kurty[B]

I hate to thread jack, but having been over there, and talking with some of the units who train the Iraqis I just wanted to put insight on this statement.

Yes, we can run our troops through bootcamp so quickly, because when someone in the U.S. signs up for the military they know to expect to be yelled at, and run through a rigorous training (or at least they should be expecting this).

Because of the terms our government has set with their current government in Iraq a US soldier or Marine cannot treat the Iraqi Army soldiers like he would a subordinate in our Army. He cannot yell at them, if he does, they will go to their ranking officer in their Army, who will go to their Col, who will talk to that Marine or soldiers Col, who will reprimand the soldier or Marine (generally a slap on the wrist, unless it's a serious offense), but it's a matter of two different cultures.

There's a lot I saw that I'm not supposed to talk about, but basically it's a long arduous process, and it could probably be completed much more quickly if we were "in charge" of the Iraqi Army and trained them our way, but then we'd have more maltreatment cases.

These are people who join the Iraqi Army for a paycheck, it's a steady paycheck for them. When they do finish training and get shipped off to a different province to serve, they get angry because they were hoping to be stationed near their families. Some abandon, others tough it out. It's a very tough situation we are faced with. Our military wants nothing more than to get out of there, but they don't want to leave knowing that the country is in disarray and we'll probably just ahve to go back in five years.

Sorry for thread jacking.



ECONOMY:
Get rid of large tax breaks for the wealthy.



WAR in IRAQ: This will tie in to my National Defense, although I do not consider them one in the same, but the way we spend our Defense dollars is where I think the help would go. We still need to be there, focused on training the Iraq Army and Iraqi Police. The rest I'll say in national defense



NATIONAL DEFENSE:
We need to invest in our soldiers and marines. Take massive million dollar spending on technology (still spend some, but funneling millions and millions on a laser missile defense system that's not providing any results, especially when our biggest concern is no longer a missile from russia, but people with guns and bombs looking to cause a scene).

So, pay raises for military all around, especially infantry. Aside from simply training our military to accurately fire a weapon, and learn a "trade" (computers, radios, intel, whatnot), but also provide cultural training (something more than a 30 minute slide show before you shipped off with an M16 to Iraq that says "this is an Iraqi, he wipes his ass with his left hand so do not take his left hand, or take food from him if he's handled it with his left hand"). Language training, again, not just an hour, but some time. If we're going to fight this war on "terror" not only do we need to improve our cultural awareness of our military, but of our citizens, but that's getting off topic.

As far as Homeland Security, that's a toughy, I'm against wiretapping without a warrant. I feel that Delhi, Dubai and Kuwait have much better airport security than ours, and while you may run your bags through four seperate scanners before you get to your plane they are quick, efficient, and I felt much more "secure" than in an American Airport. If we're going to have so many safety restrictions we need to supply the airports with proper screening equipment. "Random Searches" on people with SSSS on their tickets does not seem like the best process to me.



SOCIAL SECURITY:
I'm really out of this loop, but I agree with Ample, we are living and working longer, and do not necessarily need a paycheck at the age we are currently getting them, but again, the majority of voters are in this age group, and getting rid of "free money" for them is difficult.



FOREIGN POLICY: Use real diplomacy. If you read an Indian (southern asia country) newspaper it talks about how India wants to pursue nuclear abilities to power it's country. Having been there, and witnessed daily scheduled power outages, because of a drought that was causing the hydro plants not to produce enough power. Nuclear proliferation, it's an extremely difficult topic. No matter which way you lean you're digging yourself a hole (too lenient, too hard), it's lose-lose.



EDUCATION: Try and find a way to funnel funds to poorer school districts, and also pay public school teachers more in general across the board.



ABORTION: Leave this to the states. Same with Gay marriage. My personal stance. Pro-Choice, and Go for it on gay marriage, but let it go to the states to decide. I would also support ad campaigns directed towards parents about talking to their kids about sex. More than just "it's evil, abstinence is the only way".



HEALTH CARE: Optimally I'd like to see healthcare provided for every citizen. Not illegal immigrant, now if they have legit job and tax money from their paycheck is going towards healthcare then yes. Trying to figure out how to accomplish this without overtaxing everyone boggles my mind.



WAR ON DRUGS: Legalize Marijuana, well, at least decriminalize it. Preferably legalize it, but if that doesn't fly, at least make it so possessing less than an ounce is simply a fine, and having paraphenalia is not an offense (give permission to the police to confiscate it, and maybe issue a petty fine; like a parking ticket, but nothing near a criminal offense).

Like most others have said, instead of sending users to prison, send them to rehab, if they were under the influence of something and committed a violent crime well, charge them on the violent crime. Take the money that would normally go towards the "War On Drugs" and put it towards rehab. If we legalized everything the crime involved with importing illegal substances into the country would disappear, we'd produce a new market, and take the profits from sales and put them towards rehab, if there's no profits, well that should mean that no one is buying, and there's no market for that system. If there is profit, well that money will go to paying for the rehab that the user will more than likely require. So, in essence the user is psuedo paying for their own rehab by purchasing their drugs; it's a matter of if they decide to go to rehab at that point.



CRIME: Maybe I'm just a small town dweller, but I do not see much of a problem in the way our police force works. Aside from drug reform, which would drastically effect this, but aside from making sure checks and balances are in place, so agencies are not simply wiretapping phones without proper warrants to do so.