Obama to explain the withdrawal of combat troops tonight
President Obama will be making a national address tonight. Before you start whining about missing that rerun of Glee, you should know what Obama will be talking about, because it is sure to be brought up the next morning. Iraq will be the main focus of President Obama’s speech tonight. During much of Obama’s tenure, [...]
What is WikiLeaks?!
Before this week and the release of thousands of classified reports about the war in Afghanistan, you never heard of WikiLeaks. Now you’ve heard it but you still don’t know what it is. Dinner Topics to the rescue! WikiLeaks is a website (wikileaks.org) which lets people anonymously submit documents and reports that were previously classified. Special focus [...]
McChrystal’s sudden fame
If you’re not a political or military junkie, you probably never heard of the name General Stanley McChrystal a few days ago, but now you’ve likely stumbled upon it numberous times on the TV or radio. McChrystal is in the news right now because he was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine and made some disparaging [...]
Rare Earth Elements – your iPhone depends on it!
So you’ve seen it in the headlines — the U.S. has uncovered an estimated $1 trillion worth of minerals in Afghanistan. Besides iron and copper (largest mineral deposits discovered), there are deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, lithium, gold, copper, and rare earth elements (REEs).1 If your chemistry is as [...]
The Surge, Part II?
Almost a year ago to the day, Dinner Topics gave you the basics on “The Surge,” George Bush’s deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Iraq. This time around, the president is Barack Obama and the surge is in Afghanistan1. During last night’s televised presidential address, President Obama announced the need for an additional 30,000 American [...]
