What to do with a madman?

What should we do with this guy? When he first emerged should we have killed him or is he a tribal leader that could help govern? Would his death cause more unrest than the unrest that is being caused by his anti-American rhetoric? I tend to think that we should have killed him when he first emerged. We should have cooperated with all the leaders that we could have, but the ones like Muqtada that were anti-democracy, should have been jailed or killed. Force can accomplish things sometimes. It could have accomplished ridding Iraq of this troublemaker.

The Power of Average Americans

Average Americans could help countless people in the third world. Here's the idea. We setup an account that would act as an endowment. It would only use half the interest to feed people. It would reinvest the other half. Normal people could fund this. There are over 100 million wage earners in this country. If each person setup an automated debit into this account for 1 dollar per month, America would add 1.2 billion dollars to this account per year.

Two percent of this total is 24 million dollars. This would be the amount of money available in only the first year. In ten years, there would be more than 240 million dollars available.

We would have to setup a way for them to access this money with little or no overhead. We could use the UN or churches or governments. With this much money it would be difficult to avoid corruption. This endowment would grow forever and in time would be the greatest source of charity in the world. Eventually we could feed everyone that needed food.

A dollar a day could adequately feed a person in most third world countries. I know this is would not teach the people how to fish. The truth is, this country has the moral obligation to help those who have been denied the means to help themselves. If we have to feed them forever, then so be it, we have the means.

Will America Ever Win Another War?

With the increased media coverage of war will America ever win another one? The Civil War, WWII, and Korea, were all successful wars, but the American people were largely in the dark during those periods.
The way news is reported has changed and now we can see everything for ourselves. We don't have to believe our leaders. If Americans knew how close we came to losing during the Civil War, would we have won? If Americans could have witnessed the carnage of the war in China and the Germany's war with Russia would we have ever sent our boys over there in the first place? Korea was a messy, back and forth struggle. Would the Americans of today have forced the government to abandon Korea if they saw what was going on?

I think so. Why, I don't know. Whether this development is good or bad I don't know.

Immigration Presents a Crossroads

I think the immigration debate is a good springboard for a larger debate about the future of our foreign policy.

We see all around us large sections of the earth coming under the control of centralized, effective governments. China, the EU, Russia, India, Brazil, are all benefitting from globalization. China will be the major power in the world in probably fifty years. We have to realize our place in this new world and not break ourselves by attempting to hold on to our superpower status. We hold a disproportionate share of the wealth, power, and influence in the world. This will inevitably change, and we must prepare for it.

My question is, are we going to integrate with Mexico and Canada or are we going to insulate ourselves from them. I don't know what the best way to go about either path would be. We have already headed down the path of integration with NAFTA and CAFTA. Should we go further? Should we stop where we are at? We need to start deciding and acting soon or else both options will be more difficult to implement as refugees stream across our border and remain in the shadows.

give me truth