But We are so Much Safer

From the NY Times

The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond, according to American, European and Middle Eastern government officials and interviews with militant leaders in Lebanon, Jordan and London.

Some of the fighters appear to be leaving as part of the waves of Iraqi refugees crossing borders that government officials acknowledge they struggle to control. But others are dispatched from Iraq for specific missions. In the Jordanian airport plot, the authorities said they believed that the bomb maker flew from Baghdad to prepare the explosives for Mr. Darsi.

Mr. Bush continues in his long line of failures. If it were not for Daddies bucks and connections he would probably be a homeless bum.

The Idiot Speaks

The ass hole in charge gave a speech today on Iraq. He said that things will get worse over the summer. That the insurgents will kill more innocent civilians in an attempt to influence the government.

In other-words:
A. The surge is not working and is not going to work.
B. The longer we stay there the more people will be killed.

Having said this he then says we have to stay.

Apparently in his world 1 + 1 = 3. But nobody ever said he was the brightest bulb in the room.

Pro-Lifers choose death over life again

Once again the Republican "pro-life " people prove that they are anything but pro-life. In Texas the governor signed an executive order that makes mandatory the cervical cancer vaccine. Now the Republicans and their conservative allies are trying to fight the order. The argument is again that without the fear of death the girls are more likely to have premarital sex. Once again these people would rather see people die than have sex. It also shows that they have no faith in the moral values that they teach their children. Apparently all their children are sex addicts who with out the fear of death would hump anything that moves. It does not matter what their church says or what the parents say, they are no match for sex. The kids are apparently unable to develop moral values, they can only respond to fear. The conservatives and the republicans are only concerned with imposing their order on other people. It is a matter of control, not morals.

Thank God

Tornados rip through Florida on Friday morning. Predictably there was a news article in which the person said that he thanked God that he was alive. So this leads to a few questions.

1. What did the 20 people who died do to piss God off that he let them die?
2. Why did God allow the tornado to destroy his house?
3. Why did God send the tornado?
4. If he did not send the tornado, why did he not dissipate it or send it off in some harmless direction?

On another issue , Troop surge, my previous blog said that I did not count the Iraqi troops because I thought they were useless. This in from the NY Times

"American officials have said the new plan will take time, but new concerns emerged Sunday about the readiness of Iraqi military units that are supposed to work with the roughly 17,000 additional American soldiers who will be stationed in Baghdad under the plan, which President Bush announced last month.

Iraqi and American military officials said the command structure of the Iraqi side had still not been resolved, although the plan is supposed to move forward this coming week.

Naeem al-Kabbi, the deputy mayor of Baghdad and a senior official loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the powerful cleric who heads the Mahdi Army, said he believed the plan had been delayed “because the Iraqi Army is not ready.”"

Troop surge

Once again Bush demonstrates his stupidity. He wants to up our forces in Baghdad by 30,000. Now the surge last July did not accomplishing anything, but what the hey. Of course this surge will be much bigger than last time. Then it was only about 1600 troops. But consider this.

New York City has a population of approximately 8,000,000. They had 590 murders in 2006. There are 38,000 police officers.

Baghdad population is 7,400,000. There were 14460 murders in 2006. There are presently 13,500 troops in Baghdad. If they get the 30,000, then there will be 43,500 troops. In other words there will only be 5,500 more troops in Baghdad then there are cops in NY.

Now, the old ratio was 10 support troops for each combat troop. I'm sure with the outsourcing of some jobs (KP and whatever else) this ratio has improved. I also know that not all 38,000 NY cops are directly fighting crime. Still it seems to be ridiculous to expect the troops to pacify a city in turmoil when it take 38,000 to maintain a peaceful city.

I do not mention any Iraqi forces because they are more likely to be part of the problem then part of the solution

Paying our Debt

The war that was to cost a few billion dollars is projected to consume most of the 160 Billion that the armed forces are asking for in 2007. Now i have always disagreed with this war and would be happy to get the troops home tomorrow. However, this is not going to happen. One thing I hate even more is not paying for the things I am responsible for unless it is a gift. The debt we are passing on to further generations has not been okayed by them and we have no right fostering our costs onto them. I suggest we institute a freedom tax. This tax should be on gross income and calculated to pay for our war. If you do not want to call it a freedom tax, then call it a patriot tax. Everyone needs to write their congressman, senators, and the president to encourage them to initiate this tax. Let us show our support for the troops by actually supporting them with something else besides hot air.

Global Warming

Senator Inhofe does not believe mankind is causing global warming. This is a bit strange because he says the debate is being driven by fear. Since this is one of the two pillars ( Fear and Hate) of the Republican party , I would have thought he would have embraced it.

However, he is against it. He brings forward groups of scientist that also oppose the idea. My son says that they are all paid by the energy companies and are tainted. I am not positive, maybe mankind is not causing damage. But here is a thought.

People are against abortion ( I'm sure Inhofe is anti-abortion). Why because they say we are killing a human being. Now, no one can say that a fetus is human, that it has a soul, or will even reach term. The argument is that it is better to err on the safe side and not abort.

We have invaded Iraq. Why did we invade Iraq? Well, we thought that they had WMD's and we did not want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. So we decided to err on the side of safety and invade.

Now we have global warming. The consequence of which are much more dire than abortion or WMD's. The current theory says if we do not act soon we will reach a tipping point. At that time there will be nothing that we can do. So perhaps it is time to err on the side of safety again.