The Right and the Left...Canadian Scene..politics

The new PC's (recreated Progressive Conservative Part,with Manning touch) managed to get the Parliament majority they were looking for. Good for them.No fear of another election for the next four years.

The far Left, who after all these years still call themselves NDP, NEW Democrats are now the opposition, amazing. Under Jack they almost wiped out the separatist Quebec bloc party and managed to put my old Friends, the Liberal Party into third place.

(PC 167  /NDP103   /Lib43 and bloc 4...) Both, Liberals and the bloc could not even get their leaders elected in their own riding's, while a number of seats in Quebec for the NDP went to some kids,one of them 19 years old young students who almost ran as a joke against the blog.One seat for the green party.

We now have a Majority Party running the country, the Progressive Conservatives, Prime Minister the Honourable Stephen Harper. The Official Opposition, the NDP ( should change their name to National Democratic Party instead of New...) their gifted leader Jack ...no not Lenin...ah. Leighton... Full credit to this fellow.I think it is sad that the once mighty Liberal Party could not even get their leader elected and have been pushed into third place. A lot of rebuilding to be done here.

The Liberals, down to 43 seats...their own leader Michael Ignatieff..no seat..resigned.

The formerly powerful separatist Bloc, 4 seats...2 of them re-elected..leader resigned.

...the picture shows the prime minister and his wife returning to Ottawa from his Alberta riding..

Osama/Obama/the mafia hit scene...

I'm convinced this Usama Bin  Laden fellow was a horrible man .Someone  with his intelligence, organizing skills, wealth connections and more  went terribly  wrong somewhere. Acting like a religious mystic of Islam...I can't imagine that he was much of a Muslim if a humanitarian at all. Almost 10 years after the miserable 9/11 misdeed he is finally dead it looks like. I'm not sure the world is any safer than last week but it least it's the end of one mass murder chapter...

Not much more I can add here, I'm sure it has all been said, not much else on the news here the last day or so. The North African region is ready for an individual or group to make something out of this area. By distributing the incredible oil wealth the people of the African Continent (over a billion) could easily prosper together instead of living in poverty. For a few thousand this ridiculous wealth,much of it totally wasted. Bin Laden should have taken aim at Saudi Arabia and similar related oil rich areas to do some good and distribute some of the riches. Instead, he ended up hiding in a big house in Pakistan...with wives and children..some hero,some mystic,until he finally got bumped of by an American hit squad.The highly trainet elite group, Navy Seals....
Next...Omar.

The picture shows the presidents team watching the action as it unfolds..

Der amerikanische Mob jubelt vor dem Weißen Haus über die Nachricht vom Tod des "Terror-Teufels" (BLÖD). Die USA sind eines der gewalttätigsten Länder der Erde mit den meisten Feuerwaffen in Privatbesitz und der höchsten Mord- und Totschlagsrate....German news detail..

The Germans are not all that enthused about this Bin  Laden killing...not that the monster has been eliminated but how this was accomplished......they usually go right along with uncle Sam's strange ways...but appear to have reservations about this latest turn of events. Guess they've had their fill of world politics and are more interested in the fuss ball scores...

NEWS...the wedding

UK...the wedding

Great TV  worldwide, wonderful feel good peaceful coverage. I'm glad to see that  this British event went without serious troubles and bloodshed.
Amazingly, the popular former PM Mr.Blair was not invited. Or for that matter Mr.Brown. Two former Prime Ministers of previous ( not Labour) Governments were there. The Ambassador from Syria was uninvited following the current turmoil there. Our own S.Harper ( Prime Minister until next Monday)...was invited but because of the upcoming uncertain election here he decided not to attend. My own invitation was probably lost in the mail along with my T4 slips.

revolution.evolution.ottomanempire.africa/asia turmoil..etc...

...the last few days have kept us busy following events in Japan...truly a disaster,earthquake, tsunami and now the escape of radiation from the 5 atomic power reactors in the quake zone.

For a few days the efforts in North africa by the inhabitants of a number of countries have almost taken second place in the news.
Finally,a new coalition has made attempts to take a shot at this idiot in Libya.
to give you an idea as to what this region looks like today...here is an updated map:

Spanish....you really wanted to know...right?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia during the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the later Medieval period.

Modern Spanish developed with the "Readjustment of the Consonants" that began in 15th century. The language continues to adopt foreign words from a variety of other languages, as well as developing new words. Spanish was taken most notably to the Americas as well as to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, where it became the most important language for government and trade.
In 1999, there were according to Ethnologue 358 million people speaking Spanish as a native language and a total of 417 million speakers worldwide. Currently these figures are up to 400 and 500 million people respectively. Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and used as an official language of the European Union, and Mercosur. Spanish is the second most studied language in the world, after English.

revolution.evolution.ottomanempire

Incredible historical changes in the region of North Africa. It's been a long time in coming nobody has any idea where this will lead...
The best thing that could happen would be a group of intelligent natives of the region to get together and form the United States of Northern Africa...

Egypt...and all that

...this fellow Mubarak...when he's done is not exactly leaving empty handed. In fact,accordinng to wiki-leaks he and his immediate family managed to amass a fortune somewhere between Bill Gates and Warren Buffets worth, ...about 50 Billion Dollars  of goodies invested in foreign bank accounts and businesses.

Egypt 101.0 the road to democracy

Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922) was a Turkish state, which at the height of its power (16th - 17th centuries) spanned three continents  controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and most of North Africa. The empire has been called by historians a "Universal Empire" due to both Roman and Islamic traditions.[65]

The empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. The Ottoman Empire was the only Islamic power to seriously challenge the rising power of Western Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries. With Istanbul (or Constantinople) as its capital, the Empire was in some respects an Islamic successor of earlier Mediterranean empires - the Roman and Byzantine empires.
The Ottoman empire was friendly with the German Reich and after WW1 fell apart leaving the bulk of the territories to be administered by Britain, and the leftover base became Turkey.


Kingdom of Egypt
The new government drafted and implemented a constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability due to remaining British influence and increasing political involvement by the king led to the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'état known as the 1952 Revolution. The Free Officers Movement forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. British military presence in Egypt lasted until 1954.[31]

Republic
On June 18, 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser – the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President in June, 1956. British forces completed their withdrawal from the occupied Suez Canal Zone on June 13, 1956. He nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, prompting the 1956 Suez Crisis.

American wars.....project in progress

 With the following it is my intention to list American wars since the formation of the 13 original colonies on the east coast of the United States, wars are headlined in bold print, so called police actions or minor conflicts are listed but not in bold type. I will try to add my own comments if any  at the end of each paragraph.

American Revolution (1775–1783) Great Britain forced its 13 American colonies to pay taxes but did not give them representation in the British Parliament. This and other injustices led the colonies to declare independence on July 4, 1776. Independence was achieved in 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed with Britain.

War of 1812 (1812–1815)
British interference with American trade, imprisonment of American seamen, and “war hawks” in Congress calling for western expansion into British territory led to war. At the wars conclusion, trade issues remained unresolved, but Britain gave up some of its territorial claims on the continent.Ontario, now Canada was involved.

Mexican War (1846–1848)
The U.S. annexation of Texas, and its stated desire to acquire California and other Mexican territory, precipitated this war. Mexico was forced to give up two-fifths of its territory. This land eventually became the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.


Civil War (1861–1865)
Economic and political rivalry between an agrarian South and an industrial North grew into a civil war fought over slavery and states' rights. Eleven states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. The Union victory led to the reunification of the country and ended slavery.

Indian Wars (colonial era to 1890)
U.S. expansionism led to numerous military conflicts with the indigenous inhabitants of North America, forcing them to give up their land. The massacre at Wounded Knee, S.D., in 1890 is generally considered the last of these conflicts.


Spanish American War (1898)
The U.S. supported Cuba's desire for independence from Spanish rule, and seized the opportunity to expand U.S. powers in other parts of the world. At the end of the brief conflict, Cuba gained its independence, and the U.S. gained several former Spanish territories: Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.USA built extensive road network in Cuba 1912.


World War I (1914–1918)
Rivalries over power, territory, and wealth led to the “Great War.” In 1917, the U.S. joined the Allies (Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan), who were at war with the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and  to a degree Turkey), after German submarines began sinking unarmed ships. Outbreak of the influenza probably stopped this mad war.


World War II (1939–1945)
The Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—attempted to dominate the world. The Allies (U.S., Britain, France, USSR, and others) fought to stop them. The United States entered the war in 1941, after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Germany surrendered in 1945, and Japan surrendered later that same year, after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Korean War (1950–1953)
Communist North Korea, supported by China, invaded non-communist South Korea. UN forces, principally made up of U.S. troops, fought successfully to protect South Korea. The Korean War was the first armed conflict in the global struggle between democracy and communism, called the cold war.

Bay of Pigs (1961) The U.S. orchestrated the invasion, an unsuccessful attempt by Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro's communist regime in Cuba.President Kennedy took full responsibility for this.Miniature conflict not a war. But here it is as a point of interest.


Vietnam (1961–1973)
 In 1955, communist North Vietnam invaded non-communist South Vietnam in an attempt to unify the country and impose communist rule. The United States joined the war on the side of South Vietnam in 1961, but withdrew combat troops in 1973. In 1975 North Vietnam succeeded in taking control of South Vietnam.The USA inherited this mess from France; Indochina.

a few other conflicts...not exactly wars but trouble The USA has been involved in:

Dominican Republic (1965) President Lyndon Johnson sent marines and troops to quash a leftist uprising in the Dominican Republic, fearing the island nation would follow in the footsteps of Cuba and turn communist.

Lebanon (1982–1984) U.S. troops formed part of a multinational peacekeeping force to help the fragile Lebanese government maintain power.

Grenada (1983) President Reagan invaded the Caribbean nation of Grenada to overthrow its socialist government, which had close ties with Cuba.

Panama (1989) President George H.W. Bush invaded Panama and overthrew Panamanian dictator and drug-smuggler Manuel Noriega.


Gulf (1991) Iraq invaded Kuwait, and a U.S.-led multinational force came to Kuwait's aid and expelled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's forces.


Somalia (1993) A U.S.-led multinational force attempted to restore order to war-torn Somalia so that food could be delivered and distributed within the famine-stricken country.

Bosnia (1994–1995) During the Bosnian civil war, which began shortly after the country declared independence in 1992, the U.S. launched air strikes on Bosnia to prevent “ethnic cleansing,” primarily by Serbs against Bosnians. The U.S. became a part of NATO's peacekeeping force in the region.

Kosovo (1999) Yugoslavia's province of Kosovo erupted into violence in the spring of 1999. A U.S.-led NATO force intervened with air strikes after  Serbian forces uprooted the population and embarked on the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population.

Afghanistan (2001- currently ongoing conflict)
The Taliban government harbored Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist group, responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. After Afghanistan refused to turn over Bin Laden, the U.S. and UN coalition forces invaded. The Taliban government was ousted and many terrorist camps in Afghanistan were destroyed. U.S. and NATO troops remain in Afghanistan to support its fragile new government.


Iraq (2003–2012)
The U.S. and Great Britain invaded and toppled the government of dictator Saddam Hussein. Troops remain in Iraq to combat the insurgency that formed after Hussein's defeat. Ib think that one is over...2012 ? not?

a reprint...we the people

This scares the hell out of me.  George H.W. Bush is the kingpin behind all these evil plots against us by Dick, Karl Rove, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, the like.
I found this somewhere...it's a couple of years old but still interesting...
Old Pappy brought with him to power, and these crooks would include his worthless spoiled-brat rich-kid sons and his one daughter. The Bush family from Day 1 of its existence back in Ohio when old Sam Bush went into cahoots with the Harriman family to grab banksful of government-back railroad equipment contracts--on down through Prescott Bush who through the Bush Family-Harriman-connected banking interests kept Adolph Schickelgruber's money and investments safe for him--on through World War II up to this very day has lived off government doles and tax-break-loopholes and rich-family privilege. And this is especially true about the very worthless Pappy Bush and his worthless branch of the family. Pappy's the Prescott-Bush boy who after failing in his business attempts (for instance his Zapata Offshore Drilling company--which he had trouble making ends meet with even given the big tax breaks for oil people on the books back in the late 40s and early 50s--remember the oil-depletion allowance?) turned to politics for his We-the-People-provided nest egg.

So We the People keep on supporting these worthless old political baggages and family empires and hidden-wealth "non-profit" thereby tax-free foundationed families. These richer-than-God assholes all of whom have lived off We the People for over a century now. This bunch of freeloaders also includes now all these hedge-fund billionaires and their worthless families. Did you know thanks to their power in Washington, the District of Corruption, hedge-fund pirates pay no taxes on their capital gains? Another gift to these crooks from We the Stupid Scardie-cat People. Like Warren "Jive Ass" Buffett, a filthy-rich hedge-fund pirate. His old pappy was a conniving shiftless-skunk politician and Wall Street finagler, which means Buffett's family have also feathered their nest with government doles and tax breaks.
It is so frustrating for a clear-thinking American to comprehend how in spite of these creepy Republicans, the Teabagger or the rightwing nutjob side of the Party, whichever, being responsible for our ungodly deficits in the first place--starting with the Great Communicator and his economy-wrecking economic policies and going on through the further economy-wrecking voodoo economics of Pappy "Read My Lips" Bush--the largest-ever deficit until his son took over in 2000 with a Democrat President's surplus and drove us down to the point of economic disaster we are now in--We the People of the USA who vote keep putting them back into power--this in spite of the Democratic presidents of the past being the only leaders to overcome these economic depressions Republican Hoover-Reaganomics gets us into.

In the current budget, the Pentagon rakes in about 1 trillion bucks--and since the Pentagon hasn't been audited in over a decade, We the People of the USA have no idea how these military monkeys are wasting that grabbag of good ole worthless US bucks they've got their unregulated sticky mitts on--all of which We the People's hard-earned money--dumbass Americans working for $30,000-a-year for fat cats making 10-to-100 times as much. How dumb are We the People to be also keeping on struggling to keep up payments on credit cards designed by these fat cat accountants/bankers/financiers/corporate lawyers to keep us in a perpetual debt. Or keeping our money in these big Goliath banks (like it's gotten so out of hand, Snoopy has his Met-Life Bank; Walmart has declared itself a bank; PayPal is a bank) or continuing to go to them for loans or remortgaging schemes. We the People as income-earners are in debt and the corporate bosses ain't creating any new lower-or-upper-level jobs and the workers look around and see half of the old staff now gone, outplaced, leaving them with more work, maybe a new title, but with less money. Plus, the new "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" philosophy (which Mr. Compromise Obama has taken up as his philosophy, too) says it's up to the worker to take care of himself and his or her family in terms of getting ahead and not the job of the 1% Power Elite who now control the US government and as such control us, too. Workers either working or out of work have no time or the knowledge to stop and think about their situations. Instead they keep on faithfully struggling for honest bucks at the same time FEARING either losing what barely-making-it job they currently have or FEARING perhaps not being able to find another job when they eventually do get laid off or FEARING suddenly being hit with a crippling disease or being in a car wreck and becoming unable to work, blah, blah, blah--while up above these scared shitless workers in their luxurious top-floor corner offices--those sacred corporate upper rooms containing those altars to Mammon housed in those sacred cathedrals of high finance all full of corporate priests, the fat cats who are busy planning their next fabulous vacation ("We're sailing one of the yachts down to Bora Bora....") or their next teleconference ("I want to meet with the Cleveland office on this workplace spying technology one of their best and brightest has come up with....") or their next vision for the company ("How do we get more work for less money out of these high-paid lazy American workers?"). Our economy is tanking--wars actually wrecking us, but, hey, you can't complain about these wars--without them, we'd all be shoveling shit or selling rotten apples and lead pencils on the street corners--or maybe our women, including our mothers, our wives, or our daughters will have to become whores; fat cats with lots of money and power need whores. That's the true role of women in the Power Elite world.
It is a New World Order dropping down on us like a big net. And this New World Order is a military order. The Bush Family has made millions off all the wars they've put into motion--Pappy Bush and his futile Persian Gulf War (the only war we've won, according to Pappy, since WWII (paying for it using Pappy's scheme of forcing Japan and his Saudi-Arabian pals and other of our allies to help him pay for it) and the two unending wars perpetrated on us by his worthless, spoiled-brat, AWOL-coward, numbskull (Skull & Bones--"Hey, Georgie Porgie, come 'ere and suck my dick! It's a brotherhood thing, bro"), lying-like-a-dog son. The Bushes love war and money. And We the People keep giving their wars and all our money along with 'em.

USA 150 years after the civil war...2011

I don't think any country is easy to govern. Even a democracy or especially a democratically elected government will have its considerable problems and obstacles.
But I still believe, firmly, that President Obama is the right person for the time and if anyone can change the totally screwed up scene in Washington then I still believe he is the right individual to do so...
So much needs to be done. The infrastructure not only in the USA but as well in Canada needs to be updated,renewed,overhauled, repaired and brand new innovative ideas need to be put in place.

If we can find the money to keep the two idiotic war fronts going, with no gain or reward for us whatsoever, we should be able to find the resources to update the infrastructure systems of  our country.

Dear Fred --

This time of year, Americans around the country are taking the time to exchange heartfelt messages with friends and loved ones, reflecting on the past year. They write of achievements and setbacks, of births, graduations, promotions, and moves.
These messages allow us to overcome the miles that separate us. And they allow us to continue one of the most basic American traditions that has held folks close for centuries -- the simple sharing of stories.
And as families gather around holiday tables this season, we also have the opportunity to share the stories of the change this movement has achieved together.
It is a narrative woven by individuals across America -- in big cities and small towns, hospitals and classrooms, in auto manufacturing plants and auto supply stores.
These are stories of rebuilding, and of innovation. Stories of communities breathing new life into old roads and bridges, of local plants harnessing alternative fuel into new energy. Stories of small businesses getting up, dusting themselves off, and beginning to grow again. Stories of soldiers who served multiple tours of duty in Iraq now coming home -- and enjoying the holidays this year in the company of loved ones.
These are stories of progress.
They unite us, and they are ours to share.
We've pulled many of them together in one place, PROGRESS. You can see what our reforms have meant to Americans in every state -- block by block, community by community.
The reforms that we fought long and hard for are not talking points.
And their effects don't change based on the whims of politicians in Washington. They are achievements that have a real and meaningful impact on the lives of Americans around the country. They are achievements that would not have been possible without you. PROGRESS localizes them -- and brings them to life.
It tells of how a green technology business in Phoenix, Arizona, is using a grant through the Recovery Act's Transportation Electrification program to bring the first electric-drive vehicles and charging stations to cities around the country.
And about how, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 22,900 small businesses in Utah's 2nd Congressional District are now eligible for health care tax credits -- and how 17,500 residents in Idaho's 1st with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage.
Let's celebrate the spirit of service and responsibility that brought them to fruition. And let's steady ourselves with the resolve to continue pressing forward.
Because the coming year will hold new challenges -- battles that have yet to be fought, and stories of progress that have yet to be written.
Happy holidays, and God bless,
Barack

more...

2010 almost over, many issues unresolved. America,the federal state as well as all or most individual states are in dire straits, hard to believe that this wealthy country could have sunk so deeply into a quagmire with no easy out.
Most of the euro group is in the same mess, either bankrupt or nearly so. How could this modern world with all it's universities and well educated people get into such a horrible rut? Greed.

And a happy thanksgiving to you and your family..sir

Fred --
When Michelle and I sit down with our family to give thanks today, I want you to know that we'll be especially grateful for folks like you.
Everything we have been able to accomplish in the last two years was possible because you have been willing to work for it and organize for it.
And every time we face a setback, or when progress doesn't happen as quickly as we would like, we know that you'll be right there with us, ready to fight another day.

So I want to thank you -- for everything.
I also hope you'll join me in taking a moment to remember that the freedoms and security we enjoy as Americans are protected by the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces. These patriots are willing to lay down their lives in our defense, and each of us owes them and their families a debt of gratitude.

Have a wonderful day, and God bless.
Barack

 

flashpoints Korea and Iran...

Welcome to Iran Magazine ( copied)
Iran is one of the biggest news stories. But it is being covered by the mainstream media in sound bites or by information disseminated by Web sites connected to interest groups, political parties and bloggers with no experience in journalism.The trend in journalism is toward specialization. But even as America’s central geopolitical position becomes ever more tied to the social, cultural and political conditions in the rest of the world, U.S. news organizations continue their contraction, closing or scaling back foreign bureaus, choosing to invest fewer and fewer resources to cultivate editorial and reporting staffs who can become, in effect, area experts.
The gap that has widened between the mainstream media coverage and the goings on in the region has contributed to increasing tensions between the West and East, dehumanizing the perception of Middle Easterners — Iranians in particular.
Tehran Bureau is a virtual bureau connecting journalists, Iran experts and readers all over the world. Our stories are written by Iranians in Iran and the Middle East, foreigners viewing or interacting with our culture for the first time, and hyphenated Iranians best suited to bridge the cultures.
Tehran Bureau is an independent news organization. It is not affiliated with or funded by any government, religious organization, political party, lobby or interest group. Read more about us on the Columbia Journalism School Web site.Iran...
North Korea:
It appears that the two serious flash points for the USA is Iran as well as North Korea. To a degree the attitude to North Korea is somewhat understandable, we must remember that the war with this nation was never concluded, finalised or whatever. Where this is going, nobody knows. I found the parade of young women on TV yesterday, with machine guns as rather grotesque.
Iran:
This country under the Shaw/King was a friend of the USA. It was USA and Canada I believe who sold Iran all sorts of atomic energy junk...they probably never needed it in the first place. Mr. Carter was unable to deal with the hostage crises and relations with this country never got back on the rails. It was okay with us for Iran and Iraq to beat up on one another, the west did not care and sold arms to both sides.

America....Taryn Simon...a must see

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/643

Germany.. huge ransom paid, ten thousand tons of gold...

A brief but important item on the news here yesterday....apparently, Germany just paid off the last of the world war 1 debts, an amount set by the then allies ( France, Britain and the USA) who were at war with the Reich from 1914 til 1918. War broke out in 1914, lasted until 1918 and the settlement conditions were imposed on the new German Republic (  Weimar Republic) in 1922. The USA only got involved in1917 but President Woodrow Wilson attempted to play a large role in the settlement.

...an ounce of gold in today's market sells for between 1200 and 1300 Dollars...I believe an ounce is equal to 35 grammes...1000 grammes per kilogram or 1,000- Kilogrammes per ton (2,000 pounds per ton or is it 2240#)...you do the math...it's horrendous.

The amount set by the so called victors, mostly France and Britain amounted to trillions of Gold marks or dollars...the equivalent of 9,800 tons of gold. After over 90 years, apparently Germany just paid off the last part of this horrendous assessment.

It must be remembered that four years after the end of WW1, the victors  imposed this on Germany. It must be undersdtood  that this war was not won or lost, there was an armistice but it also was the end of the golden years for Germany, lasting from 1871 when Germany was created until 1918, the end of WW I and the turmoil that followed.
It was the Versailles Treaty which to a large extend brought about the Hitler 3rd. Reich fascism regime and the disastrous second world war. (1939-1945 ending in total capitulation and destruction of Germany,loss of large regions of the country to Poland and Russia, and finally the creation of two german countries...one a puppet state of the USA, the other an even worse puppet dictatorship of the Soviet Union)....

Back in 1870....

Prussia beat the French ( Napoleon 3rd.) and Germany was created (1871)out of hundreds of bits and pieces of German speaking duchies and communities,( Flickenteppich they called it, or Carpetpatchwork).. miniature bits and pieces of what once was supposed to have been the holy roman empire of German nations.....which was never holy or roman, or for that matter much of an empire...The largest original component was the Kingdom of Prussia..

French provinces or territories, Elsass and Lothringen became part of the newly created German Reich.

Israel....now

Neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post shares Time’s malevolence toward the Jewish state, but both of these papers ran major features in the past week discussing whether Israel’s hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu could turn into a peacemaker.

All Israeli prime ministers have seized any opportunity for peace. The hawkish  Begin returned the Sinai for a peace treaty with Egypt and sought one with Lebanon as well.
The even more hawkish  Sharon ordered the Gaza withdrawal. The left-of-center hawk,
Rabin, signed the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and the Oslo agreements with the PLO, and,
Barak, a former military commander, pulled Israeli forces entirely out of Lebanon. The Israeli public’s yearning for peace is so strong that no leader, of whatever feather, can afford to spurn a chance for it.
In contrast, Arab publics have rarely supported peace and few of their rulers have espoused it. The exceptions have mostly been assassinated, notably Jordan’s first King Abdullah, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, and Lebanon’s Bashir Gemayel.

President Abbas, who presides over the West Bank, is clearly more a man of peace than his predecessor, Yasir Arafat, or than Hamas, the anti-Semitic terror group that rules Gaza. Is he ready and able  to make a deal? Would he dare? And does he or the Palestinian Community Network represent Palestinian sentiment? These are the real questions, and not whether Israelis want peace, which only the blind or the bigoted could doubt.

9th.anniversary...9/11

9/11  a day to remember.
But more later,
 I just wanted to get this date on the blog. I usually write my stuff on the fly..but this subject needs a bit of thinking and putting down the right words. The deed itself, blowing up the world trade center towers, part of the Pentagon and attempting to do even more damage, all on one day, is actually quite remarkable for a bunch of suicide committing religious fanatics. Subsequently, for the USA to murder 1.3 million people in Iraq and totally destroying their country is of course another matter.

We are lucky to have a fellow like Mr. Obama who may possibly be able to bring this totally idiotic nonsense to an end. Will the responsible parties ever have to face justice? Probably not. I'm talking about Blair and Bush 2...along with the military ammo pushers who promoted these crimes in the first place.
....the picture has nothing to do with it...Muslim females running from something...one of them dead or wounded in the gutter...could be Gaza for all I know, but the effect is the same.
An end must be found to stop this.

Iraq

"Only tyrants can take a nation to war without the consent of the people. The planned war against Iraq without a Declaration of War is illegal. It is unwise because of many unforeseen consequences that are likely to result.It is immoral and unjust, because it had nothing to do with United States security and because Iraq had not initiated aggression against us."
Congressman Ron Paul (How true that statement has proved to be).

THE IRAQ DEBACLE: THE LEGACY OF SEVEN YEARS OF WAR

The U.S. occupation of Iraq continues and the reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq can at best be called only a rebranded occupation. While the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will be reduced from a high of 165,000, there will still be 50,000 troops left behind, some 75,000 contractors, five huge “enduring bases” and an Embassy the size of Vatican City.

The U.S. military’s overthrow of the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein did not lead to a better life for Iraqis—just the opposite. It resulted in the further destruction of basic infrastructure—electricity, water, sewage—that continues to this day. The U.S. dropped more tons of bombs on Iraq than in all of WWII, destroying Iraq’s electrical, water and sewage systems. Iraq’s health care and higher education systems, once the best in the entire region, have been decimated. The U.S. war on Iraq unleashed a wave of violence that has left over one million Iraqis dead and four million displaced, as well as ethnic rivalries that continue to plague the nation. We have seriously wounded millions of Iraqis, creating a lifetime of suffering and economic hardship for them, their communities and the entire nation as it struggles to rebuild.

Life expectancy for Iraqis fell from 71 years in 1996 to 67 years in 2007 due to the war and destruction of the healthcare system. The U.S. use of weapons such as depleted uranium and white phosphorous has taken a severe toll, with the cancer rate in Fallujah, for example, now worse than that of Hiroshima.

The majority of the refugees and internally displaced persons created by the US intervention have been abandoned. Of the nearly 4 million refugees, many are now living in increasingly desperate circumstances in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and around the world. As undocumented refugees, most are not allowed to work and are forced to take extremely low paying, illegal jobs ($3/day) or rely on the UN and charity to survive. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has documented a spike in the sex trafficking of Iraqi women.

Iraq still does not have a functioning government. Many months after the March 7 elections, there is still a political vacuum and violence that is killing roughly 300 civilians a month. There is no functioning democracy in place and little sign there will be one in the near future.

The Iraq War has left a terrible toll on the U.S. troops. More than one million American service members have deployed in the Iraq War effort. Over 4,400 U.S. troops have been killed and tens of thousands severely injured. More than one in four U.S. troops have come home from the Iraq war with health problems that require medical or mental health treatment. PTSD rates in the military have skyrocketed. In 2009, a record number of 245 soldiers committed suicide.

The war has drained our treasury. As of August 2010, U.S. taxpayers have spent over $750 billion on the Iraq War effort. Counting the cost of lifetime care of wounded vets and the interest payments on the money we borrowed to pay for this war, the real cost will be in the trillions. This misappropriation of funds has contributed to the economic crises we are experiencing, including the lack of funds for our schools, healthcare, infrastructure and investments in clean, green jobs.

The U.S. officials who got us into this disastrous war on the basis of lies have not been held accountable. Not George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld. No one. Neither have the Bush administration lawyers who authorized torture, including Jay Bybee and John Yoo. The “think tanks,” journalists and pundits who perpetuated the lies have not been fired—most are today cheerleading for the war in Afghanistan.

The war has led to the pillaging of Iraqi resources. The U.S. Department of Defense has been unable to account for $8.7 billion of Iraqi oil and gas money meant for humanitarian needs and reconstruction after the 2003 invasion. The invasion has also led to the dismantling of Iraqi government control over the nation’s oil. In 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force, which included executives of America’s largest energy companies, recommended opening up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment. The resulting Iraq Oil Law has led to the global grab for Iraq’s resources.

The war has not made us more secure. The US policy of torture, extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention, violent and deadly raids on civilian homes, gunning down innocent civilians in the streets and absence of habeas corpus has fueled the fires of hatred and extremism toward Americans. The very presence of our troops in Iraq and other Muslim nations has become a recruiting tool.