Countries Cont.

• Afghanistan: Afghanistan as a country is something that I am hoping that the United States and the international community are involved in reforming and completing its once started reform initiatives and projects and taking part in non-started reform initiatives and projects. The government of the United States has been involved in limited nation-building in Afghanistan, in which has mostly centered around security infrastructure, rather than working on the economic and social infrastructure of Afghanistan. I do not believe that the United States or that members of the international community will ever be successful as to reforming Afghanistan into a more perfect union by solely or mostly working on security infrastructure of Afghanistan. I believe that the United States and the international community need to change their foreign policy stances on this issue. 

• In my opinion, I believe that it is pointless for countries to solely focus on the security infrastructure of Afghanistan while not having a major foreign policy objective as to reforming the economic and the social infrastructure of Afghanistan. Typically speaking, I believe that crime in which terrorism is a part of, occurs in parts of the world that experience the highest levels of poverty. Extremist entities will reach out to communities that are or that feel isolated from the world and they will attempt to give aid to those communities. A community that is facing poverty in a country will sometimes be targeted by extremist entities. Extremist entities will a lot of times attempt to offer the targeted low-income communities assistance. So, I believe that if the international community wants to help ensure the security of a low-income country is stable, I believe that the international community needs to make investments in the economic and social infrastructure of that country.  

• An example of an economic infrastructure program that I hope that the United States and the international community helps complete in Afghanistan is the Ring Road Project. I am a strong supporter of the completion of the Ring Road Project and that is something that I am hoping occurs. Sadly, the United States did not finish completing the Ring Road Project and I believe that the United States needs to complete the project for the stability of Afghanistan as a country and for the safety and the security of the international community. I believe that if the Ring Road is not completed, I believe that Afghanistan as a country will have a high probability as to failing. I believe that the international community cannot allow that to occur. Afghanistan as a country will be more likely able to succeed once the Ring Road Project is completed. An example of a social infrastructure program that I hope that the United States and the international community is involved in is helping reform the healthcare situation in Afghanistan. I believe that the health-care situation in Afghanistan is poor and that it lacks adequate resources that one would need in order to be successful. Since the majority of the people in Afghanistan live in poverty or below the poverty line, it has been reported that anxiety and depressive disorders are prevalent throughout the country. Due to the healthcare system lacking necessary tools that they need in order to be successful, a lot of individuals in Afghanistan self-medicate psychopharmacological medications. This is not good because self-diagnosis and self-medicating believed symptoms without the consultation of an individual with a medical degree can cause serious physical and psychological harm to the self-medicated individual.

• To help address the healthcare situation in Afghanistan, the government of Afghanistan contracts with non-governmental organizations for health services in which applies to healthcare services in some areas throughout the country as it relies on primary hospital-based psychiatry services. While it is not necessarily a bad thing for the government of Afghanistan to have contracts with non-governmental organizations to serve in areas of the country that are isolated from the rest of the country and that do not have access to its primary based health care services, I do believe that the government of Afghanistan needs to break away from expensive hospital-based psychiatry and move it towards primary health care services. This is especially necessary because the majority of the people in Afghanistan are of low income and live in low-income communities. Psychiatric healthcare services in low income countries typically are in most cases if not in practically all cases afforded to individuals that are affluent. That is because there is a lack of individuals with medical degrees that are in low income communities of low-income countries. That is why I support the government of Afghanistan breaking away from expensive hospital-based psychiatry and moving towards primary based health care services.

• Cuba: The United States currently has an embargo against the Republic of Cuba. I personally believe that the “current” embargo by the United States against the Republic of Cuba is currently unnecessary, illegal, is a waste of time, and has contributed to some measurable poverty in the Republic of Cuba. I therefore would like the full embargo that the United States has put in place against the Republic of Cuba to be lifted and to be abolished. So, I support the repeal of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Cuban Assets Control Regulations of 1963, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, the Helms–Burton Act of 1996, and the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. Every year since 1992, the United Nations General Assembly has passed resolutions condemning the impact of the embargo that the United States put on the Republic of Cuba. The General Assembly of the United States has further stated that the embargo by the United States against the Republic of Cuba was a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and does violate international law. So, I strongly again support the end of the embargo against the Republic of Cuba.

• Cuba giving asylum to Assata Shakur and other human rights defenders: Their is currently opposition with some in the United States against the Republic of Cuba, due to the Republic of Cuba giving asylum to black human rights activists from the United States, such as Assata Shakur. It is my position on this issue that the Republic of Cuba should not comply with any extradition requests for Assata Shakur. Assata Shakur and other black civil rights leader were illegally and were unfairly targeted by the United States in the past, pursuant to the COINTELPRO intelligence program. I believe that it would violate international law for the Republic of Cuba to give Ms. Shakur to the United States and I do not believe that she received a fair or a just trial in the United States. Their is no legitimate evidence that Ms. Shakur is a terrorist or that she is a threat. Their is evidence that Ms. Shakur was targeted by an illegal surveillance program that was targeting black human rights defenders in the mid 1900s and that she was further subjected to torture and other inhumane and degrading treatment and punishment in the United States for being a human rights defender.  

• Democratic People’s Republic of Korea & the Korean Peninsula: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of a country that is known as North Korea. That country is supposed to be a sovereign country in which by law all citizens are required to vote. The United Nations, the European Union, Canada and the United States have imposed harsh sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for their nuclear program and mostly their ballistic missile testing. While it is well known that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States are not allies, punishing one country due to them being isolated is not good diplomacy. I believe that allowing South Korea or even the United States to continue to engage in the joint war games and only punishing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is not good. I believe that South Korea, Japan, the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea need to peacefully coexist and that those countries should engage in peace talks equally and in a way that is fair and just. 

• As far as the conflict in the Korean Peninsula is concerned, it appears as if the United Nations Security Council has repetitively discussed and has repetitively issued sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It does not appear as if the United Nations Security Council has listened or understood the sides of all parties in which are involved in the conflict in the Korean Peninsula. It further appears as if the United Nations Security Council has overlooked the joint war games that have occurred along the border of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It seems as if the United Nations Security Council seems to be making decisions based on the domestic politics or the domestic political influence of a country that is a member to the United Nations Security Council. The United Nations should not be a place where the international body makes decisions based on the domestic interests of countries but rather on the interest of Earth as a whole. Just like the formation of the United States, the United Nations is supposed to be united countries representing the interests of Earth as a whole.

• As a goal of mine, I hope that the United States, South Korea, Japan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will establish a healthy diplomatic relationship and will each engage in peace talks with one another. To help with peace efforts between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, South Korea, Japan and the United States, I believe that the joint war games that occur along the border of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea need to end and I would like to see the United Nations, the United States, Canada and the European Union ease the sanctions that they have put in place against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. I believe that the joint war games that occur are provoking and are a waste of the money of the taxpayer. As far as peace between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States is concerned, I believe that if the United States can re-establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba, I believe that the United States should absolutely be able to do so with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Intelligence & Armed Forces

The United States does an extremely good job at wasting money and failing to pursue its foreign policy goals in other countries. Reform is needed. 

• White House and DoD need to be on the same page: In the United States, it is quite typical for politicians to openly talk about their aspirations as to declaring war on another country or their want for the United States to enter into some type of an armed conflict with a group overseas or to send United States troops overseas. While that type of talk may sound perfectly easy to politicians, it is all but so. The United States has done an extremely great job at failing to pursue its foreign policy goals overseas, wasting money in the process, and entering into unnecessary armed conflicts overseas. This has lead to the creation and the establishment of extremist entities in some foreign countries. As an example, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan are a total disaster and are an embarrassment due to the current status that those countries are in today. This is sadly due to some not correctly planning, mismanagement and some individuals not accomplishing their own foreign policy goals.

  If the White House, at any administration, wants to use the Department of Defense to enter into an armed conflicts overseas or to even send United States troops overseas, I believe that they need to work on helping ensure that region that they are trying to reform is reformed fully. Failure to do so will lead to and has lead to the creation and the establishment of extremist entities. Political instability in the United States and by the United States has sadly lead to the creation and the establishment of current undesirable conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan. With a few foreign policy reforms, hopefully the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan will improve. 

• NSA targeting communications of world leaders: Every country in the world has spies. This includes the United States. The National Security Agency, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence, is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The NSA is also tasked with the protection of United States communications networks and information systems. With that being said, it has been well known in the United States that the National Security Agency spies and attempts of spy on the communications of individuals in foreign countries as well as the communications of the leaders of foreign countries, including those that are allies with the United States. I do not believe that it is appropriate for the United States to spy on the communications of the leaders of countries that are allies to the United States. Spying on our allies needs to stop and does harm the diplomatic relationship between the United States and allies of the United States. 

• Outer Space Affairs: Humans are not the only life forms that exist. Successful space explorations by astronauts that are shown on the television are not the only times that the United States has been involved in space exploration projects. Currently, a lot of people are amazed over the NASA Mars Rover that is currently on Mars and that has taken pictures on that planet. Almost everyone is under the belief that this is the very first time that anything involving the United States has touched Mars. This is totally and is completely incorrect. The United States already has had people on Mars, already has a base on Mars (to support some type of confederation), and has for years already been on Mars prior to the known NASA rover being on that planet. Their are classified space exploration projects that have been successfully accomplished by the United States. With that being said, I support the United States involvement in space exploration. I do also believe that the international community needs to work on ensuring that peace, love and stability are ensured on Earth and that no country engages in wars, conflicts or aggressive acts against each other in outer space.