Iraq has become the quagmire of the middle east for the American military. What is the problem in Iraq and why is the situation getting worse and worse? It is you know, even though you are hearing that things will work out. Lets look the situation over!
The size of Iraq is 271,596 sq miles. It has a population of about 24 million people. We have about 100,000 soldiers there. That is one soldier for every 2.7 square miles. This is not exactly inspiring is it? The British conquered Iraq in the last century but things were very different then. There certainly was no movement like there is now to disrupt the occupation and the upcoming vote. Some genius decided that we could use Iraqis to help us because we didn’t have enough troops, but no one really knows how to figure out which Iraqis are on our side and which ones aren’t. It seems to me that one of the simplest things to do would be to infiltrate an Iraqi unit by a terrorist or Saddam supporter. These units are not reliable. It has been said in some areas that the Iraqi desertion rate is over 80% but I have no way to verify this statement. I have to tell you that I do believe that this is close to the truth. I think that many Iraqis thought that if they jointed the Iraqi military or police that they would be protected by American forces until they could get on their feet. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case. The American forces have their own problems.
I wonder if the insurgents are getting stronger? You don’t hear anything about this. It seems to me that many Iraqis must be having second thoughts about helping the Americans. They may be afraid of us pulling out. When I was in the service we always had enough equipment to do the job, but I read so much about our forces not having what they need, it is such a shame. There was an article in the paper the other day about military dog handlers begging their relatives at home to send dog food because the dogs were starving. Can you believe that? It seems to fit right in with the troops not having the armored vehicles they need when they go on patrol. What kind of military action is this when you don’t have enough troops and they don’t have what they need? Are we talking about the US military here, it is hard to believe? The next thing we are liable to hear is that we don’t have enough bullets.
This business about punishing soldiers who use parts from unused vehicles to make their vehicles safe for patrol is unheard of. Taking these kinds of parts has been an unsung tradition in the military since some supply sergeant borrowed oars so that Washington could get across the Potomac Why do some idiots feel that they must make examples of their own troops. I say there is no place in the military for these people.
What about all the munitions that we didn’t round up when we conquered Saddam’s army? The Iraqi army was very well supplied in terms of hand held munitions. I don’t think we could even calculate how many munitions are in the hands of the insurgents. I think it is safe to say that they wouldn’t run out of ammo any time soon. Here we are, the world’s leading technological nation, yet we can’t detect buried or hidden munitions? You would think that satellites, dogs, informers, spy planes or something could do this. If a reward was offered for caches of weapons beyond a certain size this might help. I don’t have the answer but it does seem strange.
I have always felt that we shouldn’t have gone into Iraq. I also felt that if you do something, do it right. You would think that we would have learned this from Vietnam, but apparently we didn’t. Look at the similarities. There is no front line, we can’t tell the enemy from the friend, and troop morale is low because some troops are not convinced they are doing the right thing among other problems. Couldn’t we have gotten rid of Saddam covertly? We were very worried that someone like him would take his place if he was eliminated, but look at the mess we have now. How are we ever going to stabilize Iraq if we keep doing what we are doing? Even the Iraqi people are getting divided on whether there should be elections or not. I guess the real question is, can there be elections?
Has anything really been gained by taking over Iraq except access to more oil and big contract awards to favored companies? We got rid of Saddam and his family, but a lot of his supporters just went underground and are now sabotaging everything we do. They are terrorizing their own people and killing American troops. If we were to pull out now, Iraq would probably have a reign of terror so terrible that it couldn’t be contemplated. It seems that we will have to stay, but for how long? I hate to say this but the situation sort of reminds me of Northern Ireland and we all know how long the British stayed there. I think Iraq could turn out to make Northern Ireland look like a picnic. Even if we pulled out tomorrow and a wave of violence didn’t happen (I can’t believe that) would Iraq be over run by its neighbors? Who knows?
As time goes by we might even see the draft restarted. I know the president said no draft, but the military desperately needs men and you can’t just keep extending the tours of those over there. Just think what this country could have done with the money being spent in Iraq. This is a country where something like 40,000,000 people can’t get hospitalization insurance and many seniors can’t afford drugs. Does anyone in power care, well let’s look at what has happened recently. The drug companies had done everything in their power to stop people from buying drugs from Canada where they can get them cheaper. Social Security cuts are being proposed by the government. A drug plan was passed that does nothing for the average person but adds 45 billion in costs according to some estimates. I could go on but why bother?
So the question goes back to what do we do about Iraq. In the ancient times the leader of a country would have went to the Oracle at Delphi and asked this question, but there are no oracles around today and no one seems to know what to do. I don’t know but I didn’t plan the Iraq invasion. What kind of plans did we have? What were the plans for the rehabilitation? Were there any plans? All I remember is being told how the Iraqis would love us for liberating them. Who would invade a country without a plan, a viable plan? I guess we would!
About The Author
Ken is the webmaster of About Facts Net. About Facts Net is a free magazine online that carries unusual and interesting stories. Photographs, video and audio often accompany the articles. Suitable for the family. Articles that qualify are accepted.
As we age, we experience major deterioration in our body structure which affects our way of living. One of the most important factors that deteriorate in function as we age is growth hormone (HGH). Aging is very much related to what we call Human Growth Hormone (HGH). HGH is a compound hormone which is filled with 191 amino acids. It is produced mainly by the pituitary gland, the “master” gland of the endocrine system.
Natural Human Growth Hormone plays an important role in restoring the body’s muscle, tissue and bones. Without HGH, the body will not be able to do several tasks physically and even activities involving mind.
While natural human growth hormone is adequately produced by the pituitary, the secretion is unsuccessfully controlled by the pituitary as we age. However, scientists have found that specific vitamins and amino acids can encourage natural release of HGH from the pituitary in several people. Through adequate stimulation, the pituitary gland may now be able to secrete more HGH similar at a younger age.
For a few years now, scientists have been discovering the capability of high human growth hormone releaser doses of nutrients in restoring the natural Human Growth Hormone to levels similar at a younger age.
Since the hype of HGH enhancer took off, choosing which treatment became difficult. There are products falsely claimed and are purely scams. Some of these products did not even undergo complete testing.
There are steps to be done and considered like: taking note of the product creator, how reliable the providers are, how it is being made and most importantly seek medical advice. You just don’t want to replace your natural human growth hormone by any unreliable and risky treatment do you?
Copyright @2005, Natalie Aranda
You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body of the article and the bylines are included.
Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer. She is fascinated by the potential of HGH and GH-Releaser.
It is just too easy to allow the slightly harder task to slide, as you fill in your day with the humdrum and the emergencies.
The Enemy You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You
In Procrastination: Why You Do It; What to Do About It by Jane Burka and Lenor Yuen, the authors suggest that procrastinators (which I’m convinced means most of us) have a strange relationship with time. They engage in “wishful thinking:” they believe that they can magically pull and stretch time to meet their needs. They act as if time is not finite and limited.
So if time perpetually controls you, it may be because you don’t understand it. You think that small tasks will be endless (so you put off doing them,) or you think big tasks will just take an hour or two (so you don’t leave enough time for them.)
As a matter of fact, research has shown that most people overestimate how much time they have actually spent on their most important long-term projects.
Another reason time controls you, according to Burka and Yuen, is that you have no idea how much time you’re already spending on tasks such as commuting, shopping, cooking or emailing. Therefore it’s a mystery how much free time is available for the difficult yet easy-to-put-off tasks that seem so overwhelming.
Or maybe you’ve voluntarily overscheduled yourself due to your “endlessly-expanding” view of time. Little by little you’ve used up your free time.
The Unschedule
How can you tame time?
Enter the “Unschedule.” The Unschedule is a time management tool developed by Neil Fiore, the author of The Now Habit.
To create your own unschedule, either download from the link in my signature file below, or use a weekly calendar that divides each day into hours.
Here are the rules to make the Unschedule work for you:
Use a pencil to allow for later changes
Write down everything you must do in the coming week, NOT including your long-term project.
o Estimate when and how long each will take and mark it in your Unschedule on the hours you most likely will do each activity
o Include recreation, leisure and social activities (crucial!)
Look at your Unschedule at this point to become aware of
o What’s missing from your life - do you have enough time for fun, socializing, and just decompressing?
As the week progresses, each time that you work on your Project for at least 30 minutes, mark it in your Unschedule (Fiore insists on 30, but I say 15 is enough.)
Remember, you don’t mark it in ahead of time. It works best if you can highlight those time blocks in color. You can then total the amount of time spent working towards your goal at the end of each day and week.
Why Fill In the Time Blocks AFTER You Work on Your Project?
This accomplishes several things:
You avoid being disappointed in yourself (as you may have in the past because you scheduled so much Project time and then let yourself down by not accomplishing the work.)
If you have a rebellious streak, you will not having anything to rebel against, since you haven’t filled in the times you MUST work ahead of time.
You will feel good about what you HAVE done as opposed to bad about what you haven’t done.
You will be reminded to reward yourself by switching to a more enjoyable activity.
You will more easily be able to track how much you have actually worked on your project each week, as opposed to how much time you wished you would work on your project.
You will prove to yourself that small blocks of time DO add up, and are worth doing.
You can look for patterns - e.g., discover your best work times or days.
If working with a schedule hasn’t worked for you, if you recognize that you have a distorted relationship with time, or if you’re just a garden-variety procrastinator like most of us, then the Unschedule may be for you. Try it!
Gina J Hiatt, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist, tenure coach and dissertation coach and enjoys helping faculty and graduate students complete research, writing projects, and publish, while maintaining high teaching standards and other commitments. In addition to dissertation coaching, she teaches workshops and teleclasses on time management, writing, career planning and grad student/advisor relationships. Sign up for my free newsletter at http://www.academicladder.com or call me at (703) 734-4945. Download your own Un-Calendar here! http://www.academicladder.com/siteimages/Un-CalendarDailyCalendar.pdf
Then most difficult aspect of marketing a new product or
web site is to find enough people that are interested in it
so that they are ready to buy. Mastering Google AdWords
will enable you to drive traffic to your web site and start
making sales immediately. You can create a Google AdWord
campaign in a matter of minutes and be making sales within
24 hours.
Benefits of Mastering Google AdWords
1. Test Products - with Google AdWords you can quickly
test a product to determine if there is a demand for it.
If you generate a lot of clicks, this may mean you have
a winning product.
2. Generate sales leads - use Google AdWords to generate
leads by offering something for free to obtain their email
address. Following this, create an autoresponder series to
build a relationship with the person. Through this long
term relationship you can continually introduce new
products to them.
3. Sell your own products - this can produce large profits
because you don’t have to deal with any middle men which
tend to reduce your total profits.
4. Sell other people’s products through affiliate programs -
you become the sales person for a large company.
The company provides a quality product that is in high
demand, with a professional web site and sales page.
You simply direct visitors to this site and collect commissions
for every sale you make.
Here are some tips to get you started:
1. Do extensive keyword research first - use Wordtracker to
find the best keywords that fit the product you wish to
sell. Make a list of at least 50-100 keywords or keyword
phrases. Create different ads based on your most targeted
keywords. Not all keywords will necessarily be profitable,
however you can use them later when developing content for
your web pages.
2. Create several ads within an ad group. - an ad group
consists of a group of ads you create for the keywords you
have researched. Choose your most targeted keyword or
keyword phrase then create at least 2 different ads so you
can see which ad produces the highest click through rate.
The click through rate (CTR) is the ratio of the number of
times a person clicks on your ad based on the number of
times it is viewed. For example if 100 people see your ad
and only one person clicks on your ad to be taken to your
web site, then the CTR for that ad is 1/100, 1%.
3. Don’t place too many keywords in one ad group - if your
keyword phrase is “red wagons” then create an ad group of 2
ads containing this phrase. If your keyword phrase is “blue
wagons” then create another ad group with 2 ads containing
this phrase. All your keywords must be similar.
Part 2 discusses points 4-10 of “How to Master Google AdWords”
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com
Affordable Web Site Design and Low Cost Web Hosting
Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles. subscribe@isitebuild.com. You can read more
of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
As the fastest-growing resource in politics, the Internet
provides a cost-effective method to reach supporters and
potential supporters. However, writing for your local campaign
website is different than writing for print. Simply copying your
local campaign print material onto your website limits the
potential of online campaigning.
Online campaign writing tips
Nobody likes scrolling through pages and pages of poorly
written, overblown website content. Studies show that people
read from computer screens is about 25% slower than reading from
paper. Give your visitors the information they want, and then
some. Include information about your campaign and your local
political scene. Post all your campaign releases, including
press announcements, speeches, advertisements, and policy
papers. Also, create content that is exclusive to the website,
and remind visitors return to your website frequently.
Use these tips to make your campaign website content more
readable:
* Include your most important keyword phrase as close to the
beginning of the description as possible. For example: John
Jones for Anytown, NY Town Council.
* Start each written section with the conclusion. Put the main
points of your document in the first paragraph, so that readers
scanning your pages will not miss your point.
* Write concisely and stick to one idea per paragraph.
* Keep in mind that many web readers still use dial-up access.
Don’t bog your site down with too many large images or
extra-long pages.
* Bullet lists rather than use wordy sentences or paragraphs.
Readers can pick out information more easily from a list than
from paragraphs.
* Use meaningful sub-headings. Guide the reader by highlighting
the main points of your information.
* Bold your keywords.
* Remember that readers do not read web pages in sequence.
Providing information in precise segments allows readers to
quickly locate the material they seek.
* Separate your ‘white paper’ information and link out to it for
readers who want to know more detail about a particular subject.
PDF files work well, because they can be easily printed out for
offline reading.
Online content layout tips
* Don’t set your text size too large or too small.
* Capitalizing all letters give the appearance of shouting at
your visitors. Shouting is rude!
* Keep your main text left-aligned on the page. Center-aligned
text is best used in headlines.
* Use spaces between blocks of information. Large blocks of text
are intimidating to a reader, and probably won’t get read.
* Left and/or right-align images to your paragraphs. This will
break up your text a bit and allow your text to flow down the
pages and around your images.
Remember — anything you put on your campaign website becomes
part of ‘the record’ and will not only be read by your
supporters, it will be read by your opponents! Once the
opposition finds out that you have a website, you can be sure
that they will keep an eye on it.
Can you say that you or your kids are monster truck fans? When the last truck rally came to town, were you there with a big smile on your face and ear plugs on your ears? Some monster truck fans are so crazy about the sport that they can’t wait for the next rally or event to happen in their area. What do they do to get their “monster truck” fix when they have nowhere to go? Aside from buying a truck and heading out on the tour with them, there are actually quite a few ways to get all of the latest news and information about your favorite monster truck, the teams and the drivers. You just have to know where to look.
First off, if you have never been to a monster truck rally, you should really try to go and see one. There is no better way to get excited about this sport. Kids and adults of all ages are fans and the events are designed to appeal to all ages. If you dare, you should get a seat up close to the floor so that you can see all of the action-you may even get a little bit dirty. Most rallies also have pit passes or pit parties to encourage the fans to come down onto the field when the events are not going on, so that they can get a close up look at each monster truck. If you can’t go to a rally, at least get a video or DVD of a rally so that you can watch it at home (with the volume turned all the way up, of course.)
The internet is another great resource for monster truck fans. You can find websites which talk about the history of the sport, some are dedicated to a specific team or truck, and some even have message boards where you can connect with other fans. You can sign up for a free newsletter so that you can get the scoop on future rallies and events before anyone else. There are also sites which have pictures and videos of trucks.
For those who want even more information you can get magazines or even children’s books about these trucks. You can learn more specifics about the sport and details about each of the trucks.
This is a great, exciting sport that the whole family can enjoy-so get your motor running.
Eriani Doyel writes articles about Trucks. If you would like more information about a monster truck visit daytruck.com
