Guy’s view on Politics (Be very afraid)

As much as I dislike talking about politics, I’ve decided to inflict my views of this year’s elections. What the heck, everybody else is. AHEM AHEM….

This is my read on this year’s Presidential campaign. I would more likely vote for a candidate with at least a four-year outline of what he (or she) plans to do even if I didn’t agree with most of what they had planned.

All we’ve gotten this year (or any other for as long as I can remember) from the Reps and Dems are sound bites and targeted feel good messages. As much as I dislike most of Bush’s domestic policies, he is a known quantity and I can guess (though I shouldn’t have to) what he’ll do. All Kerry has said is that he’ll fix Social Security (how?), the economy (How?), provide medical coverage for everyone (HOW?), get us out of Iraq (HOW!?!), and make us a stronger country spending less than the Reps (HOW HOW HOW DAMMIT!). Are we in a mess? Yes we are and you can’t put all the blame on the Republicans no matter how hard you try.

Middle East? This has been a festering sore since the formation of Israel. They dislike and distrust the Arabs and the Arabs dislike and distrust the Jews and each other. This is no surprise. What has seemed to take American politicians by surprise (though I don’t know why) has been the rise of Islamic hard-core fundamentalists.

Carter was brought down because of it (Iran Embassy takeover and the fall of the Shah of Iran), Reagan lost almost 300 Marines at the suicide bombing of the Marine Barracks and US Embassy in Lebanon during their civil war and in the name of defeating the Soviet (Cough cough) menace armed and trained the future Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, Bush senior and his people ignored the warning signs that Iraq was going to invade Kuwait, Clinton did little or nothing in retaliation for the Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the USS Cole bombing in Yemen and ignored repeated violations of the Iraqi UN sanctions. He also just picked up and left in Somalia (though to be fair, it was Bush Sr. that put us there in the first place) condemning thousands of people to die at the hands of warlords.

Quick question, which three European countries had 100s of millions lined up for oil exploration contracts that were dependant on Saddam Hussein remaining in power and the end of UN sanctions? Here’s a hint: The country’s names sound a lot like France, Germany, and Russia.

Now we come to Bush Junior. WAAAAAAAY too much time spent on vacation dude. The information was there that 9/11 was coming and the various law enforcement/intelligence agencies slept on it. No, I don’t see a grand conspiracy from within our govt to let it happen for whatever sicko reason the naysayers blab about.

So afterwards, once the evidence shows without much doubt that Al-Queida was behind it with the active support of the Taliban govt in Afghanistan, we took em out. Good. Fine. Should have finished it there before going after Iraq. Whatever, too late to stop now. What’s next? How do we get out of Iraq with our goals intact? I don’t know and neither Bush nor Kerry has said either. You can’t just walk away. That’s what Reagan did in Lebanon and years of bloodshed continued. That’s what Bush Sr. did in Iraq. That’s what Clinton did in Somalia. In each case, it led to a rise in candidates for the fundamentalists.

If I were President (About as much chance as me buying a PC), here are the goals that I would put forth.

1. Find some way out of Iraq. How? Stay until the free elections take place and scoot with the promise that we will support militarily the elected govt and will return if it looks like it will fall due to outside influences.

2. Confirm whether or not Iran is attempting to build Nuclear weapons. Let the Mullahs know that the confirmation of such with bring a swift and decisive military attack on nuclear facilities within Iran. Help them financially and technically in building light water nuclear power plants.

3. Try and convince Israel to remove the settlers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and move back to their pre-67 borders. Put either US or UN peacekeepers in the Baka Valley and the Golan Heights. Affirm Israeli control of Jerusalem with the understanding that Jerusalem must be an open city with free access to all holy sites by the three major religions represented (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). Never accept Israel’s claim of Jerusalem as their capital.

4. Let the Chinese know that any confirmation of Nuclear weapons in North Korea will not be looked at favorably and will affect relations between the US and China. Keep an eye on North Korea, but let China tackle that loon.

5. Try and convince the Taiwanese to stop making threats about declaring independence from China. We don’t want to rock the boat on this issue and short of nuclear war probably couldn’t easily stop China from taking over the island if it really wanted to. Little by little China is veering away from communism (along with most of the rest of the world). Let them deal with their internal issues in their own way, offering support where we can.

6. Help the Russians deal with the Chechen issue. I think the events of the last few weeks dispel any romantic notions of Chechen rebels fighting for independence.

7. Leave the economy the heck alone. Government interference rarely is able to make any improvement. Hope like heck that Alan Greenspan stays healthy and still enjoys coming to work.

8. Other than fine-tuning, stop screwing with tax brackets. All it does is confuse people. As much as a flat-tax is fair and makes sense, it would destroy the economy, which is fueled greatly by home ownership. This would be adversely affected by the elimination of tax credits for mortgages. See reason 7.

9. Increase govt funding for alternative fuel solutions and give greater incentives for automobile manufacturers to cooperate among themselves for real solutions, not just one-of-a-kinds to show off at auto shows and Popular Science.

10. Increase incentives for power companies to start replacing old coal and oil based power plants with something else (Hydrogen? Nuclear? Something new?)

11. Get rid of Homeland Security. The resources they use should fall under the domain of the FBI. Stop the duplication of effort by the NSA and the CIA for overseas intelligence. There should be one coordinating influence over all the various intelligence services to dissimilate information at the cabinet level for the President. And no, that’s not what Homeland Security is doing. It’s what the NSA SHOULD be doing.

12. Get rid of most of the PCs used in the govt and replace them with Macs. That should reduce IT spending in half. Cmon, you know I was going to fit Macs in here somewhere!