Today’s Talk

Just a quick post on the release of the Iraq Study Group Report. For the political savvy people out there, what are your thoughts on the report? What should the president do with this report?

I myself, have not read it yet. However, I think I will be able to read it tonight and let you know in a future post my thoughts on it. My educational background did not specialize in Middle East Affairs, it is actually was in Asian Affairs. But in any event, I figured I would see what I can make out of the report. The way things are going right now, I think President Bush needs all the help he can get.

You can download the full report here.

Members of the Iraq Study Group:

James A. Baker, III – Co-ChairFormer Secretary of State Honorary Chair, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University
Lee H. Hamilton – Co-ChairFormer Member of Congress Director, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Lawrence S. Eagleburger Former U.S. Secretary of State Chairman, International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. - MemberFormer Advisor to President ClintonSenior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC

Edwin Meese III - MemberFormer Attorney GeneralRonald Reagan Chair in Public Policy, The Heritage FoundationDistinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution

Sandra Day O’Connor - MemberAssociate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court (Retired)

Leon E. Panetta - MemberFormer White House Chief of StaffFounder and Director, Panetta Institute

William J. Perry - MemberFormer Secretary of DefenseProfessor, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Charles S. Robb - MemberFormer Governor of VirginiaFormer U.S. SenatorDistinguished Professor of Law & Public Policy, George Mason University School of Law

Alan K. Simpson - MemberFormer U.S. Senator from Wyoming

It is hard to imagine that children as young as 6 years old are being taught to kill. As children across the U.S. and other countries are playing with each other, children in Africa and parts of Latin America are being sent to fight and to die.

A young child soldier said “They’d whip us as punishment. If you made a mistake, they’d whip you up to 70 or even 120 times.” Children do not have the opportunity to say no in fighting. Either you fight or are shot dead on the spot. Countries that are actively recruiting child soldier are Sri Lanka, Congo, Colombia, Ivory Coast and Afghanistan.

These children come from countries that are in the middle of civil and tribal wars and ravished with poverty. These children literally have no place to go.

The respective governments of these child soldiers care nothing about this type of social issue thus leaving international organizations to fight for the rights of these young soldiers. Often times, international organizations can do little to prevent this from happening.

So you may ask, how do the children feel? One child soldier said “Some people came looking for former soldiers, for child soldiers. … It had been my intention to return to the army,” he said. “Even if my mother and family could take me back, they don’t have the means to send me back to school. Here, the only thing I can do is steal. All I can do is roam around the streets.” Another Congolese child said “I’d rather fight for my country than stay home with no food.”

It’s these types of social issues that the international community must pay closer attention too unfortunately, I fear that day is far in the future.

 It was reported today that the body of James Kim who set out into the unknown to save his wife, Kati Kim and two children was found dead in the mountains. It was not reported exactly what he died from although it could be hypothermia as some reports suggest. As days turn in months and months turn into years, I am sure Kati Kim will tell her two children what a courageous father they had and how much of a hero James Kim was in the face of the unknown. 

R.I.P. James Kim

Read more here

You could say that Mr. Bolton was sneaked into the U.N. through the back door in August 2005 when President Bush appointed him temporarily while Congress was in recess. Well, Mr. Bolton’s time is up at the U.N. due to having a lack of support from both republicans and democrats. Perhaps you can say, the only one that really wanted Mr. Bolton on the job was President Bush himself. His lack of style was an issue from the beginning of his term as a diplomat for the U.S. Republican Lincoln Chafee and Democratic Sen. Joe Biden have been adamantly and publicly critical of Mr. Bolton from day one.

I am glad Mr. Bolton has finally left with disapproval from Congress. With democrats taking control over congress next year it was highly unlikely he would have received enough votes for confirmation. The U.S. needs a new diplomatic leader to represent us at the U.N. as 2007 is all about fresh faces from our distorted and disillusion government that we currently have.

I thought I would do a post on Hurricane Katrina and the efforts of the government and private sector to help rebuild not only New Orleans but parts of southern Mississippi. Well, sadly to say the insurance industry is running out of that area like a bat out of hell. St. Paul Travelers, which is one of the largest commercial insurance providers, announced that it will cancel all of their commercial property policies in the New Orleans area. Business cannot operate without Insurance and with one of the largest providers of commercial insurance companies pulling out you can bet that others will likely do the same too.
In March, a special federal order will expire that held insurance coverage in place after Katrina and Rita. It will be interesting to see what will happen with the other insurance companies once this rule expires. The Bush administration can give the white flag that the levees are fixed and will fail the city this time but then again weren’t they suppose to work before Katrina hit. Furthermore, seeing how long it is taking to rebuild the levees is like watching a snail try to run a marathon. In any event, it still seems like the people that were affected by Katrina are still being abandoned.

New Clip

Well former Speaker of the House is in the news again as he along with President Bush limit the rights of American citizens. This time it’s “free speech” Mr. Gingrich wishes to limit. Watch as Keith Olbermann explains.

World’s AIDS Day was this past Friday. Unfortunately, I was unable to post a comment in regards to that special day on Friday. Nonetheless, better late than never.

I want to focus my attention to make you aware of a special organization that helps dying children alive. That organization is “Keep A Child Alive.” Currently, there are 12 million AIDS Orphans in Africa alone. This continent is plague with wars, genocides and poverty.

It is my belief that countries like the United States, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. to name have a far greater responsibility to help fight this global pandemic. Ex-supermodel Iman who was born in Somalia is a celebrity spokeswoman for Keep A Child Alive. She noted on Friday that, “Unfortunately this year, AIDS is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Twenty-five million Africans have died, 60 million people around the world are infected with AIDS; 40 million are living with HIV … The death toll is one problem, the economic structure of what it’s doing to it is another problem. We’re losing all our children.”

She brings up two very good points that yes the death toll and economic situations for African countries are a huge problem. Today, children in Africa can lead a healthy life much like Magic Johnson lives he life with AIDS. A healthy life for millions of African children can be done on literally $1.00 a day. This is why I said early, that these countries must step up to the plate to provide better assistance to millions of children who die needlessly.

In future post, I will talk more in depth about the U.S. involvement with AIDS, other international organizations and the rich private citizens throughout the U.S.

Should rich private citizens do more for the ongoing social problems that are happening rigth now? What do you think? I welcome your comments.

The word “mistake” seems to me a big understatement in terms of U.S. policy in Iraq. Nonetheless, lately there has been above coverage on the issue of top leaders admitting mistakes have been made in Iraq. Now…really? Isn’t that quite obviously that the U.S. strategy has not been working for years now.

In the past Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has admitted that there are things that should have been handled differently. Recently in an interview, she stated “As to whether the United States has made mistakes: Of course, I’m sure we have. “You can’t be involved in something as big as the liberation of a country like Iraq and all that has happened since, and I’m sure there are things that we could have done differently.” She left it at that and later told an Arabic news program that she will say more in her future books after she leaves office.

In addition, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a Nov 6th memo that “In my view it is time for a major adjustment… Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough.”
Delusional President Bush said earlier this year that “I think the biggest mistake that’s happened so far, at least from our country’s involvement in Iraq, is Abu Ghraib. We’ve been paying for that for a long period of time.” I am not sure much further a President of the U.S. can be from the truth when one only has to read or turn on the papers to see the mounting evidence that has been present for years that Iraq is in civil war and that the U.S. strategy is fundamentally flawed.

What are your thoughts on this issue?