Letters to the Editor
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Okay, I'll go first...
Though there's really nothing new to say. Bush is completely out of his gourd. It's going to take generations, perhaps, to undo the damage he's done -- not just to America but to the world.
What else is there to say? If a Democratic congress takes over, it's going to be exhausted from the struggle to take over and shot full of holes by the ugly things that will be said along the way. Still, it's our only hope -- that somehow this juggernaut-over-a-cliff can be turned at the last moment. One fails to muster an awful lot of confidence in that scenario.
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The Iraqis Aren't Grateful?
Maybe they don't have Fox News in Iraq.
Anyway, even if the Dems take over Congress, the mainstream media will be sure to harass them mercilessly, and thereby hamper any effort to derail the neocon agenda and the upward momentum of the stock prices of Halliburton and the oil companies.
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Where's my thanks?!
I find it fascinating that President Bush thinks we (or perhaps, more appropriately, he) should be thanked for our Iraqi incursion. I suspect he wants more than anything for someone, anyone, who he hasn't bullied or lied to, to acknowledge that he's done something good. To validate his actions, as it were, because deep down, he doesn't know that he took the best actions, or perhaps does know that he chose his actions poorly.
It's kind of sad for him, actually. He's trapped between his lies and his fears. He can't quite buy his own line about the greatness of his actions, and he can't quite screw up the courage to take a good hard look at what his actions have resulted in. So he has to live in this horrible fog of bluster and insecurity, and above all, ignorance. In the end, there can be no escape from that morbid existence until he accepts his utter failure, which is a hard thing for anyone to do.
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Jim beat me to it
"Air assault"?
"Forward strategy for freedom"?
"Victory for Israel"?
We always knew Bush had no time for facts he didn't agree with. But now his behavior is increasingly looking like a total dismissal of all reality.
If he really believes what he's saying, he's crazy.
If he doesn't, his lying has become pathological.
Either way, he's unfit to serve.
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Israel's debacle is courtesy of themselves
The Bush administration didn't "enable" this disaster like some parent who didn't carefully discipline an ambitious child. Quite the opposite. Neocon power stems from Israel with Cheney and the Pentagon under their control. Bush simply followed orders.
As an American citizen, I am totally frustrated that this tiny nation has somehow wrestled control of the foreign policy of the most powerful nation on earth. And it controls both Democrats and Republicans. When will Americans stand up and say enough and how can they do it when no serious political candidate dares to engage in any serious debate concerning Israel? But if they could, Israel would be forced to deal with the results of decades of failed policy and learn to live with their neighbors first and foremost by halting the expansion in the West Bank and enabling Jerusalem to be the multination city it has to be. Second, they and the west must somehow compensate the millions of poverty ridden Palestinians who have be made refugees in their own land. And now, they must rebuild Lebanon. Then maybe there can be a chance for peace.
I have written to my California Democrat Senators and Congressperson about numerous issues over the years. I always get a response except when I question a foreign policy issue regarding Israel. Then... only silence.
This isn't just a Bush or Republican foreign policy issue. It permeates both parties and the entire political process of the United States.
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Not quite the whole story
Blumenthal is certainly correct that Rice has been thoroughly discredited by her conduct during the war. and for that reason the state department spin that informed the weekend's new york times hagiography on her was just plain idiotic. however, she did come back from Israel the day after the massacre at Qana with the intention of going to the UN and working with France for an immediate cease-fire. I suspect the massacre rangs memories of Birmingham Sunday for her, an event in which she lost a childhood friend. However, she had dinner with W., who told her no. Wait. and she did rather than resigning -- true to her typical pattern of opportunism. The neo-cons, were still looking at Israel as the Great White Hope. It was only in early August that they finally threw in the towel. The public turning point was announced by Charles Krauthammer in WaPo column which described Olmert as weak and vacillating and Israel unable to hack the great victory at the time.
As to what Bush believes: He probably does believe the crap he is saying, but it is very important to understand that this pronouncement are purely rhetorical constructs that do not reflect any perception of reality. Gilles Kepel in The War for the Muslim Mind provides background that explains this. Bush is repeating the "New Middle East" cant of the neo-conservatives. Their vision of democratic transformation of the Middle East through surgical strike vs. corrupt rules and "Islamic-fascists" (whatever they are) resolves a conflict between American commitments to Israel and to stable oil resources. The democratic Iraq was supposed to be an ally or at least recognizer of Israel. But the hard work was all at the level of rhetoric, never once looking at ground conditions as to whether any of it could be achieved.
Yes, the detachment from reality is quite troubling.
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yeehaa
Good god/ for the children of Lebanon / a fake cowboy playacts at jostling his human cattle in 100 degree heat and yells "Air Assault!" goading from the relative ease of his expensive bicycle, revealing what stirs his soul. yeehaa. cause it makes him feel tough. like a man who has to hold his arms out posturing in public like he's got pistols on like his favorite outfit when he was a clueless lonely spoiled psycho needy kid. mean streak too.
/for the soldiers of the United States, the working class and those working for school or a retirement or a job, oops, killing and dying, showing up for duty, their nobility / Mr. Have-more smirks at his base "no weapons of mass destruction here" looking under a desk while the panderers suck up, laughing loudly in comfort and luxury. the cool kids, telling each other how cool they are, better than all the rest. guess that war was for nothin huh. haha
haha the uncool kids die in despair and dirt. spilling blood, losing limbs and lives and minds. he's better than them. all his friends, the important people, the other cool kids, they all tell him how great he is.
what kind of monster does not die inside at the thought of the children. And he wants their parents to kiss his ass now too.
11 million people you little puke, at least 11 million people around the world took peacefully to the streets and screamed, don't do it, don't do it you bastard. Stop. It doesn't have to be. I hope the 10,000 in Iraq eats at your craw in a way the 11 million never did.
They thought of the children's eyes, bright with hope and safe at home, their parents happy and busy, building lives. what right. what right have you.
No thanks will come from your victims. The hole inside you will get bigger, as big as dead children killed in their homes for an idiot's game, no risk to him. One of the cool kids, the mean one, the one who says and does the things that gives them something to laugh at.
I don't know what scale will weigh the suffering you cause, the suffering that did not have to be, because wisdom and judgement was not brought into service to find the path to justice. That was not the goal. This suffering did not have to be! and I think the scale will be weighed down greatly because the children did not have to die.
Lebanon is not an oops. Too bad that little plan didn't work out, oh well, and uh sorry about your country and the white beaches and the beauty of the Paris of the middle east, the music and art and stirring life of your democratic society, growing in civilization. anyway moving on I guess, shoulda let them call a cease fire for all we got out of it. oops
In their words that rob speaking of meaning, the birth pangs of exporting democracy were kinda tough on the kids. blasting the infrastructure of an actual young democracy to rubble, the self righteous, self justifying, plans of a madman in the service of greed and aggrandizement, the children's screams silent in his soul, somethin's bothering him tho and so he gets on his bike and rides, and yells yeehaa at the sweating suckups. smirks and feels better for a minute
the rest of the world weeps