War Bill Will Hurt Troops, Iraq

Today, House Democrats added a little something extra in a bill that is to fund both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – to bring the troops home before September 2008.

Sure, it’s a bold move and sends a clear message to the President Bush, but certainly not a wise one. The Democrats are not giving the President’s new Iraq plan a chance to work and they are forcing Iraq to meet requirements placed on them and if they cannot meet them, the troops come home.

Yet this war bill has to handle an assault from Congress, where Democrats there do not want a timetable for the return of troops. And whatever victory House Democrats get, the bill still has a fight against the Commander-In-Chief, where it will surely die on the battlefield.

But to understand the mindset of House Democrats, and even some Republicans, and especially presidential hopefuls like Hillary Clinton, here is a quote from a former presidential candidate.

“If you want peace, stop funding this war,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.

This is irresponsible on some many levels. If you stop funding the war, that means the troops will not have the necessary equipment to protect and defend themselves and Iraq. So many complain about the war dead yet they make negligent statements about cutting life-saving supplies to our soldiers.

Sure, everyone wants to bring the troops home but in order to do that, Iraq has to be able to defend itself from the insurgents and they simply cannot do that on their own. And besides tying up the hands of our field commanders, it will give the insurgents and the terrorists the victory they want.

If you publicly announce a timetable for Iraq, these monsters who are currently killing their own people will stop what they are doing, build up their supplies and weapons and have a big firework display the day after are troops have left Iraq. And let’s not forget that oil will go to them and Iran. And once that happens, we’ll eventually have to go back into Iraq and that will not be a cakewalk.

And why can’t the majority of the Democrats and the minority of the Republicans see that? Especially presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton, who hope to protect our country? Well, everyone has their own agenda and no one really seems to care about our troops or our mission in Iraq.

House Democrat Rep. Chris Van Hollen was quoted as saying: “Today, we are demanding accountability.” But when tomorrow comes and Iraq falls to the insurgents, it will be too late to demand accountability from today’s short-sighted politicians.

It’s Not Easy Being A Blogger

One of the toughest things about having a blog is keeping up with it. There are so many important breaking news stories that I want to comment on but I just do not have the time to do so. Mainly, I work and that has to come first. After all, I do have a family to support. Also, some topics are so detailed and have a long history, that I need time to do a bit of research on them, so I know what I’m talking about.

And when I do have the time to write, the most important news story is a good week to two weeks old and no one wants to hear commentary about a topic that’s been talked about to death.

With this in mind, I sincerely hope that readers will understand why The Times Observer is not updated as often as I would like it to be but to please be patient.

France Releases UFO Case Files

Here’s something that should get a lot of respected press but won’t. Anytime a UFO is reported, the local media makes it into a we’re-not-going-to-take-this-seriously-but-have-fun-with-it story. Well, yesterday France made that a little tough to do, as it unveiled a Web site that contains more than 1,600 alleged UFO sightings going back 50 years.

Sure, not all UFO sightings are otherworldly but there is a good percentage that is and should not be ignored. Sadly, they often are. It can truly baffle an open-minded person that some exceptional sightings are ignored, except in France.

“But many others (UFOs) involving multiple sightings -- in at least one case involving thousands of people across France -- and evidence such as burn marks and radar trackings showing flight patterns or accelerations that defy the laws of physics are taken very seriously,” reports Marlowe Hood of the AFP. And these types of sightings are reported around the world, not just in France.

That right there should make even the strongest nonbeliever to take notice but sadly it doesn’t. And while many skeptics and non-caring journalists label all UFO witnesses as Farmer Jones who took one too many swings of moonshine, there are a good number of witnesses who are doctors, military/Air Force personnel, pilots and the lists of creditable observers goes on and on. It’s hard to label these people as crackpots.

What’s also a first is that this Web site allows anyone to view all of France’s UFO reports, unlike in America, “where information can be requested on a case-by-case basis under the Freedom of Information Act,” reports the article.

It’s time that the world’s governments release any information they have collected about UFOs and make it easily available to anyone and it’s high time that the media take a more serious look at a phenomena that confounds professionals in diverse fields.

The Web site can be found at: www.cnes-geipan.fr. However, at the time of this posting, the Web site cannot be accessed.

Impeaching Bush For WMD Misleading?

More than 30 Vermont towns the other day voted to have President Bush impeached because, besides other things, he allegedly misled the country and the world about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, according to a Reuter’s article, published Wednesday, March 7, 2007.

Apparently, this is nothing new. Vermont holds an annual, colonial-era meeting to talk about all types of issues. And it’s also nothing new that a few towns in Vermont had similar resolutions of impeaching the president last year. And let’s face it, nothing is going to happen.

One of the biggest things that many Bush critics love to throw around is that he lied to Americans about Saddam’s WMDs. But if one has really paid attention to the lead up to the war, the real question that should be asked is this: If Bush lied about a dictator’s weapons; does that mean that all of Congress, including other global governments and organizations lied as well?

What many do not know, and a good many Bush critics do not want to acknowledge, is that it just wasn’t our own government who made these claims against Saddam. We had intelligence information from European and Middle Eastern countries, as well as the United Nations, and it came down to the same thing: Saddam had WMDs.

Our Congress saw this information, and just like Bush, they came to the same conclusions as the president: Saddam had these weapons as well. In fact, many Web sites love to feature quotes from politicians who at the time said that Saddam is a threat. Now, many of them are singing a different tune.

But the fact remains that many different governments had the same information. So, did they lie as well? Not likely. Let’s take a brief trip down memory lane. In 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered Operation Desert Fox because Saddam was not following the resolutions placed by him by the U.N. In fact, he was making things difficult for the weapons inspectors by not complying with them. The operation was to destroy known plants, factories and holding areas of these weapons.

When the operation was over, the U. N. asked Saddam if they could go in and see if the operation was a success. Saddam said no and they walked away with their tails between their legs. Never mind the fact that they had resolutions that allowed them to go in and check things out. And never mind the fact that no one blasts the U.N. for not enforcing its own resolutions against a man who had a huge history of lying about his weapons.

So, after 9/11, it was only natural to find out once and for all if Saddam had these weapons. Plus, there was so much intelligence information from different, global sources saying that Saddam never got rid of these weapons, that that was enough to warrant a search. And once the weapons inspectors were back in Iraq, Saddam gave them the same runaround as last time. But that’s where I have to part ways with the President’s plan.

There was nothing wrong with sending the U.N. in there and finding out what Saddam actually had. I always felt they should have had at least a year of searching before military action was even considered, much less acted on.

But let’s look at what has been found in Iraq. Granted, the huge stock piles of WMDs were not there. There were rumors before the war that there were huge shipments to Syria and according to Saddam Hussein's No. 2 Air Force officer, Georges Sada, that actually happened. Again, something to consider.

What was discovered was that Saddam lied about having terrorists training camps and a huge black market for terrorists.

So, if the good people really want to impeach Bush for misleading the world about those weapons, they better impeach the world governments as well.