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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Who Is Standing in the Gap for Me

At the first part of every week on Monday, I feel compelled to post the names, rank and the ages of the young men and women that have fallen in the line of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Facebook. I am compelled, because they gave their lives fighting there, so I, my neighbors, house and friends, don't have to fight here.

In the early and late eighties, I seriously questioned whether our nation could fight and win a world war like the greatest Generation did while World War Ii. I knew that I, and the friends I grew up with, would all step up if called, but we were all getting past that prime age and bodily conditioning required to come to be a Warrior for the land we call America. If you will recall, the cold war was still a concern, the nuclear race was in the news and the 2 super powers, each had sufficient stockpiled and pointed at each other to blast half of the planet back into the 18th century. Well, Ronald Reagan was elected, he was able to bring down the Berlin Wall and the rest is history.

News From Afghanistan

My son Stephen and daughter Jessica, were both born in the eighties. As Stephen grew up, the understanding that he might be called to serve, is all the time a concern in the back of a new father's mind. I wondered if he could hold his ground and fight to the end, regardless of the marvelous odds he might be faced with on the battlefield. I brought him up respecting America, and we remembered Pearl Harbor Day, Veterans Day, and Memorial Day. We thanked the veterans and those that gave their lives for our freedoms and liberty on all the other holidays and made extra mention, on those leading days.

I was all the time a part of Stephens activities growing up. I coached him in petite League Baseball, Scouts and school activities. I was able to look at Stephen, and the other kids colse to him, as well as the parents who were raising them. They were all good people, but I wondered if these kids and the kids after them, could stand their ground in the face of marvelous odds, and be that sentry on the wall standing in the gap for liberty and freedom for America?

I am from Texas, and all throughout my education, being from Texas and studying in Texas, we learned about the Alamo. If you don't know the story, in 1836, the Alamo was a Mission in San Antonio, that stood between the massive armies of Generalissimo Santa Ana and freedom for Texas. The qoute was, that we had volunteers, but they were settlers and shop keepers, not finely tuned, battle tested Warriors like Santa Ana had. Normal Sam Houston, needed time to train the Army of the Republic of Texas, in order to have any chance of defending Texas.

From February 23 - March 6, 1836, a group of approximately 100 volunteers from San Antonio called Texians, and the Volunteers from as far away as Tennessee, fortified and held their ground inside the walls of the Alamo, hoping for reinforcements, that never came. Why would person with families from Tennessee, come to Texas and fight what, they had to believe in their hearts, to be a losing battle? For liberty and freedom that's what for. Santa Ana despised the habitancy of Texas and what the Republic of Texas represented. He wanted to take the land and reign over it with an iron fist. If not for those 100 volunteers standing in the gap, against all odds, on the walls of the Alamo, the shape and form of what we call America, would be dissimilar today.

Can the young men and women in America today stand in the Gap? I met some of them when my son decided to join the Us Navy right out of High School in 1998. He went through boot camp in Great Lakes, Il, went on to serve aboard the Amphibious assault ship Saipan and later aboard the Iwo Jima. I met Sailors and Marines, so young and green, I wondered about them standing in the gap. I also met Seals and experienced and battle tested Marines, and at that time, I was proud to say yes, they would stand their ground for liberty and freedom for us all.

Then 911 happened, terror came to America. We entered a war unlike any we have ever faced. A war with no fronts, no lines, just "good" fighting "evil" door to door in the deserts of the Middle East. We are fighting an evil force, not afraid to die. So far, I am proud to say, the young men and women are volunteering to stand in the gap to profess freedom and liberty for us here at home.

Each week, when I post their names and ages in Facebook, it makes me sad and proud at the same time. I am sad they have died and understand their families sense of loss. I am proud because they stepped up and stood in the gap, between us and the soldiery of evil, and they are not backing down. They keep volunteering and keep showing up, to do the job. As I all the time say, they fight there so we don't have to fight here.

What compelled me to write this record about freedom and Liberty, was looking this straightforward Budweiser commercial posted by a friend in Facebook. The commercial was done well, crafted by experienced artists and was high-priced to produce. It was only aired 1 time, because Budweiser said they would not behalf from the misery of thousands of our friends and neighbors that lost their lives while the most horrific, deadly and cowardly assault on America since Pearl Harbor. They created and aired it to make a statement about their enterprise and how they felt, following the attack.

Liberty and freedom are two suited words, men and women have died for, to keep our country strong.

Our country is in the midst of some troubling times, and it is going through some reinvention of itself. whether that reinvention is good or bad, unmistakably depends on your politics, and your point of view. Remember, where we come from and what made this country great, as you go through the process of reinventing yourself.

Who Is Standing in the Gap for Me

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Homeless Veterans

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been going on for a very long time now. And, other wars like World War Ii, Vietnam and Korea that happened long before I was born. Veterans come back from these wars and they have a hard time fitting in again to the world we live in and some end up on the streets as homeless veterans. This is a big problem and it's getting bigger as the war goes on. Because so many of the homeless veterans come from poor families to begin with, there are not adequate reserve systems in place for them when they get home.

In case you were wondering about why homeless veterans are such an foremost topic, 23% of homeless habitancy are veterans according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. They also say that 76% of these veterans have drug, alcohol and reasoning health problems. This means that most of them cannot help themselves even if they want to because they are having such a hard time. It may seem like a literally huge problem and that you can't do adequate to help because you're only one someone and don't have unlimited money and time.   But you're wrong. There are some very cheap, easy things you can do to make a big incompatibility in the life of a homeless veteran and show them your gratitude for their service. Four of these include:   -Hygiene kits - These are easy and cheap to assemble. Homeless habitancy don't have what they need to stay clean and assembling hygiene kits with basic items like soap, toothpaste, a toothbrush and shaving items can make a big incompatibility for someone with nowhere to live. Keep them in your glove compartment and give them out as you see homeless people.

News From Afghanistan

-Make sense of your spare change - It's just collecting dust in your house, so why not secure all that spare turn and donate it to a veterans' homeless shelter or use it to buy hygiene-kit items?

-Say "hello' - Most homeless habitancy are roughly all the time harmless. They're also lonely and sad and wish someone would notice them. Even if you can't do anything else, a uncomplicated "hello" can mean a lot to someone with nothing.

-Last and literally not least, if you see homeless veterans say "Thank you for your service."     To all those that have served and that are currently serving our astounding country, thank you so much for your service.  

Homeless Veterans

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Strategy for Action: Using Force Wisely in the 21st Century

Let me quit the story where I began, in Afghanistan. Returning from Kabul and, in January 2008, debriefing special advisors, officials and senior officers in No. 10 and Whitehall was a sobering experience. The content of my message was simple: there was no overarching strategy to guide the campaign; we needed one and this is what it could look like.

But my message fell on deaf ears and for two reasons. First, some felt I was wrong about the lack of strategy and pointed out the error of my ways by referring me to 'our strategy'. They were referring to, of course, a British strategy not a coalition strategy. To me the idea of a British strategy seemed then - and seems now - nonsensical. How was a British strategy, focused largely on directing a relatively small British deployment, in thorough coalition terms, to just one of Afghanistan's thirty-four provinces going to make up for the lack of an thorough campaign strategy? Second, I had not recognized that, because British forces were in Helmand Province, the minds of British politicians, senior officers, officials, opinion-formers and the press had come to be fixated there too. I had failed, in other words, to perfect the first step in my Strategic appraisal and understand properly the peculiar political context to which I was returning. Having done my best to bring the key strategic message back, I watched the raging debates about the tactical issues such as equipment and the whole of boots on the ground with much private frustration. But the distinct outcome was a reinforcement in my mind of the need for new reasoning on development strategy. This book is, in part, a consequence of that frustration and of that reinforcement.

News From Afghanistan

As I write now, Afghanistan and Iraq are still playing out, arguably two personel campaigns of a more involved political contest where international terrorism, inspired by extremist Islam, is both a symptom and a tactic. Elsewhere, modern developments in North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Georgia and Gaza give pause for thought. Layered over all this is an unprecedented economic crisis. Within this crisis, we see signs that our Western order, possibly finally founded on affluence, may not be as get as we had assumed. And finally the long-term iceberg out there for our great of international politics looks to be global warming. The new international context looks volatile and history may yet have more mileage than Fukuyama predicted. All of this gives me intuit to be cautious about our strategic future. We would categorically do well to place a premium on our capability to originate and, if necessary, execute classic strategy.

I have defined politico-military strategy as a rational policy of operation that uses state power to perform a political object in the face of violent opposition. And I have outlined some of the key features gift in classic strategy: a clear statement of political purpose, a coherent organizing concept, a sense of seizing the initiative, a capacity to bind key actors, and so on. But ultimately, when you seek out a piece of real strategy, to see what it looks, feels and smells like, you find something that is inherently organic in nature; something that lives. It is, to use my earlier phrase, 'the ideas, judgments and decisions of men and women, set out in a coherent and a communicable form which, in broad terms, answers the principal question: "How are we going to do this?"'

And when all is said and done, what seems to resolve the capability of your strategy development and strategic execution is the capability of your people. classic strategy development is all about clear strategic reasoning and decisive strategic leadership. The key is to have people capable of both. In the medium-to-long term, the trick is thus to recognize such people and work ruthlessly to get them into the right places. National leaders and politicians who fail to do this will have to accept the blame for time to come politico-military failures.

I think we can also do better in the short term. Here the accountability for revision lies in the hands of those who originate and execute strategy now, be they politicians, diplomats, officials or forces officers. The uncomplicated clarification is self-education. Strategic leaders and strategists must work to understand strategy development in system and they must work to apply rigour when strategy development in institution - for those vested with the power to commit forces forces to armed disagreement and war, this accountability is not formal but is fundamental.

To help bring more insight and rigour to our strategy making, I have tried here to bring back into modern consciousness and distil the reasoning of great theorists and practitioners past. I have also set out complementary ideas based on corporate theory, forces doctrine, personal insight and arguments from first principles. But, either or not I have enhanced our body of knowledge, strategy development will never be easy. And with matters of high politics and war and with people's lives, at stake it feels right that it is not. But it also feels right to suggest that, when we pick to use armed force, our reasoning to underpin operations should be as true as humanly possible.

What then are the key lessons herein for strategy makers who wish to add rigour? They emerge plainly from the main buildings of our diagnosis of strategy development in history, system and practice.

Two lessons from the history of strategy sit above the personel insights. First, we must recognize the cumulative sway that historical ideas exert on our reasoning today, often in ways more subliminal than conscious. This leads us to the second lesson. Those who are - or aspire to be - strategy makers must know and understand this body of thought. Part Ii provides an introduction, but it is not a substitute for supplementary study, at least not for those of conscience. Two supplementary lessons emerge from the system of politico-military strategy making. First, if we pick to use state power, including armed force, to perform a political object, then the rational way for us to do so is to originate and execute a classic strategy. We are more likely to originate classic strategy with a true approach, for example using the frameworks and tools of Part Iii - but noting that these are aids, not substitutes, for hard thinking. This leads us to the second lesson, which draws on the Strategic Estimate. If we want to make classic strategy, we need to start our strategy development by answering two key questions: 'What is the political issue at contest?' and, 'What is the desired political object?' In other words, before we make a decision to fight, we must know what we will be fighting about and we must know what we want to perform by fighting.

Two final lessons emerge in Part Iv from the institution of strategy making. First, because of war's irrational nature, no matter how much rigour we use when we make strategy, events are unlikely to unfold as we envisage: 'No plan survives feel with the enemy.' Because of this, the very way we think will need to vary in dissimilar stages in our strategy making. A more prescriptive coming will be better as we originate the strategy. A more reflective coming will be better as we execute the strategy. But these dissimilar ways of reasoning are complementary, not alternatives. Second, sad to say, but processes matter. The system I have proposed for a politico-military school of strategy development can help codify these processes. Through the act of codification, states and institutions can start to judge if their strategy development processes work and, if necessary, make changes. Improved processes will be no substitute for good people but, without improvement, the danger is that strategy development will remain a disorganized, undisciplined intellectual activity.

The bottom line lesson, probably more prominent than all others is that ultimately, it's all about people. Poor strategy is the supervene of errors of thinking. And people are the source of the thinking. So, if an execution or war is going badly, we need to look critically not only at our strategy but also at our senior people, political, diplomatic, civil and forces and resolve either the source of the problem is broader than the strategy and, if necessary, be ruthless in development changes.

It will be interesting, in time, to see how history judges the strategies, the strategy development and the strategy makers of the modern campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. How will results portion up against our three tests of classic strategy: effectiveness, efficiency and durability of result? I intuit that, in the sober light of historical analysis, pluses and minuses will emerge. The school report of history may report areas where we 'could do better'. categorically as a participant I would feel honour bound to study a 'could do better' charge. But this book is not about salving a conscience. Rather it is an attempt to study the question: if classic strategy is key to success in the great strategic endeavours of our time, how could we do better? As such the up-to-date past should be of interest to us not for apportioning blame but rather as a source of insights to allow us to 'do better', to originate and execute more effective strategy in the future. And we need to be prompt in studying these lessons because today's strategic leaders and strategists have work to do.

What we sometimes forget about strategy is that not only does it matter - but very often it matters now. When we get it wrong, we may fail to perform principal political objectives. Precious and sometimes irreplaceable resources may be squandered. And too many will pay in blood. So I hope that scholars will forgive the flaws and roughness herein. Some of the system feels raw and must be challenged. But for now my colleagues at the strategic level and their agents in the tactical field, are the ones who need our help, those people whose faces are marred by the dust and sweat and blood of the strategic arena.

Some say development strategy is easy. I plainly do not agree. Nor does history. If it were easy, categorically we would always be successful? categorically the campaigns in the Balkans, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq would have played out as their designers intended? Rather, as I said at the outset, strategy development is problem-solving of the most involved order because it deals with three of life's great imponderables, people, war and the future. But this does not mean that it is not susceptible to hard thinking. categorically the historical report seems to shows that hard reasoning by talented people is the cornerstone of strategic success. But, to better focus our hard thinking, we will need to turn strategy development into something other than Admiral Wylie's 'disorganized, undisciplined activity'. And if the system presented in this book helps those creating and executing strategy do so in a more organized and disciplined way, my work will be done.

Strategy for Action: Using Force Wisely in the 21st Century

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Sunday, March 27, 2011

10 Good Reasons to invite the Chinese Into Afghanistan

During the Vietnam War an American general asserted the Soviets were jealous as heck because they weren't getting any sustained battle caress after World War Ii.

Afghanistan addressed that deficiency. The Russians had their time in the sun, literally. They retreated after suffering a continued bloodletting.

News From Afghanistan

I believe it's China's turn.

China? But why, you might be asking. Ten good reasons come to mind, immediately:

(1) They have the largest standing army in the world, all dressed up and nowhere to go.

(2) They have the national treasure to squander.

(3) They have needful squabbles with their own religious factions, and they have a stake in stopping the spread of religious radicalism and militancy.

(4) Much of Chinese terrain resembles the arid climes of Afghanistan.

(5) They can quell any domestic opposition to fighting a protracted war.

(6) "Winning" will be yet someone else acknowledgement of their status as a Superpower.

(7) It will be a pretext for deploying and sustaining a worldwide soldiery presence.

(8) The Chinese can award themselves contracts to rebuild Afghanistan, at a tidy profit.

(9) It will enable America to focus on bringing order to the fractious Middle East.

(10) It will make Chinese investments in America and in the American dollar less field to erosion.

China is the only community that can afford a hundred-year war.

Let them step-up. President Lyndon B. Obama sees himself as a consensus builder. Let's see what kind of participation he can garner from China, when and where it counts.

10 Good Reasons to invite the Chinese Into Afghanistan

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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Terrorism and Drug Trafficking in Afghanistan

Afghanistan was the world largest producer of opiates. While throughout the war against illicit crops communists had prolonged to build in areas controlled by Moujaidines. When soviets were prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan the Afghan resistance was connected to opium production and trafficking of heroin. They requested to the representatives of the interim government installed in Peshawar if it could be reduced poppy cultivation in the territories under their control. At the time of the intervention of forces in Afghanistan, Tony Blair did not hesitate to blame only the Taliban for the highlights given to Afghanistan about the production of opiates. The international press came to the windup that the drug played a role in the financing of terrorist networks of Osama Bin Laden. The reality is assuredly much more complex.

While the war was responsible for a needful increase in production in the middle of 1979 and 1992, became only partially true since 1991 (the fall of communism), after the American and the Russian stop arming and equipping their protectionist groups. The Taliban did nothing to inherit the situation of 1994-1996 and then administrate to take care of its benefits. The reasons why the Molah Omar banned (successfully) the planting of opium poppy in 2000 is branch to venture about its guide later.

News From Afghanistan

Comparatively, the reasons for the resurgence of large-scale production in 2002 and 2003 are clear: poverty of the peasants who have no access to international aid, the inability of the central government imposed by the United States to operate the country, and the use by the United States of warlords engaged in the traffic to fight Taliban hotbeds. Afghanistan is a flagship theater in the geopolitics of drugs, where all issues are gift in other fields.

The Taliban have not only just, like its predecessors, the "freedom fighters", inherited the fruits of war that undermined the country since 1979. Until then, the poppy cultivation and opium use, known for over 700 years in Afghanistan, it did not imply major problems for residents and their neighbors. Alexander the Great who was crossing the region (327-325 B.C.) at the head of their armies, made opium known to the citizen of the region. However, the poppy culture did not begin in the Indian subcontinent until many years later. At the end of the thirteenth century, Marco Polo noted poppy plantations in northern Afghanistan province of Badakhshan, province that remains today a needful area of illicit crops. While opium is consumed boiling the fibers of the capsule, the Mongol conquerors are those who teach local citizen to pierce the capsule to accumulate the rubber and eat it. The Mongols who reigned in India in the middle of 1527 and 1707 were the poppy cultivation and opium trade a state monopoly. But the habit of smoking opium, invented by the Portuguese, but not disclosed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century when the monopoly of the drug passes into British hands. India and Pakistan inherited this monopoly at the time of its independence.

During the 1920 y 1930, representatives of the Afghani government, a sovereign country, and took part in meetings of the "Permanent Central Opium" of the League of Nations. While the second opium conference in 1924 declared the representatives of Afghanistan where opium poppy was cultivated in the provinces of Herat, Badarkhshan and Djelalabad and that the State had waived its monopoly on the opium trade. The Afghan customs offices levied a duty of 5% on production of opium, and by then "privatized". In 1932, he cultivated 40 hectares of poppy producing 75 tons of opium (for the estimated 6000 tons in China for the same period). The poppy was banned twice, in 1945 and 1957, did not preclude the continuation of clandestine exports to India. Afghanistan, recognizing its lack of means to address this "serious problem" calls, in vain it seems, the assistance of the international society to eradicate their crops.

Terrorism and Drug Trafficking in Afghanistan

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Friday, March 25, 2011

Of Muslims And Jews

Following is an article-post I wrote at a Jewish Forum in 2004:

Hello All

News From Afghanistan

You all must be wondering what a Pakistani Muslim is doing at a Jewish Journal. Well, I also felt a miniature awkward when I was about to register here. That's because I felt what would my friends say if they know that I am a member of a Jewish Forum. But then I notion "Who cares. Jews are also humans and we share the same Earth".

Well, my thoughts might be carefully a miniature unconventional by most people, especially in my part of the world. Luckily, I was never fed with the same hatred against Jews that most of my Muslim brothers are fed with. Although I don't unquestionably blame them for this, but I feel that I am one of those habitancy who are blessed with an ability to look at the problems with a balanced approach. I attribute this trait not only to my family, but also to very competent Islamic Scholars that I had the opening to study Islam from in Pakistan. I also reconsider myself lucky because I had the opening to study in United States while I was pursuing my Masters in that country. That exposed me to a variety of dissimilar cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

I cannot say that I agree with the policies of President George Bush or that I reserve Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, but I am very much clear in my mind about one thing: Violence in every shape and form is Wrong either that be in the form of an Israeli tank shooting at civilians, a Palestinian suicide bomber killing Israeli civilians, habitancy banging planes in Wto, or Us army bombing civilians of Iraq/Afghanistan and declaring it as "collateral damage".

From anything I know about Islam, violence is condemned strictly in my religion and there is no justification of killing innocents, destroying land or cutting trees even while the time of war. I think most of our problems in today's world have arisen because of a estimate of factors: firstly everybody thinks that he and his religion is the true religion and every one else will go to hell, secondly, most habitancy shy away from dialogue and there is transportation gap between peoples, and thirdly, the cycle of revenge continues non stop in dissimilar parts of the world.

When I was studying in Us, I used to be a member of the "Muslim Students Association". Once the head of "Hilel" the Jewish student connection approached me and told me that the notion of God is very similar in Islam and Judaism and I couldn't agree more with her. She was so right and she even took the pamphlet from me describing the notion of God in Islam. It was my first direct encounter with a person belonging to Jewish faith and it was such a pleasant taste that I would never forget it. All the time we had smiles on our faces and we wanted to talk - break the shackles and talk.

I know that the seeds of hatred are gift too deep in people's hearts but i urge most of the brothers and sisters arrival to this forum to do anything you can to promote peace and dialogue, just as i try to do that with habitancy belonging to my country and faith. Lets all try together and make the world a best place for us and our children. Lets love all humans either they be Jews, Christians, Muslims or habitancy belonging to any other religion. Lets save others' children's lives as we would save our children's lives while distress. Lets stop this war in the battleground, war in the media and war in politics.

According to a verse of Quran which means "One who saves one life, saves the whole humanity and one who destroys a life, destroys the whole humanity."
May God bless us all.

Of Muslims And Jews

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Thursday, March 24, 2011

corporeal Bill Henry Apiata - Victoria Cross Afghanistan

British forces Medals - Victoria Cross. Highest award for Bravery

Bill Henry "Willy" Apiata was born in Mangakino, New Zealand on the 28th of June, 1972 to a Maori New Zealander (his father) and a Paheka New Zealander (mother). His parents are separated, and he was raised by his mum in Northland until curious to Te Kaha, where he attended Whanau-a-Apanui Area School, until he left on his 15th birthday.

News From Afghanistan

At 16, his mum sent him back to Northland to live with relatives. Bill has three sisters, and is the third youngest of the bunch. Bill enlisted in the Territorial Force of the New Zealand Army, which is much like the United States' Army National Guard. He had friends in the force who convinced him to join. He was assigned to the Hauraki regiment of the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, based in Tauranga.

While playing the part of an enemy soldier in a training exercise, Bill became aware of the Nzsas, (New Zealand extra Air Services), which he tried to join but was not selected. From June 2000 through April 2001, Bill served in East Timor with the 3rd Battalion group as part of a United Nations operation. Upon his return to New Zealand, Bill transferred to the quarterly force of the New Zealand Army. In November of 2001, Bill again applied to the extra Air Services, and was selected, trained, and was made a member of the Nzsas in the early part of 2002. He is regarded as a role model by his peers, and has won awards or received above mean results on every forces training course he has attended.

While holed up for the night in the rocky terrain of Afghanistan, Bill's Nzsas troop came under rocket propelled grenade attack. One of the grenades caused Bill to fall of the vehicle he was on. Two of his fellow soldiers were injured, one severely bleeding from an artery. Under heavy rifle fire and illuminated by the burning vehicles, Bill hoisted his badly injured comrade onto his back and carried him some seventy meters to the area where the rest of his troop were hunkered down. His unselfish bravery would spare the life of his brother in arms. Following is an citation from his award citation:

"In total disregard of his own safety, Lance bodily Apiata stood up and lifted his comrade bodily. He then carried him over the seventy meters of broken, rocky and fire swept ground, fully exposed in the glare of battle to heavy enemy fire and into the face of returning fire from the main Troop position. That neither he nor his colleague were hit is scarcely possible. Having delivered his wounded companion to relative protection with the remainder of the patrol, Lance bodily Apiata re-armed himself and rejoined the fight in counter-attack."

Corporal Bill Apiata also wears The New Zealand Operational service Medal, The New Zealand East Timor Medal, The United Nations East Timor Medal and The New Zealand general service Medal for Afghanistan. Bill has also been awarded the Us Presidential Unit Citation.

Mike, a previous trooper who served with Apiata and knows him well said he felt a huge sense of pride when the award was announced. "It couldn't have gone to a good guy." everyone in the Sas agreed the award was well-deserved. "If it wasn't for Willy the soldier he rescued would be dead." Mike described Apiata as a straightforward man with a good sense of humor who enjoyed socializing with close friends. "He likes a beer with the guys, and he'll all the time shout." agreeing to Mike, the Army was central to Apiata's world. "He's one of those guys that the army provides a bit of stability for, a bit of structure." Apiata was "a bloody hard worker" and "a bloody good soldier," Mike said. "He's a real tough bugger as strong as an ox. When we were doing the Cqb [Close Quarter Battle, or unarmed combat] stuff he was one of the best. "Because he's big and strong, you're bloody glad that you're on the same side. You know he's got the possible to be bloody lethal and aggressive, but he's quite controlled."

While Apiata was smart, he was "more the practical, hands-on guy an perfect diver and a crack shot." Like his Sas comrades, Apiata would have seen his deployment to Afghanistan as an chance to test himself and his skills, said Mike" As a soldier you're focused on doing your job as best you can and on staying alive. You just get on with it although obviously if something is morally wrong you'd inquire it."

Mike said Apiata was a humble man who would not welcome the attention the award has brought. "I'm just hoping the media won't be too invasive. I hope that once all the hype has died down he can get back to normal." Promoting the New Zealand Defense Force was something Apiata might have to do, but he would want to stay in the Sas and be available for deployment to places like Afghanistan.

"I think if Afghanistan comes up again he'll go or at least, he'll want to go."

corporeal Bill Henry Apiata - Victoria Cross Afghanistan

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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Outlook on Inflation

The Federal retain has publicly commented that it will do what is indispensable to starve off deflation. What this means is supplementary quantitative easing or printing money will be used in an attempt to stimulate the economy. Whilst it is safe to say the operation taken to date has prevented a major retreat it hasn't produced the recovery hoped for. This just goes to show how deep and wide the Global Financial accident cut into the Us economy.

Assuming the Federal retain does continue with phase two of printing money it is logical to expect Us Dollar will continue its southward journey against other currencies. It will also mean interest rates will remain at their report low levels into the foreseeable future. This is due to the increasing provide of Us Dollars in the market.

News From Afghanistan

It appears the Us will retain their whole 1 status as the global economic powerhouse by letting inflation run much higher than what we have seen over the past decade. By doing this the size of their debt will decrease as a ration of the economies net worth. Let me expound with an example. If you have an asset worth 0 and have borrowed to purchase that asset you have a loan to value ratio (Lvr) of 80%. If over the policy of the next 12 months there is 10% inflation your asset is now worth 0. However your debt will be the same (if serviced with interest only) or slightly decrease (if serviced through principle and interest repayments). The new Lvr is 73% (80/110). Keep inflation running at 10% over the 5 years and all of a sudden your Lvr is back in a much healthier state.

So who loses? Those holding the debt because the value of cash decreases. The countries who have purchased Us bonds are set to lose. Even inflation connected bonds will not be an productive hedge against inflation because the main drivers of inflation (food and energy) are omitted from the valid inflation calculation. The current inflation figures published show inflation in the low particular digits However the real inflation is reported by some economists as being in the lower duplicate digits. Quite a difference!

Outlook on Inflation

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Lung protection For military Personnel In Iraq And Afghanistan - One Soldier's belief

Lung associated problems among military personnel have increased greatly since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Working in an environment with so much dust, it's no surprise that many of us now have allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems. Some of us are having immunity problems, nasal drip, lung infections and bronchitis.

Many of us are coughing and hacking due to the dusty, sandy conditions here. Sometimes the dust is mixed with smoke, which is well disgusting to breathe (but keeping out breath wasn't an choice either!).

News From Afghanistan

I don't even want to think about what else is blowing in the air here. Some days the air looks like a pinkish haze and over 40 percent of the local citizen have respiratory problems.

Iraq and Afghanistan are two of the hottest countries on earth. The temperatures here can exceed 135 degrees while the hottest months! In blowing sandstorms our ears well fill with sand, not to mention the finer particles sticking in our hair and skin. While living in these conditions, we were constantly coughing from blowing dust and sand.

The Veterans administration says the benefits of lung safety and early screenings for military personnel are economic as well as humanitarian. They say it costs half the price to treat someone in the early stages of lung problems as it does to treat someone in the later stages.

Personally, I'd rather not go through any of the stages.

Dust and sand particles constantly float in the air and bandanas are not efficient at all. Respirators are too heavy and uncomfortable to be worn for long periods; which defeats their intended purpose.

Dust masks are widely ready here and I think we've pretty much tried all of them. The ability varies greatly. Afghani physicians have declared the disposable paper dust masks worthless. My Mom found a well good one online and sent some for my buddies and me. (Thanks mom!) So far, it's well working well, plus we can wear it damp and that keeps us cooler.

My buddy Jason got a dust mask from home that made him look like Darth Vader. It was black with a valve to exhale through. He sweated like a pig in that thing but he kept wearing it because he said it made him look unassailable. Two nights ago he roughly crashed a truck because the brainless mask made his goggles fog up and he couldn't see the road.

It's strange being here and manufacture sure my buddies and I stay alive. Sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's scary, though no one admits it. It's something I'll never forget, that's for sure. I'm finding transmit to going home to my girlfriend and my family. I just want to make sure that when I do, I'm in one piece and don't have the Afghani version of Black Lung Disease. God bless America.

Lung protection For military Personnel In Iraq And Afghanistan - One Soldier's belief

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Monday, March 21, 2011

Bahrain's economy and Government Attitude Towards Trade

According to the 2006 Index of Economic freedom published by the patrimony Foundation/Wall road Journal, Bahrain cheaper is the freest cheaper in the Middle East and is twenty-fifth freest uncut in the world. In a county which is going straight through an oil boom, Bahrain has the fastest growing cheaper in the Arab countries, the United Nations Economic and public Commission for Western Asia said in the beginning of the year 2006.

The City of London's Global Financial Centers Index named Bahrain as the world's fastest growing financial center in 2008. The financial services and the banking commerce of Bahrain, particularly Islamic banking has provided assistance in the regional boom.

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The petroleum production and processing of Bahrain almost equals to 60% of export of the country, 60% of government revenues, and it contributes 30% of the Gdp.

The unemployment level in the year 2008 was as low as 3.8%. Bahrain was also the first country to give unemployment benefits.

After getting independence in the year 1971, the country has kept kindly relationships with its neighboring countries and also with the other countries. The country aims to growth their good relations with the neighboring countries so that the trade can foster. Also the country has been increasingly attempting in building good relationships with leading countries from where Bahrain expects good foreign investment can come in like Uk, Usa. Also the country is looking for good trade partners and has been working to build good relationships with estimate of countries.

The country is also the member of Un and Arab League since 1971. Bahrain also actively participated in the coalition that fought to take off the Taliban regime from Afghanistan in 2001.

The major export partners of Bahrain are India with 4%, Suadia Arabia 3.4% and Uae 2.2%. These figures are of the year 2008. The major commodities exported by Bahrain are petroleum and petroleum products, aluminum, textiles

Also Bahrain imports a lot of commodities and the figures of imported goods are listed below:

The major import partners of Bahrain are Saudi Arabia 26%, Japan 8.7%, Us 7.6%, China 6%, Germany 4.7%, South Korea 4.6%, Uk 4.4%.

Bahrain's economy and Government Attitude Towards Trade

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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Nato's course of Afghan Drugs

It boggles one's mind how twisted the valid American logic is. The New York Times writes about the reluctance of Nato to eradicate the deadly crops and heroin laboratories in Afghanistan, explaining it by the chicaneries behind the formulations in the new Nato mandate and the concern about poor Afghan farmers 'toiling' in poppy fields.

'The drug trade (Afghanistan produces from 93 up per cent of the world heroin - H. S.) is estimated to list for about half of Afghanistan's meager economy, and some of the nation's poorest people, including farmers who toil in the poppy fields, are dependent on incomes that flow directly or indirectly from narcotics... Mr. Karzai has also opposed the forceful eradication of poppy crops, something that did not appear to be sanctioned by the new Nato mandate... Agreeing to the new United Nations survey, 98 percent of Afghanistan's opium comes from seven provinces in the southwest, with no opium at all produced in half of the country's 34 provinces. The bulk of the Nato military operating in the southwest come from the United States, Britain, Canada and Denmark... Together with the United States, Britain and Canada have already taken the heaviest casualties among the Nato nations fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda, with Nato military who have died in the seven-year war now approaching 1,000, including more than 600 Americans. (New York Times, October 11, 2008) End quote.

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Amazing! Thus the troops, stationed in Afghanistan, and in many ways causing the grim situation there, are the main sufferers and potential victims... Not hundreds of thousands of the young Russian, Tajikistani, Kirgizstani, Uzbekistani, Kazakhstani, etc. Who have fallen victims to the narcoagression (in Russia in some years up to 100,000 habitancy a year).

During more than seven years of vocation the what meager cheaper Afghanistan had has been ruined, the infrastructure destroyed, industries hamstrung. While under Taliban the opium production was kept low, during the Nato vocation Afghanistan has become a legalized narcostate, a corporation of heroin production and genocidal traffic.

The logic cleared from the hypocrisy seems to be as follows. What is the every year loss of 100,000 young representatives of low-priority nations in comparison with the risks for Nato soldiers and the stability of Afghan narcoecomony?

But the real rationale, as some see it, may lie deeper still. Was it not Allan Dulles and Co. Who advocated the allowance of the whole of Russians to some 30-50 mln? Was it not Margaret Thatcher who once mentioned that only 15 mln habitancy were economically justified on the territory of the Ussr? Was it not Bill Clinton who echoed her?... The logical link seems unavoidable - we are subject to partial eradication and partial colonization.

Below I tabulate the data, illustrating the dynamics of opium production during 2000-2007.
(from http://narkotiki.ru/ocomments_6613.html)

Sown areas of opium poppies (thousand hectares)
2000 - 82
2001 - 8
2002 - 74
2003 - 80
2004 - 131
2005 - 104
2006 - 165
2007 - 193
Amount of opium produced (ton)
2000 - 3300
2001 - 185
2002 - 3400
2003 - 3600
2004 - 4200
2005 - 4100
2006 - 6100
2007 - 8200
Equivalent to heroin whole (ton)
2000 - 330
2001 - 18,5
2002 - 340
2003 - 360
2004 - 420
2005 - 410
2006 - 610
2007 - 820

As we see, since 2001 - the moment of bringing the Nato and American military into Afghanistan - the production of opiates and heroin has increased 2-2.5 times. There is a streamlined reputation and financial ideas and well-developed warehousing logistics to preserve the production and warehouse of narcotics. According to new data, over 1,000 ton of pure heroin are stored in Afghan warehouses to serve as an 'insurance fund', damping the seasonal fluctuations of poppy crops. It is not surprising that banks willingly reputation the farmers, engaged in opium production, which shows the lack of any serious risks.

According to Viktor Ivanov, head of the Russian Federal assistance of Narcotics Control, this fact needs a serious diagnosis from the geopolitical perspective; the same is true about using narcomoney to sway the economic, political and other areas of life on the post-Soviet territory, among other things, to boost terrorism in the Caucasus. The problem of narcotics is also named as a imagine for Nato advancement to the old Soviet republics (Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, etc.)

Let me turn your concentration to the situation in Russia, where I belong. While there was an insignificant ration of drug addiction when the 'iron curtain' was firmly in place to shield the Ussr and socialist states from 'bourgeois influence', during the 20 years which followed the addiction has grown dramatically. Now, Agreeing to valid statistics, about 2 per cent of the Russian habitancy abuse narcotics, most of them - the 'heavy' ones of the opium group. And as clinical practice shows, those who normally take heroin die within 5-7 years. In Russia the every year whole of the deceased addicts ranges from 30,000 to 100,000 (predominantly young people), which is any times more than the death toll of the 10-year-long war of the Ussr in Afghanistan. The supermortality of drug addicts at their stable total whole means the systematic secret inflow of new addicts instead of those quitting by death. Their contingent fully renews every 6-7 years, and the recruiting of young habitancy never stops. It is a secret Moloch, day by day gorging the young habitancy of Russia.

But those addicts who remain to live also prove to be lost for the society, are excluded from communal life and get involved in a criminal activity, recruiting new and new people. As a rule, they act as retailers of narcotics, working for wholesalers to earn a dose and relieve the 'breaking'. The established whole of habitancy convicted for narcocriminal activity is comparable to the whole of servicemen in the Russian Army.

It is noteworthy, that the use of narcotics in Russia exceeds that in the European Union 8-10 times. This also testifies, apart from the nearnessy of Russia to the narcostate, to the directed narcoagression into Russia. The three main northern narco-streams from Afghanistan pass straight through Central Asia and Kazakhstan and lead to the Moscow Region, Urals and Siberia.

The communal and economic consequences of the narcotic criminality in Russia are obvious: asocial and antisocial behavior, truncated fates, unborn children, and negative childbirth statistics in the situation of ongoing depopulation of the country. There is not a singular family in Russia, which hasn't been confronted in some way with the problem of narcotics - all of them have relatives or acquaintances whose children have become addicted or died of narcotics.

Under the circumstances it is very strange to read in the New York Times of October 2, 2008, on page A8:
'The commander, Gen. David D. McKiernan, made clear that international military in Afghanistan were not going to eradicate opium poppy crops. Afghanistan is the world's top supplier of opium poppies, which are processed into heroin.
But by drawing a clear link in the middle of the narcotics trade and its role in the insurgency, normal McKiernan was outlining what could be an foremost and addition role for American and Nato military as they seek to eliminate a source of money and weapons for the insurgency.
"I think there's a need for increased involvement in I.S.A.F. In assisting the Afghan government in counternarcotics efforts," said normal McKiernan, commander of Nato's International protection aid Force, or I.S.A.F. "Where we can make a clear intelligence linkage in the middle of a narcotics dealer or a factory and the insurgency, I think that a force protection issue, and we can deal with that in a military way."

Well, perhaps it is sensible from the military viewpoint to selectively destroy only the crops and laboratories connected with the insurgents, but is it humane to continue conniving at the opium production? At whose cost is the shaky well-being of Afghanistan achieved? And why not co-operate with the Cis states (in the first place Russia, Kirgizstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan) to resolve the situation? These issues await solutions.

Nato's course of Afghan Drugs

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Friday, March 18, 2011

Islam - A Religion of Hate Or Love?

Is there a uncostly basis for a Christian, or Jew, to have a justified fearful apprehension of the convention of Islamic theology, and of the aggressive Muslim agenda taught and represented by the Prophet Mohammed in the Koran? Does the Koran teach that Muslims should be honest, peaceful, and tolerant human beings in their associations with habitancy Mohammed called infidels, or is it quite the opposite? These questions are answered quite differently nearby the world by Shiite and Sunni cross-sections of over-a-billion-strong world Muslim population. The majority of these devout practicing Muslims are the religion's fundamentalists who are citizens of the Middle-Eastern countries that were parts of the traditional Mohammedan Empire, which busy and controlled most of the Holy Land, and a good deal of Europe, in the middle of 700-1100 A.D.

As is currently the case, the reading and interpreting of the Koran by a Muslim cleric in Islamabad, Pakistan and Kabul, Afghanistan, is considerably separate than that done in a mosque in San Francisco, California. The fundamental commandments of love and peace given by Mohammed in the Koran, the ones he gave while he was, supposedly, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, are quite different, and quite opposed, to the ones he later gave to his disciples in Medina, which he said basically abrogated, or changed, his old commandments. These new commandments of abrogation mandated all truthful Muslims to seek out and, either, convert, capture, or kill infidels in accordance with, and fulfillment of, the sixth pillar of Islam, jihad or warring conflict. These infidels, agreeing to Mohammed, comprised all Jews and practicing Christians, or those who worshipped the Christian trinity or Godhead. Furthermore, Mohammed encouraged truthful Muslims to lie and deceive the infidels into postures of submission to the Islamic supreme Being, Allah. Over 350 verses in the Koran teach nothing but hate for the infidel. In one of them, (Muslim C9B1N31), Mohammed said "I have been commanded to fight against habitancy until they testify to the fact that there is no god but Allah, and believe in me (that) I am the messenger and in all that I have brought." Hence, the meaning of the word Islam is rendered to mean submission to the will of Allah. Classical Islamic scholars have argued that anyone who has studied the Koran or Qur'an, without having mastered the religious doctrine of abrogation is basically deficient. Those truthful Muslims who do not accept abrogation honestly fall face the Islamic mainstream and, perhaps, even the religion itself. Yet, the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect, today concentrated in Pakistan, consistently rejects abrogation only because it makes it seem that the Koran is not free from errors.

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Compared to the commandments of Jesus Christ, in the New Testament of the Holy Bible, which admonish all human beings to love and treat their neighbors as themselves, the commandments of Mohammed, in the Koran, are basically one-sided in terms of theological purpose, for they are written to only apply to how Muslims are to love and respect other Muslims, not how Muslims are to respect "all" of God's children. The austerity and strictness of fundamentalist Islamic theology, as taught and applied in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, do not get from any other source than the Koran, as read and interpreted by classic Islamic clerics. This is why Sharia Law (or traditional Islamic law) has been advocated by Islamic leaders of burgeoning Muslim populations in Western nations, such as the United Kingdom, as the law that should be allowed to govern all Muslims. There are, for instance, so many fundamentalist Muslims in London that the British have allowed them to convention their own laws and traditions in place of British law. Among other Islamic traditions, Sharia Law permits, and enforces polygamy and, even, honor killings, wherein daughters and sons of fundamentalist Muslim families, who select infidel mates over truthful practicing Muslims, are murdered for the honor of the families. And this type of law is, apparently, what Barack H. Obama has been quietly advocating over the years, first as a U.S. Senator from Illinois and now as U.S. President, for practicing Muslims in the United States, which has clearly demonstrated his apparent higher regard for Islamic tradition and theology over what he claims are his Christian faith and values. This might justify why an 18 percent-and-growing segment of the American electorate believe that Obama is not honestly a Christian in basic belief.

The stark aforementioned dichotomy in the middle of the pure Christian love that was taught by Jesus, and recorded in the Bible, and the hatred and unabashed human friction that was taught and emphasized by Mohammed, and recorded in the Koran, is the essence of this essay. This inescapable dichotomy is a blatant fact, and one that makes imagine stare when Muslim Taliban clerics, in Kabul, Afghanistan, can read and justify the Islamic commandments of Mohammed and get a totally separate meaning from them than, say, westernized Muslim clerics in Washington, D.C. Of course, most argumentative Islamic clerics will effort to show equally rabid interpretations of Jesus' words in the Holy Bible, and the New Testament, by introducing such evidence as the bloody Crusades, which were sponsored by the Jolly Popes of the Roman Catholic Church to reclaim the Holy Land, supposedly, in the name of Christ. This tragic juncture in the history of Western Civilization is hardly evidence of the interpretation of Jesus' words in his "Sermon on the Mount" and throughout the course of his personal ministry and the later ministries of his apostles. For the Popes who ordered the Crusades did so not as representatives of Jesus, but as forces emperors who issued their papal bulls in the name of vengeance for Western European interests. No sane and uncostly man can possibly read the words of Jesus, in Matt. 22:21, and infer from his rhetoric anyone other than a clear divorce of church and state, wherein his statement to the Jews, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" was a succinct proclamation of this separateness. Jesus also declared before Pontius Pilot, in John 18:36, that, "My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world." Today, Christian ministers in Ankara, Turkey can read Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" and get the same basic meaning from it that Christian ministers in London or Moscow derive. Not so with Muslim clerics, in separate parts of the world, who read the words of Mohammed, in the Koran, quite differently.

After his ascension into heaven, Jesus taught through his apostle, James, that it is impossible for, both, good and evil things to head somewhere righteously from the same godly person. The profound biblical scripture, in Jas 3:11, explicitly illustrates this Christian principle. "Does a spring pour forth from the same opportunity fresh water and brackish?" In Mohammed's case it did, for he exhorted his disciples to say, and do, things that were both evil and, supposedly, beneficial for Muslim interests. This is a matter of historical record. Would a true prophet of the true God of heaven say such things? I don't think so. Now, as for the fear that true Christians in the United States should have of the spread of Islam within the republic, and the drastically increasing habitancy of Muslim immigrants and their progeny, I sincerely believe that the international Muslim society has an agenda to subdue infidel Western countries through the strategy of becoming so populous within the discrete nations that, one day soon, Sharia Law will be inexorably voted into convention by an wonderful Muslim majority. That is, if they continue to multiply at such a prolific rate and are allowed to collectively exert their political clout.

The worldwide Muslim society was a potentially ominous sleeping giant before 1950, before the United States and Britain began surreptitiously interfering with Muslim homelands in order to operate their rich oil resources and its production, and especially before the first U.S. Invasion of Iraq in 1991. The governments of the United States and the United Kingdom don't relish recalling the 1954 Cia/Mi6 led Iranian coup, operation Ajax, that overthrew a democratically elected head of a Muslim state, and installed a U.S./British puppet dictator, the Shah, to head the Iranian government. This, among other things, was looked upon by fundamentalist Muslims as a lasting compelling imagine for vengeance against the Western infidel. Moreover, Muslim immigration into the United States, before 1970, was at an all time low. Then, starting with the Iranian Islamic Revolution, in 1979, and, later, when the orchestration of the 9/11 mass-murders were favorably blamed on fundamentalist Islamic jihad and Saudi Ossama bin Laden by the Bush administration, and, especially, after Afghanistan and Iraq were ineffectually invaded to overthrow the Taliban and Saddam Hussain, the fundamentalist Shiite and Sunni factions of Islam, the world over, began to theologically coalesce and work amazingly well together to oppose the invading infidels. A rag-tag army of mostly untrained and scantily armed Islamic Afghani Taliban fighters have, since 2002, successfully kept at bay over a hundred thousand of the best trained nautical Corps, Army, and joint U.S. Extra forces troops, which have been sent to neutralize the insurgent forces throughout the broad country. It would have seemed that the awful part learned by the Soviets in their attempted subjugation of Afghanistan would have taught the arrogant imperialist U.S. Politicians controlling the U.S. forces a vital part in fighting unjust un-winnable wars. For that matter, Vietnam should have been the part learned for all time. Yet, since 2003, the same sad consequent has been experienced in Iraq, which leads a uncostly mind to finish that suppression, and the elimination, of bloody militant Muslim opposition to U.S. Presence in Islamic nations is virtually impossible.

Since 1991, demographic facts reserve that immigration of Middle-Eastern Muslim men, women, and families into Western nations has increased 85 percent, and the current Muslim birthrate in the United States, and the United Kingdom, is roughly 6-to-7 children per adult Muslim woman. No wonder the Muslim habitancy in London has increased a expected 85 percent in the middle of 1980 and the year 2000. This is probably why the Muslim habitancy was great enough in that British city for them to quiz, the convention of Sharia Law, which was officially adopted in Britain on September 14, 2008, with Sharia courts, possessing Islamic powers, set up in the capital city. A colleague of mine said something recently that was highly spellbinding in terms of its probable truth concerning the spread of Islam in the United States. In gist, he proposed that, if the Koran encourages truthful Muslims to lie and deceive the infidel Christians and Jews into trusting them, in order to gain power over the infidels, how can you trust any practicing Muslim, especially the ones who arbitrarily justify the Koran to say that Muslims are commanded to love and tolerate Christians and Jews. This not-so-unreasonable Christian and Jewish perception of a probable Islamic agenda to conquer and operate what conscientious Muslims comprehend to be the great Western Satan is one held currently by millions of Christians and Jews nearby the world. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, or, in this case, what is written in the proper handbook for the convention of Islam, the Koran. That very few of the hundreds of millions of Christians in the United States, the U.K., and Western Europe have no real knowledge of the abrogation taught by Mohammed in the Koran, and of the utter hatred expressed in its words against Christians and Jews, is a tragic reality. Most of these uninformed individuals are accepting the interpretations of Islamic religious doctrine from, supposedly, westernized Muslim clerics, and wrongly believing that the Muslim communities in cities such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, Madrid, and, even, Sydney, Australia truly love and tolerate Christians and Jews.

I recall the words of a venerable Jewish scholar, Helmud Weiss, who had taught German literature at the University of Berlin while the time Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were arrival to power. He laughing had said to his implicated friends, when sternly advised to flee his homeland for America, that, "even if the Nazis do come to power, there will be enough men of good will in Germany to put a stop to Hitler's anti-Semitism, for the words and ideas of the man are an abomination to all that is good." Nonetheless, history sadly records that Professor Weiss was sent, in 1939, to one of the gas chambers at Auswitz. Therefore, it would probably be a very good idea for all those people, who presently trust the practicing Muslims to have love and toleration for Christians, Jews, and all other non-Muslims, to read the Koran for themselves in order to get a true and accurate insight of the religion established by Mohammed.

Islam - A Religion of Hate Or Love?

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Reality of Arranged Marriages

Arranged marriages have been a topic of interest for centuries. Authors over the ages have explored this theme at length, and it still surfaces in literary works today. What's the appeal? Is it the fascination with the lack of lust and desire we cultivate in North American society? We strive on the element of danger, of the forbidden, while an arranged marriage is ordinarily a safe way to ensure a family's approval of a union.

And yet, many of today's romance novels deal with marriages of convenience. We've all read them: the heroine marries the hero because she needs him, either for financial reasons, or because her children need a father -- there are as many reasons to marry as there are novels dealing with this subject. Yet although the marriage isn't initially based on love, there's always that sensual tension simmering beneath the surface, and as readers, we know it's distinct that the two are going to fall deeply and irrevocably in love.

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But what about real life, where things don't always work out so well? Arranged marriages are ordinary in a number of countries, such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan and India. They're more base than you'd think even in North America, where cultural diversity is cherished and encouraged.

Young habitancy in countries where arranged marriages are ordinary are told from an early age that their spouse will be chosen for them. To deny an arranged marriage is seen as a sign of disrespect toward the family. But how are suitable spouses chosen? In Japan, for instance, "when a woman reaches the marriageable age of 25, she and her parents compile a packet of information about her, including a photo of her in a kimono and descriptions of her house background, education, hobbies, accomplishments and interests. Her parents then quiz, among their friends and acquaintances to see if anyone knows a man who would be a suitable husband for her" (the Asia Society's Video Letter from Japan: My Family, 1988). Usually, the most prominent aspect of choosing a suitable spouse is the bond in the middle of the two families, rather than the connection in the middle of the join being married. Property or land with the aim of securing collective status sometimes seals marriage agreements.

Do arranged marriages work? Opinions tend to differ. Statistics place the disunion rate for arranged marriages much lower than those in the United States, where marriages out of love are the rule. However, investigate also shows that the pressure a married join encounters from both community as a whole, and from the respective families, suggests that disunion is often not an option.

Can love grow out of an arranged marriage? Absolutely, and in the same way that love can grow in romance novels from a marriage of convenience. But there's more to love than looking a suitable match. Love can grow for many reasons, from lust at first sight to friendship that develops over a long duration of time. It's impossible to predict either a union will be successful. The only two habitancy who can make it work are the bride and groom, the hero and heroine of their own story.

The Reality of Arranged Marriages

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Fact to Fiction: The Brutal Truth about the practice of Stoning

“Like humans void of soul or mind, they jeered and yelled as they went about choosing their most jagged stones.” – David Hearne, excerpt from Hulagu's Web.

Stoning is a brutal and outdated practice that is kept alive only by Muslims under Sharia rule. Although it has been practiced since biblical times, every other culture has systematically ceased the practice in favor of more humane forms of punishment. The torturous sentence leaves the victim in agony. David Hearne, in his book Hulagu's Web, shows us how painful it can be. “Terror ripped straight through her mind…then suddenly the first stone smashed into her…” (Hulagu's Web, 64) The only solitude the punished has is that they will soon die.

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Stoning is typically a punishment for adultery, although it can also be use for cases of incest and other sexual or “moral” crimes. Typically, a stoning victim is first wrapped in cloth and buried up to the waist for men, or up to the chest for females. Then the crowd is to throw stones at the victim. However, it is very foremost that, “… no stone should be thrown that should kill with the first or second blow, or so small as a pebble to do no injury to the condemned.” (Hulagu's Web, 64) Stoning is a unique form of punishment in that there is no particular executioner. The simplistic act of gathering the victim’s peers around him creates killers out of everyone.

Today, stoning is only practiced in Islamic culture in order to allege the submission of its women and those in the lower cast. Only those impoverished or socially unimportant are punished by stoning. This barbaric act parallels those of the 4th century Theodosius who punished those who did not share his religious views. He ordered all non-Christian temples be destroyed and that all heathens be executed unless they convert. His determine now lives on in the hands of religious Islamic tyrants that now hire the brutal act of stoning. These acts of barbarism and violence far outweigh the moral transgression of those condemned.

Stoning has been in practice since biblical times. In the Old Testament, God is quoted as requiring stoning as a punishment for breaking one of the Ten Commandments, particularly for committing adultery. However, in the New Testament, Jesus is believed to have substituted that type of punishment for a more humane punishment. He is quoted as having challenged, “he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” This is why stoning has moderately been substituted with punishments that need less involvement of ones peers.

As we comprehend the impact of such a brutal death, we comprehend that we have no right to take part in killing someone else when we too have sinned. This imparting of sin on all those who partake in it is the very presume most cultures have abandoned the practice.

We already see a disintegration of the practice of stoning in Islamic culture. Only those under Sharia rule still practice it. In this culture, there is no dissimilarity in the middle of religious and governmental law. Religion is governmental law. More facts on Islam and Sharia law can be found at http://answering-islam.org.uk/.

Among the countries that still practice stoning are Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. Other Islamic countries denounce the practice as inhumane and indicate that the Qur’an provides no grounds for such a vicious practice. Those who practice stoning claim that it is demanded by Islam and have gone so far as incorporating it into their countries penal codes.

From these deep rooted laws regarding stoning, there have been a few recent cases of global interest where stoning has been received as a punishment. In December 2004 a woman in Iran was scheduled to be stoned to death after spending five years in prison for committing adultery. She was one of over 100 to be stoned to death in Iran last year alone. In Nigeria, a woman was sentenced to stoning after giving birth to a baby more than nine months after divorcing. To her good fortune, this sentence was overturned. More instances of recent convictions resulting in stoning can be found at http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_adul1.htm. With international efforts to stop stoning, the rulings are being overturned with more frequency, hopefully giving less credibility to Sharia law.

David Hearne shows us a heart-wrenching inventory of a stoning in his book Hulagu's Web. He shows us that not only does the victim suffer the agony of the stoning, but also her anguish is unfelt by the executioners who relish their license to kill. “A spray of blood and spit now accompanies her cries of pain…The gore pleased [him], and he gleefully watched the proceedings to ensure that no one used a stone of the wrong size.” (Hulagu's Web, 64-65) straight through this inventory we can see that the emotional involvement of crowd creates the wrong message. Instead of invoking fear of being stoned themselves, the crowd comes to enjoy a good stoning and thrives off of it. In this fashion, stoning is no longer a form of punishment, rather a form of entertainment that breeds murderers out of ordinary people.

For those doing the stoning, it is a communal event that becomes more of a religious sport than a true act of moral self-righteousness. An actual video of a stoning can be viewed at http://www.iran-e-azad.org/stoning/. The footage taken in Iran illustrates a party like climate of those carrying out the execution. It is reminiscent of the family picnics at the old Wild West hangings or the popularity of citizen watching the slaughter of gladiators in early Rome.

Like other diabolical methods of torture, stoning has gone out of style as community realized that having others partake in the punishment of another, even a criminal, devalues life. Stoning also creates fear and terrorizes the minds of others. The Guillotine, whipping, pouring acid on person or gouging their eyes out with iron have all been gleefully practiced over the ages by zealots. Regardless of the how brutal, none of these punishments have stood the test of time. Even those founded in the name of religion have died out because they are cruel and inhumane.

As these diabolical methods have failed, it is foremost to note one punishment continually in practice: Jail. Imprisonment has been a popular form of punishment because having “…her face pulverized by the stoning,” (Hulagu's Web, 64) seems a puny greatest no matter what the crime. Even though so many cultures have migrated towards this type of punishment, it is hard for westerners to understand why Sharia Muslims still sanction a punishment this inhumane.

As stoning is done in the name of Allah, Hearne has his character yelling “God is great.” (Hulagu's Web, 63) The crowd is egged on even more as they come to be more complex with the stoning. possibly the worst part about stoning is that it brings ordinary God fearing citizen to de facto fear life itself. They are put into a perpetual state of fear such as Hearne’s Senator Laforge who imagines her own stoning in a nightmare. (Hulagu's Web, 63) Unable to let the memory go, citizen in these countries under Sharia rule cower and are plagued with fear of their life ending in such a brutal manner.

Stoning is an act of insanity and must be stopped. That humans should get around and throw stones with the intent to take someone else human life is a hideous thought. Though fiction, David Hearne’s book shows us that an personel can be gripped with fear over governmental prosecution. It is the passion shown in his book that gives us cause and hope for turn in the world.

For more facts on joining the international fight against stoning, visit the following links:

[http://www.stopstoningnow.com/]

[http://www.free-minds.org/stoning.htm]

Fact to Fiction: The Brutal Truth about the practice of Stoning

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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

America's Stories 2009 - The Courageous citizen Facing Unemployment and Homelessness

Unemployment is the top it's been in three decades. The housing mortgage fiasco has contributed to the dramatic increase of homelessness. Tent cities over the United States are growing and are populated not only by the chronically homeless but also with educated and middle class citizens who have lost their jobs and/or lost their homes.

The whole of homeless veterans is growing, too, with 200,000 currently "on the streets." As the incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) is growing in recognition, medicine is not keeping up with the need. When these walking wounded return home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the stigma connected with Ptsd as well as the lack of compassionate and therapeutic care abandons them to find their own way down a hopeless street. Many commit suicide. Others join the chronically homeless.

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Reminiscent of the Great Depression and the era following the Vietnam War, the stories of America's middle and working class and its returning veterans are resurfacing as exercises in discontentment and defeat although the heart of America still beats with hope.

Like John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and Travels with Charlie, and more recently like the stories of Charles Kerault, there are stories to be told about the American people who are daily struggling to live and re-establish their dreams. They are prominent stories to be told, not only to re-ignite compassion and understanding but, like post 911, to inspire America's heart as a nation to work together in assuring a quick salvage to a state of greater strength, mutual withhold and decreased greed.

Books about the general thought of homelessness have been written such as the three-volume Homelessness in America, by Robert Hartmann McNamara, published in 2008. However, to my knowledge, no books have yet been published focusing on individual stories, especially from 2009. The dramatic increase in homelessness as a ensue of the economic recession is still too new.

You-Tube holds a great whole of videos about tent cities and the subject of homelessness but does not impart the depth of each individual story. Print articles may appear in local papers, any way only the ensue of homelessness is typically covered rather than the individual stories. When written with a constructive objective rather than plainly reporting, these stories could help rebuild lives.

With regard to homeless veterans, the group of Veterans Affairs recognizes the issue but cannot keep up with the influx. Agreeing to National Adjutant Arthur H. Wilson, "We saw thousands of Vietnam veterans who finally became homeless, and we may be facing a new national crisis with the veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan." In 2006, one in four homeless were veterans. That whole has climbed.

As the trend in increased unemployment and homelessness lags the projected economic recovery, there are many stories to be discovered and told in 2009. As this trend continues, the whole of people who know or who have a degree of association to the issue is dramatically increasing.

The current coverage of the issue of homelessness in association with the economy takes national attention. Good Morning America has it AmeriCan series to highlight people who are taking performance to help others. Each day, snippets of stories are seen in the media. However, few are in depth.

The publication and distribution of a series of books can take an prominent step. It can record, in greater depth, these unseen and unheard stories of individuals who have experienced the worst and who survive. It can supply a written history giving their plight a sense of purpose by calling the nation together to help one another. In the end, hopefully, it will supply future generations inspiration and pride in their heritage rather than shame.

As a source of inspiration for future generations as well as a sobering history to ground the nation's leaders in the reality experienced daily by the people, this book series is important. These stories can generate a timeless image of our nation by having not only the heart but also the courage to take performance by finding and telling these stories.

America's Stories 2009 - The Courageous citizen Facing Unemployment and Homelessness

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Monday, March 14, 2011

Keynesian Economics, National Wage Rates and the Offshore Outsourcing Phenomenon

In the world of economics, every participant in the scene is regarded as a commodity - raw materials, ideas, business processes, and even labor and time. Like all buyer goods, the economic value of labor also rises and falls. However, in an attempt to preclude economic anarchy that will inevitably arise from mass retaliation, varied national governments, in consideration of Keynesian economic principles, have decided to apply protectionist policies that operate wage rates.

This is why wage cuts seldom happen. At worst, a country will not increase wage rates for long stretches of time. However, very seldom do they genuinely decrease the paycheck of their employees. However, the normal trend is that when a needful chunk of labor force greatly increases it productivity, the rest of labor force, even if they stayed stagnant, will also corollary suit. Hence, the bloating of national wage rates.

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Swelling wage rates also imply commodity inflation, as the relative value of goods and services are very dependent on the whole of labor used to generate and deliver it. In short, since everybody gets paid more, a buyer will also have to pay more for goods and services acquired from someone else someone since these goods and services were made ready with the more costly labor.

For example, let's use a globally popular hamburger brand as an index. In the Philippines, it costs roughly Us$ 2 in 2008, while one bought in the United States in the same year costs about Us.5 - a 75 percent difference. This is just one example of the term called "purchasing power parity", which illustrates the wide variations of the cost of living among countries. Let us now contextualize this hamburgernomics to outsourced labor rates.

A Us/hr. Web programmer in the Us would earn 0 a day. On the other hand, a Us/hr programmer in the Philippines will earn . However, living costs in the Us are much higher than that of the Philippines, so that the apparent "exploitation" doesn't genuinely exist. At per day, a programmer in the Philippines can pay utility bills, buy all basic needs, and pay rent for a decent 1-bedroom apartment.

Thus, fellowships can save more on labor costs, while their offshore employees wallow in sheer joy. Hence the outsourcing phenomenon.

Keynesian Economics, National Wage Rates and the Offshore Outsourcing Phenomenon

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Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Burning Brides of Afghanistan

Islamic scholars who argue that the rights of Muslim women are guaranteed by the religion, are quick to point to passages in the Qur'an and Hadiths that speak in lofty and compassionate terms about the role and status of women. However the reality of women's lives in developing countries paints a different picture.

A culture, of course a mythology, of patriarchal dominance is a theme that runs throughout Islamic history. This male centric world-view combined with poverty and a lack of education, often leads to show the way toward women that not only runs counter to the teachings of the prophet, but is a violation of law and of the most basic humanitarian standards.

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Wars in Afghanistan have turned women into pawns, routinely exploited in a power struggle that is exclusively male. The top Muslim values of womanhood - lucidity and modesty - have been targeted as a strategy of war. In many of the internecine struggles that have taken place in Afghanistan, Mujahideen have used rape as a tool of war, in an exertion to demoralize and weaken their enemies. Women are regarded by warring parties as miniature more than pawns to be abused for political and military advantage.

Women are also exploited for the purpose of gaining a propaganda advantage. Male factions are forever proclaiming their rules and regulations for women in the group debate. As a effect Afghani women are turned into political chattel, their leisure and will overruled by males who speak for them and predetermine their destiny.

The plight of women in Afghanistan, is mirrored in other parts of the Islamic world. For example in Pakistan as a effect of an archaic "honor code" women are sometimes killed to satisfy house pride. This is determined to be a fit punishment in some circles for bringing shame on their families.

Astoundingly accusations of "bringing shame" can involve the simple act of leaving an abusive husband or marrying a man of one's choice. Women who are raped straight through no fault of their own, are often regarded as "shame bringers", and so candidates for murder.

The lawyer and human rights activist, Hina Jilani, has this to say of the plight of women in Pakistan ...

"The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying group norms and traditions."

In countries such as Afghanistan, the plight of women has become so dysfunctional that many young women are committing suicide at an alarming rate. In most cases they do this by self-immolation, burning themselves to death with the aid of gas and a match.

The official count was 93 for such deaths in 2005. It is believed that many more women are killing themselves in this fashion. Often these tragedies remain unreported due to house shame and the stigma involved.

Under the Taliban women were treated like inferior beings, and this patriarchal attitude toward women still persists. As much as 80% of all marriages in Afghanistan are forced arrangements. In over 50% of these marriages the brides are under 16. often they are forced into marriages with men in their middle years or even older. These female children are used like goods basically, to extraction a debt or as payment for some arrangement or favor.

It is hardly surprising that this view of women persists in Afghanistan. Under the Taliban women were an "invisible" presence with no rights save those given to them by the men who controlled them. They weren't even determined worthy of education, and of course not worthy of casting a vote.

Many of these young girls who pick to end their lives with fire, are trapped in marriages with men who are abusive. They can't leave because to do so, would bring shame on their families. Their plight becomes so desperate that some see suicide as the only available option. As is the case in Pakistan, the authorities seem to take the attitude that it's the woman's question when such tragedies occur.

While Islamic scripture accords honor to women, there is a gap between ideas and practice. Those who exertion to whitewash the group problems that are afflicting Muslim women in developing countries by plainly reciting passages of the Qur'an, are doing a disservice to these women. In order to find solutions to these issues, it is principal to address the root cause, and this involves engaging the male-centered customs and attitudes that keep many Muslim women in a position of subservience.

The Burning Brides of Afghanistan

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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Obama Wants Exit From Iraq

Earlier today, Barack Obama announced that he plans to pull the Us out of Iraq and crush Al-Queda in Afghanistan in an attempt to re-build foreign policy with the rest of the world. George W. Bush has left the Us weeping after months of brash and un-thoughtful decisions however Barack Obama is carefully on changing that.

Repairing the weak Us cheaper will obviously be priority amount one however there are some serious matters that will want the President elect's attentiveness such as the Iraq war. Barack Obama gave his first interview since his momentous determination win two weeks ago. He has stated that at least one republican candidate will be included in his supervision and that he had met his previous democratic rival Hiliary Clinton to seek guidance on policy. however the President elect refused to annotation as to either he will be linking Hilary Clinton to the Secretary of State job.

News From Afghanistan

In the campaign trial Barack Obama had claimed that he would gradually pull military out of Iraq over a 16 month duration ultimately only leaving a small brigade force of un-confirmed size which will ultimately head in to Afghanistan to hunt down the Al-Queda mastermind, Osama Bin-Laden.

He sure has a busy job over the arrival months however I am inescapable that the new President elect will fulfill his pledges. There is so much riding on his success that it is kind of scary! Lets just hope that he will be able to cope with all the anticipation of the world!

Obama Wants Exit From Iraq

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Worldwide Parcel Services - Sending to the Frontline

For all those serving their country in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, they can now receive parcels from their friends and house back home. The aid has been added to a very go for amount of international delivery fellowships who are going to make sure that the home comforts they miss can be shipped out to them to help them straight through the tough times of being a soldier.

For all those worried parents and involved friends there is now a way to get your parcels across to Basra and other areas where soldiers are situated. Many population have been sending parcel here for a while and it looks like this is going to get easier. With the added aid this makes sending consignments to these areas easy and more cost effective. Prices still differ but as this area of the shop becomes more contentious the prices will start to come down.

News From Afghanistan

You can send an assortment of parcels to these areas that are sure to brighten the mood. It may be something as uncomplicated as a football shirt, a few magazines or maybe a football or rugby ball to keep the soldiers entertained when they are out of the action. Although these are only relatively small things, it can make a big difference in terms of enhancing the soldiers' morale.

As with sending all parcels to any country you need to ensure that they are firmly packed. The last thing you want is to send something and for it to get damaged along the way. Of course if you are sending something like a football shirt this is going to be easy to pack and send as there is minute chance of it getting damaged en route. You also need minute packaging as you do not need to wrap and get it like other items such as crockery or china.

This aid that has been added to unavoidable fellowships makes parcel deliveries easier and offers a aid that has previously been quite costly to use, a necessary amount cheaper. The combination of being able sent parcels to those soldiers serving their country and the ease of doing it will make this a popular service.

Even if you do not know anything out there you may want to send something to a specific battalion that has been on the news. Make sure you choose a shipping aid that will get your consignment to its destination with minimal fuss and consist of added services such as next day delivery and home pickup.

Worldwide Parcel Services - Sending to the Frontline

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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Drug Rehab News - Ray Of Hope In Slowing Afghanistan Opium Trade

Since the defeat of the Taliban government in 2001, Taliban insurgents have regained operate of the southern poppy-growing regions. The country's opium trade is back to supplying 92% of the world's opium, along with vast amounts of heroin. Here in America, as elsewhere in the world, the results can be seen in soaring rates of opiate and heroin addiction and a greater need than ever for victorious drug rehab programs.

But now there's a ray of hope in what has so far been a rather futile endeavor to combat Afghanistan's vast opium trade. At a Un meeting in Vienna recently, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan agreed to work together to help operate drug trafficking along their common borders. By strengthening border security, enhancing communication and intelligence-sharing, and launching joint counter-narcotic operations, the hope is that the flow of illicit drugs to Europe, Asia and beyond can be contained.

News From Afghanistan

The deal was brokered by the United Nations Office for Drug and Crime (Unodc) at a meeting in Vienna. Unodc menagerial Director Antonio Maria Costa hailed the meeting as a turning point in the fight against Afghanistan's drug problem.

The three countries agreed to focus not only on trafficking but on all aspects of the drug cheaper - stopping the diversion and smuggling of precursor chemicals used to make heroin from opium, locating and destroying drug labs, interrupting the laundering of drug money, and tackling the worst qoute - the broad corruption which facilitates the drug business.

No less important, they also called for more attention to salvage humanity from the misery and instability created by drug abuse and addiction by enhancing drug arresting education, medicine facilities and drug rehab. Let's hope that help extends to the U.S. Where heroin addiction has ruined the lives of more than 1 million heroin addicts and their families.

Drug Rehab News - Ray Of Hope In Slowing Afghanistan Opium Trade

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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Memorial Day Brings Back Memories

It was another enchanting sunshiny day in Los Angeles, but the man standing surface the airport waiting for a shuttle bus looked like rain. I could roughly feel his sadness.

"It was 10 degrees when I left home in West Virginia this morning," he said after we were comfortably seated in the van. "There must have been snow or ice," I replied. Then, for no reason, added, "I lived in northern Virginia for 16 years and I love the snow. I worked in the Pentagon. Are you visiting relatives here?" "No, I treat myself to one trip out here every year to see a ball game."

News From Afghanistan

Then suddenly he was talking about returning from Vietnam, landing at the airport in San Bernardino, and getting on a bus to go to Camp Pendleton. He was in the marine Corps then and he couldn't understand why population were calling them names and throwing things at the troops. He was seeing straight ahead, but cast a quick sight in my direction. "Things I can't even mention in public." That hurt so bad, when he got to his room, he cried. "I tried to understand," he said. "It's a free country and they could protest. But why the insults? We didn't do anyone wrong. I still think of it sometimes and when it gets so bad I can't stand it, I go for a walk in the woods. And I cry."

I told him that I'd written the logistics sustain plan for the burial of the unknown serviceman from Vietnam. He turned to look at me and was very still. Then he reached over and put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it slightly. "Then you know what I'm talking about, don't you." I nodded, reasoning of other Vietnam Vets who had shared similar sentiments. I asked if he had ever visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, Dc. "Oh, no," he said and sat quietly. His mouth moved and his lips were moist, but he didn't say anything. I could see the torment in his face. It was too hard to do.

He told of his mom and father passing away. "I buried them," he said, "and I cried. I won't go to funerals any more. I send wreaths, and cards, but I don't want to cry again." I asked him about the facilities for veterans in West Virginia. They have fine facilities, he said. "The psychologists have encouraged me to go in and talk to them. But if I do that, it dishonors the Corps. It makes us look less than honorable, don't you think?" I told him it was okay to get help and that it seemed like he had found a way to cope. "When the first President Bush said the parade for the military coming home from the Gulf War was for all of us, that helped a lot. I concept 'Finally, we're getting a welcome home.'"

This vet is not angry or bitter. He is dealing with vivid memories of his fellow Americans turning on him and his buddies. He seems to be still trying to reconcile his role in preserving our freedoms with having those freedoms turned against him. And when it gets to be more than he can stand, he walks in the woods and he cries. "You understand, don't you?"

When the shuttle pulled up to my place, he stepped down and offered his hand to help me out. He held on, looked me in the eyes, and said, "Thank you for being there for him at the burial."

We Americans all need to be there for military men and women of today and the veterans who served in times past. That's the least we can do to sustain our freedoms. God bless America.

Memorial Day Brings Back Memories

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