The Way Its Supposed to Be

In the article "The American Dream" from the blog America the author talks about the function of our government. He has done an excellent job of showing how different parts of the government work. One such example is of how many people get frustrated with the Congress when they do "nothing." Nothing is far from what they do, approving a bill or any such matter takes tons of effort. Bills can be stalled by filibustering in the Senate. Even if the Congress finishes with it it will have to go through the House of Representatives. If it happens to make it through both of these it must go to the Executive branch. After the House and Senate have put a lot of work into getting the bill passed the President can still veto it. It is a very tedious and long process.

The author explains other ways in which bills can be stopped or slowed down in all the branches of government. Entire books could be written about process in the government. I think that this is a good, well put together, summary of how things happen. For something as complicated as our government system, it seems to be put very straightforward in this article as to how it works. Great job and I couldn't agree more.

Its About Time

It seems as though President Obama has finally made a decision about Afghanistan. After months of politicians pushing one way or the other, there has finally been a result. The President has outlined a plan to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. Even after months of waiting however it could still take six months to get the first of those troops there. Many are surprised at this decision. Some who are against it are likening the war in Afghanistan to Vietnam. They think that Afghanistan will end in defeat like Vietnam after the U.S. putting allot of effort into the war. They are going to be right if we pull out before the job is done. Like Vietnam we would be pulling out after our soldiers have fought and died for a cause. This is why it is necessary to maintain the effort in Afghanistan, even if it means a troop surge.

War should also not be run from Washington. It should be run by the military commanders because they are the ones over there fighting. If our military is allowed to do what they must to eradicate taliban forces then they will succeed. If politicians get even more mixed up in the war it will take even longer for there to be complete victory. It has taken enough time just to decide to send more troops, if it came to a really serious decision it could take even longer. There is a reason there are generals, and there job is to call the shots in a war to win it.