These are all excellent news, including #9. We've done all we could in Iraq, and we really need to leave.
In fact, it's time for America to thoroughly renegotiate its role in the region. Now that it's clear that we no longer need to have "our SOBs" around to keep extremists in check, it's time to disinvest in tyrannies that aren't stable anyways. Instead, we need to support the nascent democracies in Egypt, Tunisia, and potentially other countries as well.
The idea that America should not have a role in the Arab World is simply unrealistic. We will want to buy oil from them, and they will want to buy American food and industrial goods. The question is what our role should be.
Personally, I think we should assist the new democracies in building transparent markets and strengthening their infrastructure, both physical and human. We've got a head start on China here due to their dead-end backing of strongmen, and the potential for lots of exports.
I'm a Madisonian not only in the philisophical sense but also in the sense of residing in Madison, WI. In addition to labor rights and education, the right to petition has become at least a secondary focus of our protest campaign. It's not just teachers here- it also includes law enforcement officials who detest Walker's attempted politicization of the police and plans to subvert law and order for his own benefit. We are in the streets, and this is for real. Pay attention and get involved, and we may well have a chance to restore the freedoms that have been taken from us.
That orange color corresponds to other countries on the peninsula. It would be ridiculous for there to be a sharp boundary between 500+ mm/year of rainfall and practically zero (the brown area right next to the orange).
These are all excellent news, including #9. We've done all we could in Iraq, and we really need to leave.
In fact, it's time for America to thoroughly renegotiate its role in the region. Now that it's clear that we no longer need to have "our SOBs" around to keep extremists in check, it's time to disinvest in tyrannies that aren't stable anyways. Instead, we need to support the nascent democracies in Egypt, Tunisia, and potentially other countries as well.
The idea that America should not have a role in the Arab World is simply unrealistic. We will want to buy oil from them, and they will want to buy American food and industrial goods. The question is what our role should be.
Personally, I think we should assist the new democracies in building transparent markets and strengthening their infrastructure, both physical and human. We've got a head start on China here due to their dead-end backing of strongmen, and the potential for lots of exports.
I'm a Madisonian not only in the philisophical sense but also in the sense of residing in Madison, WI. In addition to labor rights and education, the right to petition has become at least a secondary focus of our protest campaign. It's not just teachers here- it also includes law enforcement officials who detest Walker's attempted politicization of the police and plans to subvert law and order for his own benefit. We are in the streets, and this is for real. Pay attention and get involved, and we may well have a chance to restore the freedoms that have been taken from us.
That orange color corresponds to other countries on the peninsula. It would be ridiculous for there to be a sharp boundary between 500+ mm/year of rainfall and practically zero (the brown area right next to the orange).