Basso, it's because of posts like this that I have evidence to say that you are the one living in a pre-9/11 world, or possible a pre- 20th century world. You claim that we shouldn't have to win support of nations like France, and others in our war against terrorism. If everyone had that kind of thinking we would lose the war on terrorism. 1. Only by cooperationg and sharing intelligence from other nations can we halt attacks, track down terrorist leaders and the money that funds the terrorist organizations. Stop cooperating with them and they may stop cooperating with us. As is I'm happy that France flew the most air missions in our fight in Afghanistan next to the U.S. I'm happy because at that time the world saw that we were wronged and wanted to help, and were even willing to risk the lives of their citizens to stop what was an American as well as Global problem. 2. You may not have done well in school when it came to working in cooperative groups, or perhaps your business dealings haven't reached a place where it's necessary to work with people who know certain things that you don't. But I've been in those situations and I can get people to see my side of things by inviting them in, and working with them than against them. It also makes my job easier just like it would make the U.S.' job easier. Tax payers would pay less, troops could be rotated more, and there would be fewer of them in harms way, because our burdon would be shared, our knowledge about terrorists greater. 3. It wouldn't be because Bush has tried to be a Roosevelt type or anything like that. Even if I was in favor of invading Iraq I would want Bush gone, because he's shown incompetence in handling the task. The war on terror should concentrate on terror in my opinion. 4.Has he gotten OBL? Has he found the person/people responsible for the anthrax attacks? Has he gotten Mullah Omar? Has Bush been able to build on the post 9/11 support around the world to effectively fight the most dangerous terrorist groups? Has Bush found the member of his Whitehouse who has committed a felony by exposing the identity of a CIA operative? The felon not only committed the crime which could damager our national security but did so while we have troops in the field. Bush hasn't succesful in any of these things, nor has his diplomacy strengthened our ties with allies which would increase national security. What Bush has done is divert troops and funding that could have gone toward fighting terrorism to invade a country that was no threat to the U.S. at all. Bush has managed to alienate countries that not only were allies but that were willing to risk their own citizens lives to help us in the war against terrorism. The man is a bungler, who can't handle the duties he's supposed to handle. I for one, know full well that I live in a post 9/11 world where terrorism is real threat. That's why I think GWB needs to be ousted ASAP. Of course GWB was told that the greatest threat to the U.S. was OBL as soon as he took office. Yet nothing was done about it, but somehow the stupid missle defense plan was full throttle. If you are told terrorism is the biggest threat why would you go ahead with the missle defense plan prior to dealing with the terrorist threat. GWB just isn't up to the task.
the point is there are plenty of honorable countries helping in the fight. a majority of the countries in NATO have personel in Iraq. France has actively campaigned against our security needs as a sop to domestic opinion and the faded "gloire de la france." i'd like to have them on-board, but i for one am happy to fight w/out them. and i say this as an employee of a french company. guilty as charged- i didn't play well with others in kindergarten. if you'll reread the referenced post, you'll see that i think one of the disconnects here is that many people, myself included, see the war in iraq as part and parcel of the war on terror. you may disagree. in the 27 months since 9/11 has there been a terrorist attack on american soil? have we taken the fight to them, in Iraq and Afghanistan rather than fighting them on Liberty street? the more damning conclusion here is that if WJC knew OBL was the greatest threat to the U.S., why didn't he do something about it? he had 8 years to do so. Bush was in office for 8 months on 9/11.
basso, my point was not that we should bow down to European nations or anything like that. I mean to emphasize the following: if it's truly western civilization against the lunatic fringe of islam (and I *agree* that this is how we should have and should be pitching our campaign to the world), you'd think more than 3% of western civilization would get on board. That's not kow towing to other nations or the UN, that's healthy self-reflection for us as a nation. Why do so many people think we're acting like a deranged beast? It's true, they could be deluded and weak, but we can't afford to not ask ourselves these types of hard questions. With advisors like Wolfie and Cheney, Bush will be discouraged from asking himself these questions at every turn. That frightens some of us quite a bit.
