There is much talk of "allaying the fears of American people." It is hard to do when the President has fanned fear and hatred probably for political and possibly short-term electoral and economic reasons. Imagine if the President had actually tried to allay fears and had said: "My fellow Americans a great tragedy has happened in NYC. It is the work of terrorists, possibly of Middle Eastern origin, but let's be careful and remember how we all jumped to conclusions with the Oklahoma City bombings. Our intelligence services even as I speak may now know exactly who did this they and our armed forces are certainly capable of bringing them to justice and protecting our shores. Though I'm sure you are nearly speechless with outrage like me, be calm. This appears to be the work of a small group with very limited resources compared to other great enemies such as Hitler that we have defeated time and time again in the past. It is highly likely that with this action they have shot their wad (not very presidential but would allow the President to look tough without further scaring people with John Wayne talk).We remain alert for any other signs of such attacks. Let me assure all innocent nations and political groups both foreign and domestic that we will use only the minimal force necessary to bring these criminals to justice. We intend to not trample on the civil and first amendment rights of any our citizens. Rest assured we will not stop till these criminals are brought to justice. We will take this as not only a wakeup call that we need a military response to this heinous act, but as a call to reevaluate any of our foreign policies whether political. economic or humanitarian that could possibly lead the perpetrators of this act to hope to gain support for their cause, whatever it may be, in the court of world opinion. This will best insure that the perpetrators gain nothing but punishment from their despicable acts. It is important to realize that , though we have taken standard precautions like shutting down the airways and the stock exchange that I have consulted my advisors and everything is under control. I urge you all to join me, Laura and all the members of congress of both parties in praying for those who have suffered so horribly in this tragedy. In closing, take care. and remember though the lives of our dear citizens in New York and the many others from all over the world who were killed in this tragedy will never be the same, in a couple of weeks, hard as it is to believe now, most in our great country will carry on their lives and I urge you all as your patriotic duty to do so. Goodnight.
Man, You are one big ole hairy weakling. Now go watch some football and toughen yourself up. Sheesh !!!! DaDakota
Da Dakota, how could you be so insensitive? Glynch, like I said in one of your other threads, it is imortant to look at things from all angles. The war mongers could learn a few things from the pacifists, and vice versa. BUT, where the heck are you going with this now? You are one big ole hairy weakling. Now go watch some football and toughen yourself up. The president's primary job is not to pacify the American people. The things that he says are as much a message to the world as they are a message to the US. Osama Bin Laden DEFINELTY has a dish antenna and watches CNN. There are also things that we don't have to explain to each other because everyone already agrees. The two party system in the US does not include a socialist party or a communist party. Don't forget that there are some very harsh realities outside of our borders that we clearly don't have a very good understanding of. There are people in this world that would kill you because you are an American if they had the opportunity. There are people in this world that act irrationally, and like in a court of law, insanity is not always a valid defense. The prejudices that are being brought against us, are only partially based in reality. Race, economic jealousy, unguided hatred, and plane ol' stupidity & ignorance definelty played a large part in the attacks. I don't want to address my comments specifically to each one of your sentences, but I will for one of them. You said, "Though I'm sure you are nearly speechless with outrage like me, be calm. This appears to be the work of a small group with very limited resources compared to other great enemies such as Hitler that we have defeated time and time again in the past. It is highly likely that with this action they have shot their wad. We remain alert for any other signs of such attacks. " You are cleary wrong with this key statement from your faux presidential address. This was one in a series of escalating incidents that includes the African embassies, the Cole, the previous WTC bombing and possibly others. They were sponsored by a group that earns money through direct government sponsorship, semi-legitimate means like construction, as well as illegal ways like shorting on the airlines before they attacked. I'm sure they made quite a profit through the stock market last week. Lastly, it doesn't matter how many there are or how well funded they are, they just killed over 6,000 people so whoever it is, they have been EXTREMELY effective.
Can you explain the following statement: <b>It is hard to do when the President has fanned fear and hatred probably for political and possibly short-term electoral and economic reasons. </b> Short term ELECTORAL gain? Give me a break. Bush isn't up for reelection for 3 years. It has now been 2 weeks. The U.S. has yet to act in an hostile manner towards any person or country. Warnings have been issued, non-violent things are being done (e.g. freezing assets). What fear has the president fanned? The terrorists are a real and continuing threat to America and the world. They have been in the past and will continue to be. Hiding our head in the sand will not resolve this problem. Economic santions will not work against countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.
It's more then a "small group". They have networks all around the world. They bombed not only New York City, but several other embassies. They even bombed the World Trade Center back in 1993. They planned on bombing a U.S. embassy in China last month, but were thwarted. That's why China is so eager to help. As for "limited resources", bin Laden is a multi-millionaire, his father a multi-billionaire, one of the richest people in the world. The U.S. is going to do more then "shoot their wad." Besides these terrorist have been "shooting their wad" for the better part of 8 years in the United States, far longer in other countries. These weren't one time things.
I thought this happened b/c of our presence in the Gulf. I thought this happened b/c of the Iraqis that are starving due to US sanctions. I thought Israeli colonialism was another thing to blame. I fear it's something bigger now. I fear it's a crusade against our way of life. We must win this war. I believe that we will... provided our intentions are obviously honorable. glynch, I respect your opinions, but honestly... OBL is nothing more than an Arab Hitler. He must be destroyed... indictable evidence or not.
Glynch- Are the airlines to Switzerland working yet? You may want to go there because we are in for alot of bloodshed both for us and the terrorists. If you are still scared of seeing alot of blood leave now, it is about to get ugly. You saying we will use "minimal force" is a joke. These animals need to die a slow and painful death. Our special forces will go in and hunt them down. Hopefully with mimimal collateral damage. Also did you not hear Bin Laden newest sayuing this morning that he wants American and Jewish people to be killed by his killers. Yeah maybe we should just try to negotiate with him. Just like I'm sure the FAA tried to negotiate with the pilots of the jets who slammed into our buildings tried to give them money to land the plane and save the passengers. Treat a bully like a bully. I agree that financial ties with terrorist supporting nations will work, and I don't know how much military force we need against these nations but against these terrorists I sincerely hjope we drap them out of their houses and kill them and their families, no trials needed. If they are tied to Bin Laden, or any other terrorist who has killed innocent citizens in a planned attack, they should be considered wastes of life and should be exterminated.
So do all of you really think that Bin Laden is just as great or even more of a threat than Communism or Hitler? Granted it is a different type of threat. If not, do you really think that it accomplishes anything to act like he is? Do you think the American people can deal with this if they are conned it to thinking he is? Do you all think a principle goal of Bush's first speeches was to calm the American people? Or was it to scare them and make them even madder than they were? Do you really think it accomplishes a lot to scare people to the point where they think that every brown skinned neighbor is a potential terrorist? If you are really strong you don't have to posture with John Wayne talk just to send messages. What ever happened to the quiet confidence of strength. I'm sorry. I believe that Bush (or more acurately his advisors) have a political or some other agenda. Or why else would he try to scare the American people and make this more of a big deal than it really is? The agenda might be just as simple as trying to play to the polls as is often done by politicians. It could be they are using the attack to start another cold war. The Right has long been threatened by the prospect of a "peace dividend" and has been trying to justify continued hugh expenditures on arms. It could be they just want to use it to depose Sadam Hussein. I don't know. When all is said and done this will be solved by our intelligence services, special forces, sophisticated weapons and alllies and possibly new "allies " such as the "Northern Alliance". No need to get to the point of hysteria where Rumsfield was talking about using nuclear weapons. It would be interesting to see if Franklin Roosevelt tried to scare the US public as much after the attack on Pearl Harbor or did he try to calm people down and also assure them that America had the strength to defeat the enemy.
Glynch, You live in a dreamworld. Keep up your search for Utopia. Nice time to bring out right vs left comments. Pathetic. DaDakota
What exactly did Bush do to stir up hate towards Arabs? Was it when he visited the Mosque? Was it when he read from the Koran? "Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior," Bush said… He quoted from the Quran and fervently defended the Islam faith: "Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace, they represent evil and war." How is that fanning fear and hatred? How about giving us examples, instead of just making blanket statements. If Bush was out for SHORT TERM political gain, he would have BOMBED someone already like the public wants. He has acted with extreme patience, but you are to blinded by your partisan glasses to see so. Gore lost, get over it.
Glynch- Bush all along has stated the facts that he has known and said what we are going to do about it. No where has he ever told us to be afraid. No where did he ever say I'm afraid every time I get on a plane, or I'm afraid of every Arab. He is doing a great job and your anti-war sentiments have you running for cover and praying that Bin Laden will surrender himself and his organization without any blood shed. My friend they commited an act of war to the US on our own turf. They seasled their fate and they will dearly pay. Yes others (us and our allies) will suffer losses but the point of any governemnt is to protect it's citizens. For our citizens to be safe Bin Laden & other terrorists will have to be killed. Be proud of our soldiers who are about to protect YOUR FREEDOM.
Ty-Webb and 4-Chuckie I don't dispute your points, but I believe that by aggravating American's already existing fears he created the climate that a few token words about Arabs could not overcome. I don't believe that allaying fears was a principle concern of his. If so he was very incompetnet IMHO. I believe he wanted to stir up anger as his main goal. Why? I think that is what he mainly accomplished. To what purpose? I gave some of my theories. Do you all actually think that politicians of both parties are not analyzing this unplanned crisis as a way to support the agendas they had before the bombing. Look at how Falwell and others tried to use it as a way to get people to attend church more often. Except for Ms. Lee in California perhaps (I don't know) no Democrat that I know of has stated my views. With 91% perhaps or so opposing this view point at the moment per the polls I wouldn't expect any politicians to publicly voice such an opinion whether they had it or not.
"I believe that by aggravating American's already existing fears he created the climate" Again, list some specific examples instead of just making broad factless statements. He has done less than the television media to stir fear, that is for damn sure.
