Happy Dependence Day

On today, July 4th, our Independence Day, I regretfully find our great nation not only dependent but addicted to the ebony elixir that has congested our once red veins with black. As gas prices across the country rise ever so slowly toward five dollars per gallon, we are shamed into submission by not only the Saudis and other oil-producing nations of the world but by our own elected leaders. If it weren't for the President's close friends whose abilities to mask his failures with patriotic smoke and mirrors, the White House would be nearly painted black with all of the oil left behind from the bottoms of our leaders' shoes. The blatant fact remains that our President prior to his election was not only governor of Texas, a state that holds over two-million oil pumps to her veins, but was a failed oil man in numerous companies. Our Vice-President was CEO of Haliburton which was granted first and unopposed rights to Iraq after its invasion, which happens to contain the world's second largest oil reserve beneath its sand. The man who is in charge of our country's energy policy still holds over half a million shares in the company he once ran. And Iraq, this administration's most public blunder, was invaded on false pretenses and the fact that two oil men ordered the hit on a country with no shortage of that black cocaine cannot be coincidence. Now their answer to our rising oil prices, which is due to peak oil (apparently mother nature has deemed oil a waning fad), is to drill domestically. If profits to this administration are not direct I am confident that lobbyists are filling in the financial void behind our backs. Either way, the criminality of this administration is beyond the obvious and I can only hope that our next will do well to mend the wounds opened by President Bush and his Vice-President Cheney. I highly doubt George Washington saw his presidency as a means for monetary exploits and profit. Have a happy 4th.

I Can't Believe I Have To Write This

Well, well, well. It has been almost a whole year since my last post. I have tried my best to stay out of the political arena and especially the one in Iraq. I couldn't imagine anything coming from my rants and raves but finally the straw has broke yet again and I am forced to write yet another article. Yesterday, it was revealed that thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police were on the payroll who were either dead, injured and thus off duty or ill and off duty. The Iraqi government is corrupt, I knew that, but this is just a blatant slap in the face for all Iraqis and Americans. The Iraqi government is trying to justify it by saying that the money is going to the families of the victims. Cry me an oasis. Not only is the country losing a lot of money (and yes, it has only just been recently mentioned in American government but there is still no oil revenue going to Iraq on the scale of it being the second largest natural oil reserve in the world) but neither the Iraqis nor the American and UN troops know just how many Iraqis are on duty at any given time at any given location. Great way to fight a war, I must say.
Also, the reconstruction effort in Iraq that has cost US taxpayers over $100 BILLION!!!, is coming up short once again in a scam for individual companies to make money. In a recent investigation by the US government, it was found that out of 47,321 contracts to rebuild Iraq, 855 were simply terminated due to hard conditions absolutely no one could possibly predict and out of those, 112 were recorded as completed. One of those contracts was to build a $50 million children's hospital which was only partially finished. I hope those kids over there don't scrape their knees too much playing in their bloody sandbox.
I won't even go into the race for president because its between John McCain (who has pledged to continue the incompetence plague that the Bush Administration has created and even said that we will be in Iraq for 100 years if necessary), Hillary Clinton (who doesn't seem to understand the people-person aspect of the job and only polarizes the country with her strong-woman-hear-me-roar speeches) and Obama (who can only get stressed and grouchy when everyone is questioning his race, religion, patriotism and yes, his name [Obama rhymes with Osama for all you stupid people out there who think they're the same]). I want to move to Canada.
This war is a joke, but sadly, the joke costs hundreds of lives with every chuckle. Iraq is a money train and everyone wants on from the Iraqi government to our own and everyone in between. Is it worth the cost in human lives and suffering anymore? Was it ever?

The Reveal!

For anyone who cares, my real name is Dylan Emerick-Brown. I figured I'd say that because there's no point in living behind a pseudo name forever. Well, there it is. Bye.

And for my friends in India:
फॉर अन्योने व्हो कारेस, मय रियल नामे इस द्य्लन एमेरिक-ब्रोवं। ई फिगुरेड ई'डी सय ठाट बेकाउसे तेरे'एस नो प्वाइंट इन लिविंग बेहिंद अ प्सयूदो नामे फोरेवेर। वेल्ल, तेरे इत इस। बाय।

Long Live Democracy!

Congress has set hopes that by Memorial Day weekend they will have a new bill for the funding of the war in Iraq that the president will accept. There can be no argument that this bill needs to get passed and the troops need to get their long-awaited support from the government. The question is whether or not there will be another veto. The Democrats have said that they wish to compromise with the president but they refuse to give him a clean bill with no restraint on the war. Thank God.
Bush cannot continue to run this war like an unchallenged dictator with no concept of the consequences to his actions. He thinks that he and his administration are above the law and above the people but they are subject to the law and subjects of the people! Long Live Democracy!

War Czar? Why Not? Anyone Else With An Opinion?

Today, Bush has finally chosen a war czar. Or to be more accurate, a person willing to be war czar finally chose Bush. After having the job turned down by several top military officials and criticism already facing the new war czar even before he accepted the position, Bush has found his scapegoat. And the name of that unfortunate victim of a shortened career is Lt. General Douglas Lute.
With an extensive military background, he is just the man the Bush Administration needs to sparkle up his bureaucratic efforts to save his war. While the rest of the world is screaming for diplomacy, Bush has placed a three star general in charge of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. But there's a catch: the war czar has to be loyal to Bush's plans.
Now that this country has a war czar in place--the one link missing in the victory chain--we can all rest assured that soon we will have total victory in Iraq. As an assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor...wait a minute! An assistant to the who?! This isn't a job that is actually going to provide anything new. It's just a flashy title that all of the blame can fall on when things continue to go sour.
The president and the deputy national security advisor already have assistants. If they want the opinion of a three star general they can just ask. But instead, they've decided that by taking something they already had in the first place, repositioning it within Washington's bureaucracy and giving it a new title everything is going to change. I give up! This country is being led by a bunch of g*d d#&m imbeciles. What else is there to say?

Spiral Dynamics As They Apply To Iraq

The following is a comment made on my article, "Iraq: The American Tarpit". I feel that it has something valuable hidden within the message that I want to address afterward. Thank you, Anonymous.
mullah cimoc say him warning ameriki people in 2003 when bush the invading iraq.
mullah cimoc then tell all ameriki saying please to reading the books of him chairman mao tse tung on guerilla warfare strategies and tactical.
mullah cimoc say in 2003 him insurgent running the enrage the bear tactical.
bear so ferocious, but running to and fro and the lunging to and fro, finally getting tired and the weaker and finally after the tormenting after the exhaustion him wanting to be killed just for ending the suffering.
this usa now in iraq. so the weaken, now the guerilla more aggressive but still the so careful. the bear still roar but hearing now the weakness.
in this time now all muslim knowing that in new iraq only him who killing so many ameriki soldier having the status and the power.
the collaborator him to die and all the family too, unless so torture by ameriki.
only one kind of the voting to count in new iraq. this ballot him calling the body bag containing the ameirki soldier ballot. if not have the this ballot, not having him vote.
this new man in new iraq him true warrior face every day adversity. him only man with political power in new iraq.
for this reason now the killing for starting so much against ameriki soldier. the wife telling the husband, “Omar, you needing for killing three ameriki now so our children him going the college and have good job in new iraq”. Also, “you not my husband if not killing ameriki soldier.”
this new kind of gold rush, but this rush him calling this the rush for kill ameriki soldier.

This comment uses the analogy of a bear to represent the United States in a clever story reflecting the conflict between the views of the Iraqis and our views. The best way I can explain this is in the terms of spiral dynamics. A good link to go to for more information would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Dynamics.
Basically, spiral dynamics is a concept model of how human cognitive development evolves--much like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Using colored levels, we can elevate our cognitive development to new "tiers" of consciousness.
Now, this applies to the above comment in that Iraqis are thinking on a "blue" tier while we are thinking on a "green" tier. What this means is that while we are planning a democracy, which is a pretty complicated and in-depth concept to fully understand and implement, the Iraqis are thinking in more of a tribal sense of sects and power. And it is this gap between where we are, cognitively, and where the Iraqis are that is creating an obstacle for democracy in Iraq.
The blue tier is a more simple level consisting of basic codes and laws, a need to follow a path to right or truth, thinking in a sense of fundamentalism and traditionalism--occasionally extremism. This tier is where the insurgents are thinking on a cognitive level. They are only interested in tradition, authority, morals and the punishments for disobeying them. This is a tier in which many Islamic extremists worldwide are operating. Codes of conduct and tradition as well as purpose, right, wrong and consequences of straying from the set path are all parts of religious teachings such as in the Qur'an. And on this tier, understanding, creating and holding onto a concept such as democracy is beyond their reach. While some Iraqis have moved up to a higher tier, the vast majority are simply not cognitively ready for the responsibilities of sustaining a democracy--a western concept that is mostly unfamiliar in Middle East culture and is only recently starting to prosper in such countries as, ironically, Iran.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is thinking on the green tier which understands the global picture, decisions from the head and not the heart, equality, acceptance and cooperation--all concepts interwoven within democracy. These two tiers, while not that far spaced apart, are still two completely different ways of looking at things. Not just democracy, but these two different cognitive brains would look at everything differently from culture and society to the environment and economics.
What all of this comes down to is another fundamental factor in the many factors of why Iraq is failing to meet U.S. goals. This is something that needs to be much more seriously looked into by the Bush Administration and other politicians worldwide. We simply cannot expect such results from Iraq at the pace we are heading and our military presence in the country is likewise hindering the process by creating a "competing tribe" for power in the minds of the Iraqi citizens.

A Civil War By Any Other Name...

First of all, I would like to address that I made some changes to a previous post: Saddam's Iraq Will Not Become Our America. I felt that parts of it were unclear and so I found better ways of explaining my view. I understand that this is a journal and I am not really supposed to do that but...who cares?
This journal entry has to do with the civil war controversy over Iraq. Many Americans feel that Iraq is in a civil war while some still feel that they are not. Well, for anyone who cares--they are in a civil war.
One argument I've heard is that only 10-20% or so of the country is actually fighting and so it isn't really a civil war. But our civil war in the 1860s only killed 3% of the population. Not many more could have been actually fighting. A civil war doesn't bring all of the population to arms. Everyone is enveloped in the civil war but only a few are physically fighting it.
Some people who think Iraq is in a civil war, even suggest that we continue to remain there. No one got involved in our civil war. And if someone did, then it wouldn't have remained civil. The point of a civil war is that it is domestic. A foreign entity has no place militarily in another nation's civil war.
And it is too easy for historians to judge past civil wars and determine whether or not someone should have intervened. But policies aren't made in retrospect. No one can play fortune-teller and assume who is going to take power and if that is going to be a good thing for the U.S. And if it is good for the U.S. does that mean that it is good for Iraq? It is unfair to involve oneself militarily in the domestic matter of another nation.
In the end, it doesn't really matter what you call IT as long as IT is acknowledged. I think that people don't like to admit that it is a civil war because that implies that the war is out of U.S. control and that is an unsettling thought. But that is the reality of it like it or not. You can call it a "civil war" or you can call it, "a whimsically violent parade of explosive sectarian balloons" for all I care. Just don't pretend that nothing is happening over there.