onsdag 29 november 2006

Irak och Michael Moore

Michael Moore höll ett tal häromdan. Även om du som jag inte håller med om allting i hans tal, finns det en hel del att tänka på. Eller hur?
Sunday, November 26th, 2006
Friends,
Tomorrow marks the day that we will have been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II.
That's right. We were able to defeat all of Nazi Germany, Mussolini, and the entire Japanese empire in LESS time than it's taken the world's only superpower to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad. And we haven't even done THAT. After 1,347 days, in the same time it took us to took us to sweep across North Africa, storm the beaches of Italy, conquer the South Pacific, and liberate all of Western Europe, we cannot, after over 3 and 1/2 years, even take over a single highway and protect ourselves from a homemade device of two tin cans placed in a pothole. No wonder the cab fare from the airport into Baghdad is now running around $35,000 for the 25-minute ride. And that doesn't even include a friggin' helmet.
Is this utter failure the fault of our troops? Hardly. That's because no amount of troops or choppers or democracy shot out of the barrel of a gun is ever going to "win" the war in Iraq. It is a lost war, lost because it never had a right to be won, lost because it was started by men who have never been to war, men who hide behind others sent to fight and die.
Let's listen to what the Iraqi people are saying, according to a recent poll conducted by the University of Maryland:
** 71% of all Iraqis now want the U.S. out of Iraq.
** 61% of all Iraqis SUPPORT insurgent attacks on U.S. troops.
Yes, the vast majority of Iraqi citizens believe that our soldiers should be killed and maimed! So what the hell are we still doing there? Talk about not getting the hint.
There are many ways to liberate a country. Usually the residents of that country rise up and liberate themselves. That's how we did it. You can also do it through nonviolent, mass civil disobedience. That's how India did it. You can get the world to boycott a regime until they are so ostracized they capitulate. That's how South Africa did it. Or you can just wait them out and, sooner or later, the king's legions simply leave (sometimes just because they're too cold). That's how Canada did it.
The one way that DOESN'T work is to invade a country and tell the people, "We are here to liberate you!" -- when they have done NOTHING to liberate themselves. Where were all the suicide bombers when Saddam was oppressing them? Where were the insurgents planting bombs along the roadside as the evildoer Saddam's convoy passed them by? I guess ol' Saddam was a cruel despot -- but not cruel enough for thousands to risk their necks. "Oh no, Mike, they couldn't do that! Saddam would have had them killed!" Really? You don't think King George had any of the colonial insurgents killed? You don't think Patrick Henry or Tom Paine were afraid? That didn't stop them. When tens of thousands aren't willing to shed their own blood to remove a dictator, that should be the first clue that they aren't going to be willing participants when you decide you're going to do the liberating for them.
A country can HELP another people overthrow a tyrant (that's what the French did for us in our revolution), but after you help them, you leave. Immediately. The French didn't stay and tell us how to set up our government. They didn't say, "we're not leaving because we want your natural resources." They left us to our own devices and it took us six years before we had an election. And then we had a bloody civil war. That's what happens, and history is full of these examples. The French didn't say, "Oh, we better stay in America, otherwise they're going to kill each other over that slavery issue!"
The only way a war of liberation has a chance of succeeding is if the oppressed people being liberated have their own citizens behind them -- and a group of Washingtons, Jeffersons, Franklins, Ghandis and Mandellas leading them. Where are these beacons of liberty in Iraq? This is a joke and it's been a joke since the beginning. Yes, the joke's been on us, but with 655,000 Iraqis now dead as a result of our invasion (source: Johns Hopkins University), I guess the cruel joke is on them. At least they've been liberated, permanently.
So I don't want to hear another word about sending more troops (wake up, America, John McCain is bonkers), or "redeploying" them, or waiting four months to begin the "phase-out." There is only one solution and it is this: Leave. Now. Start tonight. Get out of there as fast as we can. As much as people of good heart and conscience don't want to believe this, as much as it kills us to accept defeat, there is nothing we can do to undo the damage we have done. What's happened has happened. If you were to drive drunk down the road and you killed a child, there would be nothing you could do to bring that child back to life. If you invade and destroy a country, plunging it into a civil war, there isn't much you can do 'til the smoke settles and blood is mopped up. Then maybe you can atone for the atrocity you have committed and help the living come back to a better life.
The Soviet Union got out of Afghanistan in 36 weeks. They did so and suffered hardly any losses as they left. They realized the mistake they had made and removed their troops. A civil war ensued. The bad guys won. Later, we overthrew the bad guys and everybody lived happily ever after. See! It all works out in the end!
The responsibility to end this war now falls upon the Democrats. Congress controls the purse strings and the Constitution says only Congress can declare war. Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi now hold the power to put an end to this madness. Failure to do so will bring the wrath of the voters. We aren't kidding around, Democrats, and if you don't believe us, just go ahead and continue this war another month. We will fight you harder than we did the Republicans. The opening page of my website has a photo of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, each made up by a collage of photos of the American soldiers who have died in Bush's War. But it is now about to become the Bush/Democratic Party War unless swift action is taken.
This is what we demand:
1. Bring the troops home now. Not six months from now. NOW. Quit looking for a way to win. We can't win. We've lost. Sometimes you lose. This is one of those times. Be brave and admit it.
2. Apologize to our soldiers and make amends. Tell them we are sorry they were used to fight a war that had NOTHING to do with our national security. We must commit to taking care of them so that they suffer as little as possible. The mentally and physically maimed must get the best care and significant financial compensation. The families of the deceased deserve the biggest apology and they must be taken care of for the rest of their lives.
3. We must atone for the atrocity we have perpetuated on the people of Iraq. There are few evils worse than waging a war based on a lie, invading another country because you want what they have buried under the ground. Now many more will die. Their blood is on our hands, regardless for whom we voted. If you pay taxes, you have contributed to the three billion dollars a week now being spent to drive Iraq into the hellhole it's become. When the civil war is over, we will have to help rebuild Iraq. We can receive no redemption until we have atoned.
In closing, there is one final thing I know. We Americans are better than what has been done in our name. A majority of us were upset and angry after 9/11 and we lost our minds. We didn't think straight and we never looked at a map. Because we are kept stupid through our pathetic education system and our lazy media, we knew nothing of history. We didn't know that WE were the ones funding and arming Saddam for many years, including those when he massacred the Kurds. He was our guy. We didn't know what a Sunni or a Shiite was, never even heard the words. Eighty percent of our young adults (according to National Geographic) were not able to find Iraq on the map. Our leaders played off our stupidity, manipulated us with lies, and scared us to death. But at our core we are a good people. We may be slow learners, but that "Mission Accomplished" banner struck us as odd, and soon we began to ask some questions. Then we began to get smart. By this past November 7th, we got mad and tried to right our wrongs. The majority now know the truth. The majority now feel a deep sadness and guilt and a hope that somehow we can make make it all right again. Unfortunately, we can't. So we will accept the consequences of our actions and do our best to be there should the Iraqi people ever dare to seek our help in the future. We ask for their forgiveness.
We demand the Democrats listen to us and get out of Iraq now.
Yours,
Michael Moore

Frukost

Har just skjutsat 17 till skolan. Sitter vid köksbordet med Los Angeles Times, starkt kaffe, knäckebröd (är det politiskt inkorrekt att köpa Wasa?) med ost, kollar e-mail, bloggar, läser svenska tidningar online, morgonprogram på TV. Med andra ord en helt vanlig morgon.

tisdag 28 november 2006

SAT-resultat

Resultatet från 17s senaste (och sista) SAT test kom i dag. För er som fortfarande bor i Sverige, är det ett test som elever i high school tar, som skickas till dom universitet man ansöker till. Det består av tre delar, Critical Reading, Math, Writing. Han har haft 790 poäng (av 800 möjliga) på matte-delen varje gång han har tagit testet, och den här gången trodde han att han skulle få 800. När vi kollade resultatet online, såg vi genast 800, men inte i matte! På nåt vis lyckades han gå från 690 på 'Writing'-delen till 800. Nu har han totalt 2350 av 2400 möjliga. Han visar ju inte ofta att han är 'excited', men det var han klart. Det är ju faktiskt vi också. Testresultaten är ju inte så viktiga som dom brukade vara, men det här kan ju bara hjälpa.

fredag 17 november 2006

Collegeansökan

Ett stort steg avklarat i collegeansökanprocessen. Alla rekommendationsbrevsformulär (älskar svenska språket - man kan i stort sett göra ord hur långa som helst) gavs till lärarna och "the college counselor". Vi hade tänkt minska antalet college till 15, men det gick helt enkelt inte. Det blev 25 till slut. Satt uppe till klockan tre för att få det klart. Formulären måste lämnas med frankerade och adresserade kuvert, och en del av skolorna hade speciella krav på kuvertstorlek, osv. Nu har jag i stort sett inte mycket mer jag kan hjälpa till med. Resten måste 17 göra. Dom flesta skolorna accepterar "The Common Application" så han behöver bara fylla i en - online. Sen har förstås alla skolor sin egen addering, med en uppsats och annat. Sen får vi hoppas att sista SAT-provet gick bra - får resultatet om ett par veckor - och att han lyckas hålla betygen uppe, ett närmast omöjligt schema till trots. Dom flesta "seniors" i high school har en "free period" varje dag. Inte bara har 17 inte det, han har sen två "independent study projects" som möts på lunchtid. Sen tar han en klass i Linear Algebra online med Stanford University.
AP Physics
AP US Government/Politics
AP Statistics
Urban Sociology
Senior Composition/Literature
Music Theory - Harmony and Arranging
Senior Seminar in Ethics
AP Latin Literature - Ovid
Organic Chemistry
Linear AlgebraDet betyder nog ganska lite om man inte känner till American high schools.Sen måste vi fylla i alla möjliga formulär i januari för att ansöka om bidrag. Ganska konstigt hur det funkar - kostnaderna per år ligger mellan 40 och 50 tusen $ per år - men sen får majoriteten av elever ordentlig ekonomisk hjälp för att klara av det. Därför blir det för många billigare att gå på ett dyrt privat college än att gå på ett "public university" som UCLA, UC Berkeley, etc. Förhoppningsvis har 17 några skolor att välja mellan efter att dom skickat sina svar i April.

tisdag 14 november 2006

Trött tonåring

17 kom hem från Reed College i morse. Det var meningen han skulle gå direct till skolan, men han var så trött att det var ingen ide. Han somnade i bilen på väg från flygplatsen. Reed var OK, men nu är det University of Chicago som är nummer 1 på listan.

måndag 13 november 2006

En idiotisk chef - hur sällsynt!!!

Det här skolåret har frun fått så mycket elakt skit från sin chef, att det slutligen blev för mycket. Förra tisdagen gick hon till doktorn, som har sjukskrivit henne tills vidare. Samtidigt är det många föräldrar som har kontaktat skolmyndigheterna och politikerna som är ansvariga för skolan, och försöker få dom att förstå hur dåligt det här är för eleverna. Det idiotiska är att hennes chef inte har en chans att klara jobbet utan fruns hjälp. Vi får se hur mycket byråkraterna förstår, och vad dom är villiga att göra. Blir det inte nån lösning så har flera föräldrar som är advokater erbjudit att ställa upp gratis. Dom har sagt att det inte ska vara nån svårighet att åtminstone få betalt för året ut utan att jobba. Dom nämner också skadestånd, eftersom det bara blir värre och värre. Det är ju inte precis vad frun vill. Hon vill bara göra allt för att ha ett underbart program för eleverna. Så har det ju varit i dom över 20 år som hon har jobbat vid skolan. Från 1999 till 2003 var hon ju helt ansvarig för dansavdelningen, och den har aldrig fungerat så bra. Efter omorganisationen har det bara blivit värre och värre. Vi behöver sannerligen inte klaga över att det aldrig händer nånting!

Andrea Boccelli

Vi fick just veta att vår vän Nita ska sjunga med Andrea Boccelli på några föreställningar. Jättehäftigt! Hoppas vi får en chans att se en show. Vet inte än var eller när föreställningarna är.

Reed College - igen!!

Fars Dags gratulationer till alla pappor i Sverige! Så åkte 17 till Reed College i Portland, Oregon tidigt, tidigt i morse. Och United Airlines förlorade inte bagaget! Kanske United kan ge Delta Airlines lektioner? Än så länge är Reed favoriten av alla skolor på listan. Han kommer tillbaka tisdag morgon, och då får vi se om det fortfarande är så. Det lär ska bli regn hela tiden han är där. Vi får se hur en pojke från Kalifornien tycker om det... Sen på torsdag måste vi ge formulären för rekommendationsbreven till de två lärare som han har valt att skriva dom. Innan dess måsta vi minska listan från nuvarande 30 skolor till allra högst 20. Det ska bli skönt när det är gjort. Har varit svårt att få ned listan i storlek. Eftersom vi är väldigt beroende av vad dom kommer att erbjuda financiellt, känns det som om man tar bort en chans, för varje skola som slopas. Alla skolor på listan är ju bra. Vid det här laget är det mest fråga om var 17 kommer att känna sej hemma i fyra år. För alla som bor i Sverige måste allt det här vara rena grekiskan. Vi har tur att 17 går på en privatskola, med alla resurser som följer med. Eleverna får ju hjälp på ett sätt som är helt omöjligt för 'public schools'. Får hoppas att vi kommer ihåg det mesta när det är dags för 15.