International Relations: United States and Beyond

Iran:
        Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Iran's foreign relations have been shaky to say the least, and with the existance of such terrorist organizations as Hamas and Hezbollah within their borders, the possibility of nuclear technologies is a danger the United States and the U.N. don't particularly want to deal with. Iran's government has not been stable, and with that comes protective measures by the United States and others. In an effort to weaken the current Iranian government the United States and the European Union tried to cut Iran off from the international financial system. In order to do this they put in place sanctions, making it difficult for Iran to produce oil biproducts. Oil and petrolium are the largest exports of Iran and these sanctions made it difficult for the large oil companies to produce exports. Along with the sanctions on the oil industry of Iran, there were also sanctions put on their nuclear industry, in an effort to thwart any thoughts of nuclear weapons made by the Iranian government. These actions were successful and they did put significant strain on the economic system of Iran. To make matters worse Iran has been associated with several attacks on Israel.  In an effort to make the sanctions go away, Iran thretened to cut off their oil trade to six european countries, and on February 19th they did in fact cut off trade with Britian and France. The United Nations sent a second team to inspect the nuclear technologies of Iran, and were not allowed into a few sites, and even worse there were thoughts that the Iranians were going to try to use nuclear technology for weapons.
        The fact that the United Nations is cracking down on Iran is a good thing. They have been harboring terrorists for many years. One of the longest relationships that the United States has is with Israel. And as an ally it is our job to keep other countries from attacking them. This means taking whatever actions are neccessary to keep this from happining, and in this case this means keeping Iran from having nuclear weapons that could be used against Israel. International relationships are things that need to be kept, and if there are disagreements between an allied nation and someone else there needs to be some kind of action taken to keep our allys safe.

Syria:
       The riots in Syria started almost a year ago. They were the first real showing of the unrest in the Arab nations of the Middle East. Still after almost a year there is unrest in the nation, between various racial groups and the government. The Sunnis and other groups have had their differences for as long as they have existed, and this came into action in the riots in Syria.
        The United States has long been the police of the world. We have gotten involved in countries that may not have needed our help. Most of the time with good intentions, but most of the time having bad outcomes. As shown in bothVietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan.

Question for research

• I am learning about Women's rights.
• because I want to find out how much Carrie Chapman Catt and the Women Voter's Leauge
• In order to understand just how important they were to the rights of women and the current political system today. I would also like to know how much pull women have in the election today.
• How did Carrie Chapman Catt and the Women Voter's leauge change the face of politics for the modern women? What kind of lasting effect did their actions have on the country and women's rights?

Women Voter's Leauge and Carrie Chapman Catt

      Carrie Chapman Catt was born in Ripon, Wisconsin on January 9, 1859. She finished high school in three years and continued her schooling at Iowa State College and recieved a bachelor's degree. In 1885 she married Leo Chapman, who owned and edited the Mason City Republican. After he died Carrie became active in sufferage work. She married George William Catt who was a supporter of woman sufferage. because of her organization and public speaking skills Carrie quickly rose in the ranks of womens sufferage. She worked with The National American Woman Sufferage Association for a long time and eventually Susan B. Anthony chose Carrie as her successor in 1900. Her term as president was short, because her husband became ill and she resigned in 1904, and chose Anna Shaw as her successor. Soon after her resignation her husband George died. After his death she focused on starting and running the International Woman Sufferage Allience. During World War I she gained President Woodrow Wilson's support by urging women to get involved in the war effort. She was extremely important to the 19th ammendment being passed. She spent two months in Tennesse campaigning to get it ratified. After the ammendment was passed she helped found the League of Women Voters.
       The League of Women Voters was started by Carrie Chapman Catt. It's job was to unite women to vote after the 19th ammendment was ratified. They stressed the importance of women voting, because they could create what is called a voting "bloc" which would make it possible for women to make a bigger difference in elections. If they all formed together and voted the same way, they could even help determine the victor. This would work to their advatntage, and their aproach was one of a feminist nature. They wanted all women to be politically educated, and for them to improve the government overall. For many years they paid a lot of attention to issues of wages/working hours, and child labor instead of other women's rights issues such as: the right to use birth control, divorce law reform, and equal pay. Although most of the members of the Leauge of Women Voters were of the upper or middle class, they wanted to reach out to as many women as they could, making their overall impact greater in the end.