Ted,
I am unclear why this is germane to what we are talking about now. I don't think there was enough time between his inauguration and 9/11 to get a good picture of what this administration was all about. But clearly, since 9/11, military aggression seems to be its theme.
I think 9/11 justifies the change of priorities. I think the response has been appropriate. I would hardly call it aggression. What do you object to as far as what happened between 9/11 and now?
Secondly, why do you assume I condoned all that happened during the last administration. I thought Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan were ridiculous and accomplished little....but then again, the efforts were very small, and certainly not on the level of a war.
Does it mean that you gave the previous administration room for error to get half of the military actions wrong? If that's your measure, Bush can get Iraq wrong, and you should still be content. (After getting Afghanistan done right).
Its unclear to me why they are ignoring domestic issues but ignoring them is what they're doing. And things are beginning to unravel badly.
They are beginning to unravel badly? They began to unravel in Q1 2001, when the negative growth started, or if you want look for "root causes", it was when the bubble burst in Q1/Q2 2000, or even further back, when the bubble was allowed to be blown up. Greenspan has a bit of a blame here since he recognized there is a danger of a serious downside as a result of the bubble bursting, he clearly recognized that the bubble effect was building up, but other than some verbal jabs, he did not do enough and he didn't doo it soon enough. He was blindsided by the Y2K issue, which was probably the main reason for his error.
Anyway, if anything, things are stabilizing now, with slow growth, which will hopefully turn into faster growth in 2003. The stock market just continues on its crash course, but what else is new? We have had steady pounding like this since March 2000, which is almost 2 1/2 years. And one day, even that will stabilize and turn around.
Re: Diplomatic efforts
Developing consensus with our allies and pushing for a UN effort to bring an end to Saddam's antics. On the surface, the administration appears to be doing the latter and maybe even both, but in reality, they are managing to muddy up the waters and confuse the situation.
This is an explanation of I am prepared to go to war when it can be justified; when all diplomatic measures have been tried and failed but not one millisecond before.
I am with you on "when it can be justified" but you are completely wrong on the diplomatic part. Saddam doesn't give a damn about UN resolutions or whether there is a consensus among the allies of the US. He only understands force or the threat of force. How and from where the force (or threat) gets applied is irrelevant.
An example is their response to Germany's reservations re Iraq. Germany is one of our key allies and a necessary one in our NATO alliance. Instead of trying to understand the German perspective and work with it, the administration is choosing to denigrate and snub German officials.
This is a big detour into something that's irrelevant to whether to go or not go to war (= diplomacy), but my reaction to Germany, Germans and their attitude vs. the rest of the world, I think they need a shrink to get over their troubled childhood. With Schroeder, he could have been a responsible leader - and an ex-prime minister, or irresponsible (running agains George Bush) and keeping his job. He chose former, that is running against Bush purely for political purposes, and I see no reason for Bush to help him get out of the hole he dug for himself. What he did was purely for political purpose to get himself elected. There was nothing the US asked him to do, other than sit idly by while the US does all the work.
It's not like there are no areas where Germany could be more assertive or show its independence. Anyway, I am hoping that Bush will find a way and not meet him during the Nato summit in November, even better, if Germany is not on his travel plans as long as Schroeder is there.
Joe |
