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September 2008
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McCain, Obama reinforcing the wrong message on U.S. Foreign Policy

By Dave Wells

The term Commander in Chief in this country post 9/11 is often synonymous with warrior—with the public being encouraged to consider the war-leading potential of their next President.

The first debate offered a wonderful opportunity to show leadership qualities while also debunking the notion that bombing folks into oblivion or destroying enemies were how to successfully fight conflicts—as such the discussion at the first Presidential debate last night was disappointing.

McCain could have showed that he has a more nuanced understanding of military policy and why the surge has correlated with improvements on the ground, and Obama should have used better his command of the issues to justify why we have reached a point in Iraq where a troop withdrawal timetable is essential. Instead we got simplistic arguments that suggested we should or should not have gone to war with Iraq and that we should be focusing the fight on Afghanistan and whether to have preconditions for discussions for negotiations with Iraq. On the latter two points, Obama scored better than McCain, but Obama failed to take on sufficiently McCain’s claim that we are winning in Iraq and that withdrawing troops would lead to a wider regional conflict. Read the rest of this entry »

Fake Growth and Socialized Losses—A Trillion Dollar Wall Street Bailout Looms

By Dave Wells

Bear Stearns in March, Freddie and Fannie Mac a few weeks ago, and now Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch fail while AIG receives an $85 billion bailout. That may just be the tip of the iceberg. In coming days we may hear plans for a trillion dollar bail out of the financial sector. It hardly seems fair that when medical catastrophes can be the largest cause of personal bankruptcy, a bunch of Wall Street fat cats can bet billions on a high-stakes game of poker and get bailed out. Read the rest of this entry »

Remembering 9/11’s Foreign Victims

By Dave Wells

Published Friday, September 12, 2008 in Southeast Valley Opinions of the Arizona Republic as “Flags of other lands missing from 9/11 memorial.”

Does it matter if we misrepresent history?

History isn’t simply dates and facts. History was lived, but that experience differs depending on standpoint: the conqueror or those occupied, the slave owners or the slaves, men or women, etc. Perhaps the greatest historical challenge is to step into someone else’s shoes and see the world through his or her eyes.

So Tempe’s 9/11 memorial both warms my heart and disturbs me. For the fifth consecutive year, 3,000 American flags will blanket Tempe Beach Park with placards of the names who perished. The memorial was unveiled in 2004 during the last Presidential campaign amid heated discussions about the Bush Administration, the Iraq War, 9/11, and patriotism.

On September 11, 2001 our country was attacked by a clandestine group of men who ruthlessly hijacked civilian aircraft and sacrificed hundreds of lives that turned into thousands as they became flying missiles. The hurt dims with time, but never goes away—especially if you take the time to step in the shoes of the surviving families.

As the Tempe display commemorates, the number of people killed on 9/11 was close to 3,000—2,974 plus some still classified as missing. In addition, at least one first responder who bravely helped on that day contracted lung cancer from environmental toxins and has since passed. Others in the vicinity were dealt a similar fate.

But they weren’t all Americans. About 500, nearly 20 percent, of those murdered, hailed from 90 other countries. Though the link isn’t readily accessible, CNN still has an on line database with the names and a partial accounting of victims’ nationalities: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial. Read the rest of this entry »