World Tour 2005

So, how's our foreign policy going?

Well, North Korea apparently can nuke the us. That's new. And according to General Myers we don't have the capability of a quick win due to our troops already being stretched and the fact that we used so much equipment in Iraq.

Myers reported to Congress this week that the armed forces would have more trouble this year than last in quickly winning a new major combat operation and would suffer higher casualties.

The depletion of stockpiles of precision weapons and the availability of pre-positioned equipment, including vehicles and reserve units, were cited as reasons why the military would have a harder time dealing with additional conflicts.

The good news, I suppose is that we have don't excess equipment for our troops and we just aren't giving it to them. Then, of course, there's the slight problem with recruiting. We have not met our quotas. Even with the falsification of potential recruits' records. That can't be good. You have to wonder what are we going to do about it?

Nicaragua? The President of Nicaragua, Enrique Bolanos, has actually been a supporter of the US. They sent a small contingent of troops to Iraq. Good, right? But, because the US is insisting that they destroy all of the Surface to Air missiles left over from the Contra/Sandinista "situation" we have managed to unite the country...against us. We have frozen military aid to Nicaragua until they do it but they have their own national security concerns, especially Honduras. Once again, we show a lack of diplomatic finesse.


Iraq?

The latest indication of that came Wednesday when investigators released a report
saying $96.6 million in cash could not be properly accounted for. The total included more than $7 million that was simply gone, according to the report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Mmmmm, that can't be good. What's almost $100 million out of the $200 billion? Drop in the bucket. But imagine what that money could do in Darfur. The money we're freezing in aid to Nicaragua is $3.3 million.

Or maybe, take that $100 million and put it in a lock box for social security? Pay down a drop of the debt? Just some ideas.