Saturday, June 20, 2015

There is no more Iraq. It is time to seek allies in the fractured region and arm them to protect themselves.

How many refugee camps are flying the Iraq flag? 

Daesh is the enemy. Arming the Kurds is not going to cause a war of nations. If there are not enough troops that identify as Iraq, it is a waste of time and funding for the USA. Congress needs to come to grips with the reality of the Iraq War and move to support the ethnic groups that view the USA as an ally.

June 17, 2015
By Deb Riechmann
 
...Asked whether the 450 extra troops will make a difference in the fight against ISIS, Carter said the numbers are not as significant as the location, which is in the heart of Sunni territory. The U.S. is pushing for a more inclusive government in Baghdad that is representative of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, Iraq’s three major ethnic groups.
“As I’ve told Iraqi leaders, while the United States is open to supporting Iraq more than we already are, we must see a greater commitment from all parts of the Iraqi government,” Carter said, adding that the Iraqi leaders understand the need to empower a multisectarian Iraqi force as well as addressing organizational and leadership failures... 

For whatever it is worth, the USA is making a huge mistake by sending munitions into the region to train troops that will ultimately abandon the munitions they are issued to benefit Daesh. There are several times now the Iraqi military ran in the opposite direction allowing Daesh to take over more than that land; they took munitions as well. Then the Kurds are forced to match the next assault against their people. 

Hasn't the USA had enough of this disaster? Have the people in the region had enough?

They need to defend themselves if they will. 

I have just one suggestion DOD should consider. How many Iraqi citizens that consider themselves a part of the country of Iraq; and do not identify with their ethnicity first; are living in refugee camps? Just knowing there might be some sincere Iraqis in those camps doesn't mean they will fight. How will the DOD know those coming forward from a refugee camp are actually Iraqis?

But, the recruitment out of the refugee camps may prove to make a difference....


Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/06/17/3844495_carter-iraqi-training-goal-to.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
...Rep. Adam Smith, (click here) the committee’s ranking Democrat, cautioned that U.S. military might alone will not defeat IS.
“We can drop 200,000 U.S. troops in the middle of this. It won’t solve the problem,” Smith said.
Smith also questioned whether it’s not time to admit that Iraq is too fractured to continue trying to work through the central government in combating IS.
He asked Carter and Dempsey whether Baghdad should be told, “time’s up,” and the U.S. cannot afford to continue hoping a government of national unity can be established. “As I’ve said many times before, that cow has left the barn. Iraq is fractured. You can make a pretty powerful argument, in fact, that Iraq is no more,” Smith said.
Carter argued that it’s too soon to give up on Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who the U.S. believes is more willing to set up a representative government than his pro-Shia predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki.
“We have in Prime Minister Abadi … someone who I believe is genuinely committed to behaving in a decentralized, federalized, if you like, but multi-sectarian single state. … We’re still trying to support the prime minister in maintaining a decentralized but single unitary Iraqi state,” the defense secretary said....

Secretary Ashton Carter speaking to the Cyber Troops. (click here)

Secretary Carter talks about 30 minutes to the Cyber folks. It is a morale thing. These soldiers are having problems with burn out. So, he went to talk to them to let them know the people of the USA.

I have or read comments that Secretary Carter is arrogant. I just don't see it. There was a picture recently where he was reviewing some foreign soldiers as one of this duties as Secretary. When he was walking past them he assumed the posture of the soldiers. They were standing with their nose slightly in the air. He walked in the same posture as an expression of respect. if one caught his stride he appeared to be walking with his nose in the air. That wasn't arrogant. It was respect.

I've hear descriptors of former Secretary Clinton that she is scripted and distant. Where was I when that occurred. I haven't seen her scripted yet. I making the rounds for the party's nomination can become routine and perhaps that is what people are picking up, but, I don't see her as distant or scripted.

It is wonderful how successful Senator Sanders is in his campaign for the nomination. So many people in the party admire him as an Independent. He speaks for many, many people and it is always good to hear from him. But, the success he is having is wonderful. I am happy for him and his very much needed words of his policies. 

But, Secretary Carter is good to listen to for 30 minutes.  

It isn't about hate. I want justice. Justice is obtained through our laws, not our guns.


The 7th District AME Church (click here)

The families that spoke at the bail hearing of Mr. Roof are incredibly brave people. Their voices pulled at my heart and made by spirit stronger.

This act of terrorism was simply another event in the lives of African Americans in the USA. It was another event, STILL. I understand the words of the families when they forgave Mr. Roof. I sincerely do. I hold those people in my heart when I write about this horribly violent event.

I cannot get their terror at the time of their death out of mind. These people did not deserve to have the experience of such words and actions in their lives, especially at their death. 

I remember there were survivors. I remember the gun was well positioned to kill and not wound. Their lives were planned and mulled over before the event occurred. I cannot forget.

Within the history of the USA is the realization that if this happened fifty years ago it would be a black man the South Carolinian law enforcement officers would be hunting. There would be no doubt there was a black man possessed by the devil that carried out the crime.

Fifty years ago, a half a century, only a short time from the Civil War, the hate of the black man existed above all other hate.

Today, we stand the post. We are the watchmen that look out for the truth. Today, we embrace the truth to bring about sustaining justice. This is 2015. I can't believe I am still standing the post. There is no forgiveness and the justice has to be sustainable never to be repeated ever again.

Bill Maher is a charlatan? Really?

I really do not believe it is Mr. Maher that is the charlatan! (click here)

Mr. Lewis is a revisionist, (click here) both historically and in modern day current events. I think that makes Mr. Lewis the charlatan.

Unfortunately, "The Daily Beast" saw it fit to attempt to stone Bill Maher for a very forward leaning set of interviews beginning with Senator and Democratic Presidential Nominee Bernie Sanders.

The show was laced with all kinds of right wing hatred in the way of inaccuracies, including that of Ms. Coulter. 

But, Mr. Lewis, went out of his way to revise the facts regarding the deaths of nine wonderful, Christian, Rocks of the community. He states Mr. Roof attacked the church. No, he didn't attack the church and he never even thought of using a bomb. Mr. Roof was unemployed and I was surprised he had enough bullets to refill the gun five times. Five times. That is 30 bullets, right? If Mr. Roof had attacked the church with a gun he would have shot bullet holes into the exterior and possibly through windows, but, that isn't what Mr. Roof did.

Perhaps, Mr. Lewis should read the police and court documents. They really should be very accurate considering justice hangs in the balance. There are no words that describe the church being attacked, but, there are words describing nine death people, some very elderly. Mr. Roof has no respect for life and considering he was beginning a career of crime with a drug problem he didn't respect his own life.

Mr. Lewis stated something even I was interested in. He stated Mr. Roof would have passed any background check. Exactly. See, Mr. Roof had premeditated those murders. Mr. Roof only recently got into trouble with the law, but, hadn't been convicted yet. He knew if he was found guilty he would possibly lose the right to own a gun. He wanted to carry out those assassinations in that particular church real bad. He wanted it so bad he could taste it.

Mr. Lewis is correct and that only goes to prove why gun laws are required.

Efficient use of information can lead to efficient use of energy, knowledge and application of that knowledge.

This is Ann Coulter's profile picture in Wikipedia. She likes Wikipedia. She states the authors to the Bear Stearns study that states there are 30 million illegal immigrants and not 12 as the census states are infamously known through Wikipedia.

Let's just say, when an author is using Wikipedia as a raging source for information I get a little nervous.

Before I began to look for the Bear Stearns study I thought it would not be anywhere on the net because, let's face it Bear Stearns went belly up in 2008. But, I thought there might be a little glimmer of hope so I tried anyway.

Low and behold I found it.


The study was written in 2005, (click here) three years before the firm became worthless and the number quoted in the study is 20 million and not 30. Ms. Coulter states she took license with the numbers because her book was more recently written. Incorrect, the book was more recently published, we don't really know when it was written.

The point is when an author uses information from another source, it is suppose to be quoted correctly.

Now, I know I have no use for Ms. Coulter's book because it doesn't use sound principles, scientific or otherwise. There is a way of extrapolating information but evidently Ms. Coulter likes to fly by the seat of her pants, if she wears pants. 

There is something that really bothers me about the Bear Stearns study. It is not accurate. They searched (1) school enrollment, (2) house permits, (3) foreign remittances and (4) border crossings.

Let's just say Pedro crosses the border to the USA. He has made it out of Guatemala much to his surprise and has now crossed the Rio Grande. That is number (4). He finds the friend that wrote him and he settled on a room and board arrangement and made it official. That is number (2). Pedro goes with his friend to the "Day Labor Center" in Bakersfield, California and finds work. He works for one month and decides to send his family in Guatemala money. That is (3). With the violence in Guatemala his family decides to send his child, a beautiful little girl of age 8 to be with him. That is (4). She arrives to the place where Pedro is residing. She is enrolled in school and receives free lunches everyday she is in school and she attends regularly. DID YOU KNOW BAKERSFIELD HIGH SCHOOL HAS NO HALLWAYS? THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A MINUTE. But, that would be (1). Pedro also decided to attend the local community college for English as a second language. That is also (1).

According to the sources used by Bear Stearns, Pedro has been counted four times and his daughter twice. The methodology of the Bear Sterns study is highly inaccurate with a large margin of error. 

When the US Census is completed, the people being recorded are anonymous. There is a reason for that and it is called accuracy. The US Census already knows there are people that don't want to divulge their location, be they illegal immigrants or not. 

And the US Census does a really interesting thing. As unbelievable as it seems, they actually keep track of every possible dwelling location and they have district managers that are responsible for a paper record of all those dwellings potential inhabitants.

The district supervisors hire Americans to conduct door to door interviews where there has been no reporting. That's right, a human being walks from one door to another, or drives if in Montana, and asks the questions of the residents inside. Those Americans that speak Spanish are hired for areas that have Spanish speaking residents. 

Don't they just think of everything those Census people. 

But as to Bakersfield. The Undocumented work in Bakersfield and their children go to the public schools there. Agriculture. They harvest food products.

See, Bakersfield, California was never suppose to exist if nature had it's way. But, with technology 'of the day' there was an aqueduct built to Bakersfield because there is oil there as well. So, Bakersfield is a very dry place with an average annual rainfall of about 6.5 inches. That was annual rainfall. 

The lawns in Bakersfield exists because of sprinkler systems. They are nice lawns, too. I have friends that live in Bakersfield. See, the schools in Bakersfield found it much more efficient to build PODS of rooms and eliminate the hallways of a large single building. Why? Because air conditioning the hallways is a waste of energy. So, the doors to the classrooms are on the exterior of the building. That's right, every room opens to the outside. I never counted the number of rooms in a POD, but, it was about six to ten is a fair guess.

If the US Census states there are 11 million Undocumented Workers in the USA, then there are 11 million and not many more. There would be a very small margin of error with the methodology the US Census employs.  

Do you know there is a school called, "The Migrant School" and "Migrant Head Start" in Suttons Bay, Michigan? It's true. The migrants that come every year to pick cherries and produce and tend vineyards have their own school for their children. The teachers speak Spanish and understand the children. I know the people that run those schools know the families of the children very well. Just about the same families every year.

The families would really like to have their children becomes Americans, too.