On Oct 2, 2004, at 1:37 PM, debadger wrote:
> Bush Jr. is, as many have pointed out, a simple man.
He's at times an inarticulate man, but I don't think he's simple. We
said a lot of the same things about Reagan in the 80s, and most of what
we said turned out to be untrue. I think G.W. has an engineer's brain,
but I don't think he's unintelligent or two-dimensional.
> He's a mean little man
> with a mean little soul and one hell of a big stick to use in
> protecting his
> ego.
Interesting. I'm not sure where you get "mean." And I don't see him as
protective of his ego at all. In fact, he sometimes startles me with
his humility.
> And there are a LOT of powerful men riding his coattails and getting
> even more rich and powerful while they control the White House
> through him.
Is this the whole oil, Halliburton, Cheney, blah blah blah "argument"?
> I really wonder if anyone leaves the White House sane. You gotta
> figure,
> the world's most powerful office, held by powerful, egotistical men
> who have
> fought most of their life to get it, has got to make its mark.
I don't think G.W. wanted this job at all, much less "fought most of
[his] life to get it." I think he had to be talked into it.
> But consider: Clinton, intelligent but not wise, merely had a stupid
> affair
> when the office went to his head (a continuation of earlier behavior.
> Bush
> Jr. invaded two countries - one, it's quite clear, because he damn
> well
> wanted to whip the guy who beat his daddy.
I'm not sure how you get that: to the degree that the first Gulf War
ended (it didn't, technically) the U.S. was the victor there. George
H.W. Bush won that war.
I see that you're upset that G.W. Bush decided to enforce 1) U.N.
resolution 1441, and 2) Bill Clinton's U.S. policy of regime change in
Iraq.
> Had he stayed with Afghanistan,
> kept up and actually done something effectual instead of haring off
> after
> Iraq, he might just have made a major difference.
He turned Afghanistan over to the U.N. You're against that?
> But the British and
> Russians can tell you, Afghanistan is no easy place to deal with, so
> it
> would take international effort, good will and decades. They had a
> chance.
> Not much of one, but Afghanistan had a small sliver of a chance to
> improve.
Actually, Afghanistan is improving quite a bit. Schools and hospitals
are being built, elections are being held, and women aren't being
executed for letting their ankles show. All good stuff.
> But with the U.S. President haring off after Iraq, and being pretty
> stupid
> about foreign policy anyway, the American public has already
> forgotten what
> was going on and why we ought to do something.
You might have. A lot of us have not.
> It doesn't help that the Public thinks in soundbytes, and it's getting
> worse. Dammit, the world is not a 1/2 hour sitcom where all problems
> can be
> summed up in clever phrases and solved by the end of the show with
> time out
> for commercials. Our "news" is five minutes of crap with ten minutes
> of
> commercials.
I see that it's difficult for people to stay informed.
> I'm not thrilled about Kerry, but this is a case for me of 'better
> the devil
> I *don't* know. I know where the Shrub and his cronies are going and
> I
> don't like the direction at all.
That's okay. There were a lot of people who didn't like our involvement
in World War II, either. You're not alone.
--J
I'm not sure it's advisable for us to get into politics--at least
Presidential politics--on this bulletin board. Perhaps people should
stick to using their e-mail lists for that.
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Received on 2004-10-02 22:38:56