Religion, Sex and Politics

Religion, guns, elitism, bitter Americans and ducking bullets in Bosnia dominate the political debates in the democratic primary as Pope Benedict XVI arrived in America and apologized for the sexual-abuse scandal afflicting the Roman Catholic Church. Sex, religion and politics, the three subjects we are taught not to discuss, dominate America’s political landscape during the democratic primary season ─ not because of the Pope, but Reverend Wright, Senator Barak Obama’s former pastor.

The political mudslinging that spreads hatred and lies about candidates running for office hit an unprecedented high in the Clinton-Obama contest for the democratic nomination. Americans can be forgiven if they are confused by the political expression, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Americans debate what Reverend Wright, a former Marine, said and meant and whose enemy he really is.

But then again, America deposes and executes Saddam Hussein, a secular Sunni, and replaces his government with a democratically elected religious coalition supported by Iran. The anti-democratic and anti-American-coalition occupation Sunni insurgent Saddam loyalists, backed by Syria and U.S. friend, ally and protectorate Saudi Arabia, contribute more than their fair share of support for the political and military confrontations that kill and maim U.S. and coalition military and civilian personnel, along with countless innocent Iraqi civilians.

Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia raised and contributed to America and the world ─ Osama bin-Laden, 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers, and Sunni insurgents combating Shiite militias backed by Iran, yet they are, according to the Bush-dominated dynasty political spin doctors, a friend of America. To add fuel to the fire of confusion, Syrians, Iranians, Saudis and all three factions of Iraqis hate Israelis and distrust Jews. Democratic Israel, where Arabs sit in parliament, is vitally dependent on U.S. military and economic support to live comfortably while being stressed out by their determined, fanatical, suicidal neighbors hell bent on annihilating Israel. Yet the democratic primary debates only briefly touch upon these critical geopolitical issues vital to America’s security.

Foreigners visiting America can be forgiven if they believe only gays, pedophiles, peaceniks and bigots run for political office. Sex, religion and Democratic Party politics is resulting in the implosion of the Democratic Party and another possible Republican administration in the White House.

Virtual Hedge Funds

Hedge funds have been described as financial "weapons of mass destruction" by investment guru Warren Buffet. There are an estimated 8,000 hedge funds with over two trillion dollars of assets under management with no government oversight, supervision or guarantees should the funds start melting away in the subprime wake.

Their oversight, risk management and transparency is mandatory to prevent another multi-trillion financial industry meltdown. The voluntary guidelines under which hedge funds currently operate are no longer acceptable in light of what we have learned from the subprime crisis.

In 2007, a presidential working group headed by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. rejected the idea that the funds needed increased regulation. The voluntary guidelines recommended by two industry groups assembled by the Bush administration earlier this year are a "virtual farce" according to the Connecticut attorney general. Many of the hedge funds are headquartered in the state and their meltdown is a legitimate concern to politicians there. It should be. Not just to them but all Americans. "Hedge funds have become too big and too important to remain outside the rules," said the attorney general. I concur!

America today has a debt of nine trillion dollars that requires us to pay more than two billion dollars a day in interest. Taken together with the more than 40 trillion in social security debt that our children and grandchildren have been saddled with, I do not believe America can continue to carry the risk of a two trillion dollar hedge fund industry collapse.

The regulation of hedge funds will make the financial system more stable and reduce the risk it currently poses to the world financial markets and economy. The subprime crisis has revealed how the banking system and unregulated financial instruments are interwoven with each other, essentially creating one credit market. Policymakers can no longer ignore the systemic risks posed by hedge funds.

Partition

The February 22nd bomb attack that destroyed the gilded dome of the 1000-year-old Shiite mausoleum of Iman Ali al-Hadi in Samarra, was the most graphic visual of the gilded political rubble the U.S. has created in Iraq, and also a sneak preview of the current civil war in Iraq. While Iraqi politicians and U.S. bureaucrats haggle over the formula of a national unity government, the repeated weekly suicide bombings of Shiite mosques remind us of how futile their effort to unite Iraq is.

Iraqis know that a unified Iraq is unsustainable for four reasons: history, religion, ethnicity and politics. They also know the appearance of unity will hasten the removal of U.S. and coalition troops.

The new constitution Iraq approved on October 15, 2005 created three de facto states ─ Shiite in the south, Kurdish in the north, and Sunni in the center. Local laws are superior to national law. The Shiites in the south and the Kurds in the north will own newly discovered oil reserves ─ which are in the Shiite south and Kurdish north. The only remaining issue is the revenue share formula for the Sunnis share of the oil revenues.

Most of the armed and police forces being trained by the U.S. led coalition forces are Shiite and Kurds. The more the U.S. military hands over prematurely to “Iraqis,” the more it will be handing over to Shia and Kurdish militia members that are bent more on advancing ethnic and religious interests than on defeating the insurgency or preserving national unity.
To think that the Kurds and Shiites in Iraq can forget their history and embrace the Sunnis in one central government is delusional and defies reality. Ultimately, the deep, vindictive ethnic and religious factions will fracture the government and country. Nationalism, as manifested by Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, is no different than the nationalism expressed by the new democratic republics that were part of the former Soviet Union, the Serbs, Croats and Macedonians in Yugoslavia, or the Czechs and Slovaks in Czechoslovakia. The World War I remnants of the Austria-Hungary Empire are no different than Iraq, itself a remnant of the Ottoman Empire.

The artificial borders of Iraq were created by its British colonial overlord to facilitate domination and control of the oil and can only be enforced by an oppressive authoritarian regime. The colonial borders must disappear for democracy to flourish as was the case in the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Likewise Iraq will have to be divided into three separate countries to accommodate the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. Trying to keep them together in one democratic state ignores the religious and ethnic historical differences and grudges that have been temporarily put aside as they try to rid their collective tribal lands of the occupying infidels.
A democratic Kurdistan and democratic Sunni and Shiite states will do to Iran and the Middle East what glasnost did to Russia and democratic Eastern Europe. Iran’s mullahs, Syria’s Baathists and the royals in Saudi Arabia will go the way of the ruling elites in Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

America can create a lasting democratic model in Iraq for the Middle East. It has to install three democratic regimes and make sure they survive. It is important to avoid another U.S. foreign policy disaster. It would be a colossal catastrophe. America must deliver on its promises to the Iraqi people, America and the world. That is the only way America can extricate itself with honor with its “mission accomplished.” America cannot afford to fail in Iraq. If it does, it will be relegated to a 21st-century debt-burdened bankrupt – financially and politically.