Letters to the Editor
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Taking out Saddam
The right justifies the mess in Iraq by stating that Saddam was a genocidal maniac and that the Iraqi people are now free from this madman. Yet they seem to have lost their long-term memory. The Reagan-Bush administration actively supported Saddam during the 1980s. So, the Repubs (presumably some of the same ones who wanted his head on a platter in 2002) were the ones who supported and strengthened his dictatorship 20 years earlier.
Below transcripts of an interview with Alan Friedman author of Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq:
Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush, and James Baker who was Secretary of State, and Robert Gates, who was the C.I.A. Director in the 1980's, how they met what was called a tilt policy in favor of Iraq and against Iran in the 1980's ...
In the 1980's, the Reagan White House wasn't just busy defeating the so-called evil empire of the Soviet Union and out spending and bankrupting the Soviets, they were also engaged in a Middle East Policy in Iraq and Iran, that was aimed at obviously trying to defeat and neutralize the Islamic fundamentalists of Iran which were Americas perceived enemy at the time. To defeat Iran, we will fortify Saddam, he may be a killer. He may be a butcher, but he's our guy. We will keep him to keep a balance of power between Iran and Iraq.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/09/1445208
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Excellent Article about Our Terrifying Situation
I'm not surprised that Bush has been a terrible President. I never believed a word he said. The only thing that surprises me about him is that every time I think he's hit bottom, he somehow manages to outdo his own awfulness and reach a new plateau lower down. There is not one member of his administration I like or trust. There is no demographic I find more loathesome than Neocon Chickenhawks, and this Administration is packed with them. And personally, I've always felt it was good for the country for the president to BE "reality based." Desirable, even. But Bush is the man who whacked the hornet's nest with a big stick, and then says those who suggested that might not be a good way of dealing with the problem as "hornet appeasers."
We need to get rid of these awful people while there's still something of America left worth saving. Blumenthal's excellent article compiling all this president's maniffest skulduggery, diplomatic maladroitness, and sneering nastiness should be read by everyone.
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You people - you VOTED him in !! Your COUNTRY VOTED for him!
I get tired reading Salon; I may give it up soon. All the promises posted here at Salon that the Democrats were going to Win - To WIN!! the last or the previous election... The president doesn't end up there by magic - there's still pluralism and voting and (gasp) vote counting. It's pathetic to read your pompous reports, see the cool comics, all the time folks are DYING while you chuckle about what a moron the president is.
Folks - have you BEEN to another state recently? Do you realize that the country is full of decent people who are AGAINST you, and have no willingness to change their votes because of *blogs*? I live in the bay area and as much as I love it, I'm amazed at the disdain from here towards the rest of the country -- and don't think that South Dakota or Alabama doesn't feel your snide dismissal.
Frustration is high here and for good reason, but many of you Bush-trashers come off as clueless, South-Park smirkers. Go see a bbq joint in Tenn or Ga; sit with your fellow voters. Lighten up. Listen for god sakes. They voted Ca off the map the last several elections and they have reasons. Or, you could sit here on your moronic preachy & lame soap box as the world walks by embarassedly, ignoring you completely.
Figure it out: YOUR vote is one of millions. What have you done about changing the country for the better besides safely bitch and cluck on your pc??
ER
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No, he's worse
I wholeheartedly agree with Sidney Blumenthal, who I think should be regarded as a national treasure.
A post declared that SB writes like a school marm...this is absurd, he's merely an essayist of the highest calibre, what was he expecting "Yo Bush, how's it hangin'"
Bush may well be a puppet of the one-party state as declared in yet anohter post (i.e the military industrial complex, oil, the Coroporations etc...) but he's also a malevolent, sadistic, brain-damaged, over-privileged and woefully under curious puppet. He loves the lure of easy certainty, he's full of odious religiosity, he 'feels' the pain of the mothers of the dead but won't go to any funerals and even more scandalously won't allow photographs of coffins to be shown (what kind of respect is that?). Bush has stiffed the soldiers and they know it, the generals are OK, they don't have to fight, as Colbert pointed out it's only the retired ones that suddenly speak out on Rumsfeld (namechecked by Kissinger, of all people, as the scariest man he'd ever met)
These are not epithets worthy of the greatest office of your great country.
I am nauseated by his endless stream of apologists, he's consciously bad and too many basically decent US citizens been suckered into his phony war on terror to fulfill the neocons mindless plan for 'full spectrum dominance', what more would it take for you the US to wake up? nothing would give me more satisfaction than to see the whole sorry-assed lot of them led away in handcuffs: Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Perle/Wolfowitz/Libby et al, but especially Cheney.
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A To-Do List for the Democratic Party
Reading Mr. Blumenthal's well-crafted outline of Mr. Bush's horrifying record as the 43rd POTUS brought on a feeling of anxious gloom at first. But I brightened up when it occurred to me the article could be used to help Democrats see their way forward.
Start with a bullet point for each major area discussed in the article, from the use of torture to the degradation of the environment to the death of thousands in an illegal war. Add specifics to each major area.
In the next column, list creative, generous-spirited ways to heal the damage. If you're on a roll, add suggestions to go beyond healing and actually make the world a better place.
Tah-dah, a list of what to do now. Begin.