letter to the Prez

Some people call ex-girlfriends after downing a few 22's of booze. Others email the president with crazy ideas about how to fix the situation we created in Iraq. I am of the latter type apparently ;-)

well, if I am gonna make a fool of myself to the prez, I might as well let you guys in on the fun:



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Recommendations for fixing Iraq
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:14:22 -0500
From: Justin Polazzo
To: president@whitehouse.gov

Greetings Mr. President,

I know you probably wont see this email, but I feel like I have a really
good idea about how to make Iraq a functional self governing society. I
am writing this letter to at least gather my own thoughts, even if you
may not ever see them.

First the Facts:

1: We have 3 groups that dont like each other and are descending into
civil war.

2: Our continued military presence will be used as an excuse for one
group to attack whichever group is in power

3: No matter what we do, whoever eventually gains control of the
government will not like America. This doesn't mean they wont like our
money, and I believe they will still sell us oil but they will not be
our friends or allies. There is too much history for that to work. We
need to give them 20 years or so, but I digress..

OK taking into account those three facts, here is my plan for Iraq:

Divide the country into 5 zones. The Northern Alliance, Sunnis, and
Shiites can have their own "states". This will make up the first three
zones.

The 4th zone will be made up of common areas, used for commerce and
industrial collaboration between the three groups. Airports, Baghdad,
factories, rivers, and fertile farming land would be some examples of
places I would put into the 4th zone. Zone 5 will be accessible to
everyone, unless they pose a clear and present danger to the community.

The 5th zone will be made up of places that have religious value to the
three groups. Zone 5 will be accessible to everyone, unless they pose a
clear and present danger to the community.

We need to set these zones up by having meetings with all three groups,
first with them as individuals, then finally as a meeting with all
three in the same room. then possibly using our military force to build
houses in order to get around the "but his land is better than ours"
whining..

What do you think?

I know that the separation of peoples that are fighting in an area has
been tried unsuccessfully before, but the idea here is that you give
divisive groups a shared resource (zone 4) that is biggest way for them
to make money and have a stable economy. The Oil fields would be in zone
4, with the profits being split evenly between the groups. This alone
would be incentive enough for the 3 peoples to work together and make
sure that area was stable and protected from attack. The governing of
that resource as a group effort would build cooperation if not goodwill.

I really hope you read this as I think it is a great idea and think it
would help our chances for making peace and stability in the region.

-JP

First Post

This will be the location of my blog dedicated to politics. I feel I should get a few things out of the way first, like explaining what party I affiliate myself with and such.

I like to think of myself as non-partisan. The old Republican idea of keeping government as small as possible is important. This doesn't mean that I think Social Security is a bad idea. Rather the opposite, I consider the idea of giving food to starving people is one of the main reasons a country needs a government. I do however think that we need to make sure we dont waste money or resources. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security was a needless act.

I would rather GWB had instead used the Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, state Bureaus of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Secret Service, National Security Administration and other existing agencies to accomplish the task of keeping the nation secure. Instead, he created yet another agency dedicated to controlling the populace and protecting the government from the people.

Well, I hope this first entry gives you a feel for what my political leanings are. I also hope you wont come to the conclusion that you know how I feel about subjects I haven't covered. I am surprisingly non-partisan and have viewpoints that are not capable of being defined by what stance one party or the other takes

-JMP