Thursday, December 03, 2009
Cold and Sunny in the Yakima Gulag
Well having figured out my computer's quirks, I am sitting here actually uploading pix to Flikr! YEAH! I have really been frustrated over not having a good time getting online. It probably makes me madder because even this nice light weight nebook feels pretty heavy for me with my shoulders and neck like they are. I have been going tophysical therapy for them. Physical therapy consists of some fairly wierd exercises, and I feel good until the next day, when so far, I get a moderate to severe headache. It is not good having to carry anything the next day at all.
Then again my physical therapist agrees with me that for now, purses, bags and back packs are the enemy. I would like them to NOT be the enemy but it is what it is for now. Pop some pills, plug on, suti i trpi! :)
I have meant to comment on the President's speech on Tuesday. I am really disappointed we are going to put more troops in Afghanistan. I do not care what the President says, it IS too much like Vietnam, except the opposition is 'green' not 'red'. I think sometimes Obama is forced to bend on things to prove that he is really an American, and really a patriot. I mean come on, the man is only ETHNICALLY Muslim, a concept any Bosnian understands, but Americans usually don't get it.
I really feel for him, because ANYTHING he decides is going to be picked to pieces and it really was not his war. Sadly now it sort of is. The biggest problem is that extremism, whether religious or political is not a nation, we are a nation and are stuck in positional warfare AGAIN! Which is where this is like Vietnam.
I am increasingly hearing comments from people who are your basic working class white Christian American that both Iraq and Afghanistan are probably bad mistakes. I think Andrew Basevic has had some pretty relevant things to say on the subject. He lost a son in Iraq. I also can't help remembering what a friend of mine who is now a soldier in Iraq said, which is that if we let go of either place, we can't just get them back. She had a valid point from a strictly military point of view. Obama may be thinking along those lines. I do not happen to agree with that.
I thought it was a good speech in many ways, he backed up his points, but I still think we need to get out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, sooner rather than later. We as a nation can't seem to take care of our own people adequately, and war just isn't as beneficial economically as it was back in WWII.
Our infrastructure needs work and our people need work, and our people need a single payer health care system not war.
Then again my physical therapist agrees with me that for now, purses, bags and back packs are the enemy. I would like them to NOT be the enemy but it is what it is for now. Pop some pills, plug on, suti i trpi! :)
I have meant to comment on the President's speech on Tuesday. I am really disappointed we are going to put more troops in Afghanistan. I do not care what the President says, it IS too much like Vietnam, except the opposition is 'green' not 'red'. I think sometimes Obama is forced to bend on things to prove that he is really an American, and really a patriot. I mean come on, the man is only ETHNICALLY Muslim, a concept any Bosnian understands, but Americans usually don't get it.
I really feel for him, because ANYTHING he decides is going to be picked to pieces and it really was not his war. Sadly now it sort of is. The biggest problem is that extremism, whether religious or political is not a nation, we are a nation and are stuck in positional warfare AGAIN! Which is where this is like Vietnam.
I am increasingly hearing comments from people who are your basic working class white Christian American that both Iraq and Afghanistan are probably bad mistakes. I think Andrew Basevic has had some pretty relevant things to say on the subject. He lost a son in Iraq. I also can't help remembering what a friend of mine who is now a soldier in Iraq said, which is that if we let go of either place, we can't just get them back. She had a valid point from a strictly military point of view. Obama may be thinking along those lines. I do not happen to agree with that.
I thought it was a good speech in many ways, he backed up his points, but I still think we need to get out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, sooner rather than later. We as a nation can't seem to take care of our own people adequately, and war just isn't as beneficial economically as it was back in WWII.
Our infrastructure needs work and our people need work, and our people need a single payer health care system not war.
# posted by Katja R. @ 12:08 PM 
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It's difficult cleaning up the military, political and human mess after Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush (and Blair) but I don't think letting Afghanistan and then perhaps Pakistan go where the wind takes them is going to help anyone much in the long run. Look what happened last time Afghanistan was abandoned, look what's happening in Somalia now. Sometimes there's no ideal solution, just doing one thing is hopefully a bit better than doing the other.
# posted by 
: 4:47 AM
: 4:47 AM
@Owen, you do raise some valid points, the problem is I don't know what really would work in Afghanistan, any more than I know what really would work in Somalia, basically you are correct that there is no ideal solution. I think though, it is neccesary to accept that there are parts of the world the West cannot fix. Unfortunately just doing something hasn't worked out so well either.
I don't know, like I said, poor President Obama no matter what he does on this one, it is going to be criticised.
I don't know, like I said, poor President Obama no matter what he does on this one, it is going to be criticised.
Thank goodness you have a President we can agree or disagree with instead of one we feel we're on a different planet from.
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# posted by : 4:04 PM
: 4:04 PM << Home
