Early poll... little movement... _________________ Washington Post poll shows Bush picks up 4 points on approval and one point on disapproval. Also interesting responses to some of the Saddam/Iraq-specific questions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/vault/stories/data121503.html
If the US inadvertently went to war with Iraq as part of its larger War on Terror, I would hope that you would be enlightened enough to see that "our emperor has no clothes". Sadly, this does not appear to be the case. Wishing that the Iraqi people are enlightened wrt our intentions and good will is just that. Projecting enlightening upon the Iraqi people in hopes of GWB political gains is simply wishing on your part.
If I was living under the boot of Saddam, I would not give a crap what justification the US used to free of us of the tyrant and give us self-rule. And polls show that Iraqi people want us to stay, hence I am not being wishful in that regard.
Yes, you would hope. In a perfect world. The phrase "oppression of a tyrant that has killed many of my fellow citizens" is a loaded phrase. It's embellished. It's almost like saying, "dogs and cats are falling from the skies." It creates an imagery that is not accurate. Yes, Saddam was a ruthless dictator. And if people did not follow his rules, he would torture and kill them. But at the same time, it wasn't "dogs and cats falling from the sky where every single person was tortured and killed from your family." People had lives, they had work. They lived life. It was a city where you drove cars and went to work. It's wasn't a place where chaos reigned every single second. Stop believing the hype. Look at it with a stark really, no embellishment. I agree with you on the fact that the US should have done something. But I disagree with you on how you turn everything into an extreme picture. When you do that, reactions and solutions become *shotgun methods.* It's very sloppy and causes just as many problems as they solved.
You have to be kidding. Apparently you think the Iraqi people just got used to it after a while? I don't know what stuff you are reading, but I'll just point out polls that say that Iraqis believe they are much better off with Saddam gone. I also remember reading somewhere that something like 1 in 3 Iraqis knows someone who has been murdered by Iraq. That is a very high number. One more point- Iraqi hatred for the US probably has much less to do with anger over collateral damage than with extreme Islamic teachings that are part of the culture.
You have the luxury of knowing what a liberal society of the west is like. They do not. Partially becaues of Saddam's rule, patially becuase of Islamic traditional; hence they may not want total change (complete with Disney Land and Britney Spears). Especially if you were a shop owner in the city and made an average living. Remember, there's a strong religious faith there. It's not motivated by profit, like here in the US.
Are you not keeping up with current events? Hatred for the US is part of Islamic Fundamentalism. It exists in Iraq, believe it or not! If you think that the relatively small amount of civilian deaths for a war of this kind is causing the backlash, you are wrong.
Getting used to it doesn't mean "liking it." It's just becomes a known. A system. A way of life. A norm. Predicable. Do you know about the psychology of the POW? Similar reaction. Now, you might want to say, "How dumb of them" or "they should know better" or "they need to be re-educated." It's not that simple. Well, collateral damange was just one factor. Generally speaking, it was about foreign policy. That in itself causes it's own problems.
Joe Lieberman is creating quite a SCHISM in the Democratic party with his foreign policy stance. He gave me a new signature! Will Dean's uprising earn him a spot as fuhrer of the Democratische Partei! Things are getting sehr interessant!!!
Yes, the Iraqi people were crushed into compliance with Saddam's wishes. However, you go to far in insinuating that they lived normal lives, or that they didn't care what happened to Saddam. I haven't heard of a POW who didn't want to come home either. That's an odd analogy. There were many elements of Islamism in Iraqi society. To think that their resistance is based solely on our foreign policy is short sighted.
I hate to say that my first reaction was, Oh God, Bush just got another four years. We're doomed. My second reaction, Well, at least something came out of this war. Down with Saddam. And with integrity. My third reaction was, Hopefully the rosy aftermath of the Saddam capture will wear off and the Democratic nominee might succeed in pulling the mask off Bush the Troll. Why is Bush so supposedly interested in freeing the Iraqi people, and yet so keen to ignore his own people? The only reason he cares if the economy turns around (we'll see if the jobs come back) is so that he can get elected (note: I do not say "re-elected"; see also, disenfranchised black voters in Florida). This President exists to serve big business and military contracts. That's it. He gives completely new meaning to "laissez-faire." Let Bush have his day for now. I just hope he doesn't get another four years to roll back more environmental regulations, throw more people into unemployment, drive us further into debt, force states to keep cutting benefits (doesn't it say in the Bible that we should help widows and orphans? when someone strikes you, turn to him the other cheek also? thou shalt not kill? HA! yet another Christian who doesn't read the Bible, UNLESS IT HAS REALLY BIG PICTURES IN IT).
You'd be surprised. That's how words and ideas spread throughout a city. Add a little misguided Islamic Fundamentalism, and you lay the ground work for hatred. By the way, the solution to Islamic Fundamentalism is what? Genocide via bombs? No. That would only cause more problems.
And the POW statement was an example about the mind-set a person gets under oppression. It wasn't about a "POW" and how they would want to come home. I did not say that it was SOLEY on foreign policy. I said that the Iraqis are torn. Stay on track here...
Islamic fundimentalism was against the law under Hussein. Any bit of it that existed previously was covert. Since Saddam's fall some of it has become overt, and more of it has moved in. The Iraqis now supposedly are free. That means they can now have the Islamic fundamentalism that was outlawed under Saddam.
My thoughts exactly! I'd even vote for John McCain (or bring Bush Senior back) if it meant getting this puppet of a president out of office.
I don't understand why capturing Saddam would lead to Bush having a better shot of being re-elected. Where is OBL? ya know the guy that actually did attack us (multiple times) and I'm sure is planning ways to do it again. maybe if we hadn't taken manpower away from the hunt for OBL, we would be rejoicing an even greater capture this week. T_J would have you believe that liberals and Dems should be eating crow right now because Bush actually managed to follow-through and accomplish a goal? Is that how low of a standard Republicans have for our President?
It may have been against the law but to say that it doesn't or did not exist in Iraqi society is not accurate. Our major problem now is not just remnants of Saddam's old regime but Islamic fundamentalists entering Iraq to fight the coalition, and my guess is these fundamentalists fit quite well with Iraqi society. We already see that for Iraqi leaders Islam is a major source of their leadership. Are there any secular leaders?
