Iraq War and Clinton / Gore

I was asked some time ago "what would have happened, regarding the Iraq War, if either Bill Clinton won a third term or if Al Gore had won in 2000. My answer came out very spontaneously.

While neither Bill Clinton nor Al Gore nor anyone else could have prevented 9/11/01, and the U.S. was justified in going into Afghanistan. The U.S. would not have invaded Iraq - because the U.S. was not justified in its invasion of Iraq.

Bombing / invading Afghanistan - that was because Al Quaida had just attacked America and Al Quaida was sponsored by the Taliban, who was the government of Afghanistan.

And its well known, well thought of, and well believed that the U.N. is just a puppet of the U.S. So in response the U.S. orders the U.N. inspectors back into Iraq. And then, two months later, orders them back out of Iraq because the U.S. is invading. Now I may not have a college degree, but common sense tells me it would takes a year or two to "inspect" Iraq, not two short months.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein was recent sentenced to hang by an Iraqi court. I opposed to his hanging - right now or reasonably soon. The following trials will continue with him in abstentia. I really think that he would be better off learning and knowing the reasons for his death other than just the one reason.

While I'm not in opposed to the death penalty, I can't find a reason why it would be better to kill a person versus letting them sit, in prison or solitary confinement and sit and brew over what he had done and knowing that there would be nothing else than they could do - either for or against other people.

The only flaw in this penalty is that it depends on a person actually having a conscience, it depends on a person actually being capable of being sorry for what they had done.

take care,

Jay

Happy Christmas

Hi,

Well, Happy Christmas everyone. I never thought that saying "Merry Christmas" would be a political statement. It is! It is of the arch-conservatives who think that they are being politically corrected by the progressive liberals who think that anyone and everyone who says "Merry Christmas" is trying to evangelize. No - its simply a polite greeting or a freindly greeting of the second half of December.

And its a day when we get together as a family to have dinner and to exchange gifts. We have dinner and we exchange gifts because we are a family who actually get along with each other. I'm sorry if you don't like the other members of your family - perhaps you should try it, you might like it.

Well, former President Ford died last night. President Ford was actually my first political memory - when he pardoned Nixon. I was between six and seven years of age.

I've been reading Sierra Magazine today. I'm pleased with how much they emphasize the Global Warming issue as well as the need of Conservation. Delaware is a state where the have little recycling "igloos" where if you bring your recyclables to them (and put them in the correct igloo) then they recycle them. Unfortunately they've removed a lot of the igloos and, unfortunately, they were used too often as dumpsters or trashcans.

Recycling is one of those things that, with the correct work and motivation, can work well. Recently Philadelphia passed some law requiring that citizens sort their trash for recycling. I just don't think that the negative re-enforcement of "breaking the law", regardless of how many penalties are associated with that, I just don't think that the negative re-enforcement is the right way to enforce and encourage recycling. Anyway, not much happened over Christmas, as it should be, and I'll get onto writing something new tomorrow.

take care,

Jay