion is the culprit. … Maybe I should get my mba.
