I came face to face with a most aggressive form of bigotry yesterday. At a meeting where attendees were warned beforehand to not speak on any subjects of a political nature, one attendee managed to get on the agenda under the farce of needing to accomplish another goal. When he was finally called on to speak, inconsistent with the purpose of our meeting, and irrespective of the admonishment regarding political subjects, this gentleman began using our meeting as a forum to support his political agenda. Not only did he blame Republicans for all the economic problems throughout history, he diminished our entire war on terror to nothing more than a greedy fight over oil. This voter is the scariest voter of all. This voter, while under the guise of knowing his subject, had not researched at all, but rather gave us a spiel that was nothing more than a regurgitation of what the liberal media has been spoon feeding us.
What’s interesting is, this gentleman stressed how the economy boomed during Democratic leadership. Sadly, he overlooked the fact that the booming economy during the Clinton administration was a farce. The economy appeared to be booming because Bill Clinton wanted every American to be in a home, so he called upon lenders with the demand to make the loans happen, whatever it took, resulting in the mortgage crisis we have today. Bill did not have the forethought to understand that lenders would have to make up for potential future defaults through loans with a variable interest rate. And, lenders didn’t stop there. They aggressively pursued college students, and everyone else for that matter, to extend credit so everyone could live the “American Dream”. No wonder the economy appeared to be booming. Americans were running up debt like never before. Merchants were ecstatic -they profited the most from this frenzy. Now, we’re dealing with the fallout at the hands of a Democratic congress who vowed to filibuster anything President Bush tried to do. This high school mentality has no place in the running of our country, and in the paraphrased words of Sarah Palin, at this point, both parties and their constituents need to stop placing blame and come together to figure out how to fix it.
Now, with regard to the war in Iraq. Anyone who believes that the Bush administration used 9-11 events and the evidence of weapons of mass destruction to go into this country and start a war, my suggestion to that person is to take leave from their job and spend a year in Afghanistan, or Baghdad, right alongside a U.S. soldier every single day of that year. If one can do that, only then would that person have earned the right to make assessments of why we’re really over there fighting -and, to set the record straight, we didn’t start the war. The war began on U.S. soil on September 11th, 2001. Every soldier I have spoken with who has served in this war has stated that we are most certainly fighting the right war for the right reasons. They see first hand why our troops are over there, and anyone diminishing it to a mere fight over greed of oil has no respect for our U.S. Military, and in particular, disrespects my son who is serving in Iraq now.
Whether your Democrat or Republican, I encourage you to do your research and be informed before you go vote, and that does not mean your research consists of watching Katie Couric bashing Republicans and having love-fests with Democrats. That blatant bias is not news reporting. She has reduced her position in the media world to nothing more than a forum to support her own personal agenda, without regard for providing a fair, unbiased view of the real issues out there.
Editor's Note: This piece used with the permission of Gracie Dane. Gracie is a guest contributor for MTW and a regular at SensibleLife.com
Indulge a geezer his fancy. Kindly tell me what Iraq had to do with 9/11. I can find absolutely nothing.
I did see a bit where 16 American intelligence agencies submitted a joint brief to the President before the invasion. The gist of the NIE ? Destabilizing Iraq would make terrorism worse.
Later I found a study that seemed to make the point even more forcefully.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB207/index.htm
What then has been accomplished in Iraq…since the infrastructure for education, power, water and sewage is essentially destroyed ?
Here’s a hint
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
opit,
A link to 9/11 was never the point for invading Iraq. It sure is funny how some people manage to “hum” their way through each day so they can later “create” their own version of the truth. Simply quoting obviously biased websites is futile. Anyone could quote this website, yet I concede there is little “scientific” evidence to support its “opinions.”
From your source:
“There was consensus that the United States would not intervene without coalition support except under the most dire circumstances such as WMD use or catastrophic humanitarian disaster.”
- Desert Crossing After Action Report, 1999.
O.K. I feel like I need to educate you, since you obviously weren’t paying attention in real-time. First, U.S. intelligence reported that Hussein had not disposed of the WMD that the world knew for a fact he had. Second, your beloved Bill Clinton parroted the same deductions, “they do have ‘em.” Third, Vladimir Putin, who hates G.W. reluctantly confirmed the same from Russian intelligence. With Al Quaeda residing in the Middle-East, we were all (I would bet you included) frightened at the thought of these weapons getting into the “wrong” hands. Hussein still REFUSED to provide evidence of their disposal. These are facts that I carefully archived in my brain as this all played out, not talking points from some talking head.
You see, the thing that ticks me off the most is that if Bush, with all of this info, didn’t act, you would be criticizing him for that. Most likely, Dems would call him weak, shouting that he is unfit for the job. When in reality, the Dems will lie cheat and steal to take back power. Don’t agree? “Bush lied, people died.” If Bush lied then so did Clinton, Blair, Putin and many other world leaders. If Bush somehow “hoodwinked” the entire world, then why do Dems call him a “bumbling idiot?” Which is it? He is either a master of deception or he plays with Hotwheels…you can’t have it both ways.
The problem is that politics has come to a point where the “team” in power is more important than truth or national security. I abhor the sleaze that jeopardizes my safety and reputation as an American just to win a few votes.
I found some more dirt for you, quote this:
http://media.www.pacepress.org/media/storage/paper424/news/2004/04/01/PoopPress/An.Interview.With.George.W.Bush-649017.shtml
I would recommend that you have 1 on 1 conversations with soldiers who have served in this war -whether it be from the initiation -or those arriving back as this is being written. I spoken to and corresponded with hundreds who confirm we are fighting the right war for the right reasons. In addition, speak personally with those who are involved with and working endlessly and incessantly in our homeland security in counter terrorism, using all efforts to ensure attacks do not happen on U.S. soil.
Combating terrorism is much likened to ridding an apartment complex of roach infestation. Killing one at a time in this apartment, or that apartment, just doesn’t eliminate the problem. In order to truly eliminate, you must strike at the source, making every attempt to eliminate the origination of the pests. Then, you spread out, combating the numbers, to avoid further infiltration and infestation.
While it is understood that numbers of Iraqi people have died during this war, it remains a significantly lower number than before the war, when Iraqi people were tortured and slaughtered without cause and without regard for human life.
Just because we don’t see it it in our daily lives, doesn’t mean that we are no longer subject to terrorism and threats to our country and our freedom. Terrorist training facilities are ongoing, and new ones are erected continually as the hatred of America is perpetuated through these violent groups.
While I appreciate your comments and embrace the freedom to expel those, I am forever grateful to our military for laying their lives on the line every single day for us to maintain that freedom without fear of violent attacks like 9/11. To discount 9/11 as unrelated to this war is a serious understatement of the circumstances we are under.