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U.S. ability to negotiate with Iran will wane as troops pulled from Iraq |
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Opinion -
Tom Raleigh
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Written by Tom Raleigh
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Thursday, 20 March 2008 21:55 |
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(03-19) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- Five years ago today, the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq. Almost 4,000 American troops have been killed here, and more than 29,000 have been wounded and maimed. The cost of the war, in terms of blood and money, has been staggering. Some sober stock taking is in order. In the security realm, the surge worked. Aided by a cease-fire imposed in August by Muqtada al-Sadr on his Madhi militia, coalition forces have made considerable progress since January 2007 in reducing the violence and transferring provincial security duties to Iraqi security forces. U.S. commanders, contrary to the opinion of some, are hardly "slow rolling" troop reductions to pre-surge levels. Withdrawing 4,000-member brigade combat teams and reassigning thousands of kilometers of battle space is an extraordinarily complex endeavor; you don't just pack up your stuff and "head to the barn." One can expect that Gen. David Petraeus will explain this to Congress next month, and reiterate the need to reset American and Iraqi forces before making further troop reductions. On the political front, Congress - a body not particularly known for its agility, decisiveness or productivity - criticizes the Iraqi Parliament for failing to pass critical reconciliation measures. Condescendingly characterizing the recent passing of a de-Baathification law, and a budget agreement, as welcome but insufficient progress, the Congress, I suggest, ought to instead embrace some strategic patience. The Iraqi economy continues to show slow but steady growth. Oil production has modestly increased, as has electricity output. There has been some progress in other areas, rule of law among them, but medical care and most municipal services remain abysmal. |
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Statement on the Five Year Anniversary of the Iraq War |
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Opinion -
Columnists
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Written by Phil Steck
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Wednesday, 19 March 2008 15:28 |
Five years ago, this nation was misled into war on Iraq. However, the Bush Administration’s statements on the war did not ring true to me, and its unilateralist approach to foreign policy was fundamentally flawed. Therefore, I was on record opposing the intervention in Iraq from the beginning and spoke out about this issue then as a member of the Albany County Legislature.
The Bush Administration’s belief in changing the politics of a Third World country by force has been exposed as false and boastful. On May 2, 2003, President Bush landed aboard the USS Lincoln on a Navy S-3B Viking, proclaiming “Mission Accomplished.” Today, it is crystal clear to a majority of Americans that we should not be in Iraq anymore. Our troops have been placed in the impossible position of occupying another country and refereeing between various factions involved in civil unrest.
We need a Congress that will stand up for what’s right: ending this war and bringing the international criminal Osama bin Laden, and his organization, to justice.
To date, nearly 4,000 U.S. service men and women have been killed, and millions of Iraqis have been killed, are living as refugees in other countries, or have been displaced within Iraq. My heart goes out to both my fellow Americans and the Iraqis who have suffered and are suffering as a result of this war.
Close to $500 billion has been spent in Iraq and related conflicts. This has compromised the ability of our government to be effective on the home front.
Now, as the nation spirals deeper into recession, the Bush Administration is asking Congress for at least another $102 billion. I believe Congress should fund withdrawal from Iraq not continuation of this fruitless war without evidence that there is any light at the end of the tunnel. We must have he courage to end this unjustified war and let the Iraqi people be free to govern themselves and decide their own future.
We need a Congress that will stand up for what’s right: ending this war and bringing the international criminal Osama bin Laden, and his organization, to justice. |
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Pardon Me for Asking, but... Who Cares? |
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Opinion -
Columnists
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Written by Maureen O'Brien LCSW
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 14:07 |
So David Paterson and his wife, Michelle, have had past marital problems. That's a shocker. In case you're a republican and missed the irony in that last sentence, it's really NOT a shocker.
My day job has nothing to do with politics. I'm a psychotherapist. And I'll tell you, many relationships have serious problems and yes, sometimes those problems get acted-out in affairs. The fact that the Paterson's sought professional help and have healed their relationship speaks mountains. Often, by the time a couple seeks professional help, it's a last-ditch effort and it's too late.
Perhaps we can look to Governor Paterson and his wife as an example of what is possible. There is hope for troubled relationships.
We ought to start looking at the real sins in our world and stop using Puritanical ideas to avoid dealing with the bigger issues: racism, homophobia, the war in Iraq, lack of healthcare, destroying the environment -- and too many more to list here. Wouldn't it be great if these things had the same shock value as "sex" does?
Maureen O'Brien LCSW is a co-chair of the RFK Democratic Club and a psychotherapist in private practice in Albany NY. |
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Eliot Spitzer and America's Ethical Perversity |
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Opinion -
Observations
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Monday, 17 March 2008 21:04 |
We received the following article via email from Tikkun Magazine and the Network for Spiritual Progressives. Makes a lot of sense, don't you think?
Eliot Spitzer and America's Ethical Perversity
by Rabbi Michael Lerner
The cross-the-political-spectrum attacks on Eliot Spitzer and the intensity of the demands that he resign his office show just how far the Right-wing sexual moralizing has been able to trump any other kind of ethical reasoning in American society.
Going to a prostitute is legal in some states and some countries around the world, and is often the very arrangement that saves families from splitting up whose sexual energies have diminished but whose love is intact. It's not uncommon for men (and now increasingly women as well) who have achieved great power in our society by adopting an outer show of ruthless pursuit of power and influence (even, as in Spitzer's case, if the power is aimed at pursuing laudable ends) to feel a deep emptiness and loneliness that is not addressed by friends or spouse, and hence to seek some kind of outside connection no matter how superficial that is not bound by previous rules and roles. Nevertheless, I and many others in the religious and spiritual world oppose that practice when it involves adultery or prostitution, because it depends on the objectification of another human being, so that sex is disconnected in ways that it should not be from a significant encounter with the spirit of God in the other or a deep recognition that is the only real way to overcome existential or situational alienation.
Right-wing sexual moralizing has been able to trump any other kind of ethical reasoning in an America deeply involved in war and domination of the world. Spitzer's own ethical failures helped them score another victory.
Moreover, the trade in women for sexual purposes has frequently led to rape and abuse and the kidnapping of young women who are sold into sexual slavery. All of these outrageous practices are abhorrent and should be challenged. The flaunting of sexuality in the media, and the implicit message that the only real satisfaction comes from having the most physically attractive people as sexual partners, not only generates huge dissatisfaction even as it allows corporate advertise to become predators manipulating our personal sense of inadequacy to sell their products, but also generates desires that feed the sexual trade in women. Given this larger social context, until sexual satisfaction is so broadly available in our society that no one has to pay for it and so deeply tied to love that no one is objectified in the process, this kind of exploitation of women and degradation of sex is likely to continue. All of these practices foster the sexual predators of the contemporary world.
So Eliot Spitzer deserves to be critiqued and ought to be doing deep atonement for what he did. His previous moral arrogance and willingness when he had power |
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Welcome Governor Paterson |
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Opinion -
Observations
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Written by Observer
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Monday, 17 March 2008 15:42 |
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McCain Courts Another Anti-Catholic Leader |
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News -
Latest
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Written by Posted by Administrator
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Sunday, 16 March 2008 11:25 |
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Republican presidential candidate John McCain distanced himself from the views of one anti-Catholic leader — John Hagee — while simultaneously seeking the support of another, Tim LaHaye. McCain went to New Orleans to gain the support of the secretive right-wing Council for National Policy, whose co-founder LaHaye has a long history of religious intolerance, and specifically anti-Catholicism.
In 1987, LaHaye was famously forced to resign just days after signing up as national co-chair of Jack Kemp's presidential campaign when the Baltimore Sun revealed numerous anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish statements in LaHaye's writings. "McCain is trying to have it both ways," said Peter Montgomery, who oversees People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch blog. "He wants the backing and political muscle of Religious Right leaders, but doesn't want to be associated with their extremism. He runs the risk of alienating Catholics and moderates by pandering for the support of the Religious Right." In 1987, LaHaye was famously forced to resign just days after signing up as national co-chair of Jack Kemp's presidential campaign when the Baltimore Sun revealed numerous anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish statements in LaHaye's writings. For instance, LaHaye called Catholicism a "false religion" and said the Jews "brought the judgment of God upon themselves and their land" by rejecting Jesus. "Enough is enough," said Montgomery. "Unless McCain is ready to surrender the keys to the 'Straight Talk Express,' he should quit playing footsie with the kinds of leaders he once condemned as 'agents of intolerance.'" From "People for the American Way" -- www.pfaw.org |
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