Yay!! Wednesday!!

[desertvixen]

Wednesday, of course, means we're halfway through with this week. It's been a long and tired one for me.

The language database is in good shape. Now we have to see who gets in for language training. I'd like to, but they won't let me, because I'm reclassing. Maybe a small three day one, just to knock some Russian in. I don't want to lose it.

I also got a lesson on the fine art of Army memo writing.

PT = utter bitch today. My knee is very unhappy.

Tomorrow I get to go add promotion points, which will take me up to 613 (as I'm adding 85 points!). I only have 120 hours left of correspondence courses until I'm maxed out, and in April I'll be able to add that and my college points, which will put me up to a 737 of 798. I also have to go buy uniform stuff, like maybe a pair of pants. I *have* to get racks and ribbons, since we have a Class A uniform inspection next week.

Political Stuff #1 : Meanwhile, President Bush suggested that he and Congress had done their best to help the parents prolong Schiavo's life, and the White House said it had no further legal options.

"I believe that in a case such as this, the legislative branch, the executive branch, ought to err on the side of life, which we have," the president said. "Now we'll watch the courts make their decisions."

Nice of him to want to err on the side of life now. Or erring on the side of life on the abortion question - but not on the side of the kids after they're born. And as I mentioned in someone else's livejournal, how about his stand on the death penalty as governor of Texas?

I'm starting to get the feeling it's going to be a long four years.

I'm not including Iraq in the list because I do not want to touch that hot potato if I don't have to. After I reclass, I expect to have up close and personal experience with the place, and I'm holding my judgement until then. That being said, it's not cool to start a war for one reason and say it's for another.

Off to work on homework.

DV

Comments

[selenite.livejournal.com]

it's not cool to start a war for one reason and say it's for another.

There was a long list of reasons for starting the war:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912-1.html
(the 6th and 2nd to last paragraphs cover democracy)

[garbagewomyn.livejournal.com]

I wish I could believe that it was all about the democracy and freeing the Iraqi people. Unfortunately I don't think the US government has gotten the point there are some places where democracy just won't work.

I love how they bring up the democratic Afghanistan. It is currently in such a delicate balance it won't take much to put it back into similiar dire straits i.e.-pre-Enduring Freedom.

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

Except, of course, that's not what he's saying. selenite is just pointing out that democracy was one of the many motivations from the start, not (as some contend) a Johnny-come-lately justification when the WMD thing turned out to be a bust. What it is, is the justification that has borne the most fruit, especially when you consider the Lebanese standing up for themselves against Syria and Hezbollah, Egypt working on election reform, and Libya giving up its Chem/Bio program, lock, stock, and glowing barrel. Not that I'm a big democracy evangelist or anything, but I think it's a little hasty to claim that there's places it just won't work when it hasn't been given a fair shake in the first place.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

it's a little hasty to claim that there's places it just won't work

Yep. I think of Afghanistan and Iraq as experiments to find out if democracy can work there, in the same sense the founding fathers called our republic "the Great Experiment." Ten years from now there's going to be a lot of people saying "I told you so", we don't know which ones yet.

[garbagewomyn.livejournal.com]

Yes, except for the regime we just took out in Iraq was the very one we put there in the 80s.

[garbagewomyn.livejournal.com]

Rock on as far as the politics go...

[xinef.livejournal.com]

Classmates of mine at university called Wednesday "hump day". Once you're past Wednesday, you're past the hump in the middle of the week. Or something like that. And you do know what POETS day is?

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

RE: POETS Day -

I *think* it refers to Friday, but I forget what the letters stand for.

DV

[xinef.livejournal.com]

POETS - Piss On Everything, Tomorrow's Saturday

:)

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

I hope the democratic experiment works out.

I think ten years is being optimistic. I think it also may require some view changing on Americans' parts. What the Arabs want, democratically, may or may not be what we would view as a democratic society. The cultures are different, and it does make a difference.

FWIW, the husband (unlike all of us except Klecha) has actually been there, is more cynical about the prospects than I am. He also got to work pretty closely in with people (that whole speaking Arabic thing - I'm immensely glad that I wasn't smart enough by that test standard, although we probably still would have met) so I'm leaning in his direction. Brian is also a bit more on the politically/socially conservative side of things than I am - which makes for some interesting conversations.

DV

[hpnotiqa.livejournal.com]

I can not figure out where those correspondence courses are located online. Can you please inform me of how they work and where I can take them. I know they count towards getting promoted but that's about it.