A CIVIL WAR FOR SURE IN IRAQ

Iraq is in a civil war. I have been saying this for some time now.

NBC just decided to call the conflict in Iraq a “civil war”. President Bush adamantly denies that a civil war exists in Iraq.

The daily slaughter in Iraq is incomprehensible; people are now being set on fire as they walk the streets.

General Abezaid plays the Bush stooge and repeats the same ole’ stupid Bushisms, not realizing that he is damaging himself as a general but most of all, as a credible person.

Bush is in Europe trying to get NATO involved in Iraq – they won’t.

Iran and Syria are being urged to take a role in Iraq. How IRONIC! Syria and Iran have been sending suicide bombers and inciting general mayhem in Iraq and now they are called on to be peacemakers – how does that make Bush look?

Senator McCain is saying send more troops – to do what? You can have an American soldier behind every Iraqi and when we leave, the slaughter will continue – and he wants to be our next president – the idea is stupid.

Senator Levin says start bringing the troops home. He may as well say bring ALL the troops home right now because if we are unable to stop the civil war, we must let the civil war go on until someone wins. In this case, it will be the Shiites who will exterminate the Sunnis. The Kurds will hold their own ground.

Bush says “stay the course”. Has he completely lost his mind? What about his advisors?

The Baker commission is yet to make their suggestions. One that has leaked out is to get Iran and Syria involved. I thought they would come up with some sensible plan but I guess I was too optimistic.

There are a few that agree with the idea to divide Iraq. I think it is the only viable idea and an idea that will stop the slaughter the quickest.

Things are coming to a head rather quickly now – time for definitive action or there will be no Iraqis left.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT EVOLUTION.

Monday, November 27, 2006

To: The Canton Observer
Re: Letters to the Editor, Nov. 23.


In recent letters to the editor about religious faith and science, I was dismayed to see that certain common misconceptions about evolution still exist in people’s minds.

The number one misconception is that science somehow knows and teaches how life began; it does not and therefore you will not learn about the origin of life in science class unless and until solid evidence is available to make a scientific assumption possible. In plain words, right now, science cannot tell you how life began and therefore cannot discount the involvement of a supernatural force and does not.

The other great misconception is about the word “theory”. In common usage a theory is not a fact but more like a guess or a hunch waiting to be proven. In science, theories like the theory of evolution or the gravitational theory do not become facts through the accumulation of evidence; theories are the end points of science as defined by the National Academy of Sciences.

Men could not be sent to the moon if gravitational theory was just someone’s gut feeling. The flu virus would not change every year, certain bacteria could not become drug resistant, and mosquitoes could not become resistant to insecticides without the forces of evolution being present. The theory of evolution is the cornerstone of biology, without it nothing would make sense.

That is not to say that questions do not still exists in the field of evolution. Darwin posited in 1859 that evolution occurs through natural selection or the survival of the fittest. His hypothesis, although still conceptually sound, has undergone some adjustment and expansion. We now can document mutation on a genetic level and have found that some mutations occur by pure chance and their survival or demise is then governed by natural selection.

Copernicus and Galileo were condemned by the Catholic Church for stating that the earth revolves around the sun and not that the sun revolves around the earth, as Church teaching avowed. Pope John Paul II apologized before he died for the Church’s grievous error and deplorable treatment of Galileo; one of many examples of why religion and science should be kept as separate disciplines.

Science and religion play important roles in many of our daily lives. They do not have to be viewed as adversarial. I feel it is important to first dispel misconceptions as a way of promoting genuine dialog.

BACKGROUND FOR THE DIVISION OF IRAQ

To understand why I am calling for a division of Iraq into Shiite, Sunni and Kurd areas with a weak central administration to distribute oil revenues, you must know something about how Iraq was formed.

Prior to World War I (WWI) the area was called the Ottoman Empire, administered by the Ottoman Turks in Constantinople / Istanbul. The empire encompassed most of the Middle East as well as part of Eastern Europe (Bulgaria and Albania).

The people living in the general Mesopotamian region were divided along ethnic and religious lines (Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds).

WWI was pretty complicated but suffices it to say the Ottomans chose to join Germany and Austria against Great Britain and France and we all know who won.

The Ottomans lost their empire to the Brits and the French. Where was the United States in all of this? Well, Woodrow Wilson was the president then and he really care about international politics but the U.S. people and the U.S. Congress did not (isolationism) and so Wilson was denied a voice in international affairs and so Britain and France divided the Ottoman empire as they saw fit.

The nation of Iraq was created by Winston Churchill and encompassed the three diverse groups we mentioned above under a single ruler the British picked. The British did not seem to understand the diverse nature of the groups they forced to live together in a phony country or, for that matter, did they really care.

The British were imperialists, had their own empire on which the sun never set and were really very full of themselves.

The Iraqi people became a nation and existed peacefully together but so did the Yugoslavians under Tito. But take the dictators out of the equations, Saddam out of Iraq and Tito dead in Yugoslavia and look what happened; neighbors slaughtering neighbors.

Why? I don’t have an answer but certain reasons are evident. The main and obvious reason is and was religion. The Kurds are Muslim but a different ethnic group all together. In Yugoslavia it was Christian against Muslim.

Knowing the history of the region, of the peoples and how they were thrown together (Yugoslavia by the Communists and Iraq by the British) will make it clearer why they should be separated once again.

ONLY IRAQ DIVISION WILL WORK!

Monday, November 20, 2006


To: The Detroit Free Press
Re: “Victory? Increase troops?” Nov. 20.


Most agree that the escalating sectarian violence in Iraq must be controlled if the country is to have any hope of ever becoming a unified nation. Calls for dramatically increasing our troop level there as a means of creating peace among the opposing factions will not work, “Victory? Increase troops?” Nov. 20. Even if you had one American soldier for every Iraqi, you could not change how they feel and as soon as we left, those feelings would boil over into violence once again.

If we really care about the Iraqi people, we must put an end to the de facto civil war that is raging there. To do that, we must divide the country into Shiite, Sunni and Kurd areas with a weak central authority to distribute oil revenues between the three. The only way we can force the three Iraqi peoples to live together is to put Saddam Hussein back in power.

FDA AND SILICONE BREAST IMPLANTS

Let me get this straight - DOW went bankrupt and had to establish a billion dollar fund for all the lawsuits brought and won by women that had silicone breast implants that leaked or did something, and now the FDA is allowing the same silicone implants to once again be implanted in women?

If the FDA now certifies silicone breast implants as safe shouldn't DOW and other manufacturers that were financially hurt if not ruined by lawsuits claiming the implants were unsafe, get their money back?

Should all those women that walked away with millions give those millions back?

How about DOW suing the federal government for being incompetent or at least "in error"?

Hey, I think we have a big case of unfairness here and I don't think the lawyers that made millions off this whole issue should get to keep those millions.

LABOR WANTS TO CLAIM DEMOCRATIC VICTORY

Sunday, November 19, 2006


To: The Detroit News
Re: “Voters want fair trade, not free trade”, Nov. 17.


Mark Gaffney in “Voters want fair trade, not free trade”, Nov. 17 wants to claim some of the Democratic election victory for labor, specifically a call for change in our trade policies which he believes, threaten American union labor. He wants Congress to demand our trading partners adopt laws similar to American union labor laws.

I say the elections were not about labor or our trading policies but about Iraq. Demanding that our trading partners follow our labor union ways will only destine them into being uncompetitive in the global marketplace.

ANOTHER LOOK AT BUSH AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY

I wrote previously about the BIG 3 Detroit auto companies going to Washington to talk to President Bush. I speculated about what they might ask the government to do for them and I ventured to say - provide us a level global playing field.

Not much was reported about the meeting except that “dialogue” will continue which means absolutely nothing.

Our local news media though went bonkers, painting the meeting as a cry for help that Bush and the Republicans rejected. They showed Michigan Democrats saying wait till we get into power, we will do something to help our poor state and our poor auto industry.

Well, to me this is plain politics and plain socialism talking. Our auto companies on the one hand want government to stay out of their affairs (no mandatory miles per gallon laws) and on the other hand, how about a bailout. In other words, they will do what they have to do and what they can do, to help themselves.

The Wall Street Journal had a good editorial November 16, 2006 titled “Detroit and Bush”. Basically they said that the Big 3 are in trouble because of “self-inflicted wounds” and they are absolutely correct; wounds that foreign auto manufacturers with factories in the U.S. do not have.

Let me give you an example of a wound: GM’s Jobs Bank. This is a jobs bank where thousands of workers are paid to do absolutely nothing – make sense to you?

Another wound is Ford not having products that any body wants to buy. My family has always bought Ford products (we get the A Plan) but next year we may have to go elsewhere because, quite simply, Ford does not have a car/van or truck that interests me.

Legacy costs are the biggest drain on the Big 3. This is the money spent on retired workers. Yes, the Big 3 promised them the world but now they cannot deliver. This is not fair to the workers that retired thinking they are all set for the rest of their lives but on the other hand, if the companies fold, they have nothing, so taking less to help the Big 3 stay afloat is a smart thing to do and unavoidable.

But I think the Big 3 wants the taxpayers to bail them out of their legacy cost obligations. Michigan Democrats will be in power and they are, after all, loyal Michiganders that want to be re-elected. They are also flaming socialists that feel the government / taxpayer should pay for everyone’s healthcare costs – why not the retired auto worker’s health costs.

I mentioned a level global playing field where trade is really free without protectionist laws or currency manipulation. Well, if you look at the domestic market Toyota is kicking our butts and they make the product here just like the Big 3 - so the playing field IS level.

Overseas, the only problem country is Korea that has some protectionist provisions in place. They should be made to drop them – period.

The Big 3 auto manufacturers know what they need to do to become competitive. Asking the American taxpayer to bail them out is rewarding their stupid decisions in the past.

I have family members that are auto company retirees and I don’t want them hurt but big steps need to be taken if the Big 3 are to survive.

Buying out current highly paid workers and replacing them with workers paid a realistic wage is a big step.

Retirees over 65 should depend on Medicare with a “plus” provision paid for by the auto companies. Currently, many retirees have two overlapping health policies and that is just plain stupid.

Shift all current employees to one health plan: HMO and negotiate the best premium price.

Create clinics in all plants (like the Japanese do) to handle simple minor health problems quickly and efficiently.

Build products people want to buy – get smart and creative – like the Japanese and Koreans.

Get rid of waste – plants – people – programs – etc.

Follow sound business rules of behavior and reward management and managers ONLY if they actually do something that calls for a reward.

I could go on and on ……………………………………………………………

AUTO EXECS WANT FAIRNESS !

Today, the CEOs of our Big Three auto makers met with President Bush to discuss the problems domestic auto manufacturers are facing in the global marketplace.

President Bush has mentioned before that there is not much he can do to help them. They have to learn to compete and quit crying on Washington's shoulder.

The President has a point. The auto companies created their own mess by letting the unions get away with murder - now they are paying for their stupidity and short-sightedness but I must admit that they did not have much of a choice when the unions threatened to strike only one of the companies not all three.

It would be nice if the government could take over the cost of providing health care to all their workers but that is just silly thinking. They kept giving more and more health benefits, even overlapping Medicare, and now they have to sober up and realize they can no longer afford such largess.

The auto companies do have a point about the global market playing field; it is NOT level. We still cannot sell cars into Japan. China and Japan control their currencies making our products more expensive to buy over there but their products cheap to buy here. In this one area we should insist on fairness and back up the request with some threats of reciprocity in kind.

I know the Democrats are going to be in charge soon but they cannot bail-out the auto companies with protectionist policies; they need to allow the global market to operate freely.

The Republicans have been slapped silly and put in their place. Now I have to start worrying about the damage Democrats can do - the pendulum swings again - is there a happy medium?

VOTERS SHOULD HAVE IDS - even in Detroit!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

To: The Detroit Free Press
Re: “ID law would affect voters unequally”, Nov. 14.


My mother lives in Detroit, is in her eighties and has never driven a car but she does have a photo ID card and votes regularly. To suggest to her that people like her are somehow incapable of obtaining and carrying a photo ID card is to insult her intelligence, “ID law would affect voters unequally”, Nov. 14.

UNIONS DID NOT WIN THE ELECTION !

Monday, November 13, 2006

To: The Detroit News
Re: “Unions remind Democrats they expect results”, Nov. 13.



I think it is somewhat presumptuous of unions to take the credit for Democratic victories in the last elections, “Unions remind Democrats they expect results”, Nov. 13. Organized labor has not been able to deliver Democratic votes for quite a few years now and this election was no exception; Americans voted against the war in Iraq and not to give unions more political clout. Victorious Democrats must remember who brought them to the dance and why. Ignoring the center and resuming the ole’ leftist union ways will only result in a very short dance.


Janusz M Szyszko

IRAQ OPTION - DIVIDE !

Sunday, November 12, 2006


To: The Detroit Free Press
Re: “A look at options in Iraq”, Nov. 12.


Iraq was never a natural country; it was artificially created by the British after WWI. Prior to WWI, the area known in history as Mesopotamia, was divided into Kurd, Shiite and Sunni regions and was part of the Ottoman Empire. Returning Iraq to its historic divisions is the only option, “A look at options in Iraq”, Nov. 12, which makes sense and one that will end the daily sectarian bloodletting.

Janusz M Szyszko

DIVIDE IRAQ NOW !

Now that Democrats are in charge and BUSH has been slapped out of his power trip - lets fix Iraq and stop our soldiers from dying.

Remember my original suggestion, a long time ago - partition Iraq - well it is becoming a viable idea and is under consideration now that BUSH has been pushed aside because he has no plan.

To repeat, Iraq was never a natural country. It became a country when Winston Churchill (British) decide to create a country - imperialist pigs! Under the Ottoman Empire the area now called Iraq was divided along ethnic lines into Kurd, Shiite and Sunni areas. All I am saying is to return to the natural boundaries of history.

The only thing that HAS to be addressed is the revenue flow from OIL. That has to be divided equally or per capita among the three (3) regions because only the north and south have oil well. The middle, Sunni, has none.

Divide the country and American soldiers will quit getting killed and maimed and Iraqis can stop slaughtering each other.

I will have more on this idea later but I do think it is the only way to proceed.

Janusz

LET US TALK ABOUT TED HAGGARD!

Ted Haggard, the great Christian evangelist, pastor of a 14,000 mega-church, president of the 30 million member National Association of Evangelicals and rabid anti-gay and anti-gay marriage advocate. What has happened to you boy?

Right before the elections, his gay lover went to the media and said that he has been servicing Ted for three (3) years and also has sold him drugs (crystal meth) and he is making all this public because he has had enough of Ted's HYPOCRISY.

Ted denied it. He had a wife and five (5) kids. He was faithful to his wife. This is a terrible lie....................until slowly but surely he had to admit to everything.....he WAS a hypocrite, a hypocrite of the worst kind; a born-again, God is on my side, I know what God wants and I will teach you what to do Christian type of hypocrite.

Perfect timing for the elections. The Republicans riding the Christian values wave to political success, were being exposed, one by one, as hypocrites. Foley started the ball rolling and ole' Ted kept it rolling.

Voters woke up, told the holier-than-thou Republicans to stick their values up their arses and the rest is history. There is a lesson here, believe me!

Janusz

PROPOSAL 2 FIGHT?

Thursday, November 09, 2006

To: The Detroit News
Re: “Affirmative action backlash”, Nov.9.

I wonder if the people challenging Proposal 2, “Affirmative action backlash”, Nov.9, ever stop and really listen to what they are saying. They are calling Proposal 2, a proposal to end discrimination, illegal and possibly unconstitutional. Are they therefore defending their use of discrimination as somehow legal and constitutional?


Janusz M Szyszko

PROPOSAL 2 PASSES AND IS CHALLENGED!

I have written about Proposal 2 here in Michigan at some length. It ended discrimination in University of Michigan admissions and also in government hiring and contracting.

Millions was spent on trying to defeat it. Who was spending those millions? I don't know but U of M is an arrogant school with lots of money. Mary Coleman, the president there, is arrogant and a flaming liberal, making the school the only one in the state that still uses race as a big factor in admissions. You know my feelings on this issue - just read previous blogs.

The proposal passed - by a wide margin. I was surprised because of all the lying commercials, never mentioning race, only white women and their daughters and how their health would be affected if the proposal passes.

Right before the election, the local paper published my letters disputing the ads and promoting the proposal.

The people spoke. They wanted an end to discrimination in the admissions policy of U of M. Today, U of M filed a legal challenge to the proposal. A legal challenge to the will of the people. Do you see why ARROGANT fits the school administration?

Now they, just like the Bush Republicans need to be slapped into reality. They get our tax money and therefore they do our bidding - the tax payers - their bosses. We need to tell them what we want -period.

Janusz

THE NATION SPEAKS IN ONE VOICE!

I was elated to see the whole country come together in these mid-term elections. Americans spoke in one voice; enough Bush bullshit. I guess I did not have faith in the American voter, I thought that the Bush spin machine confused the voters once again - but not this time.

Iraq was what finally put a stop to the Bush machine. People no longer could stomach American soldiers dying for absolutely nothing and the president, without a clue as to what to do.

If you noticed, Rumsfeld is gone today - the day after the elections and two days after Bush said he would never get rid of Rumsfeld. Things are beginning to happen immediately - great!

I wrote ad nauseam about how the Republicans need to be taught a lesson - slapped upside the head - brought back to Republican roots - and it happened.

Good Republicans perished in the election slaughter but it needed to happen, there was no other way. I heard many say that they just want the Republicans out of control and that is all.

I should have more faith in the electorate - mea culpa -but now the fun begins.

I will write more about the details in this election - notice Proposal 2 passed in Michigan?

Janusz

WHAT ABOUT JUSTICE?

Wednesday, November 01, 2006


To:     The Detroit Free Press
Re:     “Sex predator or wrongly convicted”, Nov. 1.


I was very disturbed by the article “Sex predator or wrongly convicted”, Nov. 1.  Of all the things I found disturbing the behavior of the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office irked me the most. I guess I must be very naïve to think that a prosecutor would actually care about truth and justice above all else and leave no stone unturned in its pursuit.


Janusz M Szyszko