nothing to do with international relations

I’m so glad I have great friends like Josh, Bryce, and Taylor. They drove to Missoula this weekend to visit me. We had a great time; nothing like homeboys. They came right at the perfect moment; right when I needed them.

Everything is swell and going well, but not great and going excellent. I have experienced a few setbacks in recent weeks and even experienced some conflict. I’m not used to losing elections or having people hate me. I’m really not good at dealing with defeat. It might be one of my weaknesses, but one that I’m working on now. I’m also not good at crossword puzzles, but that’s off-topic.

I have a supportive and loving family, but I still get upset or sad or whatever the feeling is.

Writing helps, and I feel better already.

Life isn’t always perfect, but it has been for me for too long. I need some bad or hard times like I’m having now so that I will be better suited to deal with them in the future. How will I ever be successful if I don’t learn how to overcome defeat and hatred now?

Here’s to keeping life in perspective.

North Korea

Diplomacy prevails! We held six party talks, North Korea agreed to stop one facility, and the rest of the parties agreed to millions of dollars in fuel aid.

Today they gave a personal invitation to the head of the IAEA, to ensure they comply and thus get the fuel aid. We can agree to give them even more money and economic assistance and fuel and anything else they demand and they will probably give up their nuclear weapons.

Now if we can just isolate and sanction Iran into deprivation and poverty, maybe we can have the same outcome.

Here's to slowly dismantling everyone's nuclear bombs until finally we can dismantle our own, and we will live in a nuke-free world.

"responsible"

“I hold the American forces responsible for this,” he said, black soot on his face and clothes. He said the Americans passed by the site of attack only minutes before it occurred and yet were unable to stop it.
-New York Times

A suicide car bomb killed sixty in a Baghdad street market. This is a common thing.

They blame the United States now, but what will they say when we have a precipitous withdrawal of all troops?

Iran in Iraq

An American intelligence assessment described to The New York Times said that “as part of its strategy in Iraq, Iran is implementing a deliberate, calibrated policy — approved by Supreme Leader Khamenei and carried out by the Quds Force — to provide explosives support and training to select Iraqi Shia militant groups to conduct attacks against coalition targets.” -New York Times

Coalition targets read as; Americans. Iran has all but declared war on America. They are doing everything but killing American soldiers directly. Iran is building nuclear weapons and publicly threatening the United States. Iran is operating through Hezbollah throughout the Middle East.

It seems so blatantly obvious to me that we have to win in Iraq just to stop Iran from taking over. It seems obvious that we absolutely can not let Iran get nukes.

Yet many call for leaving Iraq and many call for engaging Iran in talks. I don't totally understand diplomacy with countries like Iran so I'm not really sure what "talking" to Iran would accomplish, and I'm not really sure why we don't. If we did we would tell them only things they should already know, such as get out of Iraq, stop building nukes, and stop destabilizing countries through Hezbollah. They would reply no and we would be right back to where we are.

Basically America has her hands tied behind her back and no friends to help her and Iran has boxing gloves on and has sent followers to get a gun.

On Palestine

MECCA, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 8 — The two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, agreed today to form a unity government and settle some of the disputes that have led to months of violence between them. –New York Times

This came about a certain way and for very specific reasons. Of course, one has to keep in the mind the long history of this issue; most pertinently the recent history.

There were elections in Palestine and they elected Hamas, a listed terrorist organization, over the incumbent rulers and Western ally Fatah. (One side note here: Hamas was elected for the same reason Hezbollah enjoyed popular support in Lebanon; they provided services like schools and hospitals. They were not elected on their ideology of terror. If someone tells you that tell them they don’t give enough credit to the people of Palestine and Lebanon.) After Hamas was elected, the EU and the US stopped all aid. Since then there has been humanitarian problems and violence between Palestinians, as the article notes. There has been violence between Israel and Palestinians. Today the two groups announced the deal after a meeting brokered by Saudi Arabia. Once again there is hope in the region.

The United States recently launched a new diplomatic effort that was part of Bush’s plan although it was not covered much. The United States understands that violence in Palestine does not serve anyone’s goals. Knowing that, is it any surprise that the meeting took place in Saudi Arabia, one of America’s better allies in the region? Of course not! This is the United States trying to end violence between competing Palestinian factions.

Here’s an interesting thought. Many terror organizations like to say that Israel is America’s 51^st State. They say the United States always takes Israel’s side and gives them all kinds of money. Well look how good Palestine does without the aid of Western democracies! The only reason they are at this American-ally brokered meeting is so they can meet Western-donors’ standards. America wants peace in the region, for Palestine and Israel to exist peacefully together.

It is part of a broader war on terror and a broader plan for peace. It is part of a plan to get America out of Iraq eventually. I think it’s the right thing to do, I think it makes sense.

Does anybody care? Or are we too focused on the fact that brave men and women have to risk their lives for this peace plan?

Sensible

Since I haven’t really been keeping up on my news lately and I’ve been getting settled into my weekly routine I haven’t felt the need to write. But today I was reading the news for the first time in a while and I came across a couple of articles.
But in those two weeks I’ve at least heard the consistent liberal war rhetoric that surrounds each of us every day. A good number of Democrats and even some Republicans don’t support a troop surge, definitely don’t support President Bush, and actually want our troops to come home.
I can actually understand if some people aren’t huge Bush fans, but I absolutely don’t understand the other two.
In fact, most Iraqis agree with me and the President. They need the security crackdown to protect their families. They are relying on the Iraqi government to roust out the terrorists and kill them. The people of Iraq have become victim to terror, by which I mean random buses blowing up every day, that outsiders have perpetrated.

International Herald Tribune, Reuters, The Associated Press
Published: February 5, 2007

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi general took charge of the security operation in the capital Monday and Iraqi police officers and soldiers manned new roadblocks — initial steps in the long-anticipated joint operation with U.S. forces to curb sectarian bloodshed.
At least 31 people died in bomb and mortar attacks across the city, 15 of them as they waited to refill propane cooking tanks when two car bombs blew up in quick succession in south Baghdad. In other attacks, a car bomb exploded in a garage, killing 8 people and wounding 40, and another car bomb exploded near a children's hospital in Andalus Square in the city center, killing 6 and wounding 9. Also Monday, the U.S. military reported the deaths of two American soldiers who were killed Sunday.
…a growing number of Iraqis are blaming the United States for worsening conditions, arguing that slowness in completing the new security plan has made Shiite neighborhoods much more vulnerable to such attacks.
“We demand that the plan be executed as soon as possible, because the terrorists are going too far in their vicious attacks,” Hassan said on behalf of lawmakers loyal to the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

Now why would an anti-American spokesman insist that President Bush’s plan go into effect? It is because he understands that Bush’s plan provides everything necessary for the Iraqi government to eventually take control of the country and roust out Al-Queda, Iran, and whoever else is trying to take advantage of a new democracy. And he understands that when that happens, brave American soldiers won’t have to roam his streets and his family will be safe.
What the Democrats propose and some Republicans support would be a terrible thing for the United States of America to do. We would abandon a fledgling democracy, which includes hundreds of thousands of policemen, and leave them to fall victim to outside-funded terrorism. There would be no legitimate government for a long time. I don’t even want to fathom what would happen if their government fails.