Can we salvage what is left of our country?

Question

People are getting laid off at an alarming rate. Income needs increase while wages decrease. So where does it stop and how can we stop it? Should we shut down and reboot the country? How long would an affective change take place? Can we get our country moving forward again and how can we do it?

Answer 1

yes we can and have done it before there were some sort of freezes before like one in 80's and 90's and stuff but we jumped back up and moved on and this will be the same it may take abit of time but we're moving on. anyhow i am confident we'll find domsone if we can't find it this election. ou know that we can always remove the person if we need to yes it takes alot of guts but we can and will so just take cae its easy day in the white house today. lol

Answer 2

Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Thousands of Sadrists Protest Security Pact With US;

Sistani Aide Demands Parliament Vote

Thousands of followers of Shiite leader Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr peacefully protested across southern Iraq on Friday, according to McClatchy. They prayed and then stood silently in solidarity against the security agreement being negotiated by PM Nuri al-Maliki with George W. Bush.

Sadrists Demonstrate in Kufa. Courtesy Amara.net, a Sadrist site.

(On both the Iraqi and American side, this agreement is being characterized as a mere understanding between two executives. It is not being categorized as a treaty and there is no plan to submit it either to the Iraqi parliament or to the US Congress. It seems that the Bush team hopes it will take on the force of law just by virtue of existing and having been signed by the two leaders.)

Aljazeera had a debate between Hasan Salman, who supports al-Maliki, and Nizar al-Samarra'i, a Sunni dissident, this afternoon. Salman said that the agreement might be stipulated to be only for one year, so as not to detract from Iraqi sovereignty. He also said he welcomed the Sadrist demonstrations because they strengthened al-Maliki's negotiating position.

Except that I don't think the demonstrations are intended to help al-Maliki, but rather to delegitimize and bury him.

Even Jalal al-Din Saghir, a member of parliament from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which is allied with al-Maliki, preached a sermon at the Buratha Mosque in north Baghdad, saying, according to McClatchy:

'"The Iraqi people should see every single letter in (the agreement) and it should be transparent. What the people accept we do and what they reject we do," said ISCI lawmaker Jalal al Din al Saghir in his Friday sermon. "Most of what the Americans offered was against Iraq's sovereignty. If this treaty is done it won't be on Iraq's sovereignty, constitution and its land." '

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that there is broad Sunni and Shiite uneasiness with the agreement, even inside Iraqi governing circles.

Al-Hayat says that those familiar with the current draft of the agreement says that it speaks of the establishment of 400 US military sites and bases through the country, of legal immunity for American troops and citizens, and an abrogation of any undertakings previously made, to share in the reconstruction of the country.

Another source told al-Hayat that US Ambassador Ryan Crocker is pressing for language permitting permanent US bases, and removal of other language forbidding the US to attack a third country from Iraqi soil. (This source does not sound reliable to me. US officials have repeatedly said they do not want "permanent" bases, and the provision disallowing the use of Iraqi soil as a launching pad for one country to attack another is in the Iraqi constitution.)

The Iranian Speaker of the House, Ali Larijani, called on Iraqis to resist the security agreement with the US with the same courage that they oppose the Occupation itself.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is also said to oppose provisions of the agreement.

The source told al-Hayat that there tensions pervade the US-Iraqi relationship because of disputes over the text of the agreement.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq, the largest bloc in parliament and cornerstone of the al-Maliki government, issued a statement through his office. He spoke of the existence of:

' a national consensus on rejecting many of the points put forward by the American side in the agreement, because they detract from national sovereignty." He said that such a consensus existed in the National Security Council, which is composed of the leaders of the major political blocs in the parliament.'

Unlike the Sadrists, who reject the agreement altogether, al-Hayat says that ISCI simply has problems with some specific provisions. For instance, it objects to US troops being able to arrest Iraqis at will and hold them, and to be able to use deadly force at will without coordinating with the Iraqi government. It also objects to extraterritoriality (immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts) for American troops, civilians and private security guards.

Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab and leader of the fundamentalist Iraqi Islamic Party, agreed with al-Hakim's stance. He said in a statement issued on Friday that Iraq's sovereignty is a "red line".

Al-Hayat's sources also say that US Ambassador Ryan Crocker privately told the Iraqi government that the US rejects the holding of a national referendum on the provisions of the agreement. He is alleged to have brandished the threat that if the agreement was not reached, Iraq would remain under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, i.e. in a sort of receivership to the UN Security Council.

If this allegation is true, it puts Crocker on a collision course with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, since, Al-Hayat maintains, Sistani is absolutely insistent that the provisions of the agreement be submitted to a popular referendum.

In Karbala, Sistani's representative, Sheikh Ahmad Safi, said in his Friday sermon that the agreement must not be allowed to shackle future generations of Iraqis, and must not detract from Iraqi sovereignty. He insisted that the agreement would be null and void if it was not voted on by the elected Iraqi parliament.

(I don't think it will be voted on by parliament.)

On another front, al-Hayat says, former prime minister and former Da'wa Party leader Ibrahim Jaafari has founded and new nationalist political current that will seek to reach out across ethnic and sectarian divides to unite Iraqi nationalists across the board.

Meanwhile, the CSM reports on rogue Mahdi Army splinter groups in Risala, in Baghdad, and the way they terrorize residents.

Labels: Iraq

posted by Juan Cole @ 5/31/2008 06:30:00 AM 12 comments | Share:



Friday, May 30, 2008

Suicide Bombers Kill 20, Wound Dozens in North;

Firefight with Jihadis in Tikrit;

VP Abdul Mahdi Praises IranP

At least 35 persons died in political violence in northern Iraq on Thursday. Suicide bombers killed 20 persons and wounded dozens in three attacks on police and recruits, with the largest attack at Sinjar. In Tikrit, Awakening Council tribesmen armed and paid by the US shot to death 15 jihadis in a tanker headed for Baghdad with suicide belt bombs when the driver and his passenger opened fire at a checkpoint. (Details below).

"Turkish warplanes struck 16 Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq on Thursday morning . . . The statement on the General Staff's Web site said the operation against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group, launched at 0800 GMT, had been completed successfully. "

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Adil Abdul Mahdi, one of two Iraqi vice presidents, is in Tehran for a visit with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Abdul Mahdi, considered close to the Americans in Baghdad, is nevertheless also a leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the leading political party that was founded in 1982 in Tehran for Iraqi expatriates by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In Tehran, Abdul Mahdi spoke at a news conference with Ahmadinejad, saying he considered the Iranian president's recent trip to Baghdad "a turning point in the history of the relations between the two countries." He added, "The people and government of Iraq have long valued Iranian support for Iraq and its role as the path of their progress." He said that his visit to Iran is for the purpose of "discussions of economic issues and services, as well as political and security matters."

Gee, that's not how the US talks about Iran. Yet here is Iraq's elected Vice President, and he doesn't seem to agree with John McCain's characterization of Iran's role in Iraq.

  

For his part, Ahmadinejad said that the "enemies" are afraid that Iraq might turn into a base against global arrogance (i.e. Western imperialism). He said the Iraqi government and people have a bright future.

Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky at Tomdispatch.com examine John McCain's actual stances on the Iraq War from 2003 and find that he didn't actually initially oppose it and that he sounded at every point just like Bush. At the same site this week, Frida Berrigan on how the Pentagon has been turned into the Swiss Army Knife of bureaucracies by the Bush administration.

Tom Engelhardt points out that "the U.S. military has, in the last two months, fired at least 200 Hellfire missiles into the Iraqi capital, according to the Washington Post, most of them into Sadr City, the vast, heavily populated Shiite slum in east Baghdad. ("Just six" had been used in Baghdad in the previous three months.)"

Well no one is more happy than I that US military casualties are way down in May. But apparently it is because US troops didn't have to fight in Sadr City so much, because we like bombed it back to the Stone Age, with all those civilians densely packed in there. And no wonder the Mahdi Army suddenly decided to let al-Maliki's troops in. 200 missiles is a lot of missiles to rain down on your extended family.

The proselytizing Marine at Fallujah has been removed from the checkpoint and is under investigation. Apparently it was just one guy flying solo. It will take some time to repair the damage he did.

McClatchy reports political violence on Thursday:

' Baghdad

Gunmen throw a hand grenade in a Kia minibus as both vehicles were driving down Muthanna Military Base Street heading towards Alawi al-Hill

Answer 3

Only time will tell.  But I cannot imagine it will get any better anytime soon, especially with the canidates that are running for the presidency!  It remains to be seen.  I fear for the welfare of the people in  this country.  It is not just the crippling economy that worries me.  It is the attitude of the general public.  They are disappointed in the government, every aspect of it.  Our government has failed us miserably and the people are going to start fighting back.  It's almost inevitable.  I just pray.  It's all I can do.

Answer 4

As long as you have Republicans and Democrats who get paid for doing nothing, I don't see any hope for the future. They get free cars , free medical and a large pension when they retire.

Answer 5

We should take a lesson from the Chinese and execute or severely punish corrupt government officials.

At all levels.

For any misdoing.

Not bloody likely.

Answer 6

vivianna, Well love first we need to get a Clinton back in office. They straightened our country out once and together we can do it again !

Answer 7

Thats the answer SHUT DOWN & REBOOT !!! Is the only way Bummer but we need a real change not just empty PROMISS"S

Answer 8

From the 1920's through the 1980's, the US was a "Manufacturing" society...

Ever since the 80's, we've let our manufacturing be replaced by service industry.

Service pays less than manufacturing... less tax dollars going into circulation... slower consumer savings...

Since the 80's, consumers have been saving less and spending more.... and for the first time since the great depression, we are currently at a negative savings rate as a nation.

The US is at it's all time high in credit debt...

Real inflation... ( not PPI ) is well over 10% right now, at the highest level since the late 70s....

What we have here is classic stagflation.... which is lower us GDP with rising inflation & rising unemployment rates....

We are a hair... a fine hair away from the worst economic catastrophe since the great depression....

What can we do about it?

Despite all the intervention over the past year from the Fed and the G-7... this is going to end badly... it has to wind itself out.... as it should...

How bad will it get? Talk to me in a year & we'll know...

< peace >

Answer 9

Who's getting laid off?  Where?  Wage decrease?  Who?

My wife and I both just got raises.  What are you talking about?

What parallel universe are you writing this from?

Answer 10

"Hope springs eternal in the breast of man..."!

Answer 11

Believe it or not we are on the right path, the answer is inflation...

This always benefits the debtor, think about buying a car now but 6 months from now that same car costs twice as much.

what is going on right now is healthy and much needed.