Glad you agree. Because blaming it on the tag along items to a bill is pretty wimpy vs. supplying our troops with proper equipment. Chickened out. That's all. And most likely on advice that he needed something to unite the left with. Vote trolling.
NBC already reports an early, mid-convention, 2 point bounce. This is pre-Bush speech... predicting more bounce to come. This was Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw btw.
Typical Bush rhetoric. He spoke for an hour and said nothing. What a joke of a president this guy is. Sadly, I think he's all but clinched the election. The end is near United States of America.
I actually watched the commentary from both sides on ABC, and later, PBS. Even the Dem's view was that it was a good speech; primarily the last 6 paragraphs. Interesting that W. went on a VERY less conservative side when he spoke of Domestic issues. I Like the ideas. I Hate how he figures to implement them AND keep taxes down. Needs Einstein for that one. One other thing. I HATED the rhetoric "flip flop flip flop" coming from the masses. Sounded like a bunch of r****ded schoolchildren. Good points: He truly showed that people "knew" his feelings and values. Can't say that about Kerry. He joked about himself, saying he knew his faults. Good way to show you "know" yourself. He almost choked up when he spoke about the Soldiers in the War right now. (Either A:he's truly compassionate, or B:he's a much better politician than we thought. He truly ended the speech with a good feeling about where we were headed and where were going. Say what you want, but the analogy with Germany and Japan as compared to the middle east was brilliant, in my opinion. "Was it over when the German's bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!!! And it ain't over now!" Germans?!? Quiet. He's on a roll. "Cause when the going gets tough! .... .... .... .... The tough get going! Who's with me? Let's Go! AAAHHHHHHH!"
IMO, It's a terrible analogy, and that's one of the reasons why the rebuilding failed so badly. One of the former Coalition head guys, in an article in the Atlantic Monthly a few months ago, wrote something on the order of: You know, I knew something was wrong on the plane on the way to Baghdad, everybody was reading history books about rebuilding Germany and Japan, and nobody was reading anything about Iraq, Islam, or the Middle East.
We've had our differences in the past, and I can understand why your logic could be skewed, considering. But do you really think there was no opposition to rebuilding Japan, and Germany in the 40's? It was at least two-fold, if not moreso. I personally agree with the assessment that a democratic Europe has eased tension over the past 50 years. You disagree, why? You feel a Democratic Middle East would fail as miserably as a democratic Germany and Japan did 50 years ago? I'm not getting it. No one can see the future (save Nostradamous and his Two Large Birds crap) but surely even you: a liberating liberal; can see the futuristic good this could bring. I can understand why it would be hard for you, though. Lord knows I did everything in my being to despise Clinton in my youth. Turned out he wasn't awful.
No, I'm talking about historical parallels. The economic, social, political, and religious contexts of post war Japan and post war Germany are light years different from that of post war Iraq. They were both developed nations wiht industrial bases that didn't rely on primary products, they didn't have the religious components, the victories were attained multilaterally -- I could go on and on and on. The results thus far have been different too. There was no real German resistance or Japanese insurgency. Germany had rumors of a "Wolf Brigade" or something that turned out to be a bunch of teenagers who never did anything other than comparatively minor transgressions. (There's an article about it on Slate.com somewhere) Japan had no resistance, the Emperor went on the radio and instructed the Japanese to surrender and cooperate with the occupiers before they came -- and that's what they did. See "Embracing Defeat", an excellent book about the rebuilding of Japan for more detail I could go on and on and on, suffice it to say that you could write volumes as to why the conditions in Germany and Japan are far, far, different that those of Iraq - and the results are different too so far. It's not really a matter of opinion, it's basically a fact issue. Japan and Germany were in far different situations. We had this argument a few years ago before the war -- and guess who's been right so far, tragically.
What has history taught us about religious wars? Lets put the Germany/Japan analogies to rest. Please...
Excellent retort. That said, we are in a time now when we refuse to allow these "religious wars" to reach our grounds, isn't it? We no longer live in an era where we can just allow the middle east to fight amongst themselves. They brought it to our shores first. Left alone, it WILL only get worse, don't you think? And, regardless of your affiliation, It has to make some sense that these "religious right" crazies do have and are getting easier and easier access to everything. Look at McVeigh. He and a couple of others blew up a building off nothing more than the internet. Imagine having billions of dollars to back that up. We live in a time where "jihad" type of people need to be stopped. I cannot emphasize that enough.
FFB: I am not against the war on terror, hell no. I am against fighting it the wrong way. As are many retired Generals, intelligence professionals, national security experts, etc. They, and I will tell you that invading Iraq was fighting it the wrong way. I"ll tell you this, Iraq now has many hundreds or thousands more terrorist than it did before as it has become a de facto terrorist amusement park. That is a bad outcome. The money & troops we spent in Iraq would have been better spent in Afghanistan, where the Taliban still controls large, and growing portions of the country (and where Osama Bin Laden still lurks around), on , or on improving homeland security (port security, etc). Hell, New York City at one point, had received the same amount of homeland security funding as Wyoming! Talk about messed up priorities.
