The Next Domino is Falling

Libya is under siege from the inside by rebel forces that want Moammar Gadhafi, the dictator of Libya has been in power for decades, out.  Rebel forces are moving closer and closer to the capitol of Tripoli.  They recently took Zawiyah, a city that is considered the gateway to Tripoli, causing many to believe its only a matter of time before Gadhafi is ousted.  The reporter of this story was supposed to be taken to Zawiyah to show how in control the government was, but before they could it was taken by the rebels.  It has gotten so bad that government troops are defecting to join the rebels.

This article is closely related to my article on Egypt.  It looks like Libya is the next domino to fall in the Middle East with protests going on in Yemen, Iraq, and Iran as well.  We have coverage of the Yemen and Iraq protests, but since Iran won’t let any press into their country we have no access to what is going on there.  This protesting is going to continue in the Middle East so long as the old governments try to cling to power.  The people of the Middle East are sick of tyrannical and corrupt leaders and are ready for democracy.  Many Americans are feeling the reverberations of these protests in their wallets as gas prices have shot up recently.  We can only hope that this violence comes to a quick and speedy end.

Issue #3 Social Security System

This is issue #3 in a series of issues, to view a blog on Issue #1 follow this link, for issue #2 follow this link.

The Social Security System is becoming a very debated topic as the average age of Americans continues to age, along with the retirement of the “baby boomers”.  The Social Security System is an entitlement program, meaning that if the government fails to put adequate sums into the system then they are breaking the law.  With a soaring National Debt the government is having a hard time not breaking the law with the Social Security System.  Soon, in order to keep up with the increase of retirees, the Social Security System will be spending more money than it takes in, causing many people to say its time for a change.

I have to agree with those people that are calling for a radical change in the system.  I don’t see how a system that is so quickly going into debt can be shored up by a few quick fix changes.  The American population is getting older, therefore more money will be given out through the system.  With one in four Americans being eligible for Social Security benefits soon, and only a third of the actually employed American population will be paying for those benefits.  The working force of America would be hard pressed to pay for a fourth of Americans Social Security benefits, not to mention all the other government spending.  The Young America’s Foundation agrees with my thoughts on what needs to be done with the Social Security System.

What does it mean to be a....?

Sweden is facing a large number of immigrants coming from the Middle East, and they are bringing their religion of Islam with them.  The Swedes are not sure how exactly to deal with this problem.  They are a country who has one million immigrants out of their total population of nine million.  Sweden traditionally is a very accepting and tolerant country, but with this influx of immigrants and their religion and the violence associated with it a new political party called the Sweden Democrats has emerged that wishes to keep the Muslim population subdued and keep the Swedish identity the same as it has always been.  There has been violence against the Muslim population by Swedes as well as violence against the Swedish population by Muslims.  The Swedish people have to decide how to deal with the Muslim population and feel as though their decisions will be an example for the rest of Europe.

In an age where peoples from different countries are constantly moving to new countries to live it is getting harder and harder for people to retain their national identity.  For example there’s the cliché question of “what is an America?”  It’s a hard question to answer because everyone has different ideas about what it means to be an American.  The Swedish are now asking themselves the very same question.  They want to know just what it means to be Swedish and there will be some political duels between different ideals for a time until they come to a consensus and decide where they want their country to go.  I completely understand their desire to retain their national identity, I know that I would not want to lose who I feel I am just because some people who have a different idea of what I should be move to my country.  But then again we can’t just ostracize those people, we need to find a way to keep our national identity without compromising too much to the ever demanding minorities.

"Curveball"—The Iraqi Who Lied

This is a disturbing article.  Either our government didn’t know better than to trust an untrustworthy source or our government chose to ignore that fact in order to invade Iraq.  An Iraqi code named “Curveball” told American intelligence about WMDs that Saddam Hussein supposedly had.  He made up stories bioweapon trucks and factories that produced chemical weapons in order to get the U.S. to invade Iraq sooner.  Curveball is proud of his lies and said that since it helped Saddam be ousted sooner that there was nothing wrong with what he did.  This circumstance has many people questioning the credibility of our countries intelligence. 

Personally I believe that regardless of the reasons America would have invaded Iraq anyway.  In the post 9/11 atmosphere Americans overwhelmingly wanted to invade Afghanistan.  That fervor for action against those who were possibly a part of the attack, or those who possibly were aiding those terrorist had not died down.  This basic desire for revenge pushed us into Iraq.  If President Bush had come out and said that we invaded for revenge the opinion of the world would have turned against us.  If Bush had announced we were invading because Hussein was an evil dictator America would be expected to invade all the countries in the world with dictators who were cruel to their populace.  But, if Iraq had WMDs ready to be used against the American public, then the other countries of the world would be okay with the invasion of Iraq.  Curveball provided this information that helped justify the invasion, his credibility was ignored, in my opinion, because America needed an excuse to invade Iraq because their thirst for revenge had not yet been sated. 

Another Facebook Stalker...

It’s is a common story in the time of social networking for someone to be stalked via the internet.  Story after story has been reported on this occurring and ending up in court cases and restraining orders if it’s a happy ending.  So maybe by now you are wondering why exactly I would be blogging about such a story, and the answer is because the maker of the largest social network is the victim this time, Mark Zuckerberg. Through his own creation of Facebook he has been stalked by Pradeep Manukonda who has continually asked for money and threatened Zuckerberg.  In one of the messages he even told Zuckerberg "please help me, then I am ready to die for you ... Please understand my pain."

This situation absolutely reeks with irony.  I laughed out loud when I first read the headline of this article.  Of all the people out there with Facebook it is the creator that is facing problems through the site.  I think it is great to have the world so interconnected, but this shows that no one is safe from the internet.  Anyone can get access to some of your information on the internet, especially through social networking sites.  It makes me wonder how easy it would be for someone to get all the information they needed to pretend to be me, or even steal my identity.  As I was applying for college and all they asked for was my birth date to verify who I was I decided it was time to change my birthday on Facebook.  Sure it’ll mean having all my “well wishers” telling me happy birthday on the wrong day, but my real life friends that I spend time with outside of the internet will know the truth, and they are the important friends.

The Domino Effect of Egypt

Arab leaders in the Middle East and Africa are afraid that the events currently going on in Egypt are going to spread to other countries.  Egypt wasn’t the first country to set off the series of dominos, that was Tunisia. Those protests then spread to Egypt, but to understand why these protests are spreading so quickly you must understand that many countries in this region share the same characteristics: young populations, poverty, unemployment, suppression of human rights, and leaders that have been in power for decades.  Yemen is the perfect example of this domino effect.  Already civil unrest has spread there against the leader who has been in power for over 30 years.  In Jordan, the people began by asking for food, but now are protesting for a new government.  Lybia looks to be another country poised to fall in this domino effect.  They have a leader that has been in power for over 40 years, but he is trying to prevent his downfall by cutting taxes and other small things to placate his people.  Islamic Fundamentalist groups are the driving force behind almost all of these protests, they are well organized and ready to come into power.  The question many are asking is "Is this a good thing?"  Only time will tell.

I am torn when looking at this situation.  These revolutions need to happen, these leaders have clung to power for too long.  There is a reason we vote for a new president every four years.  Change in leadership is good.  Without that change dictatorships come into power, they forget that the only reason they rule the people of their country is because the people let them rule in the first place.  These leaders have forgotten this and have forsaken the people of the countries they run.  Then I think about this situation on a larger scale, and what implications these revolutions could have for the rest of the world.  Looking just at that specific region of the world there is Israel to think about.  If the Islamic Fundamentalist groups organizing these protests do come into power Israel would be in trouble.  The Muslim world does not get along with Israel, there’s proof enough of that in the Six-Day War.  Putting Fundamentalist Islamic leaders in charge of these protesting countries could lead to a lot of future problems, maybe even war.  Then I thought about what these changes in leadership would mean for the United States.  I’m afraid successful revolutions would be a problem for America.  These Fundamentalist Muslims do not like America any more than they like Israel, so while there may not be direct consequences, there still would be a great potential for increased tensions with the U.S. and the countries of the Middle East.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/41359553#41359553