Withdrawl from Iraq

EDITED FROM PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH:

We have a problem in Iraq and the honest truth is, there is no good solution. In theory, I would like nothing more than to withdraw from Iraq right now. We have sacrificed far too many American and Iraqi lives in this fight, and it’s costing us $5,000 a second to fund this war. We should never have gone there and we are in a huge mess that we neither understand nor can fix. There are a countless number of other global issues we could be working on, HIV and AIDS prevention in Africa to name one. Unfortunately, there is no feasible way for us to pull out of Iraq right now without the situation deteriorating.

Iraq is incredibly unstable right now and if we withdraw, I think the country will collapse. At the very least, the Iraqi death toll will increase tenfold and death squad killings of Sunnis would rise.

We were asked to come up with a proposal to fix Iraq and I have some ideas but I do not have enough knowledge on the subject to create a concrete plan. Here is what I think though. I think that we have to change the focus of our involvement in Iraq. For the past years we have been focused on fighting al-Qaeda and insurgents. We should continue to fight against the terrorists who are a threat to the world but we also need to be realistic about our expectations in that struggle. We need to realize that we are not going to defeat the entire al-Qaeda organization solely by beating them in Iraq. Their organization is spread throughout many regions and if we beat them in Iraq, they will just go somewhere else. We should continue to protect the citizens of Iraq from attack as well. I feel that we need to increase our focus on working to bring peace and stability to Iraq.

My idea was to create two committees/focus groups who will devote their time and expertise to this: the Iraqi-based committee and the United States-based committee. The Iraq-based committee’s specific purpose will be to help the Iraqi government reestablish themselves and create a system of government that will best work for Iraq. The committee will be stationed in Iraq and work with the Iraqi government, as well as help them coordinate with other governments around the world. Political strategists, diplomats and experts from all over the world would be invited to join it. The key to this initiative is that its purpose is to help Iraq stabilize itself. Neither America nor any other countries involved will push its own agenda because that sabotage the process and what we need more than anything is a stable, self-sustaining Iraq.

The United States-based committee will evaluate and monitor the situation in Iraq and advise the president and senior staff on the best courses of action. This committee will include political specialists, ambassadors, military advisors and Middle Eastern experts who understand the region. These would be primarily Americans but we would reach out to the world as well. I think it is incredibly important that these advisors include Middle Eastern experts because as a region, it is so different from ours and to make good moves, we need to understand the culture there.

We also need to reach out to other nations and begin to repair our damaged ties. In the years that we have spent focusing on Iraq, we have let these relations slide. We will help Iraq to build allies with other countries as well and try to change the image that Bush gave our country. We need other countries to know that we will listen to them and compromise and that we are not above international laws.

I think every 6-8 months, the US committee should formally meet with the president, senior staff and Joint Chief of Staff to reassess the situation. The committee would be monitoring the situation constantly. I cannot give a detailed withdrawal plan, because it depends on the stability of the country and I also do not understand the military system well enough, so my plan would be very uniformed. I know that we need to help keep Iraq together though. If Iraq falls apart, the ensuing chaos will spread throughout the already volatile region, probably to Syria and Iran and that is the last thing anyone needs. I hope the troops come home as soon as they can though.

Voter Registration Drive

We conducted our voter registration drive in front of the Greenfield Garden Cinema, between 11am – 2:45pm. We purposely scheduled our drive to be later in the day than the other drives because we hoped to get some of the cinema cliental, and the first movie showing was at noon. This did not work so well because to my recollection, not one of the people who registered with us was actually a movie-goer. While we were there, the cinema did not get many customers at all. This made sense to me, because on a Friday afternoon most people are in school or at work, and cannot go to the movies. This was the main reason I was against having our drive at the movie theater in the first place. I wanted to have our drive somewhere that would attract more people during the day, but the rest of my group was in favor of doing it in front of the Garden and so I deferred. Our location did work out nicely though, because during our drive it was raining and so we were protected by the Garden’s awning. The manager also gave us free popcorn.

We had $1 concession stand coupons as incentives for people to vote. We had planned on have Garden-related incentives from the beginning, but we did not know what those incentives would be until we go to the Garden on Friday and talked to the manager. Because we did not know what the incentives would be, we could not advertise for them and so I do not think they were what drew people to our table. I actually do not think that they served as an incentive at all. It seemed to me that the people who registered did so because they wanted to vote, not because they wanted the coupons. We did not have to bribe anyone into voting, so the coupons ended up being little bonuses.

It seemed like there were three distinct groups of people on the streets of Greenfield during our voter drive. There were the business people who were dressed for work and often walked in groups. They seemed in a hurry and did not stop to chat. It is hard to remember specifics, but I think that they were an even mixture of men and women. None of them registered with us to vote. Then there were the old people, many of whom were probably retired. Since they were probably not employed, it made sense that they were a prevalent group on the street during the work day. I think one or two of the elderly people voted. Then there were the people who were not in the best shape. People who seemed a little crazy and not fully with it. I was a little struck by how many people who we saw were like this, but then I gave it some thought and it actually made sense. These people were not as likely to hold a job, which explained them being out on the street during the day. There was one woman who tried to donate money to us, but we explained to her that we were not accepting donations. We gave her some websites she could visit that would tell her how to donate to a specific political party though. I think we registered one or two people out of this group. The rest of the people we saw were a mishmash of adults who did not fit one description. A few had kids with them, but the majority didn’t. Obviously we did not see anyone of elementary through high school age because they were all in school. Most people we talked to said they were already registered, which I thought was a good sign in terms of civic involvement.

People reacted very positively to our drive. Lots of people congratulated us on doing a good thing, and told us to keep up the good work. I think sometimes adults view teenagers as a bit apathetic and so they may have been glad to see us out actively working for our community. Some passersby asked us where we were from, and when they heard we were from Four Rivers, we got some congratulations on our MCAS scores as well.
When we first started the drive, we would ask people walking by if they were registered. Sometimes when we asked this, people would answer “no” and keep walking. This was a little weird, because if they were not registered, you would think that they would stop. Then it occurred to us that maybe they did not realize we were registering people to vote. If someone was walking by quickly, saw a booth and someone asked them if they were registered to vote, they may have assumed that we were campaigning and only wanted to talk to registered voters. So, we changed our question to “would you like to register to vote?” The very first time we asked this, someone stopped and registered.
We did not talk politics with everyone, but we did with a few people. One woman called to us as she was walking by that she would be voting for McCain, but everyone who voiced an opinion was pro-Obama. This was not surprising in the least, considering that the Pioneer Valley is overwhelmingly liberal. I saw some people walking by wearing Obama buttons but none of them registered. I assume that most adults who are wearing political buttons are invested enough in the election to have made being registered a priority. One man pointed out to us that if you register to vote, you are automatically registered for the draft, should there be one. He said that it was just something to think about. We also talked to a woman who said that her dad votes Democrat, but registers as a Republican so that he can have more of a say in Republican politics. Ha! Sneaky…
I felt that as a whole, our voter drive was successful. We got nine or ten people registered, and one man took ten more cards to register others. We had one teenager who was registering for the first time, and that was really cool. I think that if I were to do it again, I would like to do it at the homeless shelter, like Jacob’s mom suggested, because people there might be more out of the loop in terms of their voting rights, etc.

My Philosophy of Democracy

I believe that as citizens, it is our responsibility to actively participate in the government. To do this, we must be educated. Democracy is a government run by the people, and if the people are not educated, then that says little for the government. If we are not knowledgeable about domestic and foreign issues then how can we formulate ideas about what we would like to see happen? If we know only that Iraq is a “bad place”, but do not understand the subtleties, we are very unlikely to be able to form intelligent opinions about the war. If we do not know our laws, how can we as a people, make sure that the government is acting legally? Citizens must be educated about the candidates in a given election, so that when they vote they can make informed choices on who they want to represent them.
Our job as citizens is not done once the elected officials reach office. Those we have elected cannot read our minds and so to continue to have the government be “by the people” we must communicate with our representatives to let them know our feelings. This way they can represent us to the best of their ability. If we just sit back and wait for things to happen we are giving our power to the government and trusting they will make the right decision.
At the same time the government must show us that our efforts will amount to something. If citizens take an active role in government and their voices are ignored, then the government is effectively killing off democracy. I believe that for democracy to work politics must be free of egos, competition and personal agendas. An effective politician in a democracy should be exceptionally ethical, selfless, compassionate and pragmatic. Ethical, in that they do what they know is right; selfless in that they put the country before their career; compassionate in that they show caring for even the most wretched constituents and pragmatic in that they focus on what is actually attainable. That may be an unrealistic expectation, but I am writing about the ideal democracy. I feel like so much of politics involves politicians angling to keep their office or to get higher up. What should be a group of elected representatives working for the people instead becomes a group of people competing against one another. I think this aspect of our democracy is very alienating to Americans looking for active leadership in our government.
Democracy works best when the largest amounts of people are actively involved, and more people are likely to participate if they see their government as working for them. I know that I, for one, am put off by empty promises made to get public support. I want to hear candidates and officials telling me how they will help to make our country better, not why I should like them more than their opponent.
Basically I see democracy as being a two-way street in which constituents and representatives are mutually accountable to one another. If either end fails to uphold their side of the bargain, then democracy fails.