CHESSNOID

It really is never productive to worry but sometimes I just can’t help it. We are inundated with so many problems on the TV news as well as our daily internet news readings, sometimes you have to wonder if it all means anything or if it is connected. I always wonder how my country America is viewed from non citizens. I know a lot of other countries depend on our country, but lately it seems like we are pissing everyone off. I don’t agree with many of the actions our White House has taken, but they still represent us to the world through our policy decisions and actions.

Our country is honoring the Dalai Lama buddhist. He seems like a nice man and I really don’t know anything about him except he sides with peace and we will be honoring him and giving him a Congressional medal. The Chinese government doesn’t approve of our government doing this because of their history with the exiled monk. From the New York Times:

Chinese officials warned the United States on Tuesday not to honor the Dalai Lama, saying a planned award ceremony in Washington for the Tibetan spiritual leader would have “an extremely serious impact” on relations between the countries.

…The Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate, has lived in exile since the Chinese army crushed an uprising in his homeland in 1959 and is revered as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. He is scheduled to receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.

…The visit comes as the United States has been either seeking or relying on Chinese cooperation on an array of difficult issues: the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, the mass killings in Darfur and the recent crackdown on protesters in Myanmar.

China has pressed the United States to cancel the award event for months. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao said today that Beijing was “strong dissatisfied” and warned of an “extremely serious impact” if the events are held as scheduled. But he did not say what steps China planned to take.

I think it is nice to give an award to a man who promotes peace (I know kind of hypocritical from a country who invades countries by force and steals its natural resources). I also believe the Chinese government is entitled to its belief and so is the White House. The part I don’t understand is how we expect cooperation from China if we don’t give a crap about its protests and they threaten some sort of retaliation.

Another country that seems to be having issues with America is Turkey. They have their own issues with Iraq and now have decided to engage them at the border. What is troubling is that Turkey has stated they have recovered weapons from Iraqis supplied by the US. Ouch! The New York Times is on top of it again, stating:

Weapons that were originally given to Iraqi security forces by the American military have been recovered over the past year by the authorities in Turkey after being used in violent crimes in that country, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

…Over the past year, inquiries by federal oversight agencies have found serious discrepancies in military records of where thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces actually ended up.

The disclosure of the weapons in Turkey, part of those investigations, came on the same day that the Army announced moves aimed at addressing a widening scandal that has generated 76 criminal investigations involving contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Twenty civilians and military personnel have been charged in federal court as a result of the inquiries.

…Turkey’s allegations that Iraq was being used as a sanctuary to carry out attacks inside Turkey have strained relations between the Bush administration and Ankara over the past six months, with Turkey not ruling out a military intervention into northern Iraq to stop the activity.

To be objective about this, I think Turkey looks to be in the right. They make accusations, we investigate, then find it to be true. Then, instead of admitting wrong doing or fault, we just say we don’t understand why we messed up, but we will continue to investigate. Again, ouch! Why do we have to look like wankers everytime. We lose credibility with the world when we are so easy to forgive ourselves and not enforce any type of punishments on those “rogue” people that do these things within our government or military. Turkey has decided to defend itself pro-actively, and according to Reuters:

Turkey has approved troops to Iraq in defiance of US. Turkey will defy international pressure on Wednesday and grant its troops permission to enter northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels based there, though it has played down expectations of any imminent attack.

…Turkey’s stance has helped drive global oil prices to $88 a barrel, a new record, and has hit its lira currency as investors weigh the economic risks of any major military operation.

Now Russia is warning any nations that if any force is used against Iran, there will be consequences because they have financial interests there. Reuters states:

President Vladimir Putin made clear to Washington on Tuesday that Russia would not accept military action against Iran and he invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Moscow for talks.

Putin made the invitation to Ahmadinejad, shunned by the West which fears his nuclear programme is a cover for building atomic weapons, after meeting him and leaders of other Caspian Sea states who ruled out any strikes on Iran from their region.

…Russia is annoyed at what it sees as the West’s attempts to end its influence in former Soviet states.

In a final declaration, the Caspian nations backed Putin’s call, saying “under no circumstances will they allow (the use of their) territories by third countries to launch aggression or other military action against any of the member states”.

The countries also backed the rights of signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty — which includes Iran — to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

Ahmadinejad, who says Tehran will not stop atomic work that he insists is peaceful, praised the Caspian declaration.

Putin’s trip to Iran, the first made by a Kremlin leader since 1943, has been watched because of Russia’s potential leverage, on behalf of fellow world powers, to rein in Iran using its trade and nuclear supply ties with Tehran.

Again, I think the US is arrogant to assume these other countries do not have their own intelligence sources to check out what we are doing. Whenever I hear leaks in the news about the US to bomb Iran and the white house putting silly spins it has no intentions of doing it, then Russia saying things to put us in check, it makes me wonder why our government is always lying to us. Yes, as of late under the Bush administration, the government seems to be lying to the American people on a consistent basis. The hard part is understanding the true motivation behind the lies. This goes back to our invasion and occupation of Iraq. We went in under false pretenses and the White House claims it was misinformation. I think that is a load of crap and in retrospect, we were wrong as a nation for supporting these lies. I think the majority of Americans want our troops out of Iraq, and the white house putting spins on the world would be more dangerous without us there is more crap on top of crap.

Now that the internet has become the most powerful medium of communication, it is not necessary to listen to propoganda being put out by our “free democracy” news on our major medias. The same news agencies who lost credibility by spreading DAILY propoganda on WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION on TV 24/7 before we invaded Iraq. Strange how the news agencies no longer wants to cover Iraq anymore. We have soldiers being killed everyday and it gets minimal coverage if any.
We as individuals can read news from all over the world and can observe that not everything being done is in the best interest of our nation. There are many internet sites claiming we have criminals in Congress and make very good arguments they be charged for treason or impeached. Personally, I am not just tired of our government’s bad decisions and wrongful actions but scared for our future generations. I hope we elect a new president who is worthy of the position and withdraws our troops immediately. Also, I hope it is someone who wants to make the world a better place and be more of a humanitarian than a lying, greedy bastard making corrupt decisions for his personal gain, power, and personal religious beliefs.

Definitely, President Bush is the worst president in our history and every decision he has made is consistently bad and wrong. People who support him try to defend him by making comparisons of other presidents who have made bad decisions, yet they never really defend him by showing examples of his good decisions. Every retired general involved in the Iraq invasion (I have lost count, but we are up to about 7 or 8 generals) has always stated this war is a mistake and can not be won. I think they recognize that Iraq is NOT a population of terrorists. They see citizens of Iraq just trying to evict an army of invaders who have no right to be stealing their natural resources and occupying their land. I hate the fact that there are still Americans brainwashed thinking that the Iraqi people like us being there. HELLO?!! Sometimes, common sense is all you need. If you were an Iraqi citizen, you would ask yourself are you better off today or 5 years ago before the American invasion for FAKE weapons of mass destruction? The same question for us would be: is America better off today than 5 years ago? The answer is a definitive NO for both redundant questions.