Opening a REAL Time Capsule

I pride myself in setting out every day to learn something new. Lately however, my taste for things scientific has given way to my overwhelming sense of inadequacy when it comes ito the language of scientific inquiry…mathematics.  I rue the fact that I am a language-y, feeling-y type. I’d rather be a cold, hard, logical person any day. Then I could be working with CERN or something.

Oh well, my jealous phase shouldn’t last long.  I have other interests to keep me occupied in the meantime, and was very impressed with a BBC program from a few years ago that explains so much more than even the documentary’s producers could have known at the time.  The focus is on the American Neo-Conservative movement and the Radical Islamic movements that came about roughly around the same time. The series explains A LOT about where we are today and the tension that exists between and within the U.S., Middle Eastern countries and Radical Islamic Factions. Very interesting stuff, so I’ll post all of the segments here.

**Ironically, my s/o has just recently found and begun playing the Bible quest video games they talk about in one of the segments…he has no idea why he remembered about them, but has been playing every night lately!**

Left, Middle [East], Right…

I honestly cannot believe those of us on the left that are frothing and chomping at the bit for radical change to the makeup and practices of the United States still do not realize the value in moderacy. We cannot run willy-nilly, pushing our agenda like we’ve only got 4 years to make up for all the lost freedoms, injustices, and societal ills from the past three decades or so.  It looks panicked.  The U.S. has enough going on that just needs to be fixed, or at the very least, stabilized.  An economy in shambles, with nearly every single major  American industry affected, job losses like we haven’t seen in a while, and a war on a distant front (three of them) that is all but forgotten and our medicaland social support systems can’t do much for the wounded and broken young men and women when they get back…the American dream  is weaker than ever. Let’s test out the minds of a younger, more team-solution oriented American workforce to solve some problems in the financial sector.  Let’s see what deadlines do for the car manufacturers, and apply those deadlines (in a more creative way ) to TARP and stimulus funded states on those shovel-ready programs we promised before we were sidetracked.  Let’s take dead US manufacturing jobs and create an in-house green supply industry; working to build the parts that will make green energy attainable, get our best scientific minds finding the best methods,  or fund building the systems that make our wind, solar and geothermal energy sources work for us. If we do well enough at this, we fix the job problem (by creating some), we fix the global warming/dirty energy issue  and save the earth, and we fix the trade issue by creating a product that other countries would invest in or purchase. Let’s also stay away from as many special interest groups as possible.

If our party wants to do the greatest good, we need to first strengthen what we know is broken, win the support of the very people our party is founded upon–even if they are not Democrats–and once the danger of utter collapse is past, then take our newfound support and make America great again by proving that if our ideas are great when we’re working with the “big ticket” items, wait and see what we can do with the emerging ideas, job markets, and concerns.  If we focus on this “strategy”, we may have at least four more years of time. Instead of splitting our energy into a million + one things that liberals have wanted to accomplish for a long time (and feel like Obama’sadministration is the perfect time to do so), we probably need to focus on restoring our image as a party of the people and do the most beneficial work for as many Americans as is possible.  Sure that may sound socialist, but given the alternative…an America in despair…I’d rather sound socialist.

Speaking of that distant war, remember the war in Afghanistan that turned into the war in  Iraq that turned into the war in Pakistan (which, save the border areas, we are largely uninvolved in)?  See if we can name all the countries in the middle east that haven’t made the news for conflict lately.  Let’s see–there’s Oman, which from the lack of fiery reports, sounds like a wonderful country to take a holiday in. I haven’t heard much about Lebanon lately,  or Jordan, or Yemen or oddly enough, Saudi Arabia.  The last one concerns me, since the entire region is suffering through no small amount of instability and they are second only to Iran in size, smack in the middle, but why do we not hear the Saudi voices of concern about the state of their region?  Now, I am not a Saudi Arabia hater–no!–I was just as enthralled by all the cool stuff that Air Force Dad brought back from Saudi as the next military kid, but I just find it so odd that they are so silent. Maybe they’re not talking to us since we crashed the stock market–that was full of their money.  If anyone has any insight or any news from al Jazeera that I may be missing, please don’t hesitate.

Poor Pakistan. Is this the price a country that appearsto be an ally of the US must pay? Pakistan went from a normal country, fairly progressive even, in the Middle East to a warzone in a relatively short amont of time. They were warned, though.  Even the Bush administration had enough sense to warn Pakistan to get their border region in check, but they only half listened.  Our drone attacks haven’t helped any.  I worry about my Pakistani friends’ families and if they’re in an affeccted region, because as bad as it already is, it could get worse relatively quickly.  I feel like the U.S. as “visitors” in the region are at a distinct disadvantage simply because we are in the middle of some really fierce “family feuds” right now and do not adequately understand the culture after all this time, becuase through all the years of the random acts of west-hating terrorist attacts, Iran-Contra and even prior transgressions (such as creating Israel and the ensuing fallout) we never tried to understand who they were, we just assumed they would conform to the ways of the western world and simmer down.  To make matters worse, Iran is poking at the exposed wounds of several countries in the area to provoke…well…I don’t know, but they are certainly provoking some kind of response.  There is no action great enough and no words wise enough to help even a single person in the most embattled parts of the Middle East, and I feel so sad and powerless to make this any better in my lifetime.

Heading back to the Right, I have to say I have had this incredible craving for news radio, and so during my lunch breaks, there is only a 2 minute blurb of the day’s events so far on NPR, and I indulge in the Rushbag’s show.  I have to say, some of his rantings are coherent and well thought out.  but lately he’s been on this “blah, blah…this only shows who Obamais…blah, blah” kick.  Sotomayor proves who Obama is. The auto bailout proves who Obama is. So on, and so on.  I’m not sure what that’s all about, but I do agree with him on the fact that Republican party does not need to “cow down” to every popular opinion.  It makes even the real, good, and conservative politicians seem less real.  I still have a soft spot in my heart for John McCain who is real (he just picked a dumb running mate) and out of every politician in D.C., I’d like to hear more of what he  has to say about the torture memos.  Speaking of those, does Dick Cheney know that he is not in charge of destroying the United States anymore? I don’t want to be scared to death–I want a solution to make the world insurgents live in more stable so that they want to function as a part of the normal  society in their home country, which makes ours more stable as a desireable by-product.

Honestly our country is in a make or break position.  We have some real challenges that cannot be tackled when our pols on the left or right cannot refrain from sensationalizing their displeasure in anything that wasn’t their idea.  This is destructive, and we need to drop the partisanship now.  Especially now that millions of Americans are suffering through the temper tantrums without jobs and homes.

What Happens When You’re Not Looking?

I suspect we’ve been preoccupied lately, with the Presidential Campaign Season, Hurricanes, Sarah Barracuda, Financial Disaster…you get the picture.  But there is a disturbance in the Middle East, and we might be making a new enemy. I’ve heard a news byte on the radio here and there, and read the occasional article elsewhere, and until recently, I didn’t realize that we have some possible development in Pakistan. Since July, the US has been moving forward with Afghan/Pakistan border raids–despite Pakistan’s protests–in a region considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

I remember hearing a while back that we had chased some militants into the border area of Pakistan nearest to Afghanistan.  There wasn’t a lot of media hype (exactly which media outlet makes the decision about “what is news” anyway?), so it passed out of my memory. Now it seems like the intermittent “border crossings” are becoming more frequent.  Americans had been keeping up with the War on Terror, but news about Iraq, Afghanistan and the surrounding nations have been pushed into the background somewhat, while we weren’t looking.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister had some choice words about the US strategy (tactic…whatever), The U.N. workers and British diplomats in Pakistan have sent their children out of the country–because each strike has had some accompanying civilian casualties and Al Quaeda is retaliating. Last month, the Marriott hotel in Islamabad endured a suicide bomber attack that used a truck filled with explosives, killing 60 people and injuring more than 260 others.

President Asif Ali Zardari has described the bombing as an assassination attempt he and other top national leaders narrowly escaped.

Part of the problem is that Pakistan hasn’t cut ties to militant groups; the other half is that the Bush Administration is running these raids without Pakistan’s consent or approval. While the U.S. military operations have been successfully targeting key extremists, the civilian deaths alongside have not exactly helped win the “hearts and minds” of a country long allied with us in the War on Terror. Lisa Curtis, of the Heritage Foundation, said that not only is this fueling extremist behavior, it is also undermining the Pakistani government’s denunciation of militant acts. The US may need to continue to rely on unilateral military action in the Tribal Areas to protect its troops fighting across the border in Afghanistan in order to prevent a future, potentially catastrophic international terrorist attack.

US officials in Afghanistan or Washington rarely acknowledge the attacks, but Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said:

It hurts us even more when the transgressor is our friend and ally, the US.

Qureshi has also warned that US military operations in Pakistani territory undermine efforts to fight terrorism and serve to “fan” extremism. American officials complain that Pakistan is unwilling or unable to act against the militants.

I just think we need to proceed with caution.