Letters to the Editor
timbuktom
Published Letters: 2445 Editor's Choice: 141
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Actual Info
[Read the article: General: Rumsfeld told us not to plan for "postwar" Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There actually was a Bush Administration effort to deal with post-conquest Iraq. Do you remember the publicity about all the Iraqi exiles forming Ministries that were supposed to plan and take over? And then the Bush Administration simply ignored these guys after the conquest.
There is good reason to believe that the Neocons believed that no post-war plan would be better than any possible plan. They believed in a simple-minded, ideological, near-religious way that the free market would take care of everything if they just got out of the way. They thought capitalists and entrepreneurs would flock to Iraq. They even left Iraq's borders wide open to facilitate free trade.
They were fundamentalist Adam Smithites. And they were wrong. There was a great article in Harpers about this a couple years ago, after the horses already had left the barn.
The problem was that NONE of us believed that they would be so stupid. The whole business about, "Winning The War But Losing The Peace" is such a truism, such a basic lesson of history, that nobody believed they would go in there with no plan whatsoever. But that is just exactly what they did. On purpose!
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Salon Should Send Advance Notice...
[Read the article: How bad is he?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If I had known that we would have a nine-page comprehensive Sidney Blumentahl story on W.Bush today, I would have called in sick, in order to spend the whole day here.
I have not read all the well-over-one-hundred responses yet. Has anybody said this?---
"Radical" is an appropriate adjective for W.Bush, but I hate to read it here. Abe Lincoln was a "Radical Republican" in his day, but back then, that just meant he was an okay guy. I worry that the utterly shameless W.Bush supporters will take our label "Radical", and say Abe was a "Radical Republican" too, even though it meant something radically differet back in Abe's day.
Get thee behind me, W.Bush supporters! Do NOT use "Radical" as a compliment for your reactionary creep.
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Common Misconceptions...
[Read the article: Come as you are]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. This fundamentalism is NOT a decent expression of Christianity. Poster Hausfrauatu gave us look at a different, better Christian congregation. Plenty of congregations still know the Prince of Peace and the God of Love. I encourage you to find them.
2. These 21st century American fundamentalists are NOT just the same-old-same-old-same-old. They are different because they have taken political power. Of all the US Presidents in my lifetime (Truman through W.Bush), only two (Carter and W.Bush) have had Christian (or "Christian") components in their public personnas... And W.Bush is the only Political Fundamentalist President, AND he is the worst president in US history. We are in a new political era.
We do not know whether our christianist population will reach critical mass, and actually take over our political life. If they do, we will be in big trouble. All the posters here who fear dominating, bullying fundamentalist leaders are correct. Let me stress also that our christianists are not in interested in reason, except as an argumentative ploy. To the extent that they take over, they will throw out the rational basis of our laws and our society.
They may have peaked, though. Just below the surface, we see disputes between different sorts of christianists . For example, fundamentalists who believe in adult baptism still hate fundamentalists who believe in infant baptism. And the American fundamentalist scene is a big Holier-Than-Thou Pissing Contest. Christianist pastors and preachers and radio hosts continually compete with each other to appear "more Christian" and "more saved."
These creeps do not have a stable alliance. If they get power, they probably will destroy each other and themselves through this sin of pride.
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Still Abstract???
[Read the article: Bush's Get Out of Jail card]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Americans, mostly, apparently, still only see the rest of the world on TV or in books. Pictures of people with towels or sombreros or berets on their heads are just illustrations, just concepts. AND! Americans see pictures of people with bags on their heads and bloody agony all over their faces, but they react the same way!
For most Americans, torture and dungeons are just abstract concepts, fairy tale illustrations, scenes from movies about Nazis. Still! Why????! When W.Bush "took the gloves off," he plunged us into real-life horror, crime, sin. Arrest him. Prosecute him. Sentence him. But do not torture him. American barbarism must end now, forever.
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Kinetic?
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What does G.W.Bush think "kinetic" means? Does he believe it has something to do with Kineticut? Is Osama hiding out in Bridgeport?
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About Having Kids...
[Read the article: Come as you are]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Every kid wears out parents. All parents sacrifice for their kids. Not just fundamentalists. Not just stay-at-home moms. What about this young woman in the article who complains about her little boy?
1. Welcome to the real world, young mother!
2. What will this kid think about you when he gets older, and reads this article, and sees how little you seem to love him?
3. If you leave that cult, will you take him along? Will you still take care of him?
The cult is terrible, but do not blame the cult. You have a higher calling now. Find better support, and do what you want to do, AND take care of your kid. Like most other Americans.
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Strange Power over Senators?
[Read the article: On spying, GOP senators "work together" -- with the White House]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do Rove, Cheney, and W.Bush have naughty photos of these senators? Sen. Spector seems especially inexplicable. Sen. Gore, who gave up so easily in 2000, also. Why do they all give up so easily? Why do they not stand up?
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How Have W.Bush & Co. Survived This Long?
[Read the article: Emerald City exposed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It must be that we could not believe, not even imagine the monumental scale of their Breathtaking Incompetence, Comprehensive Delusion, and Placid Brutality. For cryin out loud, just by chance, they should have gotten a few things right. But, no.
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Survived = Stayed in Office...
[Read the article: Emerald City exposed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In my previous post I asked, "How have W.Bush & Co. survived this long?" I meant, HOW HAVE THEY STAYED IN OFFICE? Nothing about their physical survival.