Solutions @ MindSay

For anyone so interested, you can watch Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman outline the rationale for their plan by going to the C-SPAN video page and clicking on the "Sen. McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Lieberman (I-CT) on Iraq Troop Surge" link. The remarks are brief, with Sens. McCain and Lieberman each speaking for about 10 minutes.

The thrust of the plan is that given the situation on the ground, increased military forces are needed to allow the formation of a political solution in Iraq. The following quote is from Sen. McCain and begins around the 4:21 mark.

I believe that the war is still winnable, but to prevail we’ll need to do everything right and the Iraqis will have to do their part. And are we concerned about doing everything right and the Iraqis having to do their part? Of course we are.

There is agreement among most observers that the problems plaguing Iraq require a political solution. We all agree with that. But it's also a lesson of history that unless you have security – security is the necessary precondition for political progress and economic development.

I'd be interested in hearing from those that support a political solution but oppose a troop increase. Under what scenario do you see a political solution taking shape?

Let us begin with the facts. MSNBC reports that Sen. John McCain, the Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has announced his support for a significant and sustained increase in US forces in Iraq.

McCain called for a minimum of six additional Army brigades -- roughly 25,000 soldiers -- to be sent to Iraq, especially translators, Special Forces and civil affairs officers.

He said the previous strategy of trying to train Iraqi troops and turn over security patrol duties to them hasn’t worked and that American troops were needed to impose and maintain order and to prevent ethnic cleansing.

I support McCain's approach and believe it is the best of a series of unpleasant options for resolving the mess in Iraq for the following reasons:

First, the McCain proposal is the best choice because it encompasses a realistic assessment of the situation on the ground in Iraq. To be blunt, the US is losing the war effort in Iraq, as even Defense Secretary Robert Gates has admitted. The current Bush Administration policy, for so long called "Stay the Course," leaves American troops in harm's way with no exit strategy in place. This failed policy calls for US troops to remain in Iraq until the Iraqi Army and police force can maintain the peace. But there is no peace to maintain.

The McCain proposal takes as its starting point the assertion that the Administration policy is a failure. This is obvious, but it is an assertion that the Bush Administration has been reluctant to make.

In addition, the McCain approach takes as its starting point a realistic assessment of the enemy we face in Iraq. Where the Bush Administration's policy failed because they were not willing to face up to the reality of the situation on the ground, the proposal by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to begin a troop withdrawal within four to six months fails to confront the nature of the enemy.

“If we fail in Iraq, there’s somehow the belief, that I don’t quite comprehend, that we just come home and then it’s over” – in the same way U.S. troops came home from Vietnam in the mid-1970s.

The difference, McCain argued, was that “the Vietnamese didn’t want to follow us” to attack the United States itself.

While it is true that, at the start of the US Invasion, Iraq was not a part of the war against the radical Islamist terrorists, Iraq is a part of that war now. To pretend otherwise is to be as naive as the Bush Administration in it's assessment of the war effort.

Next, in response to the dismal assessment in Iraq, the McCain proposal actually mentions the dreaded "S-Word." McCain has the honesty to talk about the sacrifices that his plan requires.

He warned that his recommendation “will mean more casualties and extra hardships for our brave fighting men and women” and that “the violence may get worse before it gets better. We have to be prepared for this.”

President Bush was either unable or unwilling to bring himself to discuss the sacrifices that would be necessary to achieve victory in Iraq. The main reason that the call for sacrifice was never an element of President Bush's rhetoric, I believe, is that Bush never had a clear goal for which the sacrifice was needed and was justified.

That brings me to the next reason I support the McCain proposal: the McCain proposal has clearly stated objectives that an increase in troop strength can accomplish. McCain understands that the ultimate solution to the problems in Iraq will be a political solution, not a military solution. However, before a political solution can be crafted, there must be a dramatic decrease in the violence in Iraq. The militias must be brought under control and ultimately disarmed, the sectarian killings must end, and the Shiites and the Sunnis must broker a political settlement.

 

McCain argues that the only way to get to a point of reduced violence that will enable political negotiations is with an increased and sustained US presence in Iraq.

[McCain] said the previous strategy of trying to train Iraqi troops and turn over security patrol duties to them hasn’t worked and that American troops were needed to impose and maintain order and to prevent ethnic cleansing.

It seems clear that the sectarian violence and subsequent reprisal killings must end before the political solution can advance. And as we witnessed this past fall, when the Administration attempted to secure Baghdad, a committment of too few troops only escalates the American casualties. That is why a significant and sustained troop increase is needed.

Finally, I support the McCain proposal because it is not the politically popular or expedient thing to do. This plan of action is not going to create a groundswell of support for McCain as a Republican Presidential candidate because it is a direct repudiation of the Bush Administration's failed policies in Iraq. The right wing is already distrustful of McCain (follow this link to read some comments from Free Republic) and by repudiating the Bush policy he will not be helping himself in the Republican primaries, nor will a call for more troops help in the general election.

So in summary, I support the McCain proposal because it is realistic about the situation on the ground, it is realistic about the enemy we face, it recognizes the tremendous sacrifices needed to win this war, and because it is a plan with no obvious immediate political gain for McCain (unless we win of course).

To me, the McCain approach is the best way forward because the alternatives do not advance us toward the goal of a political solution to the Iraq situation.

With the fifth annivesary of September 11th only minutes away, I've been thinking about then versus now.  Over the past month, we've been inundated with news, television programs, newspaper articles and magazine exposes.

And what does any of it mean?  If anything?  ABC had a program on claiming to be based on the 9/11 commission report, when, in fact, it's a docudrama based more on lies than truth.

The program is said to have put most of the blame of 9/11 on the Clinton administration.  First of all, Clinton is a Democrat, but in many ways, he was a very conservative president.  He was middle of the road, deciding on the issues instead of party.  And sure, his administration had a lot of missed opportunities.

But can we crucify him for a lack of imagination?  I would point to Bush Sr. and the failure to knock Sadam Hussein out of power.  But, magically on August 22, the Bush administration has decided it's going to be strong in that there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11.  On August 21, they claimed there was a connection.  And few people seem concerned that they either were then or are now lying.

I didn't watch the ABC program because I decided on watching Discovery's program headed up by Ted Koppel.  I watched the program because I felt it would be a politically neutral one, and it was.  Views of both Liberals and Conservatives were heard, and the point was made that we are all Republicans, all Democrats, all conservatives, all Liberals when it comes to terror.  We are all Americans.

One point that wasn't made and I wish ould be made is what is the point of all of this?  What purpose does the blame game serve?  Want to blame Clinton?  Want to blame Carter?  I don't care.  Bush isn't to blame for 9/11.  No president is.  Sure, he got memos, and he should've acted on the intelligence just like Clinton should have.  But we all lacked imagination that such an event could ever happen.

It's understandable that it's easier to just not believe.  And it happened.  Who's to blame?

Who cares?!?

What are the solutions?  What are we going to do?  We can't be secure.  Torturing prisoners is not the answer.  My criticism with the Bush administration isn't pre-9/11 but post 9/11.  We were all behind Afghanistan.  Iraq wasn't even connected, and they now concede that.

But, since Labor Day, 15 new prisoners have been taken to GITMO.  Prisoners are being interrogated, just this side of torture, and for what?

Muslims are not just Arabs, and the racial profiling going on is inconstitutional and provides no effective solution.  There are white and black Muslims, European Muslims.  What are we doing to protect against them?  Maybe we need to work on solutions, like foreign policy relations that don't piss off the world.

And what about on the home front?  What are we doing to protect ourselves?  I live in a town of 2,000 people, but do those of you who live in major metropolitan areas know your city's evacuation plan?  They probably don't have one.  Is there an emergency response task force that'll take over, coordinate all agencies to make sure as many lives are saved as possible – most importantly the first responders who suffered so many losses five years ago.

What's being done?  What are the solutions?  Who cares who's to blame.  Millenia of conflict and hundreds of years of Western politics have led up to where we are today.  Events of the last year, decade or century caused these attacks.

Let's focus on the solutions.  Let's find out how to make us no longer be a target for terrorism.  A recent poll showed that 54% of Americans think Iraq is huring the war on terror while 40% think it's helping.  I thik this is reasonable because we all feel conflicted about that topic.

But again, is that a solution?  Is the war in Iraq or ending it a solution?  That should be the topic of debate.  Civil liberties (or the lack thereof) should be the topic.  Our safety if/when another attack happens should be the topic.

Whose fault is it?  Of what benefit can that answer be?

Okay, after thinking about what I wrote, I think I might have come up with some solutions.  Any other suggestions on how to defeat artist's block are welcomed!

Problem: I feel too medicated
Solution:  I need to check my levels again and see if perhaps I am too medicated.  I should also insist that my doctors pay more attention to my needs and feelings. 

Problem: Procrastination due to lack of passion for the story
Solution:  Try to find the parts I like best and concentrate on those or make them central to the designs/images on each page.  I should also try to draw outside of the house and go sit somewhere else to create the images.  Sometimes getting some fresh air might help.  I should also procrasinate on getting other work done in order to finish this book; housework can wait, art lasts forever!

Problem: Not having a best friend(s) to share it with
Solution:  I should try to find a way to join a club or organization for artists of my caliber and interests.  Maybe I can get new comic book best friends?!  Yeah, I need a support group...

Problem: Still experiencing sadness over relationship losses
Solution:  I think the same ties in with above...

Problem:  Inability to use catharsis to create art
Solution:  Maybe I should put off the heavy emotional stuff for later and just do a couple pieces of art that are fun to do, to give myself an escape from troubles.  This could also be a good warm-up for other work I need to get done.

Problem:  Doubts about my abilities as an artist
Solution:  I've always noticed my art sucks when I put myself down.  I need to reconfirm my belief in myself as a human being first before I can let the artist in me out.  Maybe looking through old works I've done well or were rewarded for could help.

Problem:  Cultural pressure
Solution:  As I think more on this, I realize that many things that are thought to be essentially "white man inventions" have been met with skepticism.  Even more, many people in my tribe, like many americans, are not accustomed to considering comic book art as fine art.  They see comic books as cheap kid's stuff, but if the elders took a closer look, they'd realize that the art of making a comic book is very similiar to the way we used traditional pictographs as a means to communicate stories and ideas.  My tribe, the Menominee, never had a written language per say, we used pictures on little wooden boards to express not just ideas, but as a means to heal and help others.  The pictures, like the images in a comic book, go in sequence to describe an event or action taken by a spirit or person in the world.  I've always maintained to elders that comics are the way to go to fully express the beauty of our culture -- I just have to show them how.  The pressure of doing this is incredible.  What if I suck at this?  I think they were thinking the same thing until I showed them the work I've done so far.  I think they were expecting me to treat the spirits in our world as cartoon fantasies like the playthings of the white man's world; I don't think they were expecting me to draw a water spirit in intricate detail or bring to life the little people like I did.  In fact one of the elders was frightened I had drawn the little people too well -- because when you do that you might accidentally invite them to wreck havoc in your life.  That's the other difference with this comic book; what a white person may find as a mythic creature is believed as real to a red person.  We still hold on to our beliefs in the spirit world, so you have to draw such creatures with great care and respect.  Unlike just sitting down to draw a comic book for, say, DC Comics where all the characters really are fiction, drawing a comic book for the Chippewa is more like putting down a sacred creation myth on paper and letting it come to life -- things are even more real when you draw them than they are just hidden within your own imagination.  It's hard to play both worlds (cultures) in the creation of a book.
The thing is to just do it.

Another idea for peace-full artwork!
Problem Solving and healing from a different perspective, I am uncertain about the specifics of this posting copied from SpiritHub a spiritual group I participate with. The concept though is quite refreshing and from a "Quantum" or "Cosmic" level of understanding I can appreciate that this principle may work in many applications.
Currently our spiritual group is working together with the middle east conflict, and world leaders, in mind.
We don't believe we can stop the bloodshed with our actions but we would like to believe our actions may assist in there being one or two "clear heads" who might come to uncover new solutions that can work that are humane and supportive for all involved in the conflict!

HO'OPONOPONO

Ho'Oponopono Healing

by Joe Vitale

"Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients- without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.

"When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane? It didn't make any sense. It wasn't logical, so I dismissed the story.

"However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho 'oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn't let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more. I had always understood "total responsibility" to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it's out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We're responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does--but that's wrong.

The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility. His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist.

He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous. Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.

After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely,' he told me. 'Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed.' I was in awe.'Not only that,' he went on, 'but the staff began to enjoy coming to work.

Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed.'

This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: 'What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?'

'I was simply healing the part of me that created them,' he said. I didn't understand. Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life- simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

"Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy or anything you experience and don't like--is up for you to heal. They don't exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you.

I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho 'oponopono means loving yourself.

If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone, even a mentally ill criminal you do it by healingyou.

I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients' files?

'I just kept saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you' over and over again,' he explained.

That's it?

That's it.

Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world.

Let me give you a quick example of how this works: one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message.

This time, I decided to try Dr. Len's method. I kept silently saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you,' I didn't say it to anyone in particular. I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance.

Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn't take any outward action to get that apology. I didn't even write him back. Yet, by saying 'I love you,' I somehow healed within me what was creating him.

I later attended a ho 'oponopono workshop run by Dr. Len. He's now 70 years old, considered a grandfatherly shaman, and is somewhat reclusive.

He praised my book, The Attractor Factor. He told me that as I improve myself, my book's vibration will raise, and everyone will feel it when they read it. In short, as I improve, my readers will improve.

'What about the books that are already sold and out there?' I asked.

'They aren't out there,' he explained, once again blowing my mind with his mystic wisdom. 'They are still in you.' In short, there is no out there. It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves.

Suffice It to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside you. When you look, do it with love."



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
For current channeled & ascension related material please visit
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Just Channelings ~ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/justchannelings

http://hooponopono.org/