McCain on Education

by David Safier Wednesday I wrote a post, Obama on Education. Thursday it was Clinton on Education. Today it’s McCain’s turn. I planned to give you a detailed summary of McCain’s educational proposals like I did with Obama and Clinton, but I can’t, because there are no details on his Issues: Education page. His entire … Read more

Guns in the Schools

by David Safier Should we allow people with weapons permits to carry guns in schools? Let’s take a look at two very different scenarios: Two people bring their guns to work with them: Senator Karen Johnson, one of the legislators behind the guns-in-schools bill, and Ms. Johnson, a high school teacher. Senator Johnson sits in … Read more

PSA: Report Presidential Primary Election Irregularities and Problems

Your Democratic Election Integrity Committee is collecting Presidential Primary incident reports. Members of our committee will work through these identifying patterns to prepare for future elections. If you saw something happen be very specific in your report – who/what/when/where/how – please.  Avoid hearsay, which would cause us to waste time as we attempted to trace … Read more

America and Iraq: The Economic Background of the Conflict, by Guest Commentator Karl Reiner

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When he
launched his brutal invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, Saddam
Hussein shocked the world.  As his forces callously swept over the
small neighboring state, he also deliberately smashed a budding
rapprochement with the United States.  Although Saddam’s
government had been peddling regional stability as an objective, it
viciously repudiated that policy when it went to war. American
intelligence officers were stunned and mortified.  Their analyses of
Hussein’s intentions regarding Kuwait had been wrong.  No one
had seen the invasion coming – not even the Kuwaiti leaders fleeing
in terror toward the Saudi border.            

During the
early 1980s, Iraq’s emissaries to Washington began pushing to
improve relations with the United States.  They said Iraq wanted to
end the war with Iran.  In their newly found desire to promote
regional stability, the Iraqis expressed a willingness to support
whatever agreement the Israelis and Palestinians worked out.  Had the
bitter war with Iran forced Saddam Hussein to alter his policies?  An
emphasis on economic development, the calls for regional peace and
closer cooperation with the United States were taken as signs that
the government of a war-weary Iraq was bending to reality.

More of Karl’s unique first-hand perspective of the history of the Iraq conflict after the click…