Drug Cartels

One of the more recent events that have occurred in the past few years affecting the United States is the drug war in Mexico. This recent trend of events began to escalade in 2006. Although, there has been drug smuggling since the 1970's, but has become worse in 2006. In 2006, cartels killed thousands of people in Mexico and began a war for control of narcotics and transportation of narcotics. There are different cartels and some examples are Los Zetas, La Familia, Sinaloa Cartel, and Gulf Cartel. The President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, issued war against cartels, but faces another problem. Part of the Mexican government and police force is corrupted and had associations with cartel members. One of the reasons for this is the low pay of Mexican officials, and seek more money and better pay with cartels. Mexican officials believe that after the escape of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in 2001 from a high security prison, the war on drugs began to escalade. There have also been a number of kingpin druglords that have affiliation with drug cartels and both the United States and Mexico have set a bounty for each of them. I think this event has escalated into a dangerous situations for people living in Mexico. Mexico first has to make sure and take care of the poverty of the families and people live in, and is probably one of the main causes of cartel's existence. The Mexican government also has to make an effort to fight off cartels, and not give in to the desire of money. The United States also has to help combat the drugs and firearm entered illegally into the United States, as it has caused more problems. The killings of thousands is unecessary, as more than one thousand have been killed last year alone. Mexico and the United States have to work together to combat these cartels and what they stand for.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2052944,00.html

Democrats and Republicans

Today for the post, I am going to talk about the recent differences between democrats and republicans. Although this is not really seen as a global tension, it will affect the way people in the United States live, as well as some around the world. A few months ago, Republicans won the majority in the Unites States Congress. What this means is that they are the ones who now have the power to pass laws or veto any of the laws Obama will try to pass. This makes it really difficult for Democrats to pass anything that they want to help the nation. One of the things I disagree with the issues right now is how Republicans are trying to make deficit cuts in the billions. The United States is in a recession and there are two things they can do to help bring the economy back. One of the things is government spending, and the other is raising taxes. Obama has made a large amount of spending to create jobs with the stimulus package, but did not create enough jobs to bring the economy from the recession. Obama does not want to increase taxes, and creating deficit cuts will bring the economy into a deeper recession. Another way to increase the economy is for people to spend money to bring the economy back, but some people would save their money rather than spend it. Hopefully the tension between the party dies down, so we can have more jobs, and can pass laws to help the United States rather than hurt it. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LoJ-SCpAj74" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Iraq War

Hello everyone, for global tensions I am going to be discussing the United States involvement in Iraq or Iraq War. Now there are different reasons or conspiracies on why the United State became involved in Iraq; the main one given by George W. Bush being weapons of mass destruction or WMDs. United States intelligence suggested Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and the United States became involved in 2003. The United States also believed Iraq was hiding insurgents, or Taliban members associated with Al-Qaeda, the people behind the September 11 attack. Although, I criticize with the way the United States carried out the invasion of Iraq. First of all, no weapons of mass destruction were found, and failed to capture Osama bin Laden. Also, in a counterinsurgency against Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, the United States was not able to capture their main leader nor stop the Taliban in the Middle East. The United States also failed to keep control of the streets as people rioted and made the situation worse. Some Americans now criticize the way George W. Bush handled the situation, and now Obama has moved the war from Iraq to Afghanistan. Hopefully in the near future there will be stability in the Middle East where countries can be at peace with one another, and wars will not have to start over involvement in different countries.

Global Tensions

Hello everyone, my name is Bryan Dominguez and I am a freshman at the California State University of Long Beach. I am majoring in liberal studies, and hoping to become a teacher. Most likely I would like to teach middle school or high school. I went to Millikan High School and in my blogs I plan on talking about global tensions happening in the world today. Although, most people would ignore or not notice what is going in the world, but some of the things have either positive or negative consequences. Some of the events may actually have a direct impact on the United States and its citizens. For example, some of these problems have been occurring for years, and for some, it is a recent thing. The United States and Iraq war is one example where the war has been going on for more than 8 years, but has escalated into the war of Afghanistan. Also, a more recent event, the Egypt uprising has caused the people to remove the President of Egypt. Also, in South and North Korea, there are tensions and has caused the United States distress because North Korea is on the verge on obtaining the nuclear capacity to launch nuclear missiles. There are other countries where the United States is involved in, and other countries are rebelling against them, for example Middle Eastern countries. These are tensions happening in the world today, and in some countries, causing people to flee to other parts of the world.

Egypt Revolution

The Egypt revolution has been on national channels in the news for the past weeks. The people of Egypt are protesting over the thirty year rule of President Hosni Mubarak and his police state tactics. They say that he uses strict and abusive police force to carry out his order, but have been protesting for 18 days in major cities like Alexandria and Cairo. Although, after days of protests, the president went on national television to explain what he planned to do yesterday. In his address to the nation, he said he did not have plans to resign, which left many people baffled and confused. Although, Hosni Mubarak resigned today on February 11, 2011 leaving his authority to the military. The people of Egypt can be seen cheering and celebrating as the Vice President of Egypt, Omar Suleiman, announced the resignation. Although, this can have an effect on the United States as well. One of the reason this is important is because Egypt is an ally to United States, and a peace maker with Israel. They also help combat terrorism against Iran. Some Americans agree with the end of a tyrannical view, and has started a step towards democracy. This has caused some distress between conservatives and liberals as well. Although, some people are still in doubt in whether the military police force will continue its tactics, or whether things will change in society. The people in Egypt are happy about the outcome, and are celebrating their parade in the streets.http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/11/egypt.protests/index.html?hpt=T1