Sure. I'll take a crack at it.
First off, every president has "handlers". What do you think his staff and cabinet are there for? The only real fact here is that if you already don't like a president, you can call him reckless if he ignores his advisors, or call him "handled" (with an implication of a lack of intelligence) if he doesn't.
It's a meaningless point to make. You don't assume a pilot is incompetant because he relies on things like his instruments, and a landing beacon, and ground controllers to land that jumbo jet you're on safely, do you?
Elvaan. You get my FUD award for the week with this post. Lots of rhetoric and innuendo, but not much real fact.
ElvaanKrem wrote:
I believe there was quite a bit of heat on the Administration for the Enron disaster. Then there are allegations the Administration had knowledge of events to come before 9/11 ever occured. These allegations are further backed up by the mysterious 20 some odd pages blacked out of the 9/11 report prepared by the Bush Administration. Further more, weapons of mass destruction? No one has found any yet.
Wow. Reads like a dimestore novel. So, if enough people (Democrats amazingly enough), make *accusations*, that means something? So me calling you guilible 50 times has more weight then just saying it once? Got it.
OMG! And Clinton bot a ******** in the White House. Then he bombed some terrorist group to divert attention away from the proceedings. Oddly, the same group that later flew planes into the WTC and the Pentagon. Clintons to blame for it all!!!
See how it works? With enough things going on, and enough time, yoiu can string together any accusation you want really. Name me a president that hasn't had a pretty continous string of "bad press" during his administration, then come back and we'll talk.
Quote:
If you need proof that Bush is not in command of the military, look at the torture the iraqi POW's are going thru. Let's not bring up the beheading of a US citizen video, because there are signs in the video that it was not the Muslims who were doing the beheading. I thought after we had captured Sadam, the US troops were there till the Iraqi's could establish a firm government. However, its the US that wants to govern Iraq... yet they're still supposed to be free?
Yes, and an alluminum hat will help block out the alien mind control rays. Can you be a bit more paranoid? Is this where you tell me that an evil conspiracy that apparently can't keep random US soldiers from doing stupid stuff (or keep them from revealing it if they were supposed to keep it secret), is somehow masterminding this whole thing, apparently with the goal of pissing off a bunch of nations, getting some soldiers killed, and then keeping Iraq (so as to **** off even more people)?
Um? To what purpose? See, there has to be some advantage in it for the Star Chamber folks here. So far, I don't see one. Can it possibly just be that our government really is trying to prevent a threat to the US and maybe actually do something about terrorism in the middle east, but by golly! we're all human and no one is perfect? Thus, people die. We might have less then perfect intelligence about the enemy. We might even have less then absolute control over every single member of the military! Nah? Doesn't sound like a good enough conspiracy...
Quote:
Finally, IMO of whats going on... its rather sad. We, the US, hold our heads high and say we're doing the right thing. Can you tell me how we're doing that when we're telling the Iraqi's we're there to help, but then they SEE us torturing instead. No, that is not fitting of an appropriate Administration. Therefore, either Bush (and the administration) is not in control of the situation, or Bush (and the administration) is a hypocrital dictator set on power and control.
No. They see pictures of US soldiers posing Irai prisoners in embarassing positions. I haven't actually seen a photo yet showing actual torture. I'm not excusing the photos and the actions they portray at all, but let's call a spade a spade, shall we? Adding hyperbole is just another way of lying, right? Or are you saying that it's ok to stretch the truth and make a mountain out of a molehill as long as it favors your personal beliefs?
It's amazing how hard it is for people to apply their own rules to themselves. You slam the Bush administration for looking at a decade plus of evasiveness on the WMD issue by Iraq (and many many other things) as a sign they've got WMD. Yet, in the same post, you look at photos of Iraqi's being posed and assume torture. Seems to me like you reallly can't claim the high ground.
Quote:
NEVER in the US history has the US gone so far as to begin provoking war. However, in this instance, until "weapons of mass destruction" can be found, I believe the US started this fight.
Hmmm... Barbary States (Where do you think the "Shores of Tripoli" are, anyway?). Spanish/American War? At least try to be accurate.
Technically, Iraq started the fight when they invaded Kuwait 13 years ago. We have existed under a cease-fire since that time, contingent on Iraq meeting several terms (including turning over all documentation of their WMD programs and destroying all existing WMD). They never met any of the terms. We had the legal right according to international law to invade Iraq at any point in the last 13 years. Heck.We probably should have done it back in 91, but we decided to let the UN make the call and see if their way worked. Now, if you want to make a case that Iraq was properly dealt with during the 11 years of UN inspections that were given the run around, and the trade embargoes that were ignored, and the sanctions that did nothing but punish the Iraqi people for the actions of their leaders, then please go ahead.
I'm betting you can't though.
Look. I'm really not a huge bush fan. However, I don't automatically critisize someone for a decision because I don't like them. I don't think Bush is the brightest president we've had. Not by a long shot. But I don't think he's the dumbest either. The guy just doesn't speak well. He's also had a hell of a lot to deal with during his administration. A huge economic collapse, and a number of scandals as a result (the source of which were years old, but only became apparent when the economy turned). He had to deal with the worst terrorist attack on US soil ever, a mere 9 months after taking office. And he had to deal with a UN that decided in the midst of this to lift sanctions on Iraq, forcing us to either chose to let Iraq off the hook, or take action when our forces were already stretched thin (anyone else think the timing of that decision was not an accident?).
I think, given the issues he's had to deal with, he's done pretty well. You may not agree with his policies, but they have been consistent, and he's stuck by them. He could easily have ignored the Iraq thing. He probably would be more popular right now if he had. But it would have been counter to his foreign policy, and someimtes you have to do the unpopular thing because it's necessary. The job of president is not a game show. It's not always about ratings.
Edited, Wed May 26 04:06:09 2004 by gbaji