What are you smoking, Bilow? No one is proposing isolationism. On the contrary, the consensus is that isolationism -- paying too little attention to the outside world -- was just what exposed us to 9/11.
The Democrats don't want to pull out. Have you heard a word from Daschle or Lieberman? President Bush is pulling 80 - 90% approval ratings; the War on Terror is popular. For good reason. I haven't forgotten 9/11; have you?
As for the oil motive, please make up your mind, you sound a little schizophrenic:
As has been stated repeatedly, the US doesn't take much oil from Saudi Arabia, it's a European / Asian problem.
As long as the United States is forced to choose between Israel and Saudi Arabia it will come down on the side of Saudi Arabia because of the oil there
Is oil a driving motive for US policy or is it not? I believe it is, and it would be much more secure if there were a few less "strategic fruitcakes" (I love frank's term) running major countries over there.
All that Bush would need to do to take us into Iraq is make a case for it. The Defense Department hawks all want it, and I think President Bush does too. You know how he reveres his father? Saddam Hussein tried to kill him. I don't think President Bush has forgotten.
Our policy of containment has obviously failed in Iraq, and it's given Saddam Hussein a continuous propaganda victory to boot. Do you really suggest we wait around until after Saddam Hussein has acquired nuclear weapons?
Maybe I should remind you that Saudi armed forces have a history of fighting side by side with US troops as allies. Israel has no such history.
I'm going to have to stop thinking of you as a sensible person if you keep saying such ludicrous things. Do the Saudis even have an armed force in any real sense? Not really. They survive by buying off their enemies. Israel didn't fight on the side of the US in the Gulf War because it was forbidden to do so -- the US didn't give them the friend-or-foe codes to make sure of it.
I think that this President Bush will give them the codes. The Turks, the Israelis and the US have been doing extensive joint military exercises in the eastern Mediteranean during the last year. President Bush also knows for sure that Arik Sharon will not sit idle if Iraqi scuds fall on Tel Aviv. A shipful of US-made antidotes to chemical and biological weapons was delivered to Haifa a couple of weeks ago. Preparations are being made.
The "coalition" that Colin Powell was so big on has been shown up as useless. The public is in no mood to throw sops and sweet talk to the Arabs after 9/11, and the Arab orgy of denial. The Arab street was silenced by our victory in Afghanistan. Arab diplomats are saying in private, "You swear that you will finish Saddam this time?" I think we're going to reacquire respect in the Middle East the old-fashioned way -- we're going to beat the crap out of someone. Can't think of a nicer, more deserving guy than Saddam Hussein. |
