For the United States, 2014 was a year of racial violence, rape, war, terrorism, drought and pestilence. Here are the top 10 U.S. events:
- The senate’s explosive report on CIA torture programs of 2001 to 2009 concluded that they were illegal, brutal and ineffective. It also concluded that top CIA officials lied about the program to lawmakers. Its conclusions allegedly mirror those of the Panetta Report, which the CIA refuses to make public. Calls went out for a housecleaning at the agency. Yet the only person to go to jail — 2.5 years — was a CIA agent who publicly revealed the torture program. Meanwhile, the two CIA contractors paid $81 million to design and carryout the torture — James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen — are living the high life in Florida and Washington state mansions.
- U.S. foreign policy hit a wall of setbacks in 2014. The White House misjudged the strength of the Islamic State terror army (also known as ISIL) and is now at war in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. failed to negotiate a peace deal between Israel and Palestinians and failed to stop Israel’s destruction of Gaza (2,192 Palestinians dead of whom 1,523 were civilians including 519 children). Withdrawal from Afghanistan has been slowed. Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program are stalled. By year’s end, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel was fired and President Barack Obama was considering boots on the ground in Iraq.
- In 2008, former president George W. Bush visited Eastern Europe where he talked openly about NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia and the installation of a missile system in Poland. Russia responded by wresting control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia. Russia seized Crimea and threatens eastern Ukraine. The U.S. and Europe slapped Russia with economic sanctions, but Moscow shows no sign of withdrawal.
- Drought continued to ravage California’s central valley, which produces about 25 per cent of U.S. fruits and vegetables. Thousands of acres of crops and orchards were ploughed up or left to die as reservoirs sunk to record lows. Farmers fear bankruptcy if the drought endures for a fourth year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 2015 will be just as dry.
- In midterm elections, Republicans seized control of both houses of congress. Many claimed that shutting down the government over budget issues and essentially waging war on all of Obama’s policies – particularly Obamacare – led to the sweep. The more credible reason is that disgruntled Democrats didn’t vote. Only 36.4 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, the worst turnout since 1942 when the U.S. was fighting a world war.
- After years of rumours and hushed lawsuits, more than 17 women have publicly claimed they were drugged and raped by Bill Cosby. The now disgraced comic became America’s iconic African-American family man while starring in the eponymous TV show that ran from 1984 to 1992. The man who invented Fat Albert quickly withdrew into determined silence.
- America’s racial conflicts exploded into nation-wide protests after a grand jury found that a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, was acting in self-defence in the fatal shooting in August of an unarmed black teenager. A week later a New York grand jury refused to indict a police officer who killed an African-American with an illegal chokehold. Statistics show that black suspects are more than twice as likely to be killed by police than whites. Obama vowed to rein in the “militarization” of police and improve community relations, but civil rights experts criticize his response as feeble.
- Obama accelerated his clean energy and climate change policies by imposing 30 per cent emission cuts on coal-fired power plants. But Republicans vowed to roll them back in 2015 and installed a climate change denier as chairman of the senate environment committee.
- The U.S. learned firsthand the terrible dangers posed by the Ebola virus when an infected man from West Africa arrived in September in Dallas. He died, but not before infecting two nurses. Luckily, both survived. It served as a wakeup call. The U.S. expanded Ebola testing from 13 to 36 states and treatment facilities from three to 35.
- 2014 marked the year when U.S. states showed signs of veering away from the expensive and never-ending war on drugs. Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and even the U.S. capital legalized cannabis. Colorado legalized commercial sales in January and by August had raked in $45 million US in tax revenues from weed. Pot companies exploded on the scene and 22 other states decriminalized and/or legalized the sale of medical marijuana.
Source:: canada.com
