I think Ms. Dolezal (click here) has a responsibility to correct her personnel records. I also believe her employers have a right to ask her to speak to a councilor. Most employers have a benefit to receive counseling during difficult times. I think this is a difficult time. 

She obviously believes she is genetically black and that is an identity problem if she is not. Identity issues can be difficult for people to come to terms with. Her employers have a right to ask her to see a councilor.

If she has been a good employee and has made a difference within her employment, the employers may want her to stay on and continue, but, she should correct her records.

TAA is not a new thing. The program is still meeting it's qualifications to assist displaced workers.

TAA PROGRAM EXTENDED THROUGH FISCAL YEAR 2015 (click here)

• The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015, signed by President Barack Obama on December 16, 2014, appropriates funds for states to fully carry out the TAA program during fiscal year 2015, including the provision of benefits to groups of workers certified after December 31, 2014. 
• OTAA will continue to investigate petitions, including petitions filed after December 31, 2014, and issue determinations of group eligibility for workers based on the Reversion 2014 program.  Certification of petitions will allow these new groups of workers to apply for TAA benefits and services under the Reversion 2014 program.  States will continue to administer benefits (including ATAA and RTAA) to eligible workers under the 2002 program, the 2009 program, the 2011 program, and Reversion 2014 in accordance with applicable guidance and regulations
  
  It isn't as though the program is ineffective, it is that the insult to the USA economy by previous agreements is on going. It isn't as though the insult is deeply felt one time and the USA then mostly recovers with retraining of workers. It is the fact this program never ends as job assistance under previous TAA authority continues over time. The lost jobs never stops.

September 17, 2011 saw a movement of an entire generation because they could not find employment after college.

It wasn't because they may have an unusual degree that hasn't found a job in a century, it was because the US Congress didn't protect their jobs. For the first time in the USA the youngest generation could not find work and could not find upward movement. Their birth right states they will achieve more in their lives than their parents.

Even as they brought problem to the front pages of the USA media, they were being oppressed in a New York City park where they gathered in recognition of the far reaching reality they were illustrating. Because they could not have an electronic communication system, their brilliantly came up with a process of communication called "Mic Check" and the #.

They started a movement that has lent itself to crowding funding and every innovative idea they could come up with to secure more and more jobs. Many of these young people were able to create their own businesses and affiliations. Now, a trade agreement could AGAIN rob them of their future.

Hey all of our amazing fans! (click here)

Thanks for hanging in there with us as we try to figure out our small role in such a tremendous movement. For all of our generous donors, please know that we are wrangling this all volunteer effort into fulfillment of the rewards for the funding that you so graciously gave to us. To date we have published five papers, two of them in Spanish and finally we mounted a volunteer run website at http://occupiedmedia.us/ come by and say hi! 

Stay tuned as we figure out how to help you and your #occupy efforts! If you would like to download issues of the paper check out: 
http://occupiedwallstjournal.com/download-the-paper/ issue five will be posted online shortly!...

The USA legislature needs to protect them in realizing how they first abandoned them. 

Enough!

A trade agreement is suppose to recognize what makes the economy work. Leaders of countries need to mutually find a way to bring greater numbers to their markets that are ready to expand. That trade that needs to increase has to do so WITHOUT removing the very base of the economy that fuels the trade in the first place. 

How many of these young people currently working or managing their own businesses will have to file bankruptcy when their personal economy implodes with the trade agreements? 

The trade agreements only protect workers within the trade industry. It does nothing to protect the American economy or jobs.

Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated both previous president did not have Fast Track. The statement about this being the first time Fast Track is not granted to a president is a lie.

Former President Clinton submitted Fast Track twice and both time the legislature voted it down.

Former President Bush was denied Fast Track as well. 

Minority Speaker Pelosi will be voting against it. 

Paul Ryan has no clue. He states there has to be approval of Fast Track to keep it in the legislature. He is such a liar. The only reason he is still in office is because he ran for Vice President. No one needs his help. 

"The global rules for any trade economy is being written right now without the USA." That is buloney. The world economy does not run without the USA.

Let's get this clear. Fast Track is a way for the legislature to wash their hands of responsibility for trade agreements.

Fast Track (click here) was an extreme and rarely-used procedure initially created by President Richard Nixon to get around public debate and congressional oversight. Fast Track is how we got into the job-killing, wage-flattening North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Thanks to Fast Track, NAFTA and the WTO included terms that promote the offshoring of U.S. jobs to low-wage countries.

President Obama knows how he wants to structure these agreements. When he submits those agreements (with Fast Track) to congress they will have sold out labor (benefiting Wall Street profits) while upholding more stringent environmental regulations for other countries. The terms of the agreements on Fast Track will be irresistible for the Republican cronies so it pass with an up or down vote.

That is how Fast Track authority works. Congress simply has an up or down vote. 

If the President can't trust the Congress with global agreements that are well balanced including environmental standards and regulations, then why do it? I makes to sense to agree to standards and regulations when they will be undone, no different than the Citigroup Amendment to the USA budget. Republicans are corrupt. It is the corruption that needs to be dealt with before any trade agreement can go forward.

The answer to corruption is not to allow it, it is to expose it and reject it. The Republicans are using coercion to achieve an end. Americans aren't afraid of the fight and we have only recently have been seeing unemployment rates in the 5% range. 

Fast Track proves how lazy the Congress actually has become. They are push button now, with Fast Track they'll be able to vote on holiday. 

Fast Track also empowered executive branch officials advised by large corporations to skirt Congress and the public and use secretive "trade" agreements to roll back a wide range of non-trade policies on which our families rely for safe food, a clean environment, affordable medicines, financial stability and more.

Fast Track is a corrupt law to begin with and then to believe it will ever uphold environmental standards is nonsense.

Bush never said it right. It goes like this, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

When Ryan lies, jobs can say good-bye.

TAA is voted down.

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program (click here) is a federal program that provides a path for employment growth and opportunity through aid to US workers who have lost their jobs as a result of foreign trade. The TAA program seeks to provide these trade-affected workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, resources, and support they need to become reemployed. The program benefits and services that are available to individual workers are administered by the states through agreements between the Secretary of Labor and each state Governor. Program eligibility, technical assistance, and oversight are provided by the US Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration's Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance. 

TPA (Fast Track) passed.

Every $1 billion (click here) in exports of U.S. goods and services supports more than 5,000 U.S. jobs.  In 2012, exports of U.S. goods and services supported an estimated 9.8 million American jobs, including 25 percent of all manufacturing jobs. Expanded exports have added 1.3 million American jobs since 2009, and those export-supported jobs pay 13 to 18 percent higher than the national average wage.  The way to support more of these high-paying jobs is to expand trade and investment opportunities.   And the way to make sure that happens is to support TPA.

US Chamber of Commerce (click here) provides a website where the number of trade supported jobs exists.

What they don't talk about is the jobs that disappear because they are not linked to trade. Factories and shops close and the economy takes a down turn because there are jobs that disappear. 

Sure trade related jobs will be within these agreements, but, the people that work for a living aren't trade related. In Texas, less than 700,000 jobs are trade related. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statics there are 13,154,900 jobs in Texas with a population of over 26 million. That means there are 12,454,900 jobs completely unprotected from the trade agreements.

In California the TPP will protect a little more than 900,000 jobs. There is a population in California of 38.8 million Americans. There are 18,953,700 jobs in California. That means 18,053,700 jobs are unprotected. 

The population in Michigan is 9.9 million Americans. There are 4,740,600 jobs in Michigan. There are 178,875 trade related jobs in Michigan. That means 4,561,725 jobs are at risk with the trade agreements. 

The trade agreements are about Wall Street and greater wealth, while the USA Middle Class loses more ground and dissolves job security to the Middle Class. Then the political sphere wonders why Americans don't come out to vote. What difference does it make? 

June 11, 2015
The House (click here) is set to vote on a quirky sequence of trade bills beginning Thursday and going into Friday. That sequence was negotiated between Speaker John A. Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and it was supposed to allay Democratic concerns about a Medicare offset in the TPA bill while also not requiring the Senate to vote on it again....

The GOP assault against Medicare. 

April 15, 2015
By Peter Sullivan

Leading healthcare provider groups (click here) are objecting to Medicare cuts being used to help pay for a new House Republican trade bill. 

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) bill helps workers displaced by trade and provides a tax credit to help pay for health insurance. It was rolled out in addition to a proposal to give President Obama “fast-track” authority on trade. 

The healthcare providers object to the TAA bill including a 0.25 percent cut in Medicare payments in fiscal year 2024, which amounts to a $700 million cut, according to the Congressional Budget Office.... 

The Middle Class and the Poor are in the crosshairs of the Republicans in all their bills. This is the first time Medicare attacks are hidden in a major bill. This makes the total costs of Medicare cuts 2.25% since the Sequester. 

The Sequester was passed to assist in Republican priorities to reduce the National Debt. Not the deficit. But, these Medicare monies are going to support a Republican trade authority that will cause the loss of good paying jobs. 

It is amazing to realize the TPP is not accessible in a meaningful way to legislators, yet, the IRS is raided by hackers.

China does not need a trade agreement to 'up their game.' China made a conscience decision to increase the quality of life of it's citizens. China now has a Middle Class that is growing in number when none existed before. There was no need to leverage power over China to move their leaders to take the well being of their citizens seriously. It is all nonsense. China with a far higher number of citizens within it's borders than all other countries, with the exception of India, did what no one thought would ever happen. If China can do it, every other country on the planet can do it, too. 

As the Middle Class in China grows into a larger percentage of it's people, the country is proud of itself and it didn't compromise anything. The Chinese people want CO2 controlled. Do you believe that. People with profound poverty want Earth's environment to return to balance. The Chinese people are good friends to the rest of the world as it works on it's human rights issues and changes the outcomes for it's people.

Do you know China makes their own solar panels? It is going to be easy for the people of China to change their methods of achieving reductions in CO2. Easy. The leaders know it, too. And what does the USA do? COMPLAIN. 

The escaped convicts must have a traceable path in the way they used contraband.

Did the escaped convicts use the contraband with other convicts to obtain pieces of power tools to assemble when they had all the pieces? The contraband could be used for many things. Joyce may not have realized how dangerous contraband can be. It sounds as though employees in the sewing shop didn't get a good orientation. She allowed a friendship with a convicted murderer. They work in a prison and showed some real naivety when dealing with those inmates.

The funding for job training in the agreement cannot guarantee the NEW job with no seniority will pay the same as the OLD job.

June 11, 2015

Trying to close out (click here) a tight game after a day when his trade agenda reached the brink of failure, President Barack Obama made a last-minute, unscheduled run to the congressional baseball game Thursday night.

Popping up out of the Democrats’ dug-out at Nationals Park with 24 White House beers on offer for the winning team, Obama was greeted with Republicans chanting “TPA, TPA!”...

...Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough finished the afternoon in a meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whom the White House has been counting on to help bring the trade deal over the line — but who in the last few days seemed on the brink of derailing the legislation over a dispute about paying for Trade Adjustment Assistance, a safety net program for workers displaced by trade deals.

Retraining means homelessness and entrance to The Working Poor. I don't think so.

Contraband can be turned into weapons within the facility. There are always safeguards for prisons regarding contraband.

June 12, 2015
by John Yang, Stephanie Gosk

Joyce Mitchell, (click here) the prison worker who has fallen under suspicion in the escape of two killers in New York, did not provide the two men power tools, but she did take contraband into the prison, the local prosecutor said Friday. 

Andrew Wylie, the Clinton County district attorney, declined to say what the contraband was. Speaking generally, he said that contraband could be anything from toothpaste to blades and drugs. 

Asked whether bringing in contraband would be considered criminal activity, he said: "Of course it is."...

The MEK has no relevent information about Iran's nuclear program, they are exiled.

People's Mujahedin of Iran

They can protest to bring their reality to the world stage, but, they have no real information. We don't need another "Curveball." Thanks anyway.

Here is a link to their demonstrations. (click here)

The Iranian scientists wouldn't talk to people. They would be too scared to be assassinated by Israel. The USA is not going to invade Iran and "Do an Iraq." Won't happen. 

What makes anyone believe these people, who are all political power players, has more and more valid information than the IAEA?  

Here we go again with the political right wing carrying on about Iran and accepting exiled citizens of Iran as experts. This is Curveball all over again. 

The right wing politicians want to make the public believe they know more than any other organization because of their loyalists that carry no real information. The exiles need to carry on with their lives and accept a thank you for any insight they may have, but, demanding war over peace isn't the best path for the world. 

Rubio's financial mishandling pf his personal money has nothing to do with the Clinton Foundation. That's hideous. The foundation does incredibly good work and there is nothing about Rubio's benevolence and he is not a foundation. Americans aren't making this analogy because there is suppose to be underhanded management of the Clinton Foundation. The idea regarding the electorate and The Clinton Foundation isn't there until the media wants to attract viewers. Now, that analogy is accurate. Boo, who, boo, who the Clintons are wealthy and benevolent at the same time, that is not a reality that makes gossip digestible to talk shows.

Eat it!

Can we open White Water again. That would be fun. 

Let's see, Harry Potter is on HBO. 

TGIF. 

NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS.

Largest Booster Engine ever built. It looks like it might get off the ground.

While the SLS and its huge solid rocket booster, (click here) which NASA calls the most powerful one ever built, aren't scheduled to blast anything into space until 2018, it conducted a successful two-minute horizontal test-firing in Utah on Wednesday. That's the same amount of time the system will fire to lift the SLS toward space, producing 3.6 million pounds of thrust (which, when converted to metric measurements, translates to a whole lot of metric thrust).

I just have one question. Just one. Is NASA sure this rocket is made for human travel because i can only guess how many Gs they are going to pull on lift off?

"No, it wasn't a UFO, it had an American flag on the side." 

Franklin Graham's deliberately misinterpreted the Wells Fargo Ad to his own purpose..

The Wells Fargo Ad is about recognizing all Americans, not just the Christian elite. The Ad is extremely well done and I guarantee you there are Americans, gay and otherwise, who are now looking for a handicapped child for their own because of the Wells Fargo ad. 

He has no business making a religious preference issue into a social complaint. There is no one stopping Mr. Graham from his own brand of evangelical worship. There are no members of the Gay Community making a mess out of his church and congregation. 

Mr. Franklin Graham needs to apologize to Wells Fargo for imposing his values on the expression of American values. Wells Fargo is only promoting their image as a bank that recognizes all Americans not simply Christian depositors. 

Mr. Graham did a very foolish thing and now he has to swallow his pride and apologize. People should seek a bank or credit union that meets their banking needs. Choosing a bank is not about match making. There are other businesses that specialize in match making and I think Wells Fargo would agree.

Shame on Franklin Graham and his open expressed maligning of the gay community and Wells Fargo. He is wrong, blatantly wrong and he needs to deal with it.

Money and church want a beautiful marriage.

She didn't break the law.

June 10, 2015
By Scripps National Desk 
A 51-year-old woman (click here) who worked in the Clinton Correctional Facility's tailor shop has admitted she planned to help two men who escaped the prison, but said she backed out....

Some one was paying her attention. She was completely safe to flirt and 'feel young' and fall in love without threatening her marriage. This is not new. It is not unusual. She is not some sort of sexually deprived woman. She became involved with men that carried the idea she would join them. Until there is more information and details about her involvement; she has not broken the law because the convicts had a dreamscape for their get away.

The fact she didn't participate and recognized her life was off the rails is very important. If she got to know the convicts she can provide a lot of information to police about their plans. She may have very well done the police a very big favor by allowing the convicts to imagine their life together after they escaped.

She is fairly innocent. She was approached and sexually harassed by two convicts. No one knows what the culture at the prison is like and if she was empowered to speak to authority about any interactions. AND. Her husband works in the very same place she worked. Huh????????

If she was not empowered by her husband to talk to him about her harassment, what the heck was this all about?

Doctors Without Borders opposes TPP! (click here)

Can you imagine a light hearted filmmaker in jail for making Iranians smile and laugh. That is a national shame for Iran.

Sydney Film Festival 

"Tehran Taxi" is a very healthy dose of fun. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Jafar Panahi loves his country. There is everything right about this film. 

June 8, 2015

The celebrated Iranian director Jafar Panahi (click here) (The White Balloon, The Circle) has now made three films in secret since he was banned from filmmaking for "propaganda against the Islamic Republic". Despite the threat of a six-year jail term, he dramatises his own life in Tehran Taxi.

Panahi plays a jaunty taxi driver who takes passengers around Tehran – often refusing their money and recognised by some who wonder why a famous filmmaker is driving a cab with a camera on the dashboard.

His colourful fares include a couple arguing about the value of recent hangings for extortion, a badly injured man who is desperate to make a will leaving everything to his wife who would otherwise have no legal right to their possessions, and a barred lawyer who continues to work for political prisoners, including a girl arrested for attending a volleyball game.

There is also a know-it-all schoolgirl, supposedly Panahi's 10-year-old niece, who is making a video for her class. As she shoots, she lists all of the official requirements for a "screenable" film in Iran: women must wear headscarves, men must have Iranian names if they are heroes, no mention of politics and no "sordid realism" among others....

"The bombing isn't doing everything that needs to be done."

And neither is the Iraqi military.

Why should the USA military enter a country without any national defense? I find it really interesting how Daesh manages to rearm itself while the Iraqi military runs away.

Zalmay Khalilzad is Counselor at CSIS and President and CEO of Khalilzad Associates, an international advisory firm.  Under President George W. Bush, Khalilzad served as US Ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United Nations. Ambassador Khalilzad was born and raised in Afghanistan, and studied at the American University of Beirut, where he received his BA and MA.  Later he received his PhD from the University of Chicago.

From 1979-1984, Khalilzad was Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University.  Khalilzad served on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and as Special Advisor to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs from 1985-1989.  He was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning from 1990 to 1992.  In November 2003, President Bush appointed Khalilzad Ambassador to Afghanistan, a position he held until 2005, when he became US Ambassador to Iraq.  In 2007, he was confirmed unanimously to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations, a post he held until January 2009.

Iraq is a disaster. Why should the American people invest any more time, treasure and American blood on a completely failed state?

President Obama continues to be generous in actually believing Iraq is worth the effort.

The American people have been through this type of disaster time and again. Our experience with our military inevitably fails. There is a strong history to support that INCLUDING Iraq. 

In Vietnam, the day the Americans left Saigon, the President of South Vietnam called the leaders of North Vietnam to surrender. He did that as the North Vietnamese rolled their tanks into the compound where he was. I am trying to recall who's tanks they were and I want to say it was Chinese tanks. It could have been Russian tanks, but, I think it was China who supplied the tanks to the North Vietnamese. 

China was as tired of the killing as the American people were. If the President of the United States that took office after the implication that Richard Nixon was involved in illegal activity regarding the security of the Democratic Headquarters didn't pull the American troops out of Vietnam; I am fairly confident China would not have tolerated the killing much longer. The Americans would have faced far more than Chinese tanks driven by North Vietnamese soldiers.

Yep. The American tanks were busy being ambulance before all the troops were pulled out of the country. 

There is nothing wrong with a prosecutor asking police to end drug dealing on a specific city corner.

The prosecutor never told Baltimore police to kill any suspect that manifests. A judge denied a gag order requested by the prosecutor.

Anonymous Baltimore Cops to CNN: (click here) Public Asked for ‘Softer’ Police Force, They Got It

This is pure speculation, but, what is the chance Baltimore police are conducting what can be defined as a job action? A job slow down, if you will.  

June 10, 2015

By Gary Maddox

(Reuters) - Baltimore prosecutors (click here) had asked police to focus drug enforcement efforts on the corner where Freddie Gray was chased by officers before he allegedly suffered a fatal injury in police custody, the Baltimore Sun reported on Wednesday.

The request from State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby came about three weeks before Gray, a 25-year-old black man, was arrested on April 12, according to a court filing by defense attorneys for six officers Mosby has charged in Gray's death.

Mosby's request means she should be removed from the high-profile case, the Sun quoted the motion in Baltimore City Circuit Court as saying.

"This is a case where the witness and the prosecutor are the same," it said.

Gray died on April 19 from an injured spine a week after being chased from a west Baltimore street corner by three officers who found a knife on him. His death sparked widespread protests and rioting that prompted a curfew and the calling in of National Guard troops....

USA is headed for another government shutdown.

Minority Leader Harry Reid is heralding the call now for Republican cooperation.

June 10, 2015
By Steve Tetreault

WASHINGTON — With Democrats and Republicans (click here) embroiled in a new but deepening dispute over spending, Sen. Harry Reid warned Wednesday the government is headed for another shutdown.

Funding to keep the doors open doesn’t run out until the end of September. But Reid, the Democratic leader from Nevada, said Congress appears on a stalemate path over key money bills that shows little promise to get solved before the fall.
Reid blamed Republicans, saying they are not willing to negotiate new levels of spending for domestic and defense programs in order to avoid deep automatic cuts mandated by the 2011 “sequestration” budget law. The sequester was designed to reduce spending by $1.2 trillion over nine years.

“It appears to me what the Republicans are doing that we’re headed for another shutdown,” Reid said in a Senate speech. “They did it once. They’re going to do it again.

“They don’t want to do anything now,” Reid said. “They want to wait until the end of the fiscal year ends and then close up the government.
“It appears that’s where we are headed,” Reid said....

Rate fixing in Libor started in 2005.

June 9, 2015
By Gavin Finch and Liam Vaughan

The British Bankers’ Association’s (click here) director of Libor overlooked repeated warnings that the rate was being manipulated by banks to suit derivatives positions as far back as 2005 because he didn’t “recognize” what he was being told.

The BBA’s John Ewan was told that summer by Credit Suisse Group AG and HSBC Holdings Plc that some banks were setting the rate to boost the profitability of trading bets rather than reporting actual borrowing costs, according to e-mails shown to a London jury by a defense lawyer Monday.

The e-mails came to light on the start of the third week of the trial of former UBS Group AG and Citigroup Inc. trader Thomas Hayes, who is accused of eight counts of conspiracy to manipulate the London interbank offered rate.

“Certain nameless contributors might be setting their rates with an eye on their derivatives book,” Ewan wrote in a note following a meeting with HSBC bankers in the summer of 2005.

The messages were shown to the jury by lawyers for Hayes, who has said that knowledge of Libor manipulation was widespread. The 35-year-old Hayes worked at Zurich-based UBS from 2006 through 2010, when he moved to Citigroup....

June 5, 2015
By David R. Baker
 
The head of the California Department of Conservation, (click here) Mark Nechodom, abruptly resigned Thursday following an outcry over oil companies injecting their wastewater into Central Valley aquifers that were supposed to be protected by law.
Nechodom, who had led the department for three years, announced his resignation in a brief letter to John Laird, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency. The Conservation Department is part of the resources agency.
“I have appreciated being part of this team and helping to guide it through a difficult time,” Nechodom wrote.

ADVERTISING

Nechodom did not give a reason for his departure. But a division of the Conservation Department that regulates oil-field operations has come under intense criticism for letting oil companies inject wastewater into aquifers that could have been used for drinking or irrigation.

The USA is not building a new military base in Iraq. It is expanding it's support for training. This time the base is in Iraq.

Release No: NR-225-15
June 10, 2015

Statement from the Department of Defense on Additional U.S. Personnel to Deploy to Iraq (click here)

The commander in chief has authorized Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to deploy to Iraq up to 450 additional U.S. personnel in a non-combat role, to expand our advise and assist mission at Taqaddum Air Base in support of the Government of Iraq.

The intent of this increase will be to provide personnel to assist with planning, integration and support of Iraqi Security Forces and tribal forces as they fight to retake the Ramadi and Fallujah corridor. U.S. forces will provide operational advice and planning support the Iraqi Security Forces, to include the 8th Iraqi Army Division and other security forces associated with the Government of Iraq.

This mission will also enable tribal outreach as part of the plan Prime Minister Al-Abadi led the Council of Ministers in passing on May 19 to accelerate the training and equipping of local tribes in coordination with Anbar authorities.
 
This decision does not represent a change in mission, but rather adds another location for DoD to conduct similar activities in more areas in Iraq. U.S. forces continue to perform an advisory, training, and support role and are not conducting offensive ground combat operations. The additional site will result in an increase in DoD force levels to up to 3,550 personnel.

Ultimately, these Iraqi forces will enable Iraq to better defend its citizens and retake its territory from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This effort is in keeping with our overarching strategy to work with partners on the ground to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL. 

At the height of the so called passive mission by the USA in Vietnam there were 5000 personnel in that country. After the assassination of President Kennedy; President Johnson began a draft to carry out a full scale war. We know the history. This is the same exact content that began Vietnam.

Al Taqaddum Airbase (click here) is located in central Iraq approximately 74 kilometers West of Baghdad. The airfield is served by two runways 13,000 and 12,000 feet long. According to the "Gulf War Air Power Survey, there were 24 hardened aircraft shelters Al Taqaddum. At the each end of the main runway are hardened aircraft shelters knowns as "trapezoids" or "Yugos" which were build by Yugoslavian contractors some time prior to 1985. Al Taqaddum is one of the few Iraqi air bases not located inside the "No-Fly Zone." 

The idea renewing a war in Iraq would make the USA safer is nonsense. The threat of Daesh to The West is from within the borders of the country. If the entire of Daesh were annihilated tomorrow that would not change anything within the borders of The West. Training isn't going to change a darn thing.

July 27, 1964
 
It is announced that the United States (click here) will send an additional 5,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam, bringing the total number of U.S. forces in Vietnam to 21,000. Military spokesmen and Washington officials insisted that this did not represent any change in policy, and that new troops would only intensify existing U.S. efforts. However, the situation changed in August 1964 when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers off the coast of North Vietnam. What became known as the Tonkin Gulf incident led to the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which passed unanimously in the House and 88 to 2 in the Senate.... 

Just like Vietnam, Iraq is a political movement. Iraq, today, doesn't exist. President Johnson was convinced the USA would wipe out any North Vietnam influence in Southern Vietnam. Over a million citizens dead and over 50 thousand American soldiers later, it was a political icon for three separate presidents, including Richard Nixon.

The country known as Iraq has shifting borders. The country doesn't exist except in the ideology of the USA military.