Does
Trump know Americans pledge allegiance to the US, not to the president?
Istanbul,
24th May 2017
I remember that the American people didn’t want
George W Bush. They thought he was born
with a silver spoon in his mouth. He is rich so he would be out of touch with
the realities that the American people face every day. We have something even
worse now. He is called Trump. He is a billionaire who is out of touch with anything
and everything. George W bush was an aggressive president. Barak Obama was a
passive president. Trump is a “I don’t know what to call president”. Crazy,
still in candidate mode president, Tweet president or SNAFU president. The
latter is more appropriate. When the president wins the general elections, he
has to choose and then later on appoint about 8 thousand people, after he is
sworn in. These people are supposed to help him during his presidency. Word has
it, that Trump has not appointed even a thousand of them. Why? It seems that
Trump doesn’t hire anybody who doesn’t pledge allegiance “loyalty” to him
personally. This leads us to believe that Trump doesn’t understand that in
America. We the people pledge allegiance to the flag of the US, in other words
to the country and not to the president. I don’t need to remind you that only the
president’s of countries such as, Russia, china and North Korea, demands such a
thing. That is why they are called dictatorships.
Sarmad Aqrawi, is a civil engineer and a freelance Journalist; His
articles appear in; Arabic, Kurdish and American English.
Trump
bombing Syria is a waste of tax payer's money!
Istanbul,
7th April 2017
Russian forces are intermingled with Syrian
forced. The killing of one Russian soldier, or the downing of one Russian plane,
could lead to nuclear war. There are agreements between the US and Russia, to
avoid such incidents. One was signed in 2015, referred to as “aviation safety
agreement”. The US has to tell Russia, about its military operations in Syria
ahead of time. 6 hours before the missiles
hit the Syrian military base. The Russian were informed. The Russians informed the Syrians, and the military
base was evacuated. All warplanes and personnel were gone by the times the
missiles hit. I laugh when they say warplane’s bunkers were destroyed. All Syrian cities including the capital
Damascus are destroyed, because of 7 years of civil war. What are 5 or 10
bunkers to add to them! Haaaaaa. The result of this “symbolic” bombing is,
Russia has cancelled the agreement. We are back to square one. The immediate
concern, this might endanger the lives of our brave pilots who are conducting
bombing raids on ISIS in Mosul and Reqaa. The only thing that this attack has
achieved is; trump up Trump. It has diverted the American people’s attention
from all his failed policies in his 100 days in office. It shows him as
standing up to Russia despite the fact that, there is much evidence, that members
of his campaign team coordinated “something” with the Russian government. Trump
wants to be like Reagan. There was evidence that the Reagan campaign were in
contact with the Iranians not to release US hostages in Iran, so Carter would
loss. No one seems to remember or cares about this. Later on this was confused
with what was called the “Iran – Contra” hearing or “Iran gate”. No one seems
to care that Colonel Oliver North said” we sold arms to Iran to finance the
contra rebels in Nicaragua”. The question is, was that the deal between the
Regan campaign and the Iranian government? The contras injected to it to
mislead the American public. I hope congress’s investigation this time will not
be muddied by something that the general’s will concoct to save Trump’s ass
from impeachment. Sources say each Tomahawk missile cost 250K. The Pentagon
says: it fired 59 missiles. Simple math tells us. The US taxpayers lost about
15 million dollars, on a useless bombing. Trump always says” you never tell
them when you are coming”, “well here you go again” as Reagan used to say. Mr.,
Trump you are still far away from world realities.
Sarmad Aqrawi, is a civil engineer and a freelance Journalist; His
articles appear in; Arabic, Kurdish and American English.
I am definitely
a journalist by Middle Eastern standards and a famous one too, but I may not be
by American and western standards. I have to write though, to give you a window
into what open minded intellectual western educated people from the Middle East
like me think. I beg your pardon, and ask you to look at my articles on the
bases of substance, and not on the bases of American or western journalistic standards.
Thank you for your support.
How Iraqis achieve financial security in 10 years!
Erbil, Iraq Dec 05 2016You live in America, you are single, and you make 4k a month, so you think you are on top of the world. Taxes, bills and insurance, at the end of the year, zero savings. You lose your job, you are in trouble. One simple sickness that requires hospitalization, and you are unemployed without insurance, well you have to pay for it for the rest of your life.
In Iraq there are no taxes, no bills and no insurance. Minimum wage is 600$ a month. All parents in Iraq, do not like their kids to leave the house, even when they are adults. As a matter of fact they want their boys to get married bring the wives and live with the parents. Why? So they can enjoy being together in a big family in their old age, and more important enjoy their grand kids, at all times. Iraqis and most of the people in the east don’t think like, I raised you get on your own; I will help, but not at all the times.
You get a job with a good Iraqi or an international company. Food and lodging is provided. No water, electric or internet expenses. Most of the stuff is cheap as Iraq is a true free market country without even custom fees. Your personal expenses hardly will reach 150$ a month. Salary for a driver in a good company preferably international is 1650$ a month. Food, lodging, internet, heating and cooling, all provided.
Your salary is 1650$ minus personal expenses 150$ = 1500$ a month of total savings. That is 18K a year. You sign up for Iraqi government subsidized low income homes. They cost 40K. Roughly every 2 years on your salary you can buy 1 home. They rent for a minimum of 300$ a month. That means you have added a 3600$ to your 18K savings a year. When you repeat this process 5 times in 10 years. You will have a monthly rent income of 1500$. The houses that you have bought for 40K, now are selling for 120K.You now can quit your job because you are financially secure. What is financial security? You don’t have to work for a living for the rest of your life. You can work part time and for fun. Now you are ready to start a family in your parent’s house. They will insist that you live with them. 1500$ a month with no taxes, no bills, and no insurance, will take you a long way. Heck you can even afford a Nepalese in house maid for 300$ a month. A twice a year vacation with your new family to Dubai in the winter and Turkey in the summer. 10 years all what it takes? Now let’s review some of the prices for some popular items in Iraq.
Rent 2bedroom house 250-3000$
Electric 50$ with single unit ACGenerator 40$
Water 10$ every 3 months
Health care is FREE, but if you choose a private clinic
Doctor’s office visit (specialist) 5-15$
Lipid profile (cholesterol) test 5$
X-ray 15$
MRI 30$
Meat (Beef) 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) 15$
Meat (lamb) 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) 16$Meat (Chicken) 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) 4$
Eggs (30 eggs) 2$
Rice 1 Kilo 1.5-2$Bread (Samoon = Iraqi sandwich bread) 10 pieces 1$
Bread (Khobiz = Iraqi flat bread) 8 pieces 1$
ALL fruits and vegetables are ORGANIC
Tomatoes 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 1.50$Onions 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 1$
Cucumbers 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 1.50$
Potatoes 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 1$
Green string beans 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 2$
Egg plant 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 1.50$
Zucchini 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 1.50$
ALL fruits and vegetables are ORGANIC
Apples 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 1.50$Oranges 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 1.50$
Grapes 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 2$
Plums 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 2$
Apricots 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) in season (highest price) 3$
Baklawa 1Kilo (2.21 Pound) 10-20$
Spring water 6L (about 1.5 US gallon) 1$
What more can I say? Nothing.
Note: These are Erbil prices. Prices in Erbil and Kurdistan, are about 20% higher than the rest of Iraq.
Sarmad Aqrawi is a civil engineer and a freelance Journalist; His articles appear in; Arabic, Kurdish and American English.
Killing the Russian Ambassador in Turkey, 1st act of violence, due to Trump's message of HATE!
Jakarta, Indonesia Dec 22 2016
Someone had said; most of the
important things in life are simple. Simple things are hard to remember.
Experts keep telling us. The internet has turned the world into a small
village. We keep forgetting. I don’t know how many times, it was said; trust a
woman’s intuition. The voters didn’t remember, Women voters cheated themselves.
They all were focused on something else, completely bogus. She was telling us
the truth. Donald’s message is about; division, hate and would be followed by
violence. The voters didn’t believe her. Donald is a far right candidate, who
will be president of the US. This will give a boost, to all right wing movements
in the world. Neo- Nazis is one, but also nationalist movements are among many.
Hate crime attacks were up in the US, and in Western Europe. It is a domino effect.
A fact, no one can deny it. Muslim women with Hijab in the US will pay the most,
for Barrack Husain Obama 8 years in office as president. Some people think he
is Muslim, some people think he is black. It doesn’t matter; someone will have
to pay the price. It is Donald’s message of division and hate .The price would
be in bigotry, harassment and maybe violence. Muslim women with Hijab in
Western Europe will suffer too. Nationalism is up everywhere. That is very
dangerous. We were trying to get along with each other, in a very dangerous
world. This brings me to focus on the group that assassinated the Russian
ambassador to Turkey. They are called “Grey Wolves”. Grey Wolves is a far right
Turkish nationalist extremist group. Their main goal is to unite all Turkish
speaking countries. One time they were a tool in the hands of the CIA, in
killing communist, socialist and human right activists. They fought Russian
forces in Chechnya and Crimea. Jabhat Alnosra an affiliated branch on al-Qaida
in Syria claimed the responsibility for the assassination. What makes it so dangerous,
is the fact that it was carried out not by Alnosra operatives, but by the grey
wolves. Two extremist groups with no common ground on ideology, as a matter of
fact, they are on opposite sides of the ideology spectrum. They joined forces to
commit this violent act. I bet that Putin and the Russian intelligence community
are busy working after hours now, to try to figure out whether Donald himself had
anything to do with it personally as president elect. Did he give orders to awaken
the CIA old links to this group or was it simply a coincident. What complicate matters
is Melania Donald. She comes from Slovenia. Slovenia is a country for long has
been abused by the Russians. Too many questions, too many loose ends, lead to
uncertainty. Uncertainty leads to chaos. I am not sure if Donald knows it or
not. He had awakened the dragon or maybe more symbolic, he had let the gene out
of the bottle. It doesn’t matter why. The dragon has been awakened and the gene
is out of the bottle. It is very difficult to stop it NOW. I hope I am wrong.
Oh, God, Allah or whatever you want to call him or even her, helps us ALL.
Sarmad Aqrawi
is a civil engineer and a freelance Journalist; His articles appear in; Arabic,
Kurdish and American English.
What did Obama tell Trump in their 1st meeting?
Erbil, November 6th 2016
Listen Trump, whatever you have said, to get you elected, is fine
with me. I did say things and especially about you, to get Hillary elected too.
All is behind us. Now it is reality
time. You are no longer Billionaire Donald Trump. You are Donald Trump, president
elect of the USA. The most powerful nation on the face of earth. Anything that
you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law. Sorry I was
tempted, I could not help it. Anything you say will be taken seriously. There
is no longer locker room talk, living room talk, or anything else talks. It is only
serious business talk from now on. You say the wrong thing or things, God help
us. Markets might crash and millions of people might get laid off. You do the
wrong thing? The US might get attacked by nuclear missiles. You my friend will
be responsible for starting world war 3. Wise up and get with the program. That
is what I had to do, and that is what every president has to do in the 20th
and 21st centuries. Bite your tongue and swallow your pride. You
have to follow what your advisors tell you. We will do everything we can to
make you “succeed, because if you succeed America succeeds”. Good luck and God
help us ALL.
Trump looked like a babe in the woods. He sat next to Obama, but I
saw him as a school child sitting in front of the school master. He said” this
meeting was supposed to take 15min it took an hour and a half, it could have lasted
for hours as far as I am concerned”. What does that means? It means, he was
interested in what Obama had to say, and he needed the advice badly. I think he
will listen to Obama and wise up, but he has a big problem? How is he going to
deliver to his supporters, all the stupid promises that defy political
realities? I think Trump will be a 1 term president. Political reality will
keep him from fulfilling his campaign promises that will anger his supporters. They
will not vote for him the 2nd time around. He himself would not want
to run for a 2nd term. It is too much of a hassle. Billionaire Trump
is much much more comfortable. He gets to say what is on his mind, and for
Donald trump based on his personality, it is more important than being the president.
He can always say; I did it, but I did not like it. It is another real estate
deal that I concluded successfully. It is time to forget it and move on. My 1st
final thought; we have missed out, on a once in a life time opportunity. Three great
ladies as leaders, could have made the world a better place to live in? Angela
Merkel of Germany, Teresa May of the UK and Hillary Clinton of the USA. My 2nd
final thought; President Obama would probably have sent Air Force one, to fly “president
elect Hillary Rodham Clinton”, from New York to Washington DC. He probably would
have sent Marine one to fly her, from Andrews Air force base to the White
house. That is how much he wanted her to win, and that is the least he could have
done for her.
2016 election is America’s political civil war!
Kula Lampur, Malaysia October 11 2016
America is divided 50/50 between yuppies and hillbillies.
Yuppies in general tend to be; liberal, college educated,
suburbanites and from all races. Hillbillies on the other hand tend to be;
conservative, with high school diploma, if not drop outs, live in the country
and mainly white.
There are “cross overs”, they are the “Donald Trumps”. They are yuppies,
who ride on hillbillies’ traits and pride, to win US elections. Obama is a yuppie,
who was elected as a US president. That is the problem which is dividing the
country. 99% of Hillbillies believe that Obama; was not born in the US, meaning
he is an immigrant, no matter what his birth certificate says, and that he is a
Muslim, no matter how many times he has
said that he is not . The result of the 2016 election is not only a referendum,
but a backlash on these two issues; Anti immigrant and anti Muslim, as Obama is
the center of it all. The hillbillies saw Hillary Clinton as pro immigrant and
pro Muslim, so they came out in numbers. The rest is history being told. A word
of caution, this is really the beginning of political civil war in America,
which might get out of hand, if Trump does not; swallow his pride, shut his
mouth and handle his hillbillies wisely.
Sarmad Aqrawi is a civil engineer and a freelance Journalist. His
articles appear in; Arabic, Kurdish and American English.
How to deal
with ISIS?!
Tokyo, Japan December
9th 2015
History
tells us, that you cannot crush ISIL. Al-Qaida in Afghanistan is a perfect
example. The main reason is very simple; as long as there are; stupid, ignorant
and blood thirsty so called Muslims. I think the pragmatic solution is containment. Just like
in Afghanistan, Provide a battle ground for, all these stupid so called Muslims,
somewhere in the world, away from civilization and let them fight there.
Eventually, they will start killing each other. I suggest that the US should find
a way to funnel them quietly, from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan to Chechnya and Crimea,
and let the Russian have another Afghanistan.
Sarmad Aqrawi
is a civil engineer and a freelance journalist. His Articles appear in; Arabic,
Kurdish and American English.
Obama’s failed Iraq policy, helped
midwife ISIS “Bucca Gate”.
Erbil, Iraq Nov 22 2015
In his haste to fulfill his campaign
promise to the American people. Obama ordered the release of ALL Bucca detainees,
many of whom were not only non- Iraqis, but diehard Al-Qaeda members. This camp
in southern Iraq, near the port city of Um Quasar, presented a major obstacle,
in front of Obama’s policy, to “Cut &Run” withdrawal out of Iraq, rather
than a “responsible” withdrawal. The “responsible” withdrawal was urged by
former president Bush, many members of congress and top military leaders. The release
of these detainees was justified under the term” national reconciliation” in
Iraq. This means, since the majority of the detainees were Sunnis, that will
help bring the Sunnis to the political process. This lame excuse was ironic in the sense that;
many of the detainees were NOT Iraqis, but die-hard foreign Al-Qaeda fighters.
These detainees were labeled as a threat to the new democracy in Iraq by the
CPA “Coalition provisional Authority”, headed by Ambassador Paul Bremer. Despite
this fact, the Obama administration had released them, on the pretext of Iraqi
national reconciliation and despite the fact, that many of them were non-Iraqis,
but foreign fighters, and graduates of various Al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan,
under the hospices of Osama bin Laden. In Bucca America married diehard
Al-Qaeda terrorists, with Diehard Sadam Bathists, the result, ISIS was born. This
is the way the Obama administration helped midwife ISIS. It is shameful that
many US military lives were lost; to capture and incarcerate these terrorists,
but the Obama administration, simply, just let them go.
I admire the fact that Obama kept
his “campaign promise” to pull US troops out of Iraq. The fact of the matter is
that many politicians would renege on these promises. I wonder though, if that
was done against, the national security of the USA. The fact of the matter is
that it was done in haste “Cut &Run” manner, which helped midwife ISIS,
rather than a responsible withdrawal, that would have taken its time, to evaluate
the consequences associated with the release of these dangerous terrorists.
Congress should open and
investigation into the events in Bucca, as to the release of these dangerous terrorists
by the Obama administration, taking into consideration, the fact that these
terrorists were the backbone that formed ISIS, later. Today, as we stand, ISIS
represents a clear and present danger to the national security of the US.
Sarmad Aqrawi
is a civil engineer and a freelance Journalist; His articles appear in; Arabic,
Kurdish and American English.
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