Welcome to Sad Salvation. Day by day by day by day ... this is my attempt to make sense of the world.

Current | Archives

Monday, September 01, 2008

The McCain-Palin Ticket Part 3: The Blank Slate

I think that Sarah Palin has a very interesting quality. She is almost a blank slate on most issues. Salon did a piece where she has no record on Iraq. It is hard to see where she stands on any international issue. She has very little of a record. People will be searching all over for clips of her saying anything. I wonder if this will allow her to write her own ticket when it comes to her stances on different subjects.

Labels: election, Iraq, Sarah Palin, war

- Rich, 3:20 PM |

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

It is never good to lose a year

I just watched Frontline: the lost year in iraq. I have heard many of these things before. What struck me was how bad of an idea trying to remove members of the Baath Party from the government. That might be the worst mistake of the 21th century so far.

What I did not know was that the Bush administration wanted to get out of there so badly at the end of the first year. They had to stay because getting the government going failed so badly. They wanted to get out of there, but they could not get the job done. It makes me wonder what it will take us to get out of Iraq in the end.

Labels: Bush, frontline, Iraq, news, PBS

- Rich, 7:05 PM |

Monday, September 11, 2006

9/11/01 to 9/11/06

It is the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. It feels like we are still in that moment in time. September 11th was the start of something and we are still in that event. It does not feel like I am really looking back at those events. There is so much going on that is still connected with these attacks. I feel like I cannot really look back, because there are so many things that are not over.

I cannot remember the last week that I have not heard about 9/11. I think it has to get to this state before it becomes the past. It is hard to get to a place where you are not thinking about it all the time but it is not forgotten either. I am worried that is going to take us a long time, longer than is healthy.

I am not sure when these things will feel like the past and not the present. I am not sure if it is the Iraq War, Middle East Conflict, al-qaeda, or the general feeling of conflict between Islam and the West that keeps this feeling going. Maybe the feeling will change once we have a new President.

For now I am looking back, but it does not feel like the past. I will let everyone know when it feels like the past to me.

Labels: 091101, 9/11, anniversary, attack, Iraq, Islam, Middle East, tag overload

- Rich, 9:03 PM |

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Rory Stewart

A few weeks ago I heard Rory Stewart on Fresh Air. He is a British diplomat and journalist who worked for the provincial governor in post-invasion Iraq. He wrote book about his experiences. I have not read his book yet.

He said a few things in the interview that I cannot get out of my head. One was about complaints about the Bush administration lack of planning for Post-war Iraq. He thinks that people put too much faith into planning. Very often plans do not survive the first few minutes of battle, he thinks that is the same is true for post war also. The US made mistakes right after the invasion, but these mistakes were not decisive. Even if people put more into planning, Iraq would still be a mess. He thinks it is a dangerous distraction to focus on the errors of the administration. He thinks we should not attack in the future.

He also thinks that the only way Iraq can function is for Iraqi leaders to make it work. The US and British to get out of the way. We step in too often and keep the Iraqis from working it out. This is the best argument for withdraw I have heard to this point.

Labels: Bush, Iraq, Rory Stewart

- Rich, 6:06 PM |

Monday, June 24, 2002

Truth about sanctions

Here is a story about what is going with the sanctions against Iraq. I have heard a lot of times that America is killing babies in Iraq. If this was true the north would be suffering just as much. I think this is another example of government being an important idea. The worst thing is that I can already here people say that this is just more bias reporting from the west. I will take this as being as close to the truth as we can get.

Labels: America, Iraq, sanctions

- Rich, 11:13 PM |

Current | Archives

Contact me