Unconventional Wisdom

Please watch the language unlike the rest of the RefugeeCamp, I’m trying to keep the language respectful and clean around these parts. Thank you!

You can see this blog at uppity.refugeecamp.us. All I had to do was delete the index.html file. And here I am. Now I can continue to play with wordpress here.

I wonder why the Swamp deems the results mentioned in a poll non-sensical…

Sometimes you see a poll result that doesn’t make sense and gets you questioning the entire poll.

Such is the case with the poll released yesterday by Foreign Policy Magazine and the Center for American Progress of foreign-poliy experts on U.S. progress or lack thereof in the war on terror.

The main result of the poll was that the finding that the vast majority of the surveyed experts, 91 percent, thought that the world had become more dangerous.

That seemed high but it wasn’t the result that made me do a doubletake. The result that really called for a high degree of skepticism was this–that more conservative experts desired an immediate U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq than the moderate or liberal experts polled.

That’s a stunner. That would only make sense if they were all Ron Paul libertarians.

Anyway, there was this paragraph in the press release announcing the result:

A bipartisan majority (68 percent) now say that the United States should redeploy troops from Iraq in the next 18 months, though most oppose an immediate withdrawal. Surprisingly, more conservatives (25 percent) called for an immediate pullout than liberals or moderates.

I can’t make up my mind who I really want to be president. I hear a lot of good stuff about Ron Paul and there are certainly others whom I really would like to see get it. So far I’ve been a fan of Sen. Obama, Fred Thompson, Newt Gingrich, and even Rudy Guiliani. Many of them have some negatives, but there are some positives.

 So far it looks like Sen. Obama might be unraveling as a presidential contender. Ron Paul seems to have a much more eclectic group of supporters. Everyone else appeals more to the mainstream.

 Let’s talk about Ron Paul, the Texas congressman. There was this video I saw a few days ago on my other blog in the comments.

In many respect the Republicans doesn’t seem to do well at the grassroots. Perhaps the movement Ron Paul has started may be the thing the Republican party needs. Especially if this cuts across racial and economic lines. Yeah why let the DailyKos crowd have all the fun on the left.

Anyway, last year the Republicans lost their almost decade long dominance in the Congress. They may lose the White House next year. Mostly a lot of people are dissatisfied with this war in Iraq right now.

In a way I’m dissatisfied. I’m mostly neutral when it comes to the Iraq conflict. I wasn’t for it when it started, but I’m not shedding a tear for Saddam Hussein who was executed last year. But the conduct of that war indicates to me one thing.

There’s certainly a need to overhaul how we engage in diplomacy and military operations in the future. Maybe what happened in Iraq should be the catalyst. Perhaps in the future if we invade another nation, we should consider not merely authorize military action, but actually declare war. No more operations with the premise of regime change and then eventual nation building.I’m just throwing one idea out there. I must say though the way America has conducted their military operations needs a revision.

I also will note that when it come to diplomacy I understand the need for using military force when say a Saddam Hussein proves himself to be very unwilling to deal. We don’t have to tolerate untrustworthy tyrants and governments in the world. At the same time I’d rather our leaders build a good solid case to make that decision.

Anyway that’s my two cents worth. I want to talk about PW later on. If you didn’t know the forums are back up now, thank goodness.

Blogger archives have been integrated into my wordpress, but I still have some work to do. Alright then.

I got my WordPress Blog back up at a different address. I would like to post any new updates there. Eventually I can point the address to that blog to this blog’s address. Stay Tuned.

I want to move this blog to another address. I’m working on figuring this out right now. I wanted to write a diary of sorts here. I still will, but I think what I want to do is convert this site into Unconventional Wisdom.