The first week of 2007 is a good time to take a look at a few of the challenges the United States faces as it recovers from the Bush Administration.

Some are obvious, such as the occupation of Iraq and the lack of affordable healthcare. But underneath the concerns of the average American lurk five systemic problems...

Since the Reagan era, Conservatism has been the dominant US political philosophy. After twenty-five years, it's clear that it works only for the benefit of the rich and powerful.

Conservatism has damaged our economy, jeopardized US national security, and shoved America down the road to plutocracy.

To turn the tide and begin to address the ghastly damage that Conservatism has wrought, Democrats need to do more than propose new policies.   more »

In the final paragraph of the New York Times' Jan. 2 story about the impending new Iraq strategy, Bush is quoted as telling members of the Baker-Hamilton commission that "victory" was still his goal.

"It's a word the American people understand," Bush reportedly said. "And if I start to change it, it will look like I'm beginning to change my policy."

The wording is ambiguous. Did Bush not want to look like he's changing his policy, or did he not want to change his policy?

Either way, it's a grim state of affairs. It suggests that a reduction of American troops - forget a pullout, simply a reduction, or even a lowering of their profile - is not on this president's agenda.   more »

It is suspicious that an “unofficial video” was released showing alleged Mahdi Army members taunting Hussein.

Hussein’s assassination follows news that the U.S. has stepped-up attacks and arrests of members of the Mahdi Army, led by Moqtada al-Sadr.

This offensive too is part of a desperate attempt to further divide the country and cut off any avenues of negotiation or phased withdrawal for the U.S. forces.

According to sources who monitor Iraqi resistance web sites, these have contained messages warning resistance fighters that the U.S. occupiers are trying to provoke battles between the resistance and the Mahdi Army.

These messages urge fighters to make the main target the U.S. occupation forces, and where possible to convince Mahdi Army militia forces to join the resistance against the U.S.   more »

Both "The War on Drugs" and The War on Terror" were started by Republicans. Both "Wars" have cost this country billions of dollars.

Both "Wars" are responsible for thousands of deaths. Both "Wars" enable corporations to make billions of dollars. Both "wars" are self-perpetuating.

Both "Wars" have taken away some of our basic rights that were given to us by our Founding Fathers and the Constitution

The "War on Drugs" is a failed war. It has failed to deliver on anything that it was intended to do. Drugs are as prevalent today, and as available today as they were when this "War" was started by the Reagan administration.   more »

The public, seeing through the tissue of Bush administration lies told to justify an invasion that never had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 or weapons of mass destruction, now has begun a national questioning: Why are we still in Iraq?

The answers posted most widely on the Internet by critics of the war suggest its continuation as a naked imperial grab for the world’s second-largest petroleum source, but that is wrong.

It’s not primarily about the oil; it’s much more about the military-industrial complex, the label employed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower 45 years ago when he warned of the dangers of “a permanent arms industry of vast proportions.”

The Cold War had provided the rationale for the first peacetime creation of a militarized economy.   more »

Saddam is dead. The weapons of mass destruction were a mirage. More than 3,000 American G.I.s and scores of thousands of Iraqis have been killed.

Voters in the United States have made it clear that they no longer support American involvement in this exercise in sustained barbarism. Incredibly, the U.S. military itself is turning against the war.

And yet the president, against the counsel of his commanders on the ground, apparently is ready to escalate — to send more American lives into the fire he set in Iraq.

In a devastating critique of the war, the newsweekly Army Times led its current edition with the headline:

“About-Face on the War — After 3 years of support, troops sour on Iraq.” The article detailed a Military Times Poll that found, for the first time, that “more troops disapprove of the president’s handling of the war than approve of it.”   more »