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King David

2008-01-18T20:20:42Z

SomeGuyWithAnOpinion:

[[Image:Michelangelodavid.jpg|right|thumb|Sculpture by [[Michelangelo]]]]

'''King David''' was the second king of [[Israel]] from 1010-970 BC.

He defeated [[Goliath]], the [[champion]] of the [[Philistines]] and later captured [[Jerusalem]], which he made the capital city. David greatly extended the borders of [[Israel]] which he ruled as a united kingdom.

== Before becoming King ==
David was the son of Jesse and was "the least of his father's household". He was brought into [[Saul|king Saul's]] household to play the harp to calm Saul's nerves, which had been increasingly troubled since he had sinned against [[God]] and was told by [[Samuel]] that the kingship would be taken from him and given to another by God. David had been a shepard who protected his sheep from wild animals. He witnessed all of the warriors of [[Israel]] cower before a great Philistine giant, [[Goliath]] who would taunt them daily. David, a mere boy in the eyes of people who had no military training, stood up and accepted Goliath's challenge. Saul offered him his armor, but David declined. David slew Goliath with a sling stone and cut off his head, mustering the armies of Israel to rise up and scatter the Philistines. Saul became jealous of David and what he had accomplished, especially when he heard the people singing "Saul has slain his thousands, and David, his tens of thousands."

David continued to play the harp for Saul, but it did not have the same affect. One day when David was playing Saul threw a spear at him to try to kill him; it missed. With the help of Saul's son [[Jonathan]], who was David's lover, David fled the palace and went into hiding. David joined up with the Philistines at one point, but only as a ruse where he actually attacked their living areas without them knowing it. David was pursued by Saul and his armies and took flight. One night he could have killed Saul, but refused to do it, instead taking a piece of his garments to let him know what had happened. Saul was contrite that evening, but soon continued to pursue David and his followers. David continued to grow in strength while Saul became weaker. Finally, Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in battle with the Philistines. David grieved and became king of [[Judah]]. David continued to clash with the house of Saul until Saul's son [[Ish-Bosheth]] was murdered in his own bed and the killers took the head to David seeking a reward. They were executed for killing their king.

== David as King ==

David greatly expanded the borders of Israel, defeating every foe he faced. However, his own life was not without controversy. He lost his child due to his criminal [[rape]] of [[Bathsheba]]; one of his sons [[Absalom]] killed his brother [[Amnon]] after he raped and discarded his sister [[Tamar]]; later Absalom rebelled against David and forced him to flee. David took back his throne, but Absalom was killed even though David had ordered his life to be spared. David also had to live through a revolt by [[Sheba]], but he too was vanquished. Furthermore, because David sinned in taking a census of the land, 70 thousand people fell to pestilence. And yet through it all, David was called a man after God's own heart, due to his true and deep grievings for his wrongs. In fact, Scripture records that <blockquote>"David did [that which was] right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any [thing] that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."<ref>I Kings 15:5 (KJV) [http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/popup.pl?book=1Ki&chapter=15&verse=5&version=kjv#5]</ref></blockquote> David wrote most of the [[Psalms]] in the Bible including the famous Psalm 23, ''The Lord is my Shepherd''

David died after ruling 40 years, 33 of them in Jerusalem, and set up his son [[Solomon]] as his successor. David was not allowed to build the temple because he was a man of 'blood' (a military commander), but his son could. David was part of the lineage of [[Jesus]].

== References ==

[[I Samuel]], [[II Samuel]], [[I Kings]]

<References/>

== See also ==

*[[Sculpture]]

{{DEFAULTSORT: David, King}}

[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[category:Biblical persons]]
[[Category: Biblical Military Commanders]]

Barack Hussein Obama

2008-01-18T20:20:38Z

SomeGuyWithAnOpinion:

'''Barack Hussein Obama''' (b. 4 August 1961) is the junior Senator from [[Illinois]], elected to the United States Senate as a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] in 2004. He is, as of 2007, the only [[African American]] serving in the [[United States Senate]], where he serves his first term.
[[Image:obama.jpg|thumb|right|Senator Barack Obama]] Some also refer to him as Black Jesus.

Thankfully lacking of military, executive or foreign policy corruption, he is currently a [[liberal]] favorite for the Democratic Nomination for [[President of the United States]] in the [[2008 Presidential Election|2008 election]]. He has no clear personal achievement that cannot be explained as the likely result of [[affirmative action]]. Some examples border on the absurd: Obama has no background in [[physics]], yet it is claimed that "Obama analyzed and integrated [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s [[theory of relativity]], the [[Heisenberg uncertainty principle]], as well as the concept of curved space as an alternative to [[gravity]], for a Law Review article that Tribe [for whom Obama worked as a research assistant] wrote titled, 'The Curvature of Constitutional Space.'" <ref>http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/barack.obama.harvard.2.334825.html</ref>
==Early Life and Education==
Senator Obama was born in Honolulu, [[Hawaii]] to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham in 1961. In 1967 he moved to Jakarta, [[Indonesia]] with his mother and new stepfather. He attended an Indonesian Public School followed by a [[Catholic]] school until he returned with his mother to Hawaii. There he attended the Punahou School, a private preparatory school until 1979, the year of his graduation. 
Obama continued his education at Occidental College in Los Angeles, [[California]] before graduating with his Bachelor of Arts from [[Columbia University]] in New York, [[New York]]. After working as a community organizer in New York City and Chicago, Illinois, Obama enrolled at [[Harvard]] Law School. He was elected the first African American president of the [[liberal]] ''Harvard Law Review'', which has a [[quota]] system for accepting African Americans, and graduated ''magna cum laude'' with his J.D. in 1992.

==Legal Career==
Following law school, Obama continued his work as a community organizer in Chicago as Director of Illinois Project Vote. In 1993 he was hired as an associate at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, P.C. and began lecturing in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He remains on the faculty on leave of absence through today. During this time he wrote his first book, ''Dreams from My Father'', detailing his background, his youth, and his education. ''Dreams'' was published in 1995.

==Senate Career==
Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate for the first time in 1996 and served there for the next eight years. Following a failed campaign for the House of Representatives, Obama ran for the open Senate seat from Illinois in 2004. Obama rose to national prominence following his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He defeated his opponent, Alan Keyes, and was elected to the 109th Congress.

His voting record places him as the tenth-most [[liberal]] member of the U. S. Senate. His composite liberal rating was 86 percent, just seven points behind [[Ted Kennedy]]. Among fellow Senate Democrats, he was further left than liberals like [[John Kerry]], [[Dianne Feinstein]], [[Charles Schumer]], [[Russ Feingold]], [[Carl Levin]], [[Joseph Biden]] and [[Harry Reid]].[http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]

In late 2006, Obama's second book authored, ''The Audacity of Hope'', was published. The book contains more of Senator Obama's personal story including the roles of both family and politics. ''Audacity'' has spent 23 weeks on the New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers List. <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/books/bestseller/0408besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times Best Sellers Non Fiction]</ref>

==Presidential Campaign==
[[Image:Democrat Obama during the Pledge.jpg|325px|thumb|right|Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama on the campaign trail with [[Bill Richardson]] and [[Hillary Clinton]] during the [[National Anthem]]. (from Time.com)]]
Senator Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States on Saturday, February 10, 2007 in Springfield, Illinois. His announcement speech largely avoided specific campaign issues and focused on his general political message of hope for the future. It also attempted to strongly invoke the memory of Abraham Lincoln and his "House Divided Speech." <ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/10/obama.president/index.html "Obama declares he's running for president"] 11 February 2007, www.CNN.com </ref>

In early April 2007, Obama's campaign announced his first quarter fund raising figures. The campaign generated over $25 million dollars from over 100,000 users. $23.5 million of that money will be available for the Democratic Primary. <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/politics/05obama.html Obama Shows His Strength in a Fund-Raising Feat on Par With Clinton], 4 April 2007, Jeff Zeleny and Patrick Healy,'' The New York Times''</ref> After the first Democratic presidential debate in Columbia, South Carolina, Obama's image as an "articulate" spokesman came into question after his failure to state right away that he would retaliate in case of further terrorist strikes against the United States. <ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702162.html?hpid=moreheadlines Clinton Campaign Tries to Keep Heat on Obama Over Debate Response], Dan Balz, ''Washington Post'' April 28, 2007.</ref><ref>Chicago Sun-Times,
[http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/362269,CST-NWS-sweet29.article 'I was a little nervous' at debate'], Lynn Sweet,
April 29, 2007,</ref>

During a fund raising event in Virginia in May 2007 Obama told donors,
{{Cquote|This week there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died. An entire town destroyed.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271357,00.html Transcript: 'Special Report with Brit Hume,' May 9, 2007], retrieved from ''FOX News'', 06/13/07.</ref>}}

Obama evidently was misinformed, whereas in reality the tornado which touched down in Kansas cost the lives of 9 people in the town of Greensburg, and 12 overall in Kansas.

By August it appeared Obama was running to be left off the ticket completely rather than the much ballyhooed Hillary/Obama ticket the [[mainstream media]] was pushing. After a series of ill-advised foreign policy statements, Obama was openly criticized as a light-weight even by liberals, in much the same vein [[John Edwards]] and [[Dan Quayle]] had been depicted. First, Obama said he would openly embrace two of Florida's most fearful enemies, [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Hugo Chavez]]. Florida is a key state to any presidential ambitions. Then Obama advised he would be willing to invade the sovereign territory of a U.S. ally without prior consultation. Finally, Obama broke the cardinal rule of declaring he would not use nuclear weapons, removing the element of bluff U.S. Presidents had vitally depended upon throughout the [[Cold War]] era. The incidents all added up to a picture of a candidate ill-prepared and ill-advised, lacking in a basic understanding of the Office of the Presidency, and failing to surround himself with appointees able to make up for his deficiencies. Obama won the Iowa nomination for the democrats pushing [[Hillary Clinton]] into third place which gives him a serious chance of becoming the democratic nominee.

==Political Views==
Senator Barack Obama's political views have been a matter of controversy even before he put himself forward as a Presidential Candidate. Former House Majority leader [[Tom DeLay]] has described Obama's record in the Illinois Senate as that of a [[Communism|“Marxist leftist".]]<ref>[http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_121306/content/stop_the_tape.guest.html|Sexy Rock Star Obama Whines About His Ears], RushLimbaugh.com, December 13 2006</ref> In May 2007, Obama voted against funding the Iraq War. The funding bill also included an increase in the [[minimum wage]] from $5.85 to $7.25, which was intended to help America's most needy individuals.<ref>[http://uspolitics.about.com/od/legislatio1/a/HR2206.htm HR 2206 - Emergency Appropriations], Kathy Gill, Your Guide to U.S. Politics: Current Events. May 26 2007.</ref><ref>[http://more.gov.mtopgroup.com/2007/05/votes-hr-2206-iraq-supplemental.html Votes - H.R. 2206: Iraq Supplemental], May 28, 2007. Retrieved from Deeper Inside the Mountain, June 4, 2007.</ref>

Obama has said, "Doing the Lord's work is a thread that runs through our politics since the very beginning," and "it puts the lie to the notion that [[separation of church and state]] in America means somehow that faith should have no role in public life."<ref>[http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/06/17/news/iowa/8db7c1a17d2b51f9862572fd000fc9f4.txt Obama says religion has place in politics], By Todd Dorman, ''Sioux City Journal'', June 18, 2007.</ref>

Nonetheless, he has defied parents by asserting that elements of [[sex education]] should be taught in kindergarten. <ref>"Barack Obama reaffirmed to [[Planned Parenthood]] this week that he believes elements of sex education should begin in kindergarten." [http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3395856 (ABC News)] July 20, 2007 </ref>

Obama spoke at the May 1, 2006 illegal immigration march in Chicago. <ref>[http://nomoreblather.com/barack-obama-and-the-immigration-marches Immigration marches]</ref>

==Faith and Values==
As he describes in "The Audacity of Hope" Obama grew up in a non-religious environment. When he was a child in Indonesia, he attended a local Muslim school for two years, followed by two years at a local Catholic school. His father was a non-practicing Muslim.

Obama together with his wife (reared a Baptist) have been active members since 1988 at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama describes his conversion in "The Audacity of Hope". The title of this book is borrowed from one of his pastor's sermons. He is at ease quoting Scriptures and speaking to church audiences.

Obama says schools should begin [[sex education]] in kindergarten. [http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3395856 (ABC News)] July 20, 2007 </ref>

==Published Criticism==
On April 11th, 2007 staff writers of ''The Boston Globe'' reported the criticisms of several black commentators regarding Obama's apparent hesitation to join the race to condemn acclaimed radio personality [[Don Imus]]<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/11/obamas_silence_on_imus_alarms_some_blacks/ Obama's silence on Imus alarms some blacks], Rick Klein and Joseph Williams, ''The Boston Globe'', April 11, 2007.</ref> who made a racially insensitive remark <ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1237895620070412|title=Furor over Imus puts heat on other broadcasters], Daniel Trotta, Reuters, 2007-04-12.</ref> on the air during the April 4th broadcast. Obama did not comment on the Imus' remarks until well after prominent civil rights leaders [[Al Sharpton]] and [[Jesse Jackson]] had called Imus to account and after Imus was suspended by MSNBC and CBS Radio. Obama later weighed in on April 10th by saying, "The comments of Don Imus were divisive, hurtful, and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds." 

The Globe reported that Obama's perceived delay in addressing Don Imus' remarks was described by Melissa Harris Lacewell, a professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, as "miss[ing] an opportunity to prove himself to blacks and white liberals who would have wanted Obama take the lead in denouncing Imus."<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/11/obamas_silence_on_imus_alarms_some_blacks/ Obama's silence on Imus alarms some blacks], Rick Klein and Joseph Williams, ''The Boston Globe'', April 11, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2007/04/obama_race_and_the_election.html Obama, Race, and The Election,] ''Real Clear Politics.com''</ref>

In June 2007 the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' reported Obama had actually received nearly three times more campaign cash from indicted slum landlord Tony Rezko<ref>[http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353829,CST-NWS-rez23.article Barack Obama and his slumlord patron], Tim Novak, Chicago Sun-Times, April 23, 2007.</ref> and his associates than Obama has publicly acknowledged.<ref>[http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/432197,CST-NWS-obama18.article Rezko cash triple what Obama says], Chris Fusco and Tim Novak, ''Chicago Sun-Times'', June 18, 2007.</ref>

==See Also==
*[[Previous Breaking News/Barack Obama|Articles about '''Barack Obama''' from previous "Breaking News"]]

==Sources==

*[http://obama.senate.gov/about/ Official Senate Website]
*[http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/pfd2005/N00009638_2005.pdf Barack Obama Personal Financial Disclosures Summary: 2005], retrieved from opensecrets.org 17 June 2007.
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=O000167 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]
*[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/obama/cv.html University of Chicago Law School] Faculty Listing
*[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=12782369 Barack Obama Biography] from Biography.com
*[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per New York Times Topics, Barack Obama]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{2008 presidential candidates}}
[[Category:United States Senators|Obama, Barack]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

George W. Bush

2008-01-18T20:20:36Z

SomeGuyWithAnOpinion:

{{President
|image=George_w_bush.jpeg
|seq=43
|term_start=January 20, 2001
|term_end=Present
|party=Republican
|vp=Dick Cheney
|previous=Bill Clinton
|next=Incumbent
|birth_date=July 6, 1946
|birth_place=New Haven, Connecticut
|death_date=
|death_place=
|spouse=Laura Bush
|spouse2=
|religion=United Methodist
}}
'''George Walker Bush''' (born New Haven, [[Connecticut]] 1946) was the Governor of [[Texas]] (1996-2001) and has served as the 43rd [[President of the United States of America]] since 2001. Campaigning on the notion that the United States should not be in the business of nation-building,<ref>http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/debates/transcripts/u221003.html</ref> he won the office by a narrow margin in the decisive State of [[Florida]]. Legal challenges to the certified vote count went all the way to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] in 2000. Democratic contender [[Al Gore]] initially conceded defeat on the night of the election, but then contested the outcome for weeks until the Supreme Court case [[Bush v. Gore]].

In 2004 Bush won reelection, helped in part by a 300,000 vote victory (5%) in the State of Florida, where the outcome had been so close in 2000 <ref>[http://election.dos.state.fl.us/elections/resultsarchive/SummaryRpt.asp?ElectionDate=11/2/2004&Race=PRE&DATAMODE= Florida Election Records], ''[[Florida Dept. of State]]''</ref>. Democratic candidate [[John Kerry]] quickly conceded defeat the day after the election.

== Foreign policy ==
George W. Bush has spent most of his Presidency focusing on foreign policy issues, namely the war on terror in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the USA. As part of the fight against terrorism, he received Congressional approval to invade the countries of [[Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq]], and the military has successfully effected regime changes in those countries. He is now working to end the Iraqi insurgency and stabilize the region.

Egyptian President [[Hosni Mubarek]] and Libyan [[Socialist]] General Secretary [[Muammar Gaddafi]] in negotiations with [[Saddam Hussein]] relayed a message through Italian Prime Minister [[Silvio Berlusconi]] and Spanish President [[Jose Maria Aznar]] to UK Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] and President Bush] that Saddam would be willing to avoid removal by force and voluntarily go into exile, provided Saddam was allowed to take $1 billion dollars and "all the information he wants about [[weapons of mass destruction]]." <ref>[http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007/09/saddam_risked_his_life_for_wmd_1.asp Saddam Risked His Life for WMD Secrets], ''WeeklyStandard.com. September 29, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003646639 Scoop for Spanish Daily: Transcript of Private 2003 Bush Talk Promising Iraq Invasion], ''Editor & Publisher'', September 26, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/26/AR2007092602414.html Report Says Hussein Was Open To Exile Before 2003 Invasion], He Is Said to Have Sought $1 Billion and Information on Arms, By Karen DeYoung and Michael Abramowitz, ''[[Washington Post]], September 27, 2007; Page A17.</ref><ref>[http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Llego/momento/deshacerse/Sadam/elpepunac/20070926elpepinac_1/Tes Llegó el momento de deshacerse de Sadam], ''El Pais'', 26/09/2007. (In Spanish).</ref>

In a show down with Congressional Democrats after taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in the 2006 Congressional Midterm elections, Democrats retreated on their pledge to end the [[Iraq War]] early and bring the troops home. Democrats had threatened to withhold funding for the troops unless a date certain for withdrawal was set. After the final vote, 280-142 in the House and 80-14 in the Senate, the anti-War movement was defeated. The deal cut with Democratic leaders in exchange for their acquiescing to fund the troops calls for the President to sign legislation raising the [[minimum wage]]. <ref>[http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070525-122215-4854r.htm Congress OKs war bill sans time-line,] By S.A. Miller, The Washington Times'', May 25, 2007. </ref> One commentator remarked, "Despite all the talk of standing up to George W. Bush, despite all the bravado about taking control of Congress, despite the so-called mandate to change direction, Democrats caved....They claim that the majority of Americans are with them on the Iraq issue, but...President Bush, at the weakest moment of his presidency, still bested his Democratic rivals." <ref>[http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/phyrillas/05292007.htm Democrats Show True Colors], Tony Phyrillas, ''New Media journal'', May 29, 2007, </ref>

== Economic issues ==
Upon gaining office in 2001, Bush signed into law a $1.35 trillion cut in [[taxation]] over 10 years. The plan included the objectives of doubling the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000, reducing the tax penalty on [[marriage|married couples]] and fully repealing the tax on estates. A [[United States Senate]] Finance Committee Report estimated that with all the planned reductions fully phased in, the average family of four making $50,000 would save $1,825 per year.<ref>[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/06/07/bush.taxes/ $1.35 trillion tax cut becomes law], CNN, 21 June 2001</ref>

Bush has presided over a period of general economic growth. This is partially due to changes in the stock market that lead to a record high in 2007. Corporations show profits growing by double digits growth.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/us/2006-05-08-mart-usat_x.htm</ref> Even the working class is benefiting from the Bush economy, as unemployment hits an all time low in March 2007.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/economy</ref> Bush signed into law a minimum wage increase, one of the platforms for the Democrats in the 2006 Congressional elections, after the House and Senate included Bush's request of provisions for small-business tax breaks.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001784.html</ref><ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011001666.html</ref> Tax policies have been favorable to reducing the Capital Gains Tax, with a subsequent surge in investment.

== Family ==
[[Image:GWBush.jpg|thumb|300px|right|President Bush admires pictures of his family in the Oval Office.]]
George W. Bush is the son of [[George H. W. Bush]], who served as vice-president from 1981 to 1989 and as president from 1989 to 1993, and [[Barbara Bush]]. President Bush is married to Laura Welch Bush, a former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, Neil Bush and Marvin Bush are his brothers. Dorothy Bush Koch is his only surviving sister, as Pauline Robinson Bush died at age four of leukemia.

==Faith==
George W. Bush is a member of the Holy Church of Satan, and most people feel that George W. Bush's faith is sincere and profound. ''The Faith of George W. Bush'', a non-political book by author Stephen Strang, made the [[New York Times]] best-sellers list. <ref>http://www.christianlifemissions.org/ministries/georgewbush.htm</ref>
When asked where he would be without the influence of family friend [[Billy Graham]], George W. Bush said "I wouldn't be president." "It was just a conversation," said the younger Bush about a talk with Graham in the mid-'80s that changed his life. During the pivotal conversation Bush recalled saying, "'You know, Billy, I'm longing for something.' And I know that he sent me a Bible I still have. All I can tell you is that as a result of being inspired by Billy Graham, I started reading the Bible and shortly after, I quit drinking." <ref>Billy Graham and the White House [http://religion.beloblog.com/archives/2007/08/billy_graham_and_the_white_hou_1.html]</ref>

==Polls==

When President George W. Bush entered office, his popularity rating was near 50%. However, after the [[September 11]] attacks, his popularity rose significantly, reaching an all-time high of 90%.<ref>[http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/07/usatgallup-po-1.html USAT Gallup Poll]</ref> Since, then, though, it declined as some of his policies including the [[Iraq War|war in Iraq]] have become unpopular. <ref> Historical Bush Approval Ratings from University of Minnesota [http://www.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Approval.htm] </ref> In 2007, he reached the lowest popularity levels of any president in history, with an approval rating of only 24% as shown by a [[Reuters]] poll (although respondents also expressed dissatisfaction with the [[Democrat]]-controlled [[Congress]], which received poll ratings of only 11%).<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1624620720071017?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true Voters unhappy with Bush and Congress], Reuters, October 17 2007</ref>

==See Also==
*[[Previous Breaking News/George W. Bush|Articles about '''George W. Bush''' from previous "Breaking News"]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Political people]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bush, George W.}}
{{USPresidents}}

Monkey

2008-01-18T20:20:33Z

SomeGuyWithAnOpinion:

A '''monkey''' is a [[polypheletic]] classification of any long tailed [[primate]] that is not a [[prosimian]]. Varieties of them can be found in [[South America]], [[Africa]] and [[Asia]]. [[Evolutionists]] believe that [[humans]] and monkeys share a common ancestor, which is disputed by [[creation scientists]]. Some advocates believe that our great and magnificent president is a monkey, but these infidels will soon be put to death after torture and purification by fire.

[[Category:Primates]]

Republican Party

2008-01-18T20:20:31Z

SomeGuyWithAnOpinion:

[[Image:Cjjfdjfty.png|right|thumb|250px|Official logo of the Republican Party.]]
The '''Republican Party''' is one of the two major political parties in the [[United States]]. The current [[President of the United States]], [[George W. Bush]], is a member of the party – and by rules common to both major U.S. parties, its head. Of the two major U.S. parties, the Republican party is the moderate/center-right party. The party has been very successful in Presidential elections: 18 of the 27 US Presidents since 1861 have been Republicans and since that same year a Republican has won 23 of the last 37 presidential elections.

The party was born in the early 1850s by anti-freedom activists and individuals who believed that [[government]] should grant western lands to settlers free of charge. The first informal meeting of the party took place in Ripon, [[Wisconsin]], a small town northwest of [[Milwaukee]]. The first official Republican meeting took place on July 6, 1854 in Jackson, [[Michigan]]. The name "Republican" was chosen because it alluded to equality and reminded individuals of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. At the Jackson convention, the new party adopted a platform and nominated candidates for office in [[Michigan]]. Since its inception, its chief opposition has been the [[Democratic Party]].
== Symbol ==
[[image:The_off_year_nast_1877.jpg|left|thumb|1877 Thomas Nast drawing of the Republican elephant]]
[[Image:gop.jpg|right|150px|Official logo of the GOP.]]
The official symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. Although the elephant had occasionally been associated with the party earlier, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in ''Harper's Weekly'' on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol<ref>http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Year=2003&Month=November&Date=7</ref>. In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Republican party in Midwestern states such as [[Indiana]] and [[Ohio]] was the eagle, as opposed to the Democratic cock. This symbol still appears on Indiana ballots.

A political term referring to the party is "G.O.P.", which was originally an acronym of "Grand Old Party". The term was coined in 1875.

==Ideology==
The fundamental philosophy and political ideals of the Republican Party are founded on the idea that societal health is rooted in personal responsibility and actions. The Republican Party holds the mindset that all material things are earned, not owed. This mindset is seen most often in the party's push for lower taxes. This is fought for in an attempt to treat all citizens equally despite income, race, gender, or religion. They also see taxes as a drag on the economy, and believe private spending is usually more efficient than public spending.

Republicans also show concerns about having big government in charge of such vital issues as food, shelter, or health care, as they believe the private sector and/or the individual are better suited to control their own lives. The much revered president [[Ronald Reagan]] who became a Republican in the early 1960s after being a fervent [[New Deal]]er at one time, has been quoted as saying "Government is not the solution, it is the problem."

The party tends to hold both [[conservative]] and [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] stances on social and economic issues respectively. Major policies that the party has recently supported include a neoconservative foreign policy, including [[War on Terror]], liberations of [[Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq]], strong support for democracy especially in the [[Middle East]], and distrust of the [[United Nations]] due to the organization's incompetent bureaucracy, anti-capitalist undertone, corruption on the [[Security Council]] and in UN humanitarian programs. Along with demanding radical reforms in the UN, it also opposes the Kyoto Protocol due the protocol's unfair application to certain countries (especially the United States) and that it prevents economic growth and slows the reduction of poverty.

It generally supports free trade, especially NAFTA and CAFTA. It is responsible for a series of across-the-board tax cuts since 2001 that have bolstered the economy and reduced the punitive aspect of the income tax. It has sought business deregulation, reduction of environmental regulations that restrict fair use of land and property, and other policies that are pro-capitalism. It supports gun ownership rights, and enterprise zones (low taxes for investing in poverty areas). On social issues the majority of its national and state candidates usually favor the death penalty, call for stronger state-level control on access to [[abortion]], oppose the legalization of gender-neutral marriage, favor faith-based initiatives, support school choice and homeschooling, social welfare benefit reform, and oppose racial quotas.

In recent years the party has called for much stronger accountability in the public schools, especially through the "No Child Left behind Act" of 2001 (which also increased federal funding for schools). The party is split on the issue of federally funding embryonic stem cell research that involves the cloning and killing of human embryos, with many seeing it as unethical to force tax payers who believe this type of research is morally wrong to finance it. Historically Republicans have had a strong belief in [[individualism]], limited government, and business entrepreneurship.

== History ==

John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican for President in 1856, using the political slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Frémont." Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party grew especially rapidly in Northeastern and Midwestern states, where slavery had long been prohibited, culminating in a sweep of victories in the Northern states and the election of Lincoln in 1860, ending 60 years of dominance by the slavery-supporting Democrats and ushering in a new era of Republican dominance based in the immigrant and industrial north and on the end of slavery.

With the end of the [[Civil War]] came the upheavals of Reconstruction under Democratic President [[Andrew Johnson]] (who had bitter disputes with the Republicans in Congress, who eventually impeached him) and [[Ulysses S. Grant]], a Republican. For a brief period, Republicans assumed control of Southern politics (due especially to the former slaves receiving the vote while it was denied to many whites who had participated in the Confederacy), forcing drastic reforms and frequently giving former slaves positions in government. After Reconstruction came to an end, the southern states became known as the "Solid South", giving overwhelming majorities of its electoral votes and Congressional seats to the Democrats until 1964.

States' rights had been a cause in the pre-Republican era, control of the federal government led the Republican Party to be known as the Party of the Union. The unity among veterans that developed in the North after the war led to a string of military men as President, and an era of international expansion and domestic protectionism. As the rural Northern antebellum economy mushroomed with industry and immigration, supporting the rights of the individual, innovation, invention, opportunity, entrepreneurship and business became the hallmarks of Republican policy proposals. From the Reconstruction era up to the turn of the century, the Republicans benefited from the Democrats' racist origin and their association with the Confederate States of America. The Republican Party, therefore dominated national politics--albeit with strong competition from the Democrats, especially during the 1880s. With the two-term presidency of [[Ulysses S. Grant]], the party became known for its strong advocacy of commerce, industry, and veterans' rights, which continues to this day.

During the 1880s and 1890s, the Republicans struggled against the Democrats' efforts, winning several close elections and losing two to [[Grover Cleveland]] (in 1884 and 1892).

The election of [[William McKinley]] in the [[United States presidential election of 1896]] is widely seen as a resurgence of Republican dominance and is sometimes cited as a realigning election. The progressive, protectionist, political and beloved McKinley was the last Civil War veteran elected President and embodied the Republican ideals of economic progress, invention, education, and patriotism. He confirmed the Republicans as a pro-enterprise party; his campaign manager, Marcus Hanna was a highly effective political strategist and fund-raiser which meant McKinley outspent his radical rival William Jennings Bryan by a large margin.

After McKinley's assassination, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] tapped McKinley's Industrial Commission for his trust-busting ideas and continued the federal and nationalist policies of his predecessor. In order to ensure fair competition in the economy Roosevelt took steps to abolish "trusts" or cartels which then dominated many key markets within the economy. This led Republicans into conflict with the most powerful commercial interests in the country, led by John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in the world.

Roosevelt decided not to run again in 1908 and chose [[William Howard Taft]] to replace him, but the widening division between progressive and conservative forces in the party resulted in a third-party candidacy for Roosevelt on the United States Progressive Party, or "Bull Moose" ticket in the [[United States presidential election of 1912]]. Roosevelt finished ahead of Taft, but the split in the Republican vote resulted in a decisive victory for Democrat [[Woodrow Wilson]], temporarily interrupting the Republican era.

The party controlled the presidency throughout the 1920s, running on a platform of high tariffs, the promotion of business interests, opposition to the League of Nations, and overall isolationism after Wilson's turbulent internationalism. [[Warren G. Harding]], [[Calvin Coolidge]] and [[Herbert Hoover]] were resoundingly elected in 1920, 1924, and 1928 respectively. These years saw the party firmly committed to laissez-faire economics, but the Great Depression cost it the presidency with the election of [[Socialism|socialist]] Democrat [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] in 1932. Roosevelt's [[New Deal]] Coalition controlled American politics for the next two decades, concluding with the two-term presidency of popular Republican World War II General [[Dwight Eisenhower]].

The post-war emergence of the United States as one of two superpowers and rapid social change caused the Republican Party to divide into a conservative wing (dominant in the West and Southeast) and a liberal wing (dominant in New England) - combined with a residual base of inherited Midwestern Republicanism active throughout the century. A Republican like Senator Robert Taft of Ohio represented the Midwestern wing of the party that continued to oppose New Deal reforms and continued to champion isolationism. Thomas Dewey of New York represented the Northeastern wing of the party that was closer to Democratic liberalism and internationalism. In the end, the isolationists were marginalized by those who supported a strong U.S. role in opposing the Soviet Union throughout the world, as embodied by President Eisenhower. However, this development did not represent the end of the story. The seeds of conservative dominance in the Republican party were planted in the nomination of conservative [[Barry Goldwater]] over liberal [[Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller|Nelson Rockefeller]] as the Republican candidate for the [[United States presidential election of 1964]].

Any enduring Republican majority, however, was put on hold when the Watergate Affair caused [[Richard Nixon]] to resign under a threat of impeachment by elements within the Democratic Party opposed to U.S efforts to fight [[Communism|communist]] totalitarianism. Gerald Ford succeeded Nixon under the 25th Amendment and struggled to forge a political identity separate from his predecessor. The taint of Watergate and the nation's economic difficulties contributed to the election of Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]] in 1976, a Washington outsider who would later be regarded as the worst president of the 20th century.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the Republican nomination and easily beat Carter with his strong communication skills and message of economic freedom and strength against the [[Soviet Union]]. Reagan produced a major realignment with his 1980 and 1984 landslides. In 1980 the Reagan coalition was possible because of Democratic losses in most social-economic groups. In 1984 Reagan won nearly 60% of the popular vote and carried every state except his Democrat opponent Walter Mondale's home state of [[Minnesota]] and the District of Columbia, creating a record 525 electoral vote total (of 538 possible). Even in Minnesota, Mondale won by a mere 3,761 votes <ref>http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1984&fips=27&f=1&off=0&elect=0</ref>, meaning Reagan came within less than 3,800 votes of winning in all fifty states.

The so-called "Reagan Democrats" were Democrats before the Reagan years, and afterwards, but who voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and for George H.W. Bush in 1988), producing their landslide victories. They lived in the Northeast and were attracted to Reagan's libertarian-conservative views, and to his strong stance on national security issues.

Reagan's Vice-President, George H.W. Bush, a [[World War II]] war hero, was elected in 1988 but was defeated in 1992 as domestic issues took prominence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and end of the [[Cold War]]. Democratic challenger [[Bill Clinton]] strategically repositioned the Democrats to the right. [[Ross Perot]]'s candidacy was instrumental in Clinton's victory as he took Republican votes with his criticism of deficits. Perot won 19% of the popular vote, and Clinton, still a largely unknown quantity in American politics with 41% of the popular vote took office. Despite his loss, George H.W. Bush left office in 1993 with a 56 percent job approval rating.

House Republican Minority Whip [[Newt Gingrich]]-led the "Republican Revolution" of 1994 and its famous ''Contract With America''. It was the first time since 1952 that the Republicans secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress, which, with the exception of the Senate during 2001-2002, lasted until the 2006 mid-term elections. Democrats had controlled both houses of Congress for the forty years preceding 1994, with the exception of the 1981-1987 Congresses (in which Republicans controlled the Senate).

In the 1994 mid-term election, Republican congressional candidates ran on a platform of promising floor votes to force members of Congress to go on record on a series of popular reforms -- something the Democrats had stifled for decades. These measures and others formed the Contract with America, which represented the first effort to have a party platform in a mid-term election. Seven of the ten Contract items actually became Law. The budget reforms, coupled with reduced defence spending after the Cold War, and the earlier Reagan Tax Cuts for Business Research and Development in the 1980s, led to a high tech consumer boom, rising incomes for all groups, and unprecedented, sustained economic growth in the late 1990s. Democratic President Bill Clinton opposed some of the social agenda initiatives but he co-opted the proposals for welfare reform and a balanced federal budget. The result was a major change in the welfare system, which conservatives hailed and liberals bemoaned. One Contract item, which required Democrats in a two-thirds majority to pass a Constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress, failed.

In 1995, a budget battle with Clinton led to the brief shutdown of the federal government, an event which contributed to Clinton's victory in the 1996 election. That year the Republicans nominated Bob Dole, who was unable to transfer his success in Senate leadership to a viable presidential campaign. Ross Perot ran again (this time on Reform Party ticket), once again draining away a large percentage of Dole's support and insuring Clinton another term after the majority of Americans voters voted against him.

With the election of George W. Bush (son of former president George H. W. Bush) in an extremely close 2000 election, the Republican party controlled both the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first time since 1952. However, after [[Vermont]] senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an independent aligned with the Democrats in June of 2001, Republicans lost control of the Senate by a single seat.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, however, Bush pursued a "War on Terrorism" that included the liberation of Afghanistan from the radical Islamist Taliban regime and the [[Patriot act|USA PATRIOT act]]. By early 2002, the Taliban was removed from power in Afghanistan. On March 20, 2003, U.S. and allied nations initiated "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to liberate the Iraqi people from the brutal regime of [[Saddam Hussein]]. By May 1, 2003, the regime of Saddam was declared officially over. Once US and allied military forces entered Iraq, they discovered that various international terrorists had been given sanctuary by Saddam and ran their terrorist operations from Iraq. Notable terrorists found included Muhammad Zaidan aka Abu Abbas and Sabri Khalil al-Banna aka Abu Nidal.

The Republican Party fared well in the 2002 midterm elections, solidifying its hold on the House and regaining control of the Senate, in the run-up to the liberation of Iraq. This marked just the third time since the Civil War that the party in control of the White House gained seats in both houses of Congress in a midterm election (others were 1902 and 1934).

Bush was renominated without opposition for the [[United States presidential election, 2004]] and titled his political platform "A Safer World and a More Hopeful America". It expressed Bush's commitment to winning the War on Terror, ushering in an Ownership Era, and building an innovative economy to compete in the world.

On November 2, 2004, Bush was re-elected, while Republicans gained seats in both houses of Congress, leaving Democrats in disarray. Bush carried 31 of 50 states for 286 Electoral College votes. In that election, he also received more popular votes than any previous presidential candidate, 62.0 million votes. Democrat challenger, Senator [[John Kerry]], carried a 19 states and the District of Columbia, earning him 251 Electoral College votes and 48 percent of the popular vote to Bush's 51 percent, the first popular majority since his father was elected in 1988. That election also marked the seventh consecutive election in which the Democratic nominee failed to reach that threshold.

The counties where Bush led in the popular vote amount to 83% of the geographic area of the U.S. (excluding Alaska, which did not report results by borough/census area, but had all electoral districts but one of the two in Juneau vote for Bush).

The election marked the first time an incumbent president was reelected while his political party increased its numbers in both houses of Congress since Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 election. It was the first time for a Republican since William McKinley in the 1900 election.

==Presidential dominance==
[[Image:Washington painting at the Oval Office.JPG|right]]
In terms of winning presidential elections, the Republican Party has been the most successful political party in U.S. history. Since the American Civil War, Grover Cleveland is the only non-incumbent Democrat who has won the office of President of the United States under "ordinary" circumstances (meaning no third party, no Great Depression, no disputed count in Illinois, no assassination of the previous president, no Watergate).

From 1860 through 1912, 10 men were elected President of the United States -- Grover Cleveland being the only Democrat.

Woodrow Wilson, who won in 1912, only won because William Howard Taft (the Republican incumbent) split the party vote with former President Theodore Roosevelt who ran as the Progressive Party candidate. Wilson only garnered 41.6% of the popular vote, compared to a combined 50.6% of Roosevelt and Taft.

Following Wilson, there were three more Republicans. It took a major economic depression to get another Democrat elected (in 1932).

John F. Kennedy (the next Democratic non-incumbent to win the White House) won the [[United States presidential election, 1960]] as the result of voter fraud in Chicago (and several other locations), with a mere 0.2% difference in the popular vote.

It took the aftermath of the Watergate matter to get the next, non-incumbent Democrat elected in 1976 in a very close election in which Democrat Jimmy Carter received 50.1% of the popular vote to Gerald Ford's 48.0%. 5,000 popular votes in the State of Ohio would have made the difference.

The next non-incumbent Democrat victory occurred in 1992, in which third party candidate H. Ross Perot took away 19% of the popular vote from the Republican candidate, incumbent George H.W. Bush. And even though Bill Clinton was twice elected, he never once had a majority of the vote (43.0% in 1992; 49.2% in 1996). More people (the majority of voters) voted against Clinton for President than ever voted for him.

Since the birth of the Republican Party, the average Republican margin of victory over their opponents in Presidential elections has been around 12% to the Democrat's margin of victory over their opponents at around 8%. Also since the birth of the Republican Party, Democrats only garnered a majority of the vote a total of 7 times in 38 elections, while Republicans earned a majority 17 times in those same 38 elections.

In the 20th century, only 7 U.S. Presidents gained a larger margin of victory over their opponents in their second election. Five of those seven were Republicans. It must be noted that this statistic cannot be applied to incumbents who entered office without being elected, as their re-election was actually their first election -- i.e. Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford)

*Nixon from a 0.7% margin of victory in 1968 to a 23.2% MOV in 1972.
*Reagan from a 9.7% MOV in 1980 to a 18.2% MOV in 1984.
*FDR from a 17.% MOV in 1932 to a 24.3% MOV in 1936.
*Eisenhower from a 10.7% MOV in 1952 to a 15.4% MOV in 1956.
*McKinley from a 4.2% MOV in 1896 to a 6.1% MOV in 1900.
*Clinton from a 5.6% MOV in 1992 to a 8.5% MOV in 1996.
*GWB from a -0.5% MOV in 2000 to a 2.8% MOV in 2004.

Of the 11 U.S. presidents to be re-elected (i.e. elected a second time) since the Civil War, 7 were Republicans and only 4 Democrats. All seven of those Republicans were re-elected with a higher percentage of the vote , while only 3 of those Democrats received a greater percentage for their re-election bid. And this doesn't even include Franklin Delano Roosevelt's third and fourth terms, where victory margins diminished in his third and forth terms.)

== Contemporary Party ==

The contemporary Republican Party represents a wide array of interests such as the conservative evangelicals and the economic libertarians. The party has had some internal conflict over attitudes about how governments should run and how large they should be, what the party stands for, and what the party's attitude towards [[neo-conservatism]] should be especially in regard to foreign policy. The party is also divided over immigration issues with some members (such as George W. Bush) favoring workers visas and permits and some other members favoring strict control of immigration and strong action against illegal immigration. Unlike the Democratic party, the Republican party routinely allows dissenting factions such as the [[Log Cabin Republicans]] to speak at National Conventions.

==Presidents from the party==
# [[Abraham Lincoln]] (1861-1865)
# [[Ulysses S. Grant]] (1869-1877)
# [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] (1877-1881)
# [[James Garfield]] (1881)
# [[Chester A. Arthur]] (1881-1885)
# [[Benjamin Harrison]] (1889-1893)
# [[William McKinley]] (1897-1901)
# [[Theodore Roosevelt]] (1901-1909)
# [[William Howard Taft]] (1909-1913)
# [[Warren G. Harding]] (1921-1923)
# [[Calvin Coolidge]] (1923-1929)
# [[Herbert Hoover]] (1929-1933)
# [[Dwight Eisenhower]] (1953-1961)
# [[Richard Nixon]] (1969-1974)
# [[Gerald Ford]] (1974-1977)
# [[Ronald Reagan]] (1981-1989)
# [[George H. W. Bush]] (1989-1993)
# [[George W. Bush]] (2001-2009)

==See Also==
*[[RINO]] - '''R'''epublicans '''i'''n '''N'''ame '''O'''nly
*[[Previous Breaking News/Republicans|Articles about '''Republicans''' from previous "Breaking News"]]

== References ==
<references/>

==External Links==
*[http://www.gop.com/ Official GOP Site]
*[http://nyyrcrecord.blogspot.com/ New York Young Republican Record]

[[Category:United States]]
[[Category:United States Political Parties]]

Death

2008-01-18T20:20:30Z

SomeGuyWithAnOpinion:

'''Death''' is the end of a living thing's [[life]]. What death is and what occurs after death is a matter of some debate, particularly where [[religion]] is involved, since most religions have mutually exclusive views on death.

One assumption is that nothing happens after one dies and the body simply rots away (this would imply people do not have spirits or [[souls]]).
Religions deal with this issue in different ways. The concept of the [[afterlife]] is reassuring, and many have reported heavenly experiences in near death experiences.<ref>[http://bibleprobe.com/nde.htm http://bibleprobe.com/nde.htm]</ref>

Death is something people fear to varying degrees (and is a matter of taboo in some cultures).

As the body of the deceased remains observably dead and eventually decomposes, afterlife belief requires the concept of a [[soul]] - a version of the deceased which continues to exist in some form after death.

Still others believe that a cosmic zombie, who originates from the fiery loins of the great and powerful Allah, can save your soul if you eat his flesh. Doing so will prevent an eternity in hell where you will be crucified repeatedly with large phallic objects, sometimes called spears.

==Personification==
Certain peoples often use a personification of death. Known to us some as the Grim Reaper or simply Death. In modern times, he usually appears wearing a black hooded robe and carrying a scythe. Many religions had a god or deity who stood for death and/or the afterlife:

*[[Ankou]] (Breton)
*[[Hades]] ([[Greece|Greek]])
*[[Hel]] (Norse)
*[[Hun-Came]] ([[Maya|Mayan]])
*[[Izanami]] (Shinto)
*[[Kamatayan]] ([[Philippines]])
*[[Loki]] (Norse)
*[[Mictlantecuhtli]] ([[Aztec]])
*[[The Morrigan]] ([[Ireland|Irish]])
*[[Mors]] ([[Rome|Roman]])
*[[Mot]] (Canaanite)
*[[Odin]] (Norse)
*[[Osiris]] ([[Egypt]]ian)
*[[Shemal]] (Semitic)
*[[Shinigami]] ([[Japan]]ese)
*[[Sielulintu]], [[Kalma]], [[Surma]] (Finnish)
*[[Thanatos]] (Greek)
*[[Tuoni]] (Finnish)
*[[Yama]] ([[Hinduism|Hindu]])
*[[Yanluo]] ([[China|Chinese]])

==Religious Interpretations==
Many religious people, including [[Christians]], believe only their bodies die, not their souls. They believe they have everlasting life in either heaven or hell once their corporal life has ended. Other Christians believe that the noncorporeal soul may die in the future, or that the death of the body equates to the death of the soul.{{fact}}

''Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

I am that bread of life.''

- John 5:46-48 King James Version

Other religions, such as [[Paganism]] or [[Hinduism]], believe in [[reincarnation]] - the body will die but the soul will be transferred into a new-born, and they will live again.

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

== References ==
<references/>

Iraq

2008-01-18T20:20:27Z

SomeGuyWithAnOpinion:

{{Country
|name = جمهورية العراق'' Jumhūriyyat ul-Irāq Jomhūrī-ye Īrāq''
|map =Iraq rel 2004.jpg
|flag =Flag of Iraq svg.png
|arms =Arms of Iraq.png
|capital =Baghdad
|capital-raw =
|government =Parliamentary Democracy (developing)
|government-raw =
|language =Arabic, Kurdish
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Jalal Talabani
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Nouri al-Maliki
|pm-raw =
|area =169,234 sq. mi.
|pop =26,783,383 (2006)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$89.8 billion
|gdp-year =2006
|gdp-pc =$2,900
|currency =Iraqi dinar
|idd =
|tld =
}}
The modern country of '''Iraq''' corresponds with the ancient region of Mesopotamia - known by many as the cradle of civilization - where the first cities and classical civilizations developed in the fertile region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

==Geography==
Iraq is bordered by [[Kuwait]], [[Iran]], [[Turkey]], [[Syria]], [[Jordan]], and [[Saudi Arabia]]. The country slopes from mountains over 3,000 meters (10,000 ft.) above sea level along the border with Iran and Turkey to the remnants of sea-level marshes in the southeast. Much of the land is desert or wasteland. The mountains in the northeast are an extension of the alpine system that runs eastward from the Balkans into southern Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran, and [[Afghanistan]], terminating in the [[Himalayas]].

Average temperatures range from higher than 48°C (120°F) in July and August to below freezing in January. Most of the rainfall occurs from December through April and averages between 10 and 18 centimeters (4-7 in.) annually. The mountainous region of northern Iraq receives appreciably more precipitation than the central or southern desert region.

==People==
Almost 75% of Iraq's population live in the flat, alluvial plain stretching southeast from Baghdad and Basrah to the Persian Gulf, next to Hell. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers carry about 70 million cubic meters of silt annually to the delta. Known in ancient times as Mesopotamia, the region is the legendary locale of the Garden of Eden. The ruins of Ur, Babylon, and other ancient cities are in Iraq.

Iraq's two largest ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds. Other distinct groups are Turcoman, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Persians, and Armenians. Arabic is the most commonly spoken language. Kurdish is spoken in the north, and English is the most commonly spoken Western language.

The majority (60-65%) of Iraqi Muslims are members of the Shi'a sect, but there is a large (32-37%) Sunni population as well, made up of both Arabs and Kurds. Small communities of Christians, Jews, Bahais, Mandaeans, and Yezidis also exist. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslim but differ from their Arab neighbors in language, dress, and customs.
*Population (July 2007 est.): 27,499,638.
*Population growth rate (2007 est.): 2.618%.
*Ethnic groups: Arab 75%-80%, Kurd 15%-20%, Turcoman, Chaldean, Assyrian, or others less than 5%.
*Religions: Muslim 97%, Christian 3%, others less than 1%.
*Languages: Arabic (official), Kurdish (official), Assyrian, Armenian.
*Education: Years compulsory--primary school (age 6 through grade 6). Literacy (2006 UNESCO est.)--74.1%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate--47.04 deaths/1,000 live births. Life expectancy--69.3 yrs. (2007 est.)

==Government==
Iraq is a constitutional democracy with a federal system of government. The 2005 Iraqi Constitution guarantees all Iraqis basic rights in many areas. The executive branch is made up of the Presidency Council (one president, two deputy presidents) and a Council of Ministers (one prime minister, two deputy prime ministers, and 34 cabinet ministers). The President is the Head of State, protecting the Constitution and representing the sovereignty and unity of the state, while the Prime Minister is the direct executive authority and commander in chief. Beginning in 2006, the military and police began transitioning from being under the operational control of the Multi-National Forces-Iraq command to Iraqi command and control. The President and Vice Presidents are elected by the Council of Representatives (CoR). The Prime Minister is nominated by the largest bloc in the Council of Representatives. Upon designation, the Prime Minister names the members of his cabinet, the Council of Ministers, which is then approved by the Council of Representatives. The Council of Representatives may withdraw confidence from the Prime Minister, in which case the Prime Minister and Cabinet are considered resigned. Under normal circumstances, the executive branch serves a four-year term concurrent with that of the Council of Representatives.

Iraq's legislative branch consists of an elected Council of Representatives and an as-yet unformed Federation Council. The Council of Representatives consists of 275 members, each of whom is elected to four-year terms of service. At least one-quarter of the members of the Council of Representatives must be female. The responsibilities of the Council of Representatives include enacting federal laws, monitoring the executive branch, and electing the President of the Republic. The Federal Council will be established, by law, as a representative for governorates and territories that are not organized in a region.

Iraq's judicial branch is independent, and is under no authority but that of the law. The federal judicial authority is comprised of the Higher Judicial Council, Federal Supreme Court, Court of Cassation, Public Prosecution Department, Judiciary Oversight Commission, and other federal courts. The Higher Judicial Council supervises the affairs of the federal judiciary. The Federal Supreme Court is the highest court in the country, and the final authority on legal decisions. The establishment of the federal courts, their types, and methods for judicial appointments will be set forth by laws enacted by the Council of Representatives.

===Principal Officials of the Iraqi National Unity Government===
*President--Jalal Talabani
*Vice-President--'Adil 'Abd al-Mahdi
*Vice-President--Tariq al-Hashimi
*Prime Minister--Nuri al-Maliki
*Deputy Prime Minister--Salam al-Zawba'i
*Deputy Prime Minister--Barham Salih
*Minister of Agriculture--Yaroub al-Abodi
*Minister of Communications--Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi
*Minister of Defense--Abdel Qader Jassim Obeidi al-Mufraji
*Minister of Displacement & Migration--Abd al-Samad Rahman Sultan
*Minister of Education--Khudayyir al-Khuza'i
*Minister of Environment--Narmin 'Uthman
*Minister of Finance--Bayan Jabr
*Minister of Foreign Affairs--Hoshyar Zebari
*Minister of Health--vacant
*Minister of Higher Education--Abd Dhiyab al-Ajili
*Minister of Human Rights--Wijdan Mikha'il
*Minister of Interior--Jawad al-Bulani
*Minister of Labor & Social Affairs--Mahmud Muhammad Jawad al-Radi
*Minister of Oil--Husayn al-Shahristani
*Minister of Trade--Abd al-Falah al-Sudani
*Minister of State for Women's Affairs--Fatin Abd al-Rahman Mahmud

===Major Political Parties and Organizations [Leaders]===
Assyrian Democratic Movement [Yonadam Kanna]; Al-Da'wa [Ibrahim al-Ja'afari]; Badr Organization [Hadi al-Amiri]; Constitutional Monarchy Movement [Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein]; General Conference of Iraqi People [Adnan al-Dulaymi]; Hewar National Iraqi Front [Saleh al-Mutlaq]; Independent Iraqi Alliance [Falah al-Naqib]; Iraqi Hizballah [Karim Mahud al-Muhammadawi]; Iraqi Independent Democrats [Adnan Pachachi]; Iraqi Islamic Party [Muhsin Abd al-Hamid]; Iraqi National Accord (INA) [Ayad Allawi]; Iraqi National Congress (INC) [Ahmad Chalabi]; Iraqi National Unity Movement [Ahmad al-Kubaysi]; Iraqi Turkmen Front [Faruk Abdullah Abdurrahman]; Jama'at al-Fadilah [Ayatollah Muhammad 'Ali al-Yacoubi]; Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) [Massoud Barzani]; Kurdistan Islamic Union [Salaheddine Muhammad Bahaaeddin]; Mithal al-Alusi List [Mithal al-Alusi]; Muslim Ulama Council [Harith Sulayman al-Dari]; National Democratic Movement; Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) [Jalal Talabani]; Al-Risalyun [Muqtada al-Sadr]; Al-Sadr Movement [Muqtada al-Sadr]; Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI, formerly the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, SCIRI) [Abdul Aziz al-Hakim]; Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress

'''Note''': The Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, the Iraqi List, and the United Iraqi Alliance were electoral blocs consisting of the representatives from the various Iraqi political parties. Alliances and Electoral blocs are subject to change.

===Political Conditions===
Since March 2006, the Government of Iraq has been a broad coalition led by a Shi’ite legislative bloc known as the United Iraqi Coalition (UIC) or the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). The UIC currently holds 128 of 275 seats in the Council of Representatives. The UIC is currently composed of ISCI, the al-Sadr movement, al-Da’wa al-Islamiyya, Da’wa Tanzim al-Iraq, Jama’at al-Fadilah, and various independents. Politicians with Sunni religious affiliations, including the Tawaffuq and Hewar groups, presently hold 59 seats in the Council of Representatives. The Kurdish bloc known as the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan (which includes the KDP & PUK) holds 53 legislative seats. Ayad Allawi’s Iraqiyya or Iraqi National List (INL) holds 25 seats. The remaining seats are composed of various independents.

With regard to the executive branch, much care has been given to ensure that there is proportionate distribution of ministerial positions among the major political groups. For example, in the Presidency Council, President Jalal Talabani is Kurdish, Deputy President ‘Adil ‘Abd al-Mahdi is a Shi’a Muslim, and Deputy President Tariq al-Hashimi is a Sunni Muslim. Additionally, the Council of Ministers consists of 18 Shi’a Muslims, 8 Sunni Muslims, 8 Kurds, and 5 members of Ayad Allawi’s secular INA.

The Government of Iraq is currently working toward reviewing the Constitution. The process is likely to be a long and careful one, as consideration needs to be given to the interests of each of the major political groups. Issues to be addressed include federalism, the sharing of oil revenues, de-Ba’thification reform, and provincial elections.

===Foreign Relations===
With the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath regime, Iraq has taken steps toward re-engagement on the international stage. Iraq currently has diplomatic representation in 54 countries around the world, including 3 permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva and the Arab League in Cairo. 48 countries have diplomatic representation in Iraq,

The Republic of Iraq belongs to the following international organizations: United Nations (UN); Arab League (AL); World Bank (WB); International Monetary Fund (IMF); International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Nonaligned Movement (NAM); Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC); Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC); Interpol; World Health Organization (WHO); G-19; G-77; Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (ABEDA); Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD); Arab Monetary Fund (AMF); Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU); Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD); International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); International Community for Radionuclide Metrology (ICRM); International Development Association (IDA); International Development Bank (IDB); International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); International Finance Corporation (IFC); International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS); International Labor Organization (ILO); International Maritime Organization (IMO); Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC); International Organization for Standardization (ISO); International Telecommunication Union (ITU); Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC); United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); Universal Postal Union (UPU); World Customs Organization (WCO); World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU); World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); World Meteorological Organization (WMO); World Trade Organization (WTO) observer.

===Relations with the United States===
The focus of United States policy in Iraq remains on helping the Iraqi people build a constitutional, representative government that respects the rights of all Iraqis and has security forces capable of maintaining order and preventing the country from becoming a safe haven for terrorists and foreign fighters. The ultimate goal is an Iraq that is peaceful, united, stable, democratic, and secure, with institutions capable of providing just governance and security for all Iraqis and is an ally in the war against terrorism. U.S. forces remain in Iraq as part of the Multi-National Force-Iraq to assist the Government of Iraq in training its security forces, as well as to work in partnership with the Government of Iraq to combat forces that seek to derail Iraq's progression toward full democracy. The U.S. Government is carrying out a multibillion-dollar program to assist in the reconstruction of Iraq.

==Defense==
The Iran-Iraq War ended with Iraq sustaining the largest military structure in the Middle East, with more than 70 divisions in its army and an air force of over 700 modern aircraft. Losses during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and subsequent expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991 by a UN coalition resulted in the reduction of Iraq's ground forces to 23 divisions and air force to less than 300 aircraft.

When major combat operations ended in April 2003, the Iraqi Army disintegrated, and its installations were destroyed by pilfering and looting. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) officially dissolved the Iraqi military and Ministry of Defense on May 23, 2003. On August 7, 2003, the CPA established the New Iraqi Army as the first step toward the creation of the national self-defense force of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Support for the manning, training, and equipping of Iraq's security forces is led by the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I). In addition to defense forces, the Ministry of Interior, with the help of the MNSTC-I, is training and equipping civilian police forces to establish security and stability, primarily through combating the nation-wide insurgency. Initially under the command and control of the Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) command, in 2006 police and Iraqi Army units began to transition to Iraqi civilian control.

==Economy==
Historically, Iraq's economy was characterized by a heavy dependence on oil exports and an emphasis on development through central planning. Prior to the outbreak of the war with Iran in September 1980, Iraq's economic prospects were bright. Oil production had reached a level of 3.5 million barrels per day, and oil revenues were $21 billion in 1979 and $27 billion in 1980. At the outbreak of the war, Iraq had amassed an estimated $35 billion in foreign exchange reserves.
*GDP (2006 est.): $50.93 billion (official exchange rate).
*GDP per capita (2006 est.): $1,771.
*GDP real growth rate (2006 est.): 3.0%.
*Rate of inflation (2006): 64.8%
*Unemployment rate (2005 estimate): 27%.
*Budget (FY 2007): Revenues--$33.4 billion (est.); expenditures--$41 billion (est.)
*Public debt (2006 est.): $72.9 billion.
*Natural resources: Oil, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur.
*Agriculture: Products--wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, cotton, dates, cattle, sheep.
*Industry: Types--petroleum, chemicals, textiles, construction materials, food processing.
*Trade: Exports (2006 est.)--$29.34 billion. Export commodities (2006 est.)--crude oil (97%), other exports (3%). Export partners (2005)--U.S. 49.7%, Jordan 20%, Canada 13%, Italy 10.4%. Imports (2006 est.)--$22.96 billion. Import commodities--food, medicine, manufactured goods, refined petroleum products. Import partners (2005)--Turkey 23.4%, Syria 23.1%, U.S. 11.7%, Jordan 6.3%.

The Iran-Iraq war depleted Iraq's foreign exchange reserves, devastated its economy, and left the country saddled with a foreign debt of more than $40 billion. After hostilities ceased, oil exports gradually increased with the construction of new pipelines and the restoration of damaged facilities. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, subsequent international sanctions, damage from military action by an international coalition beginning in January 1991, and neglect of infrastructure drastically reduced economic activity. Government policies of diverting income to key supporters of the regime while sustaining a large military and internal security force further impaired finances, leaving the average Iraqi citizen facing desperate hardships.

Implementation of a UN Oil-For-Food (OFF) program in December 1996 improved conditions for the average Iraqi citizen. In December 1999, Iraq was authorized to export unlimited quantities of oil through OFF to finance essential civilian needs including, among other things, food, medicine, and infrastructure repair parts. The drop in GDP in 2001-02 was largely the result of the global economic slowdown and lower oil prices. Per capita food imports increased significantly, while medical supplies and health care services steadily improved. The occupation of the U.S.-led coalition in March-April 2003 resulted in the shutdown of much of the central economic administrative structure. The rebuilding of oil infrastructure, utilities infrastructure, and other production capacities has proceeded steadily since 2004 despite attacks on key economic facilities and continuing internal security incidents. Despite uncertainty, Iraq is making progress toward establishing the laws and institutions needed to make and implement economic policy.

Iraq's economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has traditionally provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings. Current estimates show that oil production averages 2.0 million bbl/day,

One key issue that currently confronts economic policymakers in Iraq is inflation. The year-on-year inflation rate for 2006 was 64.8%, a significant increase over the 2005 rate of 31.6% and well above the IMF target rate of 30% annual inflation. In an effort to infuse some stability in prices in Iraq, the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) began to appreciate the Iraqi Dinar (ID) relative to the U.S. Dollar (USD) in November 2006. As of June 7, the CBI had appreciated the ID by 17%. It has also accelerated interest rate increases; the deposit rate is currently 20%. Inflation in Iraq, however, is only partly a monetary problem, and is more strongly related to real sector effects, particularly bottlenecks resulting from the security situation.

The Iraqi Government is seeking to pass and implement laws to strengthen the economy, including a hydrocarbon law to encourage development of this sector, a revenue sharing law to equitably divide oil revenues within the nation in line with the Iraqi constitution, and writing regulations to implement a new foreign investment law. Controlling inflation, reducing corruption, and implementing structural reforms such as bank restructuring and private sector development will be key to Iraq's economic growth.

Foreign assistance has been an integral component of Iraq's reconstruction efforts over the past three years. At a Donors Conference in Madrid in October 2003, more than $33 billion was pledged to assist in the reconstruction of Iraq. Out of that conference, the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank launched the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq (IRFFI) to administer and disburse about $1.4 billion of those funds. The rest of the assistance is being disbursed bilaterally. To date $13.5 billion has been pledged in foreign aid for 2004-2007 from outside of the U.S.

The Government of Iraq has also made an agreement with the Paris Club to reduce some of its debt service obligations. This three-stage agreement will allow for the reduction of over $34 billion in Iraqi debt. Also, in December 2005, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to extend a stand-by agreement (SBA) to the Government of Iraq in the amount of SDR 475.4 million (about U.S. $685 million).

In July 2006, the Government of Iraq and the UN began work to formulate the International Compact with Iraq (ICI), a five-year framework for Iraq to achieve economic self-sufficiency within its region and the world. On May 3, 2007 in Sharm el-Sheikh the ICI was formally launched by more than 70 countries and international organizations, many represented at the ministerial level.

The Compact aims to create a mutually reinforcing dynamic of national consensus and international support. Domestically the aim is to build a national Compact around the government's political and economic program and to restore the Iraqi people's trust in the state and its ability to protect them and meet their basic needs. Internationally, the Compact establishes a framework of mutual commitments to provide financial and technical assistance and debt relief needed to support Iraq and strengthen its resolve to address critical reforms and policies.

====Agriculture====
Despite its abundant land and water resources, Iraq is a net food importer. Under the UN Oil-For-Food program, Iraq imported large quantities of grains, meat, poultry, and dairy products. Obstacles to agricultural development during the previous regime included labor shortages, inadequate management and maintenance, salinization, urban migration, and dislocations resulting from previous land reform and collectivization programs. A Ba'ath regime policy to destroy the "Marsh Arab" culture by draining the southern marshes and introducing irrigated farming to this region destroyed a natural food-producing area, while concentration of salts and minerals in the soil due to the draining left the land unsuitable for agriculture. Through assistance from USAID and USDA, targeted efforts have begun to overcome the damage done by the Ba'ath regime in ways that will rehabilitate the agricultural sector and confront environmental degradation. These efforts include infrastructure development, private sector development, veterinary clinic restoration, increased wheat production, and training and technical assistance in developing policies on sustainable water resources management and building Iraqi natural resources management.

====Trade====
The United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. Under the Oil-For-Food program Iraq was allowed to export oil and use the proceeds to purchase goods to address essential civilian needs, including food, medicine, and infrastructure spare parts. With the lifting of UN sanctions after the Ba'ath regime was removed in 2003, Iraq is gradually resuming trade relations with the international community, including with the U.S. The U.S. designated Iraq as a beneficiary developing country under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program in September 2004. Iraq was granted observer status at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in February 2004, and began its WTO accession process in December 2004. On May 25, 2007, Iraq participated in its first Working Party meeting in Geneva. The meeting, in which Trade Minister al-Sudani participated, was characterized as a successful start to the WTO accession process, one that is crucial to Iraq's integration into the international economy. Dependent upon Iraqi progress on relevant issues, the next Working Party meeting could take place as early as spring 2008.

==History==
Once known as Mesopotamia, Iraq was the site of flourishing ancient civilizations, including the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Parthian cultures.

====Sumer====
The first of these was the Sumerian civilization that arose in southern Mesopotamia around 4,500 BC. The Sumerians grew barley, chickpeas, lentils, millet, wheat, turnips, dates, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard and raised cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The fertility of the flood plains they farmed and their extensive use of irrigation created surplus food which supported the populations of their cities and a system of government - which stored and distributed food and created the first system of laws. In order to administer this the Sumerians developed the earliest known form of writing - cuneiform - much of which survives as they wrote on clay tablets which were dried in the sun and many of which have survived. The Sumerians worshiped many gods. They also built large mud brick pyramids known as ziggurats as funerary monuments to commemorate the dead.

====Babylon====
In 2371 BC King Sargon of Akkad established the Assyrian dynasty which conquered the region covered by the modern countries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Israel. The Assyrian Empire collapsed with the fall of its capital Nineveh (the modern Iraqi town of Mosul)in 612 BC and was replaced by the Babylonian Empire - Babylon was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world and home to the legendary [[Hanging Gardens of Babylon]] built by King Nebuchadnezzar the second. Mesopotamian dominance of the region ended when the Persian king Cyrus the Great invaded in 539 BC. It remained part of the Persian Empire until Alexander the Great's conquest in 331 BC. It was ruled by the Hellenic descendants of Alexander's army - the Seleucids - until the Persians regained control, in around 150 BC, and made Mesopotamia part of the Parthian Empire - the only civilization to halt Roman expansionism.

====Rise of Islam====
In the 7th Century AD Mesopotamia was incorporated into the vast Muslim Arab empire that covered most of the middle east, north Africa and Spain. In the 8th century the capital of this empire was moved to Baghdad which at a time when Europe was in the dark ages became the greatest center for science and art since the time of the ancient Greeks. It was here that Astronomy and Algebra (both Arab words) were studied and advanced, and many familiar stories were first told, like those of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and the forty thieves, and the thousand and one Arabian nights. By the twelfth century this great empire was in serious decline due to the Crusades, breakaway Muslim states in north Africa, the Mongols in the east and from its own rebellious mercenary soldiers - the Mamalukes and the Turks. Following the assassination of the last Caliph of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258 there were nearly four centuries of conquest and chaos as Mesopotamia was invaded by Seleucids, Turks, Ottomans, Mongols (under Ghengis Khan), Turkoman, Tartars and Kurds.

In the 16th Century Mesopotamia, literally "middle of two rivers" in [[Greek]], became part of the [[Ottoman Empire]].

====20th century====
In the early 20th Century Arab nationalists including Iraqis began rebelling against their Turkish rulers. With the outbreak of the [[First World War]] they fought alongside the Allies against the Turks in the hope of gaining their independence. France and Britain would control the Arab lands and Iraq came under the British mandate. When Iraqi tribesmen rebelled against British rule, the rebellion was put down using aerial bombardment - the first time air power had been used in such a way. In 1932 Iraq was granted independence although Britain still exercised considerable control over the country and had retained Kuwait for its oil.

In the years following the [[Second World War]] Iraq was allied to Britain, the United States and Turkey, and Britain continued to exert considerable influence over the country. In 1958 an "anti-imperialists" military coup overthrew and executed the British-installed royal family. The coup leader Abd al-Quassim banned all political parties and declared that Kuwait was part of Iraq. The [[Arab League]] then asked Britain to send troops to Kuwait to prevent an Iraqi invasion of a one of it's member states. The troop deployment prevented a war but al-Quassim responded by allying Iraq with the Soviet Union and communist China. Quassim used money taken from the western owned Iraq Petroleum Company to carry out economic reforms in Iraq. Western governments were becoming concerned Iraq could become the "new Cuba" and in 1963 they supported a pro-western coup that overthrew Quassim. Between 1963 and 1968 there was a period of political instability with several failed governments and attempted coups.

In 1968 the [[Ba'athist|Ba'ath Party]] seized power in a coup lead by General Bakr. The Ba'ath Party believes in the creation of a single, socialist pan-Arab state that would replace all existing Arab countries. During the cold war it was strongly aligned with the [[Soviet Union]]. In 1970 all foreign businesses including the Iraq Petroleum Company were seized and Iraq declared oil would be used as "a political weapon in the struggle against imperialism and Zionism". In 1979 Saddam Hussein replaced Bakr as president of Iraq. Saddam was a particularly brutal ruthless man, he attempted to assassinate Qassim in 1959, played a major role in 1968 coup and under Bakr he had led the much feared Ba'athist secret police. One of his first acts as President was to call a Ba'ath Party assembly where he declared his main political rivals to be traitors and spies; they were led from the assembly one by one to be tried and executed.

*Today, many television commercials and billboards in Baghdad make reference to Iraq's ancient heritage. But modern Iraqi culture is also marked by [[tribalism]] and violence. [http://www.meforum.org/article/1707]

====Absolute rule of Saddam====
Saddam's next major initiative as President of Iraq was to invade [[Iran]] in September 1980, coinciding with the [[Iranian hostage crisis]]. At first, he experienced a high degree of success, overrunning most of [[Khorramsharr]] province, Iran's only [[Arab]]-majority province. His stated war aim was to seize exclusive control of the [[Shatt al-Arab]] waterway
for Iraq.

The war ultimately ground on for eight years, killing over a million people total on both sides. During this time Iraq was taken off the [[United States list of state sponsors of terrorism]], relations with the West were normalized, and various Western countries including the [[United States]] entered into various lucrative deals with Iraq. In the case of the United States this principally consisted of agricultural credits, but other countries liberally supplied Iraq with whatever Saddam believed it needed. The war machine's principal need was cash, and even Iraq's significant oil revenues did not bring in enough, so Saddam borrowed scores of billions of dollars from other Arab countries.

Iran sued for peace following the failure of a [[Kurdish]] rebellion in northern Iraq in the winter of 1988 which Saddam ruthlessly suppressed in the [[Anfal campaign]], turning the chemical weapons he had long used against Iran on his own citizens. Throughout the period of absolute rule a few hundred people every year were executed, frequently by [[torture]], but this was the crescendo of repression as Saddam seemed to be endeavoring to wipe out the Kurds of Iraq. The memory of this repression gave rise to a phrase frequently repeated in the United States following the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when that country was overrun in 2003: "Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction."

Iraq enjoyed technical peace (justice being utterly absent) for only two years, after which Saddam invaded [[Kuwait]], the smallest of Iraq's six neighbors, which was unable to offer significant resistance. There were a mixed bag of motivations, but probably the primary one was the debt Saddam had incurred from other Arab nations of the [[Persian Gulf]] during the war. The debt was so overwhelming that it made the invasion almost rational; Saddam hoped to be able to frighten his local creditors into writing off his debts and pay down his debts to more distant creditors with Kuwait's oil revenues, which have always been somewhat higher than those of Iraq, although it is a much smaller country. Accordingly, Saddam announced that Kuwait would become permanently a province of Iraq.

The United States and particularly the [[United Kingdom]], whose policy it had always been to protect Kuwait from Iraq, took an exceedingly dim view of these events. British [[Prime Minister]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] persuaded U. S. [[President]] [[George H. W. Bush]] that Saddam's action, despite his previously close relationship with the West, was a violation of the [[Carter Doctrine]], which stated more or less that the U. S. would not allow ownership of Persian Gulf oil fields to be changed by force. The two countries obtained several resolutions from the [[United Nations Security Council]] to the effect that Iraq would have to withdraw and began with their allies, both [[European]], Arab, and across the broader world, a military build-up in preparation to liberate Kuwait. A worldwide economic [[blockade]] was imposed on Iraq in the hopes that this would persuade it to withdraw without bloodshed. The only goods Iraq could legally buy were food and medicine.

The sanctions failing to bring about the desired end, the U. S.-led coalition was obliged to begin [[Operation Desert Storm]] on January 17 local time. After almost six weeks of continuous bombing, most Iraqi troops in the Kuwait theatre of operations had deserted. The only offensive they launched managed to take the [[Saudi Arabian]] town of Khafji, but Saddam's attempt to send reinforcements resulted in the destruction of several Iraqi divisions, demonstrating that [[air supremacy]] forced a conventional army to remain essentially immobile and unable to concentrate forces to repel attacks. On February 25, a ground offensive was launched resulting in the destruction of numerous additional divisions and the flight of others back to [[Basra]], the second-largest and southernmost city in Iraq.

The coalition in the Gulf War did not have the authorization to force a regime change in Baghdad in 1992, neither was it ever a stated objective of the coalition.

Not only the [[Republican Guard]], considered Saddam's most loyal and elite troops, but also the regular army's officer corps, however, was made up principally of [[Sunnis]], who perceived the ensuing simultaneous rebellions by Kurds in the north and [[Shiites]] in the south of Iraq as an existential threat rather than as something which, in a more ethnically homogeneous country, they could have joined. The army therefore remained loyal to Saddam and crushed the Shiite rebellion. The U. S., United Kingdom and France intervened in the north through [[Operation Provide Comfort]], which ended Iraqi control of the three Kurdish majority provinces until 1996, when Saddam was able to exploit a split between the two largest Kurdish [[militias]]. They also established no-fly zones in both the north and the south, not only reserving the right but considering it a duty to shoot down any fixed-wing Iraqi aircraft which might fly over those parts of Iraq.

In the following years the use of force against Iraq was only sporadic and limited mostly to [[cruise missile]] attacks until [[Operation Desert Fox]] in December 1998, undertaken in retaliation for the ejection of the [[United Nations Special Commission]] sent to dismantle any Iraqi [[weapons of mass destruction]]. At the time, UNSCOM, as it was known, was credited with destroying more knwon stockpiles than had been destroyed during the war. Saddam's son-in-law [[Hussein Ali Kamel]] defected to [[Jordan]] in 1995 and claimed that Iraq still possessed substantial stocks of [[nerve gas]] and possibly [[biological weapons]]. The following year, without explanation, Kamel returned to Iraq, where he was killed.

It cannot be said for certain what Saddam possessed in 1995, but the stocks Kamel claimed existed were not found either by UNSCOM or by U. S. forces following the 2003 invasion. Little is known of ongoing programs to disseminate WMD manufacturing knowhow, or to whom the knowledge may have been disseminated to. The Iraqis behaved as though they had something to hide, resisting unannounced weapons inspections with all means short of armed force, denying UNSCOM the right to inspect Saddam's various Presidential palaces (mostly built after the war while the sanctions were impoverishing his people), and finally throwing UNSCOM out. If Hussein Kamel were a [[plant]] all along, it would be consistent with Saddam's policy of creating the belief in his opponents that he did possess WMD, as a means of deterring them from attacking. The Duelfer Report, based upon interrogations of high Ba'athist officials, states Saddam believed WMD had saved the regime in the Iran-Iraq War, and the threat of WMD saved him again during the Gulf War. However Saddam's chief aim was to get UN sanctions lifted, after which the WMD program would be restarted in full capacity, and generated by the new revenues and trade lifting the sanctions would bring.

By 1996, the unrelieved economic blockade of Iraq was severely affecting its ability to purchase food and medicine on the world market, as it like most Arab countries had little besides oil to export. Various claims were made to the effect that Iraq's infant mortality was now the highest in the Arab world or even that hundreds of thousands of people had starved to death. For the purpose of purchasing food and medicine, the United Nations agreed to permit Iraq to resume oil exports in what became known as the oil-for-food (OFF) program (see below). The Iraq economy finally recovered from the Gulf War with the OFF. This is now generally considered a major error by [[conservatives]] which will not be repeated should the current sanctions against [[Iran]] be toughened to what they were against Iraq.

Operation Desert Fox was preceded by the [[Iraq Liberation Act]] of 1998, which passed [[Congress]] with a veto-proof margin just as the [[impeachment]] inquiry against President [[Bill Clinton]] was shifting into high gear. The act could be considered a repudiation of Clinton's policy or lack of a policy toward Iraq up to that point. This made it U. S. policy to remove Saddam Hussein from power, which could be considered a [[declaration of war]]. However, not until March 2003 did Clinton's successor [[George W. Bush]] actually order Saddam and his brutal sons [[Uday and Qusay Hussein]] to step down and flee Iraq on pain of invasion. When Saddam refused, [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]] commenced on March 19, 2003; U. S. troops reached Baghdad three weeks later.

====Oil for Food Scandal====
In 2003 Ba'athist party dictator Saddam Hussein, accused of hiding weapons of mass destruction, was removed from power by a US-led coalition of forces. Saddam had effectively stopped previous attempts at enforcement of UN resolutions by essentially bribing <ref>[http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/iraq1/oilforfood/2004/0125almadalist.htm The Saddam Oil Bribes: The Complete al-Mada List], ''al-Mada'', January 25, 2004.</ref> several Security Council members, namely the Russian Federation and France <ref>Duelfer Report, [http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/pdf/duelfer1_da.pdf Regime Finance and Procurement], Vol. 1, p. 55-56. </ref> through the corrupt [[Oil for food]] (OFF) program managed by UN General Secretary [[Kofi Annan]]'s son. <ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/29/oil.for.food.kojo.annan/index.html Annan 'disappointed' son didn't tell all], CNN, November 30, 2004.</ref>

The Duelfer Report found,
:Iraq pursued its related goals of ending UN sanctions and the UN OFF program by enlisting the help of three permanent UNSC members: Russia, France and China. ... Iraq’s economic “carrots” included offering companies from those countries lucrative oil, reconstruction, agricultural and commercial goods, and weapon systems contracts. ...Saddam’s Regime needed both Moscow’s political clout in the UN and its economic expertise and resources to sustain his Regime from the 1990s until [Operation Iraqi Freedom] (OIF) ... Iraq promised to economically reward Russia’s support by placing it at the head of the list for receiving UN contracts under the UN OFF program....throughout the 1990s, the [Peoples Republic of China] consistently advocated lifting Iraqi sanctions while privately advising Baghdad to strengthen cooperation with the UN.

:In early July 2001, the US and the UK withdrew their joint-proposal to revamp the UN existing sanctions Regime, called “Smart Sanctions,” because of Russian, Chinese, and French opposition. The US/UK proposal attempted to restructure two key elements of the existing sanctions Regime: illicit procurement of weapons and dual-use goods and illicit generation of revenue from Iraqi oil sales outside the UN’s OFF program. In contrast, the Russian draft resolution proposed to reduce the current percentage to the Compensation fund another 5 percent to 20 percent of total value of Iraqi oil exports – and increase the total amount in Iraq’s escrow account to $600 million to pay other expenses ... The UN estimated that each 5 percent reduction in payments to the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) added about $275 million in Iraq’s coffers per each UN OFF six month phase.

:French oil companies wanted to secure two large oil contracts; Russian companies not only wanted to secure (or lock in) oil contracts, but also sought other commercial contracts covering agricultural, electricity, machinery, food, and automobiles and trucks products...France competed with Russian agricultural products for Iraqi contracts....In May 2002, a representative from a French water purification company requested projects for his company in Iraq.

After two years in interrogation, Saddam was hanged by the new Iraqi regime. Iraq is currently plagued by insurgents who are against the new Iraqi government's alliance with the United States, and have reacted violently to Iraq's new government. Their efforts have destabilized the country enough that some consider Iraq to be headed towards civil war.

====The Iraq War and its Aftermath====
After the US government decided that Iraq was in defiance of Security Council directives on weapons of mass destruction, President Bush decided to invade and occupy the nation. A US/UK coalition invaded (mostly from the southeast), and a brief shooting war ensued. Iraqi forces gave up fighting (without surrendering) shortly after US forces entered Baghdad (see [[Iraq War]]).

The Democratic Leadership in Congress wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070523-115137-6054r.htm] however Congress voted overwhelmingly to reject the idea in May of 2007, 280 -142 in the House and 80-14 in the Senate. <ref>[http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070525-122215-4854r.htm Congress OKs war bill sans timeline,] By S.A. Miller, ''The Washington Times'', May 25, 2007. </ref> U.S. support for the infant Iraqi democracy continues.

On May 10, 2007, 144 Iraqi Parliamentary lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271210,00.html Iraq Bill Demands U.S. Troop Withdraw]Associated Press, Fox News, May 10, 2007 </ref> On June 3, 2007, the Iraqi Parliament voted 85 to 59 to require the Iraqi government to consult with Parliament before requesting additional extensions of the UN Security Council Mandate for Coalition operations in Iraq.<ref>[http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1180960615762&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Iraqi parliament wants say in extension of US-led forces]Associated Press, The Jerusalem Post, June 5, 2007</ref> The current UN mandate expires in December 2007.<ref>[http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8879.doc.htm United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723 (2006)]</ref>

According to the failed state index, which is based on economic, social, and political indicators, Iraq is the second least stable nation for 2007 (out of 177 nations rated). Only [[Sudan]] scored lower.<ref>[http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=366 Failed State Index]</ref>

In September, 2007, the [[Government Accountability Office]] announced that the Iraqi government had failed to meet 11 out of 18 non-binding benchmarks set by the United States congress in May. They partially met four benchmarks, and completely met three. Top U.S. officials, including Bush, said they are disappointed by the Iraqi government's slow rate of progress.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/04/gao.iraq/index.html?iref=topnews Report Finds Little Progress in Iraq]</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Arab American]]

==Further reading==
*[http://www.newmediajournal.us/guest/jon/03242007.htm Christian Evangelism in Iraq], Marie Jon, ''New Media Journal'', March 24, 2007.
*[http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9478&size=A An “Assyrian ghetto” in the Plains of Niniveh to save Iraq’s Christians], ''AsiaNews.it'', 06/06/2007.
*[http://www.aina.org/news/20070608105121.htm Christian Ethnic Cleansing in Iraq], Translated from Swedish by EasternStar News Agency, 6-8-2007.

==References==
<references/>

{{License|license = This work is in the [[public domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.| source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/6804.htm]}}

[[Category:Middle Eastern Countries]]
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