WHY ARE WE IN IRAQ?

The question that has been asked again and again, is why are we in Iraq?  When are we going to bring our troops home?  The answers are not given by anyone in the Government, and the public is left to wonder.  Watch this video it will blow your mind...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoJHTuP7Lh0

Why aren't videos like this being shown to more of the public.  The mainstream media does not make videos like these easy public knowledge.  The Iraq War, also known as the second Gulf War or the Occupation of Iraq (which I find to be the most accurate).  Began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by troops from different nations, mainly the U.S. and the United Kingdom.  The reason?  Iraq supposedly contained weapons of mass destruction, which according to the Bush administration posed a serious threat to the security of the United States and our allies.  The interesting part that brings much skepticism, is the fact that UN inspectors found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.  Then, the United States accused Saddam Hussein of harboring terrorists, namely, Al-Qaeda, but again, no evidence was found supporting these claims.

Once we invaded we took out Saddam's top guns, and even killed his two sons.  Saddam went into hiding, and could not be found for a period of time.  However on December 13, 2003 on a farm in Iraq, Saddam was found hiding underground just as we had suspected.  Shortly after the invasion, the U.S. and allied forces quickly took over the Iraqi military and we attempted to establish a new democratic government there.  Which was a disaster, violence  among coalition groups and sectarian groups led to warfare with the Iraqi insurgency.  Thousands and by some accounts, millions of Iraqis have been killed through 2007.  We then promised over $20 billion in reconstruction aide, given to Iraq as a loan against their oil revenues.  I wonder if there was any profit built into that plan?  I am absolutely positive there was.  I am sure there were large amounts of interest built into that repayment plan.

In 2008, we are still involved in this war, and we still occupy Iraq.  What is the future of this war?  Well, Obama said,   "if the definition of success is so high: no traces of Al Qaida and no possibility of reconstitution, a highly effective Iraqi government, a democratic multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian functioning democracy with no Iranian influence, at least not of the kind that we don't like, then that portends the possibility of us staying for 20 or 30 years. If, on the other hand, our criteria is a messy, sloppy status quo but there's not huge outbreaks of violence, there's still corruption, but the country is struggling along, but it's not a threat to its neighbors and it's not an Al Qaida base, that seems to me an achievable goal within a measurable timeframe."  So from what Obama has said, we will still be there for at least a couple more years.  It doesn't seem that anyone will pull our troops out of Iraq.  Maybe that is a good thing and will create less tension between the United States and the Middle East, or maybe we should pull out so our troops stop dying.  

So basically to recap in an extremely simplified and shortened version.  We invaded Iraq, bombed their buildings, killed their leader, killed many of their family members and soldiers, caused billions of dollars in damage to the country and have failed to set up a balanced democratic government.  It sounds like another huge failure on behalf of our government.  Why were we really over there?  Was it to tear apart and blow up their country to later loan them money to rebuild it, in which we would participate in their oil revenues?  Very plausible.  The point is that we have failed in every objective we had in going to Iraq.  All it has ended in, is the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and Iraq wanting us out.  Many soldiers speak out against this war and they way the Iraqi people are being treated...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygeiPZlQ-fc 

How would we respond if another country occupied the U.S.? We would be much more outspoken than the Iraqis have that is a guarantee.  Are there terrorists in Iraq?  Yes, many.  Why don't we focus on getting them out, then take our troops out and leave the Iraqis to build their own democratic government in peace.  I feel a major part of us going in to Iraq was to get a piece of that oil money, of which there is billions!

WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE GEORGE W BUSH?

Practically everywhere you turn there is someone talking bad about George W. Bush.  He is our President, right?  So shouldn't we appreciate him for what he is, and he has done for our country?  That's for each individual person to decide.  I can tell you that the majority of Americans do not agree with Bush's foreign policy, and are very angry with the things he has done and the problems overseas that he has caused.  

There are many websites that devote themselves to bringing to light all the mishaps, lies, scandals, and cover-ups that Bush has been involved in.  I will go over a few of the mistakes that Bush is accused of making and some of the scandalous things that he has been involved in.  

1.  He has been accused of lies, fraud, and deception to promote the war in Iraq.  

According to Bush, they only lied about 16 words.  According to criticism, Clinton was impeached for only lying about 9 words, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." So why do they allow Bush to go on, uninterrupted?

2.  He was convicted of drunk driving and lied to cover it up.

Bush admitted that he was convicted of drunk driving on September 4, 1976.  But what happened is Fox news reported that fact four days before the election, in their normal pre-election trash talking.

3.   He was involved in three suspicious big deals that made him a lot of money.

His failed oil company was one of them to which was sold to Harken Energy which made him a consultant and paid him $100,00 a year, and allowed him to buy stock at 40% below value.   He was also accused of insider trading and selling his Harken Energy stock in 1990 for $847,000.  There was no proof of the insider 

trading and Bush was never cited for this.  The third deal was when he got a piece of the Texas Rangers baseball team for only $600,000 of money that wasn't his, but of supporters of his dad.  Years later he sold the 10% chunk that he owned for $14 million.  A very profitable investment indeed.

4.  He is accused of being a rich, partying, playboy.

Every candidate has partied at some point in their life, but according to criticism, Bush partied a little too hardy.  Supposedly he was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession, which I could not find evidence of.  But, he has admitted to having a problem with drinking, but quit cold turkey when he turned 40.  Mid-life crisis?

It's not hard to find videos on Bush "bashers" and their explanations as to the ridiculous things Bush has done to our country.  Watch this one...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMdFGkTlLAo .  There are many skeptics out there quick to point out all the faults in the Bush administration.  Many of them are true, albeit unverifiable in many cases.  The fact of the matter is that Bush, was, a party animal.  He was repeatedly admitted to this, as has his administration.He has yet to admit that the U.S. should get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Was he involved in some shady business deals?  Probably.  You would be hard-pressed to find a politician who doesn't have any skeletons in his or her closet.  Yes, he did create some huge issues in our economy.  But, if you do a little research you would find that many of these issues were lingering at the beginning of his first term.  I am not a Bush "basher" but I do agree with many out there that are pointing out his flaws.  His main source of criticism, is the U.S. involvement in Iraq?  Maybe, it is definitely possible considering the fact that we have not created a viable form of renewable energy, and may not for many years... The U.S. does consume a huge portion of the world's petroleum...

WHY WAS JFK SO SPECIAL?

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States.  JFK served in the military during WWII, after which he turned to politics.  From 1947 to 1953 he represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In the 1960 Presidential election he defeated Richard Nixon.  This was the first televised debate, which was said to have won the election for Kennedy.  This was an important moment in history, being that it was the beginning of the importance of television in politics. JFK is famous for his line, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."  I found a great video describing the timeline of JFK, it's a little long but it really is a great clip...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vW2ryP16Vk

As far as foreign policy he didn't do so well.  Especially considering the Bay of Pigs disaster which really hurt his image.  He did, however, create the Peace Corps which is still in play today.  This was actually one of his first Presidential actions which really boosted his image in America and in the world.  Another significant role he played in foreign policy was the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union signed initially.  Perhaps JFK is a little more famous for his role in domestic policy.  He became President when racial segregation was still taking place in schools.  JFK didn't like that and pushed for racial integration.  One famous thing he did was sending 400 Federal Marshalls and 3,000 troops to protect a few black students to attend school.   JFK is also well known for his involvement in the space program.  He attacked the idea of getting a man on the moon.  He had Congress approve 25 billion dollars for the Apollo Project.  

In all, JFK was a very well liked man, and President.  There was a movie made about him by Oliver Stone in 1991.  We even put his face on the U.S. half dollar coin since 1964 in memory of the great President.  When JFK was assassinated, the country was torn apart.  People cried, people were angry, and more than anything people could not believe that he was killed.  Today, scholars still point to the fact that JFK would not have been assassinated, he would have more than likely served a second term.  What is important about that theory is that, they say the Vietnam war would have been ended much sooner and he would have pulled our troops out immediately.  JFK was not a person who wanted to get involved in the affairs of other countries, out of fear of causing harm to America, and possibly involving them in a war.  I personally think JFK was one of the best Presidents the United States has ever had, and his legend will forever remain in the hearts and minds of the American people.   

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE JFK ASSASSINATION?

There have been so many conspiracy theories as to who killed JFK.  Although they arrested Lee Harvey Oswald as JFKs murderer, many people do not believe that he was the only shooter.  Frankly, neither do I.  I have watched many documentaries, and have always been fascinated by conspiracy theories on the JFK assassination.  

JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas while riding in an open air limousine.  After his murder, a 10 month investigation led by the Warren Commission and other agencies, found Lee Harvey Oswald to be the murderer of JFK.  Here is where the questions, and theories go wild.  How was the only shooter when there were multiple entrance and exit angles that the bullets had in JFKs skull.  That is not possible to come from only one spot, from one shooter.  Not many people believe the Warren Commission's findings to be accurate.  In fact, gallup polls show that as much as 80% of the public hold beliefs contrary to those findings.  

So who killed JFK that day in Dallas?  No one knows besides the shooters.  There are, however, many different theories that have been circulating since his death, and continue to this day. Different conspiracy theorists allege different groups as the murderers of JFK.  Some theories say it was; the CIA, the Mafia, the KGB, the FBI, Fidel Castro, and Cuban exile groups among many others.  The fact of the matter is that no one can prove who actually killed JFK, hence the reason it is coined a conspiracy theory. 

Many people have tried to reconstruct the Warren Commission's findings that there was only one shooter, and only three bullets fired.  The reason, no one believes that the scenario presented by the Warren Commission was impossible.    Two former U.S. Marine snipers replicated the scenario exactly, the angles, the gun, everything was perfectly replicated.  The problem was that they could not replicate the angle that the bullet took in leaving JFK and hitting Governor Connally.  The snipers found it impossible to do, and therefore said that there was more than one shooter.  His words, "if i can't do it, how in the world can a guy who was a non-qual on the rifle range and later only qualified 'marksman' do it?"  Moreover, 16 years later the House Select Committee on Assassinations found the reports done by the FBI and the Warren Commission to be "seriously flawed."  The committee also found that there were at least four shots fired, and that a conspiracy was likely to exist.

The most famous witness films recorded was the Abraham Zapruder film.  Many conspiracy theorists have used this film as proof that there was more than one angle from which the bullets came from.  I found many videos, and clips of the Zapruder film, but I found this one to be the clearest picture..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E66__vymfPA . The most interesting

part of the video is when the person in front of JFK turns around and something

in his hands, and puts a cloth over something. It's definitely suspicious, considering

that the bullet was supposed to have come from the back when JFKs head went

the opposite direction. If you look very closely it looks like the man sitting in

front on JFK had a gun in his left hand and fired the final shot, which was the

most suspicious and unexplained shot in the assassination.

To me, conspiracies are fun they are interesting, and very time consuming. But

to others, this is their life, and they live off of analyzing videos and documents.

Do I know who killed JFK? No. I don't think anyone really does.

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS?

Many people have heard of in our generation, the Cuban missile crisis, but I don't think  many people even know what happened and why it happened.  I wanted to do a summary of the events that took place in this crisis involving Cuba, The Soviet Union, and The United States.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was such a significant confrontation during the Cold War that it actually ranks up there with the Berlin Blockade.  Here is a video showing what Kennedy decided to do, before the actual invasion...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50RNAbmy3M .In the late 50s and early 60s the CIA trained Cuban exiles on how to shoot weapons, how to effectively invade, and basic combat skills.  The plan was for these 1,511 Cuban exiles to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.  The United States had promised to give the exiles air support which may have actually won the invasion had President Kennedy not called off the air support at the last minute.  When asked why he called off the air support last minute, his answer was that he didn't like the idea of overt intervention with Cuba.  In the aftermath, 103 Cuban exile fighters were killed in the Bay of Pigs invasion in April of 1961, the Cuban army suffered significantly higher casualties their numbers reached around 2,000 deaths.   This failed invasion severely embarrassed President Kennedy and his administration.

Why would they try to invade Cuba?  Easy.  The United States feared that Soviet communism or socialism would spread to Cuba, and they did not want that to happen. The scare intensified sharply when a spy plane flew over Cuba and discovered that there were missile bases being built in Cuba (hence the term, The Cuban Missile Crisis).    The scare weakened after the United States agreed with the Soviet Union for the missile bases to be dismantled in exchange for a no-invasion agreement.  However, in the years following, spy planes continued to find missile bases being built in parts of Cuba.  After "careful consideration" the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed that a full scale attack and invasion was the only solution.  Kennedy was not thrilled about the idea from the beginning and explained to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Soviets would not sit back and do nothing.  This could end up being something bigger than they thought, which is exactly what President Kennedy wanted to avoid.  

In the end, the invasion was a complete failure, and many lives were lost as a result of this invasion.  And it left the Cuban exiles betrayed and angry at the U.S. and at President Kennedy.  Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union or the rest of the world to think the U.S. had any participation in this invasion in order to attempt to save face.  The problem was the facts were out there, and there was no hiding the United States' involvement in the invasion at the Bay of Pigs.

IS OBAMA GOING TO END THE CUBAN EMBARGO?

Does Barack Obama really want to end the Cuban trade embargo? He claims that he does. Will he be able to? Maybe. It seems as though, however that he will find ending it in it's entirety will be harder than he thinks.

On January 20, 2004 there is a clip of Senator Obama speaking of how we should end the Cuban trade embargo. He says we should end it, "because of what is happening internationally...how do we make sure other countries are providing human rights for their people, a basic structure of government for their people...and the Cuban embargo has failed to provide the source of rising standards of living and has squeezed the innocence in Cuba." Check out the clip for yourself...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ3SVok9g34 . Back in 2004, he was already advocating this. And in recent times, his administration has said that if elected, Barack Obama will lift restrictions that were put in place by the Bush administration. The area he is looking to lift restrictions is in allowing Cuban-Americans to visit their relatives more frequently, as well as ease the restirctions on how much money you can send to relatives in Cuba (which is extremely low). Me as a Cuban-American with all of my family living in Cuba, of course, I love the idea. Can he follow through? I hope so. My family in Cuba is living in a third world country with very limited amounts of food and clothes. It is very sad.

Not only are Cuban-Americans living in America hoping for Obama to bring change to Cuba, Cubans living in Cuba are also very excited to put Obama in office. I found a great video that actually interviewed Cubans living in Cuba... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HURQ1QbCNZc . It is very hard to find interviews done by non-Cubans of actual Cubans. This video explains that the Cuban people have faith in Obama to bring change and to ease restrictions on the trade embargo. Cuba will be a much more beautiful place as it was in the 50s when my parents grew up there. In that time one of Cuba's most famous beaches named "Varadero" was one of the world's most beautiful beaches. There is much beauty, and very compassionate, caring, and smart people living in Cuba. I hope that Obama will keep his word and help bring chang e to the lives of Cubans who have been suffering for a very long time.

ARE AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN IRAQ RACIST?

Are U.S. troops big hearted, as our mainstream media networks make them out to be? Maybe not. Are they heroes? Absolutely. Are they professionals? According to some videos I found, no they are not.

I spent some time looking for videos on youtube showing U.S. troops abusing and mistreating Iraqi children. I wanted to look into the many allegations that U.S. troops are treating Iraqi children as animals. The verdict. It is true. The saddest part is that it's not hard to find these videos at all. There are tons of them. One of the most sadistic ones I found is an interview with a U.S. Marine talking about the Iraqi children and how he feels about them...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F8KuLFtD1Q . You can hear the hatred in that soldiers voice. It is very evil and and at the same time sad that he would talk about kids like that. They have no choice as to where they were born, and who their parents were. This video is a prime example of the hatred and racism that is going on in Iraq. There are also many videos showing U.S. troops teaching the Iraqi children to say bad words, and talk bad about their own country. This one has about 200,000 views...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpHWaUSfYj8 . The guy filming that should get some kind of punishment for making these videos, and saying those things to those kids. That is ridiculous. People from other parts of the world are watching these videos, and saying, "what ignorant pigs" or "what animals those Americans are" among, I am sure many other things. Why doesn't someone in the military get involved and put an end to this. No wonder many Iraqis hate us. Look at how our country is being represented over there. Here is another video, showing the same kind of ridiculous things that U.S soldiers are doing in Iraq...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE4yG8_UkqY . In that video you saw a Marine driving a military vehicle. In the background there are Iraqi children begging. The Marine is seen turning suddenly and yelling at the kids, scaring them away. Why are they abusing these kids. What have they personally done to those soldiers, or to our country? Nothing. I think that the reason for this hatred and racism, stems from the idea that these kids brothers, uncles, fathers, grandparents, or someone in their extended family is a terrorist. The problem is that there is no validation of that, and in fact, many Iraqis are actually peaceful people. Yes there are terrorist groups among them, but to abuse the children for what their relatives have done might seem ok when you are out being bombed and running over IEDs but they need to be reasonable and think before they act. I do not want anyone reading this blog to think that I am talking bad about our military, but I do want people to know that this is going on every day in Iraq. Our soldiers are becoming less and less understanding as to the reason why they are there risking their life. This is a problem stemming from our military leaders and from the President not necessarily the soldiers themselves. They were bred to go over there with this kind of hatred, and ignorance toward the people they should be protecting.