Since the al Qaeda attacks of September 11th, what progress has the USA made in dismantling the networks that are threats to the USA?
I'll explain this one more time and I won't explain it again.
Al Qaeda is not a sovereign nation. Terrorist networks are entities that 'embed' themselves in areas of the world with little recourse to control them. That is no reason to invade a sovereign country.
What have we gained by invading Iraq? Absolutely, not a thing, except more problems and more tensions between countries, more endangerment to Israel and more global shifting away from the benevolence of the USA toward communist authority in Russia and China that can afford to support small countries in need of fiscal stability in order to move their agendas forward. The most dramatic example of that is Jordan.
The King of Jordan was in the USA not long ago and no doubt sought significant assistance from the USA. At one time the USA could afford to be the sole benevolent sponsor of nations we saw as primarily democratic in nature. The USA under Bush can no longer do that and with the change in fiscal authority over global markets, USA is losing it's credibility, gone into too much debt and China finds itself the primary authority over most global markets and happy to be in that authority. As a result the leadership in China has extended trading relationships with nearly every country in The Middle East and Africa, thus having built a huge support network for it's goods and the benevolent trade associated with multi-nation bouyancy. The USA has lost it's way, it's foothold on fiscal stability and is no longer able to reassure anyone including allies of support for "The Bush Global War on Terror."
I don't believe in state sponsored terrorist networks either. I do however believe in the laws of the USA that specifically states we will NOT support coup governments. The current Pakistani leadership in control of the country's military is a coup government that ousted the Bhutto influence and tried to have her charged with crimes she did not commit leading to excusion. I am grateful to London and the powers within that government that saw fit to oversee her well being and now a return to the influence that will again stabilize Pakistan.
Musharraf has to go.
He, in his act of 'the second coup' in Pakistan since his arrival in control of the military has created more instability and GOD HELP HIM if he starts assassinating those he has arrested. Again, I am grateful the former Prime Minister is out of the country of Pakistan as the last great hope of the people, but, if Musharraf starts assassinating those he has arrested in the last two days, then something needs to be done with him. He feels invulnerable because he sits on a storehouse of nuclear weapons and therefore what we have in Pakistan today is the manifestation of not only a second coup in that country, but, the manifestation of a second Ahmadinejad. Under the Bush White House, we have obtained in The Middle East, NOT stability but a growing threat that is more explosive than ever in history and the USA has absolutely no way of stopping it. NONE ! And there sits Israel.
Everywhere one looks there is escalation of tensions, more division between ethnicities, more refugees, more fiscal strife as well as impoverishment of people, escalating numbers of innocent civilians missing and presumed dead by statistical Western analysis, yet unaccounted fore as well as growing unrest. There has been international divisions of alliance in subtle ways that spell absolute disaster for the USA, as in China there is little they want to know about equating exchange rates with the USA currency, it has given them leverage over a once benevolent country and friend to help control the problems faced in the region by North Korea and now with The Middle East and Africa. If any two countries could pull a miracle together after Bush and Cheney turned their backs on the UN Security Council and launched an illegal invasion into Iraq it was Russia and China in alliance and they have done a magnificent job of containing a very dangerous political entity in the USA, namely the Neocons. I congratulate them and hope they continue to be a steady hand in the international 'balance of power' to keep the deadly intentions of the current Neocon White House under control.
Iran is not a sponsor of terrorist networks. Their Iranian Revolutionary Guard is not a terrorist network. What is currently going on with Iran is the struggle of the Shia. Dr. El Baradei, the fourth general of the International Atomic Energy Agency spoke recently stating he and his staff are investigating the extent to which the Shia have suffered a form of genocide that would remove their lineage from that of their connection with God as he also seeks to understand and assess the potential for Iranians nuclear intentions. Russia has repeatedly stated they oppose the Iranian enrichment facility while recognizing the instability it brings to the region, but also recognizes the right of Iran to have such facilities under international laws that allow benevolent use of nuclear energy. I suggest those international laws need to be changed to not only limit enrichment but to move away from benevolent use of nuclear power as well as nuclear weapons because we already know nuclear waste is dangerous to the potential of 'homemade' weaponry by terrorist networks.
Vladimir Putin recently stated he is looking to place a nuclear enrichment capacity in the Middle East to meet the demands there, while maintaining Russian control of such a facility. It is my guess that facility may very well be the current Iranian facility since Iran has fallen behind in it's financial commitment to Russia and in order to achieve their equity in the current reactor it is far simpler for Russia to take the facility under it's control and serve the region which is currently bargaining with India. Why let every nation on Earth have enrichment facilities when one will do for the entire region. I remind, Middle East countries are not EACH the geographical size of the USA requiring their own enrichment facility. It would be very workable to have one enrichment facility supply many nations for their benevolent use of same. So a joint venture would be more than appropriate for Russia and Iran which would place Russia strategically next to occuppied Iraq, thus, stabilizing the potential of an American invasion into still another oil and gas wealthy nation, while insuring that a nuclear launch against Israel is completely contained.
I will additionally state this and then I have to run for peers waiting my arrival. There are dearly few Presidential hopefuls with their heads screwed on straight about this. Senator Dodd is one of the few and in my opinion has the best solution for the region of any. If he could find a way to support Russia in their Middle East ambitions to take over the Iranian facility and stabilize the circumstances within that country, then we will sincerely be on our way back to a 'contained' Middle East with the exception of what is going on in Pakistan.
To say a simple election in 2008 of a new President and Vice is going to change the face of the USA to the international community then people are grossly mistaken. We need leadership willing to work with Russia and China whom have stood by as 'Partners to a Peace' including that of Environmental Responsiblity and Stewardship. I realize China cannot openly make the claim of a clean environment but it has over the years moved in that direction and should be proud of those strides. The USA will have to clearly domonstrate a lack of corruption in government, fiscal responsibility, benevolence to it's own citizens in employment and human rights as well as environmental milestones to remove carbon dioxide from the continuing pollutions of the USA. I have to go now, but, there is far more to examine and I will continue to maintain an active interest in same as I always have. The current activities I am engaged in will not require this intense time component much longer. I remain always, a partner in activism.
...later...
