Iraq: We Broke It. We Owned It . . .

. . . . and we walked away from it after thousands of American lives were lost and tens of thousands of American souls returned to our shores with severe physical injuries or the psychological consequences of PTSD.  To what end?

 

Old Glory at the Bridgewater Municipal Complex

That is the disgraceful result of what is today’s Iraq.  It soon is to be our fate in Afghanistan, unless the hapless policies which have emanated from Washington during the last two administrations change and align themselves with the realities that rule The Middle East.

The biggest policy mistake of Washington was to not have recognized and acknowledged what dominates the core of governance in the Arab nations of The Middle East and in Persian Iran:

Religion, and its influence upon every facet of life in that region, particularly the intertwined bond that glues it to the area’s political structures.

When George W. Bush invaded Iraq and naïvely thought that the U.S. could establish an enduring democracy through the electoral process in that country, he made perhaps the worst foreign policy calculation of his career.

When Barack Obama declared that the war on terrorism was over shortly after the killing of Osama bin Laden, he compounded Bush’s mistake by pulling out all U.S. troops too soon, one of the worst foreign policy calculations of that career.

Hayek Appointed Schools Chief for Bridgewater-Raritan

Hayek addresses the BR-BOE after his appointment.

Tonight, at a meeting of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education, Victor P. Hayek, presently “Superintendent of Schools for the Pequannock Township School District” was appointed as the new schools chief for the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District.

 

His contract with the BR-BOE runs from September 1, 2014 through June 30, 2018, at a starting annual base salary of $171,279, together with the full range of benefits that accompanies this position.  Signed this evening, the contract provides for his base pay to increase to $177,500 in the last year of his term.  According to state law, his salary is capped.

New Schools Chief for Bridgewater-Raritan

On Tuesday evening, June 24, at its regular public session at the Wade Administration Building scheduled to begin at 8:00 P.M., the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education will appoint its next permanent superintendent of schools.

 

Board President Jeffrey Brookner will be making the announcement of the person’s appointment as part of his report to the board at the beginning of the evening.

The new schools chief will take over the helm of the Bridgewater-Raritan School District from Interim Superintendent of Schools, Cheryl Dyer, who has been manning this post on a temporary basis since the retirement of prior Superintendent Dr. Michael Schilder.

Have you noticed recently that . . .

.  .  .  .  New Jersey newspapers, notably The Star-Ledger, have moved away from the daily reporting and endless editorials which slammed Governor Chris Christie about the so-called ‘Bridgegate’ affair?

On June 13, Fallon and Christie dance away the 'Bridgegate' incident.

Ever wonder why?  Nobody cares anymore!  It’s over – done with.  There is no there, there.

The reason is that despite the millions in cash and the thousands of man-hours expended up to this point investigating Christie and what role he may have played in this incident, not a single person or entity has identified a scintilla of evidence to prove that the governor ordered the closing of two access lanes in Fort Lee, New Jersey that lead to the George Washington Bridge, and across the Hudson River into New York City.

If you think that Christie is tough on teachers . . . .

. . . . check out this unprecedented ruling by California Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu who just handed down a decree that teacher tenure laws in the state of California are unconstitutional.  That includes all related teacher dismissal and layoff laws.

This near-apocalyptic smack down  makes anything that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has done up to this point in his own efforts at teacher reform in The Garden State pale in comparison.

Treu's decision is not targeted merely towards several jurisdictions in California, but applies to each and every public school district throughout The Golden State – it could have implications nationwide.

This ruling was applauded by none other than the Obama administration’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who was reported by CNN to have said, “the decision represented ‘a mandate’ to fix a broken teaching system.