Tense Tidings
Hello All!
Last night I bore witness to a nail biting travesty of One Day International Cricket.
Strong effort. Unfortunate result. I never like seeing Indians with a reason to celebrate.
As for me, well I finished my prac, and apparently received very good feedback from the school. Was very touching to be told that.
On the flip side there is a tablet that I take each day. I've been doing this for a few years now, and its fine save for the withdrawals should you not be taking it. I requested a new script, but for some reason it wasn't available when I went down, and the doc is away till tomorrow. Arggghhh!!!
It's hard to describe what I'm enduring. I think I've been pretty graceful about it up till now. What happens is my testosterone levels blow out to many times that of normal. It's actually an exhilirating experience.... PROVIDED I have space to roam, wilderness to explore etc. Sitting in an office, talking to people nicely, utilising higher brain function is a murderous task. Thankfully I've kinda gotten used to it (this has happened a number of times before) so I manage... Just.
The problem with this is its hard to explain to people what it does to you. It's like being a caged animal. It's not like a hangover, which everyone can relate to. It's not like being sick, which people can give sympathy for. Yet its at least as difficult to cope with. You are constantly agressive, constantly dominent, constantly manic. It has, however, led to some amusing things in the past.
Anyway.
I am just working on the basis that Obama is going to, ultimately, win the nomination. I'd be surprised if the issue was decided today, though if Obama won both Texas and Ohio then that would be it. Not sure how likely that is, but if he wins even one then I'd say Clinton is outmatched.
This is not the commentary I have for today. Rather I'm looking forwards to some of the foreign policy challenges that would face President Obama.
If Obama wins, there will be jubilence around the world. Obama would do well to refer to world citizens in his victory speech. He would do well to capitolise on the good faith the world will shower on him by reversing the policies of the Bush administration in the areas of Global Warming and Third World debt...
(Here I want to give credit where credit is due... George W Bush has personally ensured the AIDS pandemic has received US aide at a level unprecedented at any time in any nations history. This has had a major impact on the spread of the disease, and has allowed many in Africa & India to live a quality of life with HIV comparable to sufferers in the west. While I disagree vehedemately with some of Bush's policies, I don't like the way he's used as 'the face of right wing radicalism'. He's certainly a more complex individual then that).
This leaves Obama in a real dilemma regarding one issue, Iraq.
No doubt McCain will rightly bring Iraq up over and over during the Presidential race. This will force Obama to stick to the empirically inferior line of 'bringing the troops home' policy.
A main reason I support Obama, as I've mentioned before, is his original fortitude when it came to voting against the war in Iraq when it was all gunho.
For four years it was bloody mess, horrendous civil war.
Then something changed. General David Petraeus was promoted to a 4 star general. Despite never being in combat himself, he was put at the helm of the surge strategy, and given supreme command of the MNF.
To my absolute astonishment, and ongoing amazement, not only has the strategy worked, but the insurgency has been completely routed on every front. The people of Iraq are once again starting to live a little, and things are getting back on track.
This is a real thorn for the US democrats, if you compare that to when they won both the Congress and the Senate, and the scorn with which the surge strategy was received. Bush was even forced to use Presidential veto on two bills calling for troop withdrawals.
To leave Iraq now, in the face on this unmitigated success under what can only be one of the finest commanders of his generation, well, that would be the definition of insanity.
I have solved this problem for Obama, however.
The solution, brilliant if I do say so myself (the withdrawals are coming out)...Withdraw the troops proviso to a series of political objectives being maintained by the Iraqi government which cannot realistically be maintained.
ie, continued stability, development, peace and security.
Once the situation collapses, which it will, the US can return as part of a formal request by the Iraqi government. This would protect Obama from the political fallout of maintaining troops in Iraq whilst doing the strategically correct thing.
One thing is for certain, complete withdraw would spell disaster. The Turks would invade from the north, the Iranians from the east and a bloody redraw of borders would be te result.
The other big challenge facing a future President Obama is to repair strained relations with the US military. The Democrats have, historically speaking, had a really antagonistic time dealing with the US Armed Forces. I don't think that needs to be the case either. The Democrats just have a way of rubbing its military the wrong way. Even in Kosovo, Bill Clinton's status as Commander in Chief was somewhat scorned by the overly cautious policy of high altitude bombing.
What the Obama administration would need to do is to convince some respected ex-servicemen into high level positions and resist the urge to slash the Military budget.
No doubt the American Military would remain active in the next four years. What the Military needs is some good PR, to be involved in dangerous missions, in conflicts in which its hard to be cynical about motives. Darfur immediately springs to mind.
Armies that come home to ticket tape parades and hero's welcomes tend to be more genial than those who live in Abu Ghraib shame. Such a change would be a contrast to the disassociation of the Bush years, and help the Military forget that the Democratic condemnations had a large part to play in that process.
Thankyou for reading my Journal.
Last night I bore witness to a nail biting travesty of One Day International Cricket.
Strong effort. Unfortunate result. I never like seeing Indians with a reason to celebrate.
As for me, well I finished my prac, and apparently received very good feedback from the school. Was very touching to be told that.
On the flip side there is a tablet that I take each day. I've been doing this for a few years now, and its fine save for the withdrawals should you not be taking it. I requested a new script, but for some reason it wasn't available when I went down, and the doc is away till tomorrow. Arggghhh!!!
It's hard to describe what I'm enduring. I think I've been pretty graceful about it up till now. What happens is my testosterone levels blow out to many times that of normal. It's actually an exhilirating experience.... PROVIDED I have space to roam, wilderness to explore etc. Sitting in an office, talking to people nicely, utilising higher brain function is a murderous task. Thankfully I've kinda gotten used to it (this has happened a number of times before) so I manage... Just.
The problem with this is its hard to explain to people what it does to you. It's like being a caged animal. It's not like a hangover, which everyone can relate to. It's not like being sick, which people can give sympathy for. Yet its at least as difficult to cope with. You are constantly agressive, constantly dominent, constantly manic. It has, however, led to some amusing things in the past.
Anyway.
I am just working on the basis that Obama is going to, ultimately, win the nomination. I'd be surprised if the issue was decided today, though if Obama won both Texas and Ohio then that would be it. Not sure how likely that is, but if he wins even one then I'd say Clinton is outmatched.
This is not the commentary I have for today. Rather I'm looking forwards to some of the foreign policy challenges that would face President Obama.
If Obama wins, there will be jubilence around the world. Obama would do well to refer to world citizens in his victory speech. He would do well to capitolise on the good faith the world will shower on him by reversing the policies of the Bush administration in the areas of Global Warming and Third World debt...
(Here I want to give credit where credit is due... George W Bush has personally ensured the AIDS pandemic has received US aide at a level unprecedented at any time in any nations history. This has had a major impact on the spread of the disease, and has allowed many in Africa & India to live a quality of life with HIV comparable to sufferers in the west. While I disagree vehedemately with some of Bush's policies, I don't like the way he's used as 'the face of right wing radicalism'. He's certainly a more complex individual then that).
This leaves Obama in a real dilemma regarding one issue, Iraq.
No doubt McCain will rightly bring Iraq up over and over during the Presidential race. This will force Obama to stick to the empirically inferior line of 'bringing the troops home' policy.
A main reason I support Obama, as I've mentioned before, is his original fortitude when it came to voting against the war in Iraq when it was all gunho.
For four years it was bloody mess, horrendous civil war.
Then something changed. General David Petraeus was promoted to a 4 star general. Despite never being in combat himself, he was put at the helm of the surge strategy, and given supreme command of the MNF.
To my absolute astonishment, and ongoing amazement, not only has the strategy worked, but the insurgency has been completely routed on every front. The people of Iraq are once again starting to live a little, and things are getting back on track.
This is a real thorn for the US democrats, if you compare that to when they won both the Congress and the Senate, and the scorn with which the surge strategy was received. Bush was even forced to use Presidential veto on two bills calling for troop withdrawals.
To leave Iraq now, in the face on this unmitigated success under what can only be one of the finest commanders of his generation, well, that would be the definition of insanity.
I have solved this problem for Obama, however.
The solution, brilliant if I do say so myself (the withdrawals are coming out)...Withdraw the troops proviso to a series of political objectives being maintained by the Iraqi government which cannot realistically be maintained.
ie, continued stability, development, peace and security.
Once the situation collapses, which it will, the US can return as part of a formal request by the Iraqi government. This would protect Obama from the political fallout of maintaining troops in Iraq whilst doing the strategically correct thing.
One thing is for certain, complete withdraw would spell disaster. The Turks would invade from the north, the Iranians from the east and a bloody redraw of borders would be te result.
The other big challenge facing a future President Obama is to repair strained relations with the US military. The Democrats have, historically speaking, had a really antagonistic time dealing with the US Armed Forces. I don't think that needs to be the case either. The Democrats just have a way of rubbing its military the wrong way. Even in Kosovo, Bill Clinton's status as Commander in Chief was somewhat scorned by the overly cautious policy of high altitude bombing.
What the Obama administration would need to do is to convince some respected ex-servicemen into high level positions and resist the urge to slash the Military budget.
No doubt the American Military would remain active in the next four years. What the Military needs is some good PR, to be involved in dangerous missions, in conflicts in which its hard to be cynical about motives. Darfur immediately springs to mind.
Armies that come home to ticket tape parades and hero's welcomes tend to be more genial than those who live in Abu Ghraib shame. Such a change would be a contrast to the disassociation of the Bush years, and help the Military forget that the Democratic condemnations had a large part to play in that process.
Thankyou for reading my Journal.