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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AurumRabosa who wrote (550255)	3/10/2004 10:25:22 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

We must work to defeat the reckless Bush / Cheney regime that is dragging our country down...we need a higher standard of leadership... A hypocritical Bush uses 9/11 images but resists an accounting of the truth. _____________________________ The Worst Form of Exploitation By Robert Scheer COMMENTARY The Los Angeles Times March 9, 2004 How perfect the irony, how sordid the scam. The president, who ignored the Al Qaeda threat before Sept. 11, 2001, who diverted public attention in that horror's aftermath to the nonexistent threat from Iraq and who has stonewalled the investigation of 9/11, now seeks to exploit that tragedy as a reelection gimmick. George W. Bush avoids being photographed with the dead and injured from his folly in Iraq, but hey, those flag-draped coffins of 9/11 victims make great TV ads. What a grisly low in political exploitation. That's why the ads were condemned by a firefighters union and many of the 9/11 victims' relatives, whose various websites contain an impressive list of the unanswered questions concerning the tragedy. As Bob McIlvaine, whose son was killed in the Twin Towers disaster, put it: "Instead of playing on people's emotions with images of that day, the president would do right to cooperate more with the independent commission investigating the 9/11 attacks so we can learn the truth about what happened on that day and why." But uncovering the truth about 9/11 has never been Bush's intention. Instead, the president has used that tragedy for his own political ambitions — to draw attention away from his lies about Iraq, the unprecedented national debt, the disappointing jobless recovery and the attacks on civil liberty. What's mind-boggling is the cynicism of Bush's electoral ploy when one considers that he never showed any interest in terrorism before 9/11. He had focused instead on the war on drugs and trying to one-up his father on Iraq. His abysmal failure to heed the Clinton administration's warnings regarding the threat posed by Osama bin Laden may be one reason for Bush's extreme reluctance to permit an unimpeded, bipartisan public investigation of 9/11. Never before in our national history has such a major event been so unexamined by the government while being so effectively hyped for political advantage. The obfuscation has been deliberate and executed with a passion that suggests Bush may have some dreadful truth to hide. Why else would he initially oppose the formation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the origins and lessons of 9/11? Bush allowed the commission to form only after enormous public pressure led by the families of victims, who demanded an accounting of what led to the loss of their loved ones. Bush then sought to undermine an honest investigation by appointing Henry Kissinger, international grand master of mendacity, to be chairman. That gambit failed when Kissinger refused to make public his murky financial entanglements with the very regimes most likely to have links to the 9/11 terrorists. After a more independent commission finally was allowed to form, Bush set about to systematically undermine its work by refusing to turn over documents essential to the investigation or to permit the full committee to interview the top officials in his administration, from himself on down. This is a president whose immediate response to 9/11 was to protect the Al Qaeda terrorists' known sponsors in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan while planning a sideshow war against Bin Laden's sworn enemy in Baghdad, Saddam Hussein. In the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster, a Saudi plane was allowed to land in the United States and whisk Bin Laden relatives and certain Saudis out of the country before intelligence agencies could fully question them, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals who had been allowed to enter the U.S. under suspicious circumstances, suggesting the connivance of the Saudi government. Bush turned his sights on Iraq's illusory weapons of mass destruction while lifting the sanctions imposed on Pakistan, a known possessor and proliferator of nuclear weapons. Nor have any of those sanctions been restored even now, when Pakistan admits that its top scientific institute was the source of nuclear weapons technology sold to North Korea, Libya and Iran. Bush defends his exploitation of 9/11 with these words: "How this administration handled that day, as well as the war on terror, is worthy of discussion." Yes indeed, but it is an administration that delights in discussions in which it monopolizes all of the crucial information and cherry-picks, fabricates and otherwise distorts evidence, mocking the sacred notion of representative democracy. _________________________________ Robert Scheer writes a weekly column for The Times and is coauthor of "The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq" (Seven Stories Press/Akashic Books, 2003). latimes.com

To: AurumRabosa who wrote (550255)	3/10/2004 1:00:25 PM
From: Srexley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

"Mr Bush lied to us about WMD" No he didn't. In fact you are lying here by stating this. If you have some proof of this I would be interested in seeing it, but I suspect all the proof you need comes from your hatred of our President. Or was the U.N, Clinton, Kerry and others lying too? "Mr Bush has the worst foreign policy approach I've ever seen." You probably prefer appeasement and law enforcement against terrorism, and that is the worst foreign policy for today's times. Taking out a brutal dictator that hated the U.S., was breaking international law, and who may have aided others who hate the U.S. and giving an oppressed people the opportunity to enjoy freedom like me an you is a BRILLIANT plan. Too bad there are so many like you who hate our President so much they will LIE about his motives for increasing world peace. "The real terrorist threat to the world is Saudia Arabia as they've been the main source of terrorist funds." All entities in the middle east are getting a demonstration of what being on the wrong side of our anti-terros policies will get them. We had legal cause to invade Iraq, and good will come from it. Saudi Arabia is improving right now, and will continue to do so. Unless the left gets back in power and reverts to where we were. But I doubt that will happen. Certainly hope not. "Unfortunately Mr Bush has seriously neglected dealing with domestic issues," America is doing fine. Especially when the facts that we have been attacked and are at war with terrorists world wide are considered. If there are 9-11's happening on a regular basis it would be much worse. You seem to think the government's job is to take from one group and provide to another. It is not. It is to protect our people and our way of life so that people have the OPPORTUNITY to succeed. Not a gaurantee. Unemployment in France is over 9%, in Germany over 10%, Russia, who knows. We are at 5.6% and have one of the highest standards of living on the planet. Sorry if there is not enough of an opportunity for you here. That is not George Bush's or the government's fault. The thing that would help the most would be improved education, which he has worked on. Unfortunatly there are a lot of people that think tightening the standards and requirements is too hard, so they will fight to reduce the kid's chances. Especially in the minority communities.