What if there were no Iraq War?
Just think about it for a moment.
Think about all of the things we could be doing to solve the world's problems if we were not currently involved in an occupation of a country in which we are not welcome or wanted.
While the occupation of Iraq continues, many other problems around the world go unchecked because Bush turns his back on them and continues with his obsession over Iraq.
Here are some of the problems we could solve or address with the money that is currently tied up in Iraq:
Protect aid workers in Darfur:
Last Sept. 11 was a momentous day in Darfur, too. After unidentified militiamen attacked aid workers from the Nobel Prize-winning Médecins sans Frontières at a roadblock on that date, most of the international aid groups ministering to Darfur's 6 million people stopped using the roads. On Dec. 18, in the southern town of Gereida, unrelated gunmen attacked the compounds of Oxfam and Action Contre la Faim. More than 70 aid workers subsequently pulled out of the refugee camp there-Darfur's largest, with 130,000 people-leaving only 10 Red Cross employees behind. Yet at the time no one revealed what had really sparked the dramatic pullbacks. In both cases, international staff, including three French aid workers, were either raped or sexually assaulted in territory controlled by the Sudanese government and its allies.
Fully Fund African peacekeepers to prevent wars like the one between Ethiopia and Somalia:
Ethiopian forces that helped Somalia's interim government rout rival Islamists in a war over the New Year will begin leaving the chaotic Horn of Africa nation's capital on Tuesday, an Ethiopian general said.
"Starting today [Tuesday], we will withdraw our forces from Mogadishu," General Suem Hagoss said at a ceremony in the volatile coastal capital where former warlords and faction leaders handed over piles of their weapons to the newly installed government.
Suem was speaking in front of dozens of Ethiopian military troop trucks, some of which also towed artillery guns.
Give the IAEA the resources they need to do their job:
Iran has barred 38 nuclear inspectors on a United Nations list from entering the country, the foreign minister said Monday in what appeared to be retaliation for the UN sanctions imposed last month.
The rejected officials are on a list of potential inspectors drawn up by the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit and monitor Iran's nuclear facilities.
"The act of rejecting some inspectors is legal and in accordance with the agency's regulations," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the official Islamic Republic News Agency. He said others on the UN nuclear watchdog's list remain eligible, but did not explain how Iran decided which inspectors to bar.
Give women in the 3rd world the resources they need to combat violence and exploitation:
Because of globalisation, Tibaijuka said, increasing urbanisation had resulted in larger slum areas, thereby propelling many women into destitution and poverty and exposing them to violence and insecurity.
"Slums pose a serious challenge to development and the girl-child and women continue to bear the brunt of urban poverty because they lack basic facilities, ownership, credit facilities and education," she said. "They are also exposed to prostitution, HIV/AIDS and risk being trafficked across borders."
Participants spoke against violence, saying they wanted the world to continue to hear their voice. A woman from Bangalore, India, who asked to be referred to as Shokun, said violence was a major cause of death for women in India.
"An average of 100 women die every month due to burns from domestic deaths," she said.
Reverse the decline of waterbird species around the world.
Nearly half of the world's waterbird species are in decline, mostly because of rapid economic development and the effects of climate change, according to a global survey released Tuesday.
The fourth Waterbird Population Estimate found that 44 per cent of the 900 species globally have fallen in the past five years, while 34 per cent were stable, and 17 per cent rising.
The numbers were slightly worse in the last survey in 2002, when 41 per cent of waterbird populations worldwide were found to be decreasing.
The worst decreases occurred in Asia, where 62 per cent of the waterbird populations had seen declines or become extinct. That was followed by 48 per cent in Africa, 45 per cent in Oceania, 42 per cent in South America, 41 per cent in Europe and 37 per cent in North America.
Convert from Ethanol to more environmentally friendly sources:
Many ethanol boosters say that the industry will move away from corn to cellulosic sources. But it remains unclear whether that technology will work. In December, when the Joint Committee on Taxation calculated the five-year cost of a tax break for the builders of cellulosic ethanol plants, the low cost suggested that it expected no more than one plant up and running by 2012.
Pass tougher global warming laws:
Chief executives from such major corporations as General Electric and DuPont teamed up with environmental organizations Monday, urging U.S. lawmakers Monday to pass sweeping legislation that would ultimately cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"The time has come for constructive action that draws strength equally from business, government, and non-governmental stakeholders," said Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric, who participated in the program
Reverse the worldwide tuna population decline:
Illegal fishing has depleted global stocks of tuna and governments must take bold action to save some critically endangered species, the conservation group WWF said Monday as a conference on the topic opened in Japan.
Japan's insatiable appetite for tuna has been a key factor behind the threat to stocks, and now increasing demand from other countries is adding to the pressure.
Populations of important commercial species such as bluefin tuna, of which Japan consumes more than half, are already critically depleted, the WWF said in a statement.
"Atlantic bluefin, used for high-end sushi and sashimi, is massively overfished, and the spawning stock of Southern bluefin in the Indian Ocean is down about 90 percent," it added.
Engage in environmental cleanup after wars such as Lebanon:
Unexploded cluster bombs and factories contaminated with toxic chemicals after last year's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah pose major environmental risks to Lebanon, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
A new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned that if it fails to act quickly to remove the debris, Lebanon will face serious public health hazards, including water supply contamination.
Unexploded cluster bombs are a particular risk, especially in the south of the country where large areas of economically important agricultural land have become no-go areas for farmers.
"Valuable pasture lands have been rendered out of bounds which will likely lead to overgrazing in accessible areas and habitat degradation," says the report, adding that some 90 percent of southern Lebanon's population depends on agriculture.
Send flood relief for places like Bolivia:
A U.N. emergency technical team and the World Food Program say major rivers such as Rio Grande and Pilcomayo have overflowed and as a result, seven of the nine departments comprising Bolivia have been affected. In the remaining two departments, preventive evacuation has already begun.
The Bolivian government has declared a state of emergency, as flooding has caused landslides and road obstructions, cutting off some rural communities.
Combat the spread of TB in South Africa:
South Africa may forcibly isolate patients being treated for a highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis to prevent new infections from spreading on the AIDS-hit continent, health officials said.
"Holding the patient against their will is not ideal but may have to be considered in the interest of the public," Ronnie Green-Thompson, a special advisor to the Health Department, said in a statement.
A new study out this week urged South Africa to consider mandatory isolation to control extreme drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), which has killed at least 74 people in the country since 2005.
Send more peacekeepers to Liberia:
Commander Seema Dhundiya, who heads the Formed Police Unit (FPU), arrived in the capital Monrovia Sunday as part of an advance team that will pave the way for the landmark deployment of a 125-strong force this month.
With her came logistics and engineering specialists who will prepare for the rest of her unit, expected around Jan 29, said Ben Dotsei Malor, spokesperson for the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
Combat holocaust denial around the world:
It does not mention Iran by name, although American officials said it was a reaction to the Tehran conference convened in December by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Most speakers threw doubt on the mass extermination of Jews.
Since coming to power in August 2005, Ahmadinejad has caused an international outcry by terming the Holocaust a "myth" and calling Israel a "tumor" in the Middle East.
Bring water to India and China:
The world is running out of water and needs a radical plan to tackle shortages that threaten humanity's ability to feed itself, according to Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN's Millennium Project.
Professor Sachs, the renowned American economist who is credited with prompting pop star Bono's crusade for African development, told an environment conference in Delhi that the world had "no more rivers to take water from".India and China were facing severe water shortages and neither could use the same strategies for raising food output which has fed millions in recent times. "In 2050 we will have 9 billion people and average income will be four times what it is today," he said. "India and China have been able to feed their populations because they use water in an unsustainable way. That is no longer possible."
Eradicate Polio around the world:
The new head of the World Health Organization said Monday she will hold an urgent meeting of leaders in the battle against polio to determine whether to push ahead toward the elusive goal of eradicating the disease.
Some public health experts question whether it is feasible to rid the world of polio and have suggested it would be better simply to control it. Smallpox is the only disease that has been eradicated worldwide.
"It is technically feasible to interrupt polio transmission worldwide," said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, citing a report last year from the U.N. agency's advisory committee on polio eradication.
All of these things could be done with the money that is now being used to occupy Iraq. Notice that in most of these items, the US is hardly involved at all. Instead, they are siphoning all the resources that could be used to solve problems like this to problems like Iraq, that we have no business getting involved in.
Hillary Clinton is rightly calling for conversations on the future of our country. She is soliciting people's opinions about the direction that we need to take. I submit that we need to get in the business of giving people the resources they need to solve their own problems and worry more about solving our own problems.
Thanks to the militarization of our culture, we have come to the point where our quick-fix solution is air strikes. Got a disturbance in Iraq? Great -- I have just the fix -- air strikes. This reliance on our military industrial complex is siphoning trillions of taxpayer dollars away from projects that could actually be used to prevent a Bosnia or a 9/11 or a Black Hawk Down or a Vietnam.
go to this site and check the pro peace video of tony Blair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydt0SL5rYow