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Archive for the ‘Baby Boomer Politics’ Category
Foward from “American Solutions” by Vince Haley
Thursday, May 6th, 2010Mexico’s laws tougher on immigration: Fowarded from the office of Congressman Steve King
Monday, May 3rd, 2010Click here for article below in the Washington Times.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/03/mexicos-illegals-laws-tougher-than-arizonas/
Regional Representative
Congressman Steve King
526 Nebraska Street
Sioux City, Iowa 51101
(712) 224-4692 phone
(712) 224-4693 fax
Sign up for Steve King’s E-Newsletter at http://steveking.house.gov/index.cfm
Follow Steve King on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SteveKingIA
Follow Steve King on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RepSteveKing
_____________________________________________
From: Boggess, Jacqueline
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 8:19 AM
Subject: Washington Times
“This sounds like the kind of law that a rational nation would have to protect itself against illegal immigrants — that would stop and punish the very people who are violating the law,” said Rep. Steve King of Iowa, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, refugees, border security and international law.
“Why would Mr. Calderon have any objections to an Arizona law that is less draconian than his own, one he has pledged to enforce?” Mr. King said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/03/mexicos-illegals-laws-tougher-than-arizonas/
Mexico’s illegals laws tougher than Arizona’s
Calderon condemns ‘racial discrimination’
By Jerry Seper
Mexican President Felipe Calderon denounced as “racial discrimination” an Arizona law giving state and local police the authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants and vowed to use all means at his disposal to defend Mexican nationals against a law he called a “violation of human rights.”
But the legislation, signed April 23 by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, is similar to Reglamento de la Ley General de Poblacion — the General Law on Population enacted in Mexico in April 2000, which mandates that federal, local and municipal police cooperate with federal immigration authorities in that country in the arrests of illegal immigrants.
Under the Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison. Immigrants who are deported and attempt to re-enter can be imprisoned for 10 years. Visa violators can be sentenced to six-year terms. Mexicans who help illegal immigrants are considered criminals.
The law also says Mexico can deport foreigners who are deemed detrimental to “economic or national interests,” violate Mexican law, are not “physically or mentally healthy” or lack the “necessary funds for their sustenance” and for their dependents.
“This sounds like the kind of law that a rational nation would have to protect itself against illegal immigrants — that would stop and punish the very people who are violating the law,” said Rep. Steve King of Iowa, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, refugees, border security and international law.
“Why would Mr. Calderon have any objections to an Arizona law that is less draconian than his own, one he has pledged to enforce?” Mr. King said.
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security, described Mr. Calderon’s comments as “hypocritical to say the least.”
“I would have expected more from Mr. Calderon,” said Mr. Kyl, who serves as the Senate minority whip. “We are spending millions of dollars to help Mexico fight the drug cartels that pose a threat to his government, and he doesn’t seem to recognize our concerns. He ought to be apologizing to us instead of condemning us.”
Mr. Kyl, along with fellow Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, has introduced a 10-point comprehensive border security plan to combat illegal immigration, drug and human smuggling, and violent crime along the southwestern border. It includes the deployment of National Guard troops, an increase in U.S. Border Patrol agents and 700 miles of fencing, along with other equipment and funding upgrades.
He said skyrocketing violence on the border, including the recent killing of an Arizona rancher by an illegal immigrant he had gone to assist, has not gone unnoticed by the public, adding that until the federal government provides the necessary funding and manpower to adequately secure the southwestern border, Arizona will not long remain the only state to pass legislation to do it on its own.
Jacqueline Boggess
Press Assistant
Congressman Steve King
202-225-4426 (P)
202-225-3193 (F)
Sign up for Steve King’s E-Newsletter at http://steveking.house.gov/index.cfm
Not Without an Invitation…….!
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Not Without an Invitation…!
At the end of 2009, gate crashers managed to breach two clear areas of security and attend a state dinner arranged to honor the Indian Prime Minister, so we are told. The cheeky and socially ambitious Tareq Salahi and his wife Michaele managed to get past reportedly impregnable security checks, including at least two Secret Service checks and a scanner, and mingle with the great and good at a glittering affair attended by everyone who is anyone.
After bluffing their way into the East Room where cocktails were served, the Salahis were photographed with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and continued to meet and greet dozens of honored (and presumably invited) guests such as United States Vice President Joe Biden and the Indian Embassy Chief of Mission Arun K Singh.
White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs, presumably with President Obama’s approval, emphatically stated that crashers Tareq Salahi and his wife Michaele were NOT invited – NOT on the guest list – despite the Salahis’ assurances that an invitation was issued.
Yet some interesting observations have surfaced concerning the alleged ‘gate crashing’ of this White House formal dinner. Mr Obama’s attitude to the incident and reported anger ‘apres dinner’ at the ‘sloppy’ security measures taken to exclude unwanted guests suggests the crashers were unwelcome strangers and in no way acquainted with the first couple.
Weeks later, we are presented with photographs taken of the once Senator Obama being obviously chummy with the Salahis: smiling faces; arms linked – in what is becoming a typical contradiction in so many matters that concern the new president.
Why the song and dance routine about the incompetence of the Secret Service and the call for tighter security? Sceptics are suggesting that the President is attempting to ‘throw the Secret Service under the bus’… If so: why?
Whatever agenda there might be behind closed doors, the Secret Service has since been forced to review security policies on state occasions, resulting in stringent and probably costly adjustments to existing procedures.
Not for the first time, the chameleon-like Obama appears in a totally different light to the one we all originally perceived. Or did we? Did the president ever really categorically state that he had NOT INVITED the Salahis? Or did he actually criticize the Secret Service security procedure simply because the Salahis were not in possession of a valid invitation? Did Joe Biden present an invitation? Did the Indian Chief of Mission present his? What did Obama actually complain about? Does anyone know, apart from the Secret Service itself?
Was he really enraged about sloppy and ineffective security or was he simply ticked off because a pair of social climbers he would prefer to forget he ever met managed to freeload a fancy White House formal reception? The question marks that concern the motives of President Obama typify the mysterious personality of America’s newest and most unpredictable president and lead us to wonder what will turn up next…?
The Salahis’ presence at the White House State affair was certainly knowingly contrived without a formal invitation, explaining why they did not attempt to take seats at dinner: the absence of their names on the seating plan would prompt an immediate security check, however inattentive the Secret Service might have been.
If publicity was the true motive of the Salahis, they have certainly achieved a level of attention with their party crashing stunt: so has Obama.
Boomer Yearbook is a Social Network and Psychological Articles for Baby Boomers. Connect with old and new friends, or expand your mind and ward off senior moments and elderly problems with dream analysis and online optical illusions and brain games provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Turner. Join other Baby Boomers to stay informed, receive weekly Newsfeeds, and let your opinions be heard. Baby boomers changed the world. We’re not done yet!
Feb. 15, 2010:
Check out this link for other interesting information regarding Obama administration affiliations:
Massive takedown of Obama’s and Baucus’s playing footsie with Big Pharma | Corrente
Mr. Obama: Can You Hear Us Yet…..?!
Friday, January 8th, 2010
The wishes and desires of valuable voters continue to go in one of President Obama’s ears and out of the other, with the 2010 Congressional elections predicted to bleed Democratic representation. With approximately 60% of polled opinion vehemently against the health reforms being politically force fed to the nation, it is perhaps to be expected that the 2010 Congressional elections and the 2012 presidential election might well be an awakening of souls!
Some believe a president’s approval rating matters a great deal more than many of the political issues that surround the economy. Obama’s ability to mobilize a powerful voting machine could well turn around his popularity and produce rabbits out of the hat in 2012 but such theatrical stunts are disapproved of by Obama’s competitors and supporters alike.
President Obama’s first year in office has consistently been profiled as a baptism by fire, with socialized healthcare predicted to bankrupt the country by murdering off an already ailing economy. Obama’s stubborn, unrelenting refusal to listen to the private sector voting sections of America who hollered and vehemently protested their objections to his public health plan has cost votes and seats, with more radical ‘politicats’ even dramatically calling for taking back congress!
By putting the sick and elderly on waiting lists and wafting disastrous Cap and Trade policies like so much putrid incense, the Democratic administration risks losing everything in the run up to 2012. It is predicted that numbers will gradually sink and slide and even Obama’s Teflon-like coating will begin to absorb the possibility that these policies are not what the nation wants or expects from presidential leadership.
Blaming George W Bush (“Dubyah”) for every little thing that goes wrong is also not going to fool anyone with a modicum of voting intelligence. There comes a time when policies must stand on their own merit and not be assigned to the vagaries of previous administrations every time they fail. As unemployment continues to peak around 10%, the country demands an employment strategy that will fix stuff rather than make sympathetic noises in the ears of voters who do not pay the lion’s share of the nation’s tax bill anyway.
With a downward slide predicted prior to 2012, President Obama is being urged to plaster over some of the cracks appearing in the voting fraternity at an alarming rate. The White House message that conveys the sentiment, ‘You will have this whether you want it or not’, is unlikely to win favor with hard working Americans lacking bottomless pockets who are expected to find more cash to sponsor health care reforms in an already stretched economy.
In the first months of the year, Obama is still being labeled a ‘one trick pony’, faring badly whenever challenged in debate by either Palin or McCain; challenged in the press as a president who changes nothing yet says anything to win, whatever that might be.
Obama’s popularity is all important to victory in 2012 yet might also represent for Democrats their worst hurdle if policy continues to fail in terms of results. An apologetic foreign policy and an inadequate and ineffective policy on terrorism wraps up the reason why many hard working, financially responsible Americans are understandably ticked off at the start of a new decade on Capitol Hill. Obama’s turning a deaf ear to these US voters may well bring a turnaround in the 2010 Congressional elections as well as defeating Obama’s re-election in 2012.
Boomer Yearbook is a Social Network and Psychological Articles for Baby Boomers. Connect with old and new friends, or expand your mind and ward off senior moments and elderly problems with dream analysis and online optical illusions and brain games provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Turner. Join other Baby Boomers to stay informed, receive weekly Newsfeeds, and let your opinions be heard. Baby boomers changed the world. We’re not done yet!
Terrorism: A Personal Issue
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Terrorism: A Personal Issue
Nigerian Umar Abdulmutallab is 23 years old, educated in London, and anyone meeting him for the first time would gain an impression of polite formality. He is respectful and considerate to his elders and also to anyone who is of a different culture to himself. Good with children; a quiet and private person and like so many of us, he prefers to keep his friendships slightly distant.
Abdulmutallab needs to keep his friends at arm’s length, because his goal in life is to die an Al Qaeda martyr and take the lives of as many innocent westerners with him as possible in the process. On Christmas Day, 2009, Abdulmutallab failed in an attempt to blow up a plane over Detroit, carrying explosives secreted in his underwear.
In the wake of 9/11, we all diligently made double and triple checks whenever we travelled and happily submitted to increased security precautions everywhere we went, understanding the necessity to put our safety above convenience. Little by little, that diligence has slipped, it seems, and recent security incidences all over the World highlight that extremist terrorist groups are yet again achieving footholds in the gaps in our security.
The profile of the young men recruited to be suicide bombers usually follow the same type: educated; polite; quiet; unassuming; well spoken; deadly. Such young men are promised rewards beyond their dreams in the life thereafter, in exchange for their mortality.
Intelligence profiles other young men in the process of training in Al Qaeda camps and the European press freely publicizes the imminent risk of more attacks on more planes and more innocent people. Yet America remains immersed in diplomacy instead of adopting a more appropriate all out campaign to tighten security.
America has been providing support for the Yemeni government in its battle with Islamic militants, but Yemen has become increasingly unstable, with more frequent terrorist attacks from Yemeni bases, such as the one perpetrated by Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day. It is thought that a great deal more intelligence on Yemeni suicide bombers is known by American security but not enough is being done to prevent further terrorist incidents; an appalling indictment considering the sweeping promises made to protect Americans following 9/11.
Full body scanners, combined with personal searches and spot checks, are being implemented in airports all over Europe at the start of the new decade, although some doubts are being expressed whether such precautions are effective against liquid explosives and the high tech devices being utilized by terrorists.
Pro Islamic groups everywhere are sparking debate on the question of innocent Muslims being marginalized and targeted as a result of over enthusiastic security but the reality is that complacency brings consequences too gruesome to risk.
We can do what we can do…in the meantime, surely the watchword is vigilance and the American public has little chance of encouraging vigilance if they are unaware of imminent danger. Information is vital to discovery in terms of uncovering plans of terrorist attacks.
Scores of similar attacks to the one attempted by Abdulmutallab are suspected to be planned for 2010. Taking steps to crush terrorism rather than appease those who sponsor its atrocities might be the more sensible policy in light of the danger posed to innocent American travellers.
At least that’s what we at BoomerYearbook.com think. We’d love to hear your opinion.
The Psychological Article on Terrorism: A Personal Issue is part of Boomer Yearbook’s continuing series of baby boomers psychological coaching tips and how to alleviate elderly problems. We believe knowledge is power. We’d love to hear what you think.
Boomer Yearbook is a Social Network and Psychological Articles for Baby Boomers. Connect with old and new friends, or expand your mind and ward off senior moments and elderly problems with dream analysis and online optical illusions and brain games provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Turner. Join other Baby Boomers to stay informed, receive weekly Newsfeeds, and let your opinions be heard. Baby boomers changed the world. We’re not done yet!
Apologies,Ladies…!
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Mr Obama’s take on how ‘American men treat American women badly’ begs the question: how did he arrive at this opinion? One can only assume that his experience of male and female relationships has been typified by arrogant machoism. Where, exactly, has Mr Obama been spending his time to become drawn into this locker-room impression of American male attitudes that represent American men as almost Neanderthal?
Psychological articles teach us that apologies can be difficult for some people who have difficulty admitting wrong doing. Others, equally guilty, find absolution in the simple act of saying they are sorry, whether they deserve it or not, rendering the exercise pointless.
Of course, the dramatic and overt public apologies to which Mr Obama subscribes do spark debate; affording a modicum of extra popularity (he thinks) and costs, let’s see now – erm – oh – nothing! Yes, folks, the ‘public apology crusade’ budget is zero; allowing Obama to appear benevolent; self deprecating and generous, without spending a single cent of tax payers’ money. He seems intent on practicing his skills in the art of apology on everyone he feels America has offended and some America hase not offended: no political opportunity is missed whenever Obama decides to reel in some credit from carefully selected audiences.
His apology to American women, many of whom are baby boomers, comes on the heels of apologies to China (yes, China – for the rape and pillage of Nanking, apparently, on behalf of Japanese Emperor Akihito: it was considered the neighborly thing to do…!); to two Muslim ladies for a seating plan from which they were excluded for security reasons; to Japan for giving it a good thrashing in World War II; to Chinese president Hu Jintao for being chummy with the Dalai Lama; and last but not least, let us not forget Sergeant James Crowley, the Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer at the center of controversy over his arrest of noted Harvard African-American scholar and friend of Obama, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Although it is becoming accustomed to Obama’s propensity to say sorry at every opportunity, the rest of the World and especially lady baby boomers raise eyebrows in surprise at the news that American women are treated badly. Until now, American women were credited for being independent, politically informed and sufficiently respected to hold their own in the international community without Obama’s kind patronage. Thanks Mr.President, for dismantling the dignity of American male / female relationships in a single swipe!
At home, Mr.Obama’s over anxious and mealy mouthed apology program has angered and offended an army of indignant American baby boomers, outraged at what they see as the demeaning of their national status on the World stage, seeing his policies as discrediting the country in terms of foreign diplomacy. Many of them would prefer to see an attempt at resolving America’s economic and security issues, rather than this futile and empty campaign to promote its president as Mr Nice Guy. Psychological articles observe that a personality that is over apologetic might be suffering from lack in confidence (although probably not in this case) and as we all know, the value of apology becomes shallow through over use.
Frequently referred to in the international press as a ‘snake in the grass’
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/obamacare-snake-grass-rears-its-ugly-head, http://www2.mcdowellnews.com/content/2008/nov/18/letter-editor-youll-learn-obama-snake-grass/news-opinion/) and determined to charm America’s female population, Mr. Obama’s impromptu apologies about the way American women are treated are seen by him as steps in the right direction: American women may easily conclude that in the Obama household frequent apology, justified or otherwise, is the prescribed antidote to feminine disapproval…
American baby boomers view these hollow political gestures with interest – waiting, indeed hoping, for fleeting moments of useful statesmanship to appear amidst Obama’s Oscar-winning performances that draw applause from gullible fans and supporters at home and abroad. Mr. Obama is nothing short of accomplished when it comes to inspiring popularity and also extreme offence in the same sentence and continues to play to the crowd whenever he speaks publicly; like a true thespian- but possibly less sincerity?
Boomer Yearbook is a Social Network and Psychological Articles for Baby Boomers. Connect with old and new friends, or expand your mind and ward off senior moments and elderly problems with dream analysis and online optical illusions and brain games provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Turner. Join other Baby Boomers to stay informed, receive weekly Newsfeeds, and let your opinions be heard. Baby boomers changed the world. We’re not done yet!
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Obama's Reaction to an Elderly Problem
One picture is worth a thousand words.
Take note: Professor Gates, a Black friend of Obama’s, needs help walking down the stairs. Who is helping him? Is it the President who cares so much about him?
No, the President could care less. He has accomplished him mission which was to get himself off the hook after his racist comment. Notice the “cat that ate the canary” look on his face.
It is the White cop, Sergeant Crowley, who was ridiculed by Obama last week as stupid who is taking the time to help Professor Gates down the stairs.
If that doesn’t tell you anything about your President, nothing will.
Will Obama’s Health Plan Cause The Great Exodus?
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
The Great Exodus: BoomerYearbook.com
Health care policy reforms continue to outrage baby boomers; the potential unwitting sponsors of health treatment for many who have not paid taxes for years. As the new health proposals unfold, each grisly new detail seems to be worse than the last and American baby boomers and senior citizens brace themselves for the effects of what appears to be a health plan package from hell.
1% of the country is targeted to subsidize the bulk of expense required, to provide health care for the rest of it, in a bizarre Robin Hood scenario designed to rob the rich to fund the poor. Many of the worst affected tax payers and those deemed to qualify as the 1% ‘rich’, required to fund the fancies (and possibly foibles) of a government intent on supplying health at any cost, in fact represent the cream of the country’s intelligentsia: they also comprise the most effective managers and promoters of industry.
Those in charge of reform imagine that the wealthy minority has no choice but to carry the burden of cost for those who cannot or will not provide their own private health insurance. Not so: the reality is that this well-heeled handful of citizens destined for financial victimization in the form of dramatic tax increases are more than adequately equipped to fund a hasty exit to countries offering more attractive tax levels.
In the late nineties, British Prime Minister Tony Blair imposed the notorious IR35 tax law. It was credited with being directly responsible for the IT brain drain in the UK which saw thousands of independent contractors flow out of the country in search of more hospitable tax environments. Predictions are that an exodus of the cream of American professionals will follow a similar but faster trend, with some electing to relocate to other States to benefit from less aggressive taxation on offer, such as Florida and Texas. In short, the smart people are planning to pack their bags and ‘Get out of Dodge’. And who could blame them?
Cap and Trade restrictions pose further financial problems for the professional sector, forcing companies at the cutting edge of industry and commerce to raise consumer prices, resulting in a higher cost of living for average American families. Adjustments at the top, as always, result in a domino effect and hardship at consumer level; in our own back yards.
The finest talent of America’s professional sector waits and watches with dread while Mr. Obama pushes through his Stimulus Package at the helm of one of the most ambitious social reforms the country has ever seen, predicted to cause serious unemployment and further financial mayhem in an already unstable economic climate.
Senior baby boomer health sector professionals are forecast to be the first of the smart guys dusting off their matched luggage and heading for the hills…
The Cunning Plan
Additionally, it is not only the tax feature of the health plan that will hurt older citizens as if Obama gets his wishes it seems that savings will be squeezed from Medicare and Medicaid. Regarding Medicare, Mr. Obama has expressed his disdain for giving advanced treatment or new (read expensive) drugs to older people (OUCH), older being defined as the aging boomer and seniors, the people who have been paying social security taxes all our lives. (For instance, those of us who began working somewhere around the age of 16, continuing to the age of 65, and wishing there were employment opportunities available to us today so that we could remain part of the productively employed workforce.)
Mr. Obama, just a suggestion here. Instead of squeezing us older citizens how about squeezing the ambulance chasers, who regard an auto accident as a lottery ticket? Nah! Those appear to be the people who give vast contributions to election campaigns, along with causing mal practice insurance premiums to rise so much that it is hard to find an Obstetrician in some communities, as well as causing doctors to practice defensive medicine and order lots of unnecessary tests which add to waste.
If this Health Care Plan is approved it seems likely that it is going to cost lots of money, lower the quality of health care to the lowest common denominator (except Congress, of course), ration care, define some surgeries as optional, thereby adding real risk of a worsening condition. Yikes. This is certainly not what we hoped for in our senior years.
This Psychological Article on Will Obama’s Health Plan Cause The Great Exodus? is part of Boomer Yearbook’s continuing series of articles exploring and in some cases poking fun at politics and current events in the hopes of shedding light on baby boomer problems. We believe knowledge is power. We’d love to hear what you think.
A Lesson from Abraham Lincoln
Boomer Yearbook is a Social Network and Psychological Articles for Baby Boomers. Connect with old and new friends, or expand your mind and ward off senior moments and elderly problems with dream analysis and online optical illusions and brain games provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Turner. Join other Baby Boomers to stay informed, receive weekly Newsfeeds, and let your opinions be heard. Baby boomers changed the world. We’re not done yet!
Obama’s Health Care: Do Baby Boomers Recognize an Activist and a Rebel?
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
BoomerYearbook.com
Baby boomers were activist inventors; the dissenters who picked up banners and slogans in the sixties and rammed them down the throats of anyone who dared to force undue legislation on any subject. They marched on just about everything from ‘Ban the Bomb’ to ‘Burn the Bra’.
President Obama has been compared to baby boomer activists, yet there are some not so subtle differences in the motives of the average baby boomer and Mr Obama.
Mr. Obama is one of those colorful and dramatic figures; the ones who have a consummate flair for drawing enormous public attention – until the masses are fully engaged in all out heated debate, during which they crawl out from beneath the fray unnoticed, moving on to the next burning crusade and leaving everyone else to pick up the broken glass…
In his mid twenties, Obama theatrically declared himself a servant of the Lord at the altar of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, in a complete turnaround after many years of religious scepticism. Inspired by the sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr, Obama became an active member of the church community and a valued friend of the Pastor.
Twenty years on, Mr. Obama withdrew Wright’s invitation to speak at his Presidential announcement, consigning him to the ranks of onlookers and interested guests, choosing to sideline the man who had been his mentor and inspiration for some twenty years. Jeremiah Wright put down his cursory dismissal as a result of Obama being poorly advised but more cynical opinions suggest Wright’s interest in the Palestinian question was a risky factor in candidate Obama’s efforts to secure the Jewish vote.
Did Obama take such advice on board or was Wright simply no longer useful? Baby boomers who campaigned tirelessly for Obama on his Presidential trail also seem to have been somewhat overlooked in the Grand Plan to renovate America, notably the new health structure, in which Federal intervention replaces medical decision on whether a treatment is appropriate or even economically viable.
It is not only baby boomers who stand to suffer from Pres. Obama’s controversial health system. Surely, nobody would wish their vital health decisions to be placed in the paws of government officials whose primary interest is saving money? Indeed, the reasons given for the urgency of the new health bill being fast tracked was to ‘save the economy from further disaster’.
Baby boomers are indeed activists and rebels. However, the boomer tradition of objection is combined with a passionate loyalty and a genuine desire for improvement. Obama’s propensity to put aside certain weighty issues rather too easily suggests he may be the cause of dissension and not necessarily the solution. Campaign promises and other certain undertakings have been all too casually forgotten, for a man who knelt beneath the cross at the Trinity United Church in 1988 and promised to be a good boy forever.
Is Obama an activist? Probably. Is he a rebel? He would like to be. Can he be trusted to take care of America’s baby boomers and booming senior citizens and not sell out in favor of economy? We at Boomeryearbook leave it up to you to decide…..
This Psychological Article on Do Baby Boomers Recognize an Activist and a Rebel? is part of Boomer Yearbook’s continuing series of articles exploring and in some cases poking fun at politics and current events in the hopes of shedding light on baby boomer problems. We believe knowledge is power. We’d love to hear what you think.
Boomer Yearbook is a Social Network and Psychological Articles for Baby Boomers. Connect with old and new friends, or expand your mind and ward off senior moments and elderly problems with dream analysis and online optical illusions and brain games provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Turner. Join other Baby Boomers to stay informed, receive weekly Newsfeeds, and let your opinions be heard. Baby boomers changed the world. We’re not done yet!
Is it Prudent for the Obama Administration to Have Increased Troops in Afghanistan?
Saturday, March 14th, 2009
BoomerYearbook.com
Unraveling The Taliban
An Opinion
Human relationships are prone to pitfalls, the most common of which is misunderstanding between cultures and peoples. Therefore, it is no small asking to comprehend a phenomenon that occurs in a context that seems centuries old, among people continents afar and of another religion and faith. The Taliban belong to this category.
In short, they were a group so constituted during the civil war in Afghanistan, which erupted after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, to take over control from the groups that were supported by other countries in the region. It was not important at that time that was supporting them or what ideology they espoused. As regional powers maneuvered to ensure that their supported group would control Afghanistan, the Taliban represented that Pashtun majority of Afghanistan that had felt left out in the power games of Kabul. What distinguished them from other groups was they were more cohesive, in terms of where they belonged to and the religious fervor and ideology they shared with one another.
This is precisely what makes Taliban so different from enemies that America has ever fought. An enemy with religious fervor has a stronger will to fight through difficult periods; something if which its opponent lacks, leads to victory. The war of attrition in Afghanistan between the Taliban and a vastly superior military machine bears the hallmarks of the Soviet invasion. The Russian army was worn down by the difficulties of terrain and the grit of an enemy that was not in any hurry to leave its country of birth. The New York Times sums it up in a single sentence ‘We can’t defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, as the last seven years have shown’ (How to Leave Afghanistan, Leslie H Gelb, New York Times 12th March 2009), an unlikely conclusion that anyone would have reached in 2002.
To have arrived at such a point begs the question if America is making the same mistakes it has been committing for the last seven years? Whatever the answer to this question may be, America has already lost on one important front that can still be retrieved: principled leadership. In the aftermath of September 11th, the world empathized and gave its support to invasion of countries where militaries are now bogged down. NATO, represented by more than a dozen countries, took it upon itself to be a part of the Afghan multinational force. This groundswell of support came from the belief that America had been wronged and deserved help.
A number of years on, after Abu Ghraib, no WMDs in Iraq, Guantanamo and a determined insurgency in Afghanistan, the world is witnessing a defensive America trying to limit, not eliminate, threats to western countries by means of the strongest military machine the world has ever seen. This downturn has been primarily caused not only by errors in tactics but by what many may see as a loss of any moral principle in the ‘fight against terror’. Terrorists have through their sustained pressure shown that their enemy does not hesitate to employ tactics that cause significant collateral damage, or use torture as a legitimate means to extract information from prisoners, thereby blurring the moral lines between both sides in the eyes of the world public, and more significant the most important constituency to which the terrorist seeks to appeal to: the Muslim world. It is this inherent advantage of the Taliban that must be neutralized before America can defeat future threats.
This article was written by a member of Boomer Yearbook living in Pakistan. While Boomer Yearbook does not take a stand on the correct or incorrectness of America’s “fight against terror”, this member nonetheless poses the question about whether or not it is prudent for Pres. Obama to have increased the troops in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.
We’d love to hear what you think?
Boomer Yearbook is a Psychological Articles Informational Social Network Website for Baby Boomers and baby boomer generation! Create Boomer Yearbook Profile, Connect with old and new Baby Boomers, or expand your mind and ward off senior moments and elderly problems with dream analysis and online optical illusions and brain games provided by clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Turner. Join this website for baby boomers, stay informed with weekly Newsfeeds, and let your opinions be heard.