Toadfish Monastery

No...Not yet. 

But thanks! 


Duke

Well, can't help you there. Don't recognize it...

I do have another poem ya'll might like to mull over, if you feel like it:

Ocean Shore

Sit on the shore and pause a while,
Hear the water upon the rocks,
Let your mind wander for yards or miles
Or sit with someone and just talk.

The waves will never defeat the land,
Although they tries so mighty still,
The earth, its mountains will always stand,
And all else amounts to nil.

So traveler, why not halt,
To enjoy this battle of the ages,
Taste the air, smell the salt,
And be thankful that it rages.

Hope you like it.


Duke

No, not at all, I'd be honored.


Duke

Thanks for your input.
I do essays really often, but we weren't supposed to have a thesis, we were doing something different this time. But I could fit one in pretty easily.


Duke

Into The West--Lord of the Rings Soundtrack.


Duke

I take the Last Post in the name of smoked salmon!


Duke

I'm safe on my hill. Safe and alone....


Duke

Good morning, good morning! This means I am awake! Last Post.


Duke

Quote from: Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith on November 21, 2006, 06:40:12 AM

Quote from: Duke on November 21, 2006, 02:56:58 AM
Well, I started to read it, and I enjoy it quite a bit. Maybe it's just my kind of book.


Duke

Obviously you have a more sophisticated "reading palate" than I do. 

I got it from my dad! I swear! That guy owns an entire library...downstairs.

Thanks for the links!


Duke

Claudius.


Duke

Everything is under control on my hill.

Well, almost.......


Duke

Uh....thanks? 

Here's an essay I wrote for a class a while. Didn't have too much time to go over it, but I thought someone might want to read it.

The Consequences of the Iraq War


Operation Iraqi Freedom, commonly known as the Iraq War, is a global conflict between primarily American forces and insurgents in the occupied nation of Iraq. The effects of this war are not solely military: this war has political and economic implications as well.
    The Iraq War began politically on March 11th, 2003, when the United States Congress approved the invasion of Iraq. The US Air Force began bombarding Iraq, and on March 19, the American Military and the militaries of other nations began the land invasion of Iraq.  Iraq was captured shortly after. But America's involvement in Iraq was only beginning. The government of Iraq had been obliterated, and anarchy existed in many areas of Iraq. Lootings and other crimes were spreading unchecked, but within a month's time, the United States Army and other coalition forces had the country.
   
An important part of the War on Iraq is the war rationale. Why did America attack Iraq? President Bush's administration brought up the idea of invading Iraq, and it was heavily advertised throughout Congress. The president stated that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons that were a direct threat to America, and even hinted that Iraq was involved with the 9/11 tragedies. The President's spokespersons went to Congress and the UN multiple times to try to sell this war, stating lofty goals such as "promoting freedom and democracy" and "serving the world".
   The war plan was brought to the UN, where only three nations (including the US) out of 15 nations on the Security Council supported "military intervention". It was clear that the world was not agreeing with the Iraq War. A year later, the Secretary General of the United Nations said about the Iraq War, "I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal."

  But America's war began nevertheless, and before long, America fully occupied the country. However, this does not mean that Iraq was in control. Iraq was a hornet's nest of enemies for the US Army. Islamic clerics were inspiring Iraqis to "rise against" America, and to destroy what they saw as oppressors. The insurgency began immediately. The war was by no means over.
  Not only were there many Iraqis fighting the US occupation, the political borders of Iraq were by no means secure. Trained and talented terrorists were coming from other Middle East nations for the chance to train angry Iraqis into terrorists in Iraq and also to fight the United States.

  The United States military was in Iraq and was not showing signs of leaving. America attempted to rebuild Iraq's government, economy, and infrastructure, with disheartening results. The Iraq Democratic Elections passed with claims of fraud and fixed voting, and the government that was put in power was inept to fix Iraq's problems.  The Iraq economy was a nonentity, with slim-to-no Iraqi-owned global businesses involved. The country's electricity was rarely working, and even things like water supply were sporadic. The country, in short, was in a mess.

By early 2005, the USA was still in Iraq, but other nations involved from the Coalition were leaving at alarming numbers. It appeared that the US might be left in Iraq by the international community, its actions shunned by the world.
   To make matters worse, the three religious sects in Iraq, the Shiites, Sunnis and the Kurds, began to make war with each other. This violence takes place mainly between the Sunnis and the Shiites in Iraq. There are nearly twice as many Shiite as Sunni people in Iraq, and they are often separate from each other geographically. The reasons for this sectarian warfare go back centuries. During Saddam Hussein's rule, sectarian tensions tightened, but never reached the point of war. However, Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, was oppressive towards the Shiites and the Kurds; when Shiite and Kurdish forces rebelled, they were put down by Saddam with a massacre of Shiite and Kurdish people. Since then, the Shiites and Kurds have been increasingly violent towards the Sunnis, who no longer have power. The Sunnis, on the other hand, have the support of Saddam Hussein loyalists, as well as The Islamic Army and Al-Qaeda.
  This "civil war" has served to destabilize Iraq even further, and it has created a place where violence is a fact of life and progress is nearly impossible.

We now find ourselves in the year 2006, more than three years since the start of this war, and America and the world have not served to benefit from this conflict. The reasons for going into war, such as weapons of mass destruction urgently threatening the US, have never materialized, these weapons never existed, and Iraqi links to terrorist groups have been debunked by our own intelligence agencies. Iraq has spiraled into chaos. Although Saddam Hussein's reign was tyrannical in nature, Iraq is indisputably in a worse shape now than it was before the United States invasion.
   But now, as citizens of the United States, we must ask, what has happened? Our president has lead us into war on demonstrably false rationale. The nation of Iraq has been torn to pieces by violence, both towards American troops and due to civil war. And, worst of all, thousands of American soldiers are being killed and our nation is plunging into a trade deficit.
But the more pertinent question is this: What should we do? It has been made abundantly clear that the current strategy in Iraq is not working. The situation is getting worse daily for every side. So what we need is a change. The United States must pull its troops out of Iraq, because it is obvious that direct military occupation is not helping stabilize the country of Iraq, but it is doing quite the opposite. It is best for American and Iraqi interests if we remove our troops from Iraq.
   This is not a call for complete abandonment of Iraq, not at all. Iraq will still need assistance from the US and other nations. Assistance as in aid, intervening in a peaceful manner, is what Iraq needs. The fledgling government of Iraq will need support from the world community, but foreign soldiers in Iraq only serves to inflame the nation.

Another major problem with the Iraq conflict is its beginnings. The attack was immoral: it was a pre-emptive attack against a nation that was not a direct threat the United States. The US did not have the support of the international community behind its actions, and the reasons for going to war in the first place were contentious, and later proved false. The people of America were duped by the Bush administration, tricked into going to war. And this is no ordinary war. This war, once you are in it, you can't get out. Wars of occupation have no distinct end, no peace treaties can be written with offending nations, no foreign borders can be overrun, no capital can be captured. How can the occupier "win"?

The consequences of the Iraq War have been had a devastating effect on both America and Iraq. The war was, according to the UN, illegal. The war was based on false intelligence, and even its very preemptory nature defied logic. America was not under any threat from Iraq. Because of this war, America is suffering an enormous deficit of almost ten trillion dollars. Our American soldiers are dying daily in a faraway land, and for what? What do we hope to achieve? Is it possible to set up a functional, stable democratic government by use of military force, by guns and bombs? And if not, what should we, as a nation, do? How can we save ourselves from this steel trap that Iraq has become?


Duke

I need wake. Is that possible? I need Last Post, too.


Duke

Everything is mellow on My Hill....Relax....


Duke

Otherside--Red Hot Chili Peppers.


Duke