Unwanted Democracy:

Do Iraqis realy want democracy? Isnt' this terrorist thing about people rejecting Americas' power? Every time every America flexes her military power we are percieved as being an imperial colonizeing power. The cold war is over should we realy have such a big military force?Obvious with our presance in Iraq it seems that our military isnt' big enough. America should represent the ideal model of democracy. Despite this nations flaws, we do represent the best model of democracy ever, in the history of the world. The question that arises here is how should Iraqis govern themselves? Whats the best form of government for them? I'm inclined to think its democracy, because it allows for the freedom of choice, or the right of self determination. Thus the Colin Powell proverb"you break it, you own it." Will Iraqis fully embrace democracy? I think they will, but I think they need time time to work things out, and not be rushed becaused of Americas' desire to pull out.

A Proverb:

Life is like a card game, you play the hand you got dealt.

The Hard way often is the noblest:

We as a nation have a choice to make in Iraq, the hard way or the easy way. The hard way means we stay the coarse in Iraq or we take the easy way out and pull out of Iraq even though democracy hasnt' gotten a firm yet. We have to realize that the sacrifice we make in Iraq, with American blood, is the hardest, but the noblest of sacrifces in the pursiut of democracy, if we as a nation decide that it has to be done, then we ought to insist it be done right. The only way to defeat the terrorists' , and to let democracy grow in Iraq is to stay the coarse. Now is not the time for America to back down, nows' the time to dig in with all of our resolve, and pursue with patience, democracy in Iraq. America needs to wake up and realize that we went into Iraq, we broke it, we own it. Now we have to make the hard sacrifices' to fix what we went and broke. Namely a disiplined, flawed social order. Were we misguided about the reasons for the war probably, yes. But we as a nation backed the president to go after Saddam, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorists attacks. Emotions were running high, we as a nation were feeling the need to lash out at a viable enemy, Saddam became enemy #1.Osama who? Now as the death toll climbs, and the war draggs on, the emotions, and memories from 9/11 cool down, our blood lust, and desire for revenge fades with each passing day, month, and year. But let us not forget that the reason we are in Iraq is the most honorable and noblest of causes, to give deomcracy a chance to grow and florish in a place that has seen so little peace and happiness. America has stood, and is still standing as a shineing example to all of freedom, and democracy.

Supreme Court Justices and Democracy:

In this modern day and age a Supreme Court justice is no longer ruleing on the constituion, but on the a whole body of law that this nation has created over the last twohundred plus years. We have today a vacancy on the Supreme Court, over the years the process of replaceing a justice has been civil between the executive and legislative branches. However the time has come I believe, to rethink the way this counrty selects its' high court jurists. The Supreme Court and the collective body law that we as a nation ask it to rule on has grown so much that a jurist can no longer lie solely on those ideas and philosophies that guided the nations' founding fathers'. A justices education must now be broad and wide rangeing so that they have the proper background to rule on the vairances of law. Its' becomeing unacceptable that a nominee that merely have a good education , philisophy, and credentials that a president would like, and nominate to the high court, but rather they have an open and inmaginative mind. I believe the time has come to change the constituion to allow the people to vote on canidates to the high court. I believe the issues that now go before the supreme court are too imprtant for the people not to have a say on who becomes a Supreme Courtg justice. It is the virtue and noblity of democracy that the eclection of juristsbe the way in America. To amend the constituion to allow for the election of our jurists is not only noble and virtuous but it is the fasirest way to ensure that a fair selection of the jurists takes place, in a democracy such as America.

The State and the Death Penalty:

The state in its' role of protecter of peace and justice has a responceability to bring to justice those who break the rule of law. The state throughout the coarse of human history has thought its' self as haveing the right to execute criminals, or those who have been accusesd of committing crimes worhty of death. More often than not the state has misused this assumed right for political gain. If the people vote to the state the power of death then the state, it would be assumed has a right to ececute those found worthy by the courts to kill the presumed guilty person in question. But unlike the natural rights of humanity, the state has no natural rights to speak of except what is given to the state by the people.
It is my belief that the death penalty should never be used. The state has no natural right to execute those found worthy of the penalty. The people have no right to give this right to the state. It is a right that lies solely in the hands of the almighty. The power of death lies solely with the divine, becase it is the almighty who has power over death and life. Those people guilty of the death penalty deserve to rot in prison the rest of their exsistance. Its' my view that the loneliness of a prison cell, and the secluded life of the prison is the closest thing to hell on earth, which is appropriate considering the serious nature of the crimes being prosecuted by the state. Evil has a way of takeing its own,"death". I can think of quite a few examples whare the most hidieous of criminals died at the hands of other inmates in the name of a higher being. But to me, the right to judge the whether or not a person is worthy of death lies not with the people or the state, but in the hands of the allmighty.

The Questionable Morality of Porn:

What is the definition of porn? Porn is often thought of as nude pictures of the human body in various poses, either in action i.e. haveing sex, or the male and feamale bodies being shown the nude. Porn to me is the purchase of media that shows people engaged in haveing sex in any manner. To have a magazine showing the human body in its natural state, and to buy such matrial is not immoral, because a person is buying art. What becomes offensive to some is that people get aroused at the site of the naked human body. To buy a magazine such as Playboy, a person is buying not smut, or porn. But the art of the female body, and the writeing of the writers, who write for Playboy. Porn in essance is the purchase of media for viewing of humans engaged in sex. Porn becomes porn when monies are transferd for the purpose of viewing sex. It is the payment to see, to view others haveing sex that is inmoral. But to look at media showing sex for free is not inmoral, because no monies are changeing hands. Greed, and the desire to profit from what comes to humanity naturaly in the coarse of love, is inmoral. Those who wish to claim a moral high ground lack the firm ground to stand on because of their uncomprimiseing postition. Morality can be a very line sometimes, and requires a bit wisdom to know when not to cross over it. Morality is the ablity to behave in a noble manner, with the practice of virtue in everyday life.

Insanity: Mental Illness from War:

Soldiers are comeing home from the war in Iraq, not only because of combat stress, but because soldiers are not strong enough to control the mental and spirirtual effects of war. It is spirtiual in that it is allways the ego that leads humanity astray. The ego takes advantage of war and combat stress to undermine the will of a person. This is the nature of evil, to undermine, to control. Soldiers are trained to be aggresive in war, which leads to a bloodlust, either through anger, rage, or through shock of the horrors of war. the soldier needs to learn how to become detached from the horrors of war, this becomes a self defence mechism, of which the soldier can revert to. To have mercy, to care, to love are natural. But war shocks to the body by the horrors of war,which can seem chaotic and unrational. War cant' be rationalized because of its chaotic nature. Because soldiers get so little rest in combat zones the nightmare of war is made worse, because the stress takes a toll on the mind. What is insanity? It is like a neverending bad nightmare that plays out in real life. The mind becomes tortured through the endless experiance of violence. Some people react in different ways, some through shock, others through anger and rage. The military provides a box like structure around a soldier, its called disipline. When a soldier is released from the stritcures of disipline he is opend to the freedom life. The soldier is then free to express his anger, rage, and shock however they choose, the result is usualy through violence, and or through alcholism, which just adds to the nightmare of insanity. Insanity is symtom of depression, extreme insanity is depression. Thus insanity needs to be treated as depression. Its' my view that depression needs to be treated not with drugs, but with multivitamins,weight lifting, especial arm curls, and running. I recommend that troops returning home from war be kept on base for a minum of thirty days for rest, exercise, and counseling. In other words a program of "decompression". Only then should the soldier be allowed to return home to their family. War and the resulting affects of all its victims whether they be civlians or soldiers is a violent, chaotic force, whose victims tend to suffer for years after the experiance.

Circles of History:

The past has come to the futre. Despite what some choose not to believe Iraq is Vietnam allover again, and again the consequences very might well be the same. A withdrawl and a sence of defeat in war. Iraq is not great war, just like Vietnam. They are wars of the same nature, gurilla wars, war by any means possible that sap the will of the invader, by death, and by terror. Not great wars. Wars of folly. The ideals of Democracy are noble and just, but the means by which we pursue those ideals are not. It will take us another generation to recover from the Iraq war, another genration disenfranchised with Ameriacas' foriegn policies abroad. What will the lasting impact be? It will the same as it was after we left Vietnam. A nation timid, and fearful of going to war, if there is not a overwhelming compelling reason to send our forces into harms way. The military fights wars, trains to fight wars, plans for them, breathes them. They are yet deaths machine. To kill or be killed. The bloodlust of the Amerian military needs to be checked. I believe that the lust for a fight is too strong in the Amerian military. Yet something postive can come out the Iraq war for the American military if it chooses. It can recognize the mistakes it made in the way it trains and plans for wars, the generals need to work with the politicians to come up with a sensible national defense policy. The military should allways remind politicians of the Colin Powell rule of war," you break it you own it." The Pentagon budget allso needs to be shaken up as I hope the defence dept has seen. Better equipment, and boots for the troops on the ground and less million dollar pork barell projects. The military idustrial complex that plagued the Pentagon during the eighties, and nineties needs to come to an end. Other wise the health of the republic very well might continue to decline as a result of out of controlled military expenditures. If nothing is done, and changes are failed to made then history will continue to produce circles as we produce the same parrells through time. Humanity is good at lerning from the past, but are we good at lerning from our recent history to see what we need to do, to break the timeless circles of history?

The Future of Space:

Humanity allways has and allways will seek to discover what it does not yet know, or has not seen. the future of space thus lies in those technologies that will make space travel possible and easier. We stand at the begining of humanities great trek through space. along the way we will shape the course of the universe through our unique ablity to perservere and over come great challenges before us. We will also have the chance, and ablity to change the course of history of the universe, through our ability to choose between good or evil. We hold in our hands the future of the universe, we need to be mindful of that responseabilty as we start our trek into outerspace, and the greater universe. it will not be easy but we must begin to accept the fact that there will be more lives lost in our desire to reach and to explore space, there will be more accidents, more tragdies and more conflict as we seek the unknown out there. Thus as we look back at the shuttle disasters let us be mindful that these accidents will happen again, let it not deter us from continueing our qwest to reach the far reaches of space. For it is in us, it is a part of us to allways seek to see and to discover what we yet do not know, or have not yet seen.

A War on terror, A War of hate:

There are elements in America that has taken the war on terror as a war of hate towards muslums. War breeds hate, thats what has happend with our war in Iraq. The military physce of traing soldiers to hate the enemy, and be agressive, might not be so smart when the soldier has to transit back to civil society whare hatred is not welcomed under any circumstances. The noble ideals of President Bush in his desire to spread democracy are not shared by the rest of the nation, nor is he succeeding in winning the opinion polls. America does not view our war in Iraq as a noble cause, thus creating the enviroment for hate. Through out the history of this country there has allways been a potion of "native" Americans who have viewed minorites and emigrants, with suscpion, distrust and hatred. Thus we have the current climate ripe for hate, towards muslums.