I just can't shake this bad feeling about last night. I'm trying in vane to find something to ease my mind, but I can't. It doesn't help that Col. Ollie is still on the ledge. It also doesn't help that the positive things I'm reading about Bush's performance don't feel convincing to me. I got up extra early this morning just to peruse the various opinion pieces, and nothing did the job for me. I'm on the Bush train no matter what. What makes this disconcerting for me is I believe John Kerry would be the worst President since Jimmy Carter, and I believe we would significantly less safe with him leading our national defense. Hate Bush if you may, but I just don't see how anyone can think they'd be safer in their beds at night, or at their desk during the day, or at the mall or cafe on the weekend, under the leadership of John Kerry.
6 comments:
I may be repeating myself, and I find it quite intriguing to read what you post, and my response to your question may not please you or your loyal readers, but here is what I have to say:
1. We are creating more enemies and less friends with our current leader. He cannot get 4 more years to do the same.
2. Kerry has a plan to use diplomacy, which is an unknown word in the current leader's books.
3. We need to pull out of Iraq as soon as it is logically possible, to avoid Vietnam Part 2. Kerry has a plan to do that, but our current leader does not. Or at least it has not been explicitly stated. He was certainly not convincing in his response about what he planned to do with the 'Iraq baby'.
4. We need to start protecting the homeland AT HOME first and then think about abroad. Throwing Cat Stevens out of the country is not what is needed. Securing the Homeland is what is needed, not pushing defense budgets out of the roof for liberating other countries is not what is needed.
5. Most importantly, we need to get back all our friends we lost in the past few years of bravado-pumped war efforts. Its ok to accept a mistake, and in fact it is noble to admit your mistakes. But our leader does not want to accept it. In fact he continues to march down the mistaken path and proudly state that he is doing everything right.
I don't think I will be able to sleep soundly or be able to fly safely or drink water safely if our current leader gets 4 more years to impose his war philosophies on me.
RPM: Imagine me smirking like W. Now imagine me chuckling like him-heh heh heh. Now my response-you are flat out wrong, and your proposals threaten to seriously destabilize the entire world. Geopolitics is not a popularity contest. Your Eurocentric view is, I'm afraid, a little too idealist and not enough realist. Not finishing what we started will embolden the terrorists, just like us putting our tail between our legs and running out of Somalia did. It is also morally reprehensible, because after telling the Iraqis that we will help them build a better Iraq, we'd be throwing them to the dogs. In this case, the dogs would be Islamists and terrorists who'd make their life even worse than it was under Saddam.
So let me point you to what I did *not* say. I did not say we have to pull out now. And Sen Kerry does not say that either. My view is not Eurocentric, it is WorldCentric. What does the world think of us? The world (except Ol' Queen) thinks that we are bullies trying to wrestle our way to oil. And talking about finishing the job, I am all for it. Why then, did the new Mr. Flip Flop decide not to go inside the mosque to get Moqtada-whoever who was hiding inside and was calling the shots from his 'safe zone'? Before we went to Fallujah we said we want to 'end' the terror, and once we got there, we did not have the guts to kill the guy who was known to the hiding inside and who was known to be directing the insurgence.
We are neither here nor there. We are not taking the battle to the guys who are calling the shots (like Israel does, and that's why it is not too many friends), neither are we taking the diplomatic route (when U.N. did not cooperate at the beginning, we said 'screw the UN', and now we are trying to get them to help us). We are basically Flip Flopping. No, the President is Flip Flopping on the people who are funding the war - the people, the tax paying citizens.
At the cost of isolating ourselves (except again, for Britain, and don't forget, Poland!) from the rest of the world, always creating more enemies (read: no more coalition) and always losing existing friends (check http://usctrojan98.blogspot.com/2004/10/from-john-kerrys-blog.html).
I don't think I am ready to vote for a person like that. We do need to finish what we started, but we need diplomacy to make it happen. Our bumbling Mr. President is not the person to do that. No sir.
Kerry means the same Internationalism that Carter represented. It means deferring American interests to the interests of International Unity. In other words, lowering ourselves to the standards of France, Germany, China, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and any the rest of the Third World Socialists.
Forgive me, but I lived through Jimmy Carter when inflation was 24% a year, when the Ayatollah took over in Iran, when our hostages were held for over a year and Carter used his International Unity coalition to do ---- nothing.
We do not have to get out of Iraq immediately. We are there to STABILIZE the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is on the verge of a revolution, Syria is a terrorist state, Lebanon is a captive Syrian state, Jordan is caught in the middle (still) and Israel is under seige daily. The PLO is still a terrorist organization. If the U.S. does not remain there, who will stablize the region? France? She won't even intervene in the Sudan because of oil interests.
And what friends are we talking about in the world? FRANCE? Forgive me, but France would betray itself if it meant prestige. Or money. And the fact that these "friends" are now in economic decline because they can no longer count on cheap Iraq oil to subsidize their socialism is a darn good thing. We don't need friends like that, and they need an urgent reality check. Bush is giving it to them.
Solve the world problems for what? We have our kids not being educated enough and losing jobs to other countries. We have elderly (poor) not getting enough attention health-wise.
And most importantly, we have young kids going to war and dying, for absolutely no reason. We don't need to solve world problems. We need to solve *our* problems. We have enough. Let's take care of that first, and then decide who will and how the world order is established.
Yes, of course, the USA can take a diplomatic route and raise the issue with other countries. Peace and stabilization are necessary. But not at the price of our young kids. The more we stay, the more we'll lose.
The Soviet Union's attemtpt to go to Afghanistan should have taught us an important lesson - we cannot win that war. It is not a war. We are not fighting an army. We are fighting loosely defined maniac organizations, where everyone is willing to give up their lives for their cause. It is not something that *anyone* can plan for. It is basically something that needs to be resolved by local groups. The mighty Soviet Army had to pull out after 6-7 years of terrible fighting and even as they were pulling out, they were being attacked.
These guys don't forget. They have seen their fathers, brothers, heck, even wives and daughters killed or taken away for no reason. They have seen their family being separated for no reason and they are going to harbor revenge. All they'll need is a slight push into the 'wrong' direction. And they will be ready to die.
The army we are fighting has no real number. They will fight from anywhere and everywhere and they will never stop.
Diplomacy over bravado. We've given enough chances to the current leader. Let's see if the alternative option is really an option.
Re: Cant Shake This Feeling
I know exactly what you mean. But here is something to make you feel better. Some people never forget. And it's a good thing.
Just a reminder, Dont let a Liberal ruin your party!
http://www.ytedk.com/postcard.htm
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