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Politics : Bush-The Mastermind behind 9/11? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (5700)	3/18/2004 6:35:09 PM
From: Don Earl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20039

Ray, <<<Yet I can't help but notice that in almost every country today, it is the right wing who are obsessed with militarism.>>> Could be. On the other hand, I don't see the "left" voting against military actions or "defense" spending. At the grass roots level there may be a difference, but at the government level it's just different sides of the same coin. The party line may have a different slant as far as public propaganda goes, but when the rubber meets the road, it's just different packs of jackals fighting over the same rotting corpse. 9/11 ushered in a new era where government sponsored terrorism has become the ultimate political tool. Citizens are now considered the enemy, which justifies the use of military force against them to control their thoughts and actions. It isn't reasonable to believe that after the stunning success of 9/11, other governments would fail to see the advantage of mass murder as a strategic weapon for political gains.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (5700)	3/19/2004 5:32:02 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20039

If the US (over)reaction to the victory of "crusade-pooper" Zapatero is any guide, a Kerry victory over Bush would turn out to be even more momentous, wouldn't it? I mean, US right-wingers have been hurling abuse at "Old Europe" ever since the defeat of PM Aznar, calling it a new "Munich", a victory for al-Qaeda,.... So, what if Kerry pulls it off in November? Much of a muchness or... a full-scale civil war? U.S.-Spain rift appears in danger of widening Brian Knowlton IHT Friday, March 19, 2004 Zapatero affirms that he prefers Kerry WASHINGTON The sudden new Washington-Madrid divide appeared at risk of widening Thursday. After the incoming Spanish leader reaffirmed that he preferred President George W. Bush's Democratic rival, top figures in Bush's Republican Party termed the Spanish "appeasers" who would "permit the victory of the terrorists." The comments came a day after the Bush administration said for the first time that the outgoing Spanish government had mishandled the first information about the Madrid bombings March 11, when it steered public attention toward Basque separatists as the likely culprits and away from Islamic extremists. U.S. officials at first repeated the Spanish suspicions, before slowly backing away from them. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Wednesday that the Spanish "didn't get what information did exist out to the public." This, he said, had led to defeat for the center-right Popular Party. The mutual criticism, in particular the sharp attacks on the Bush administration by the incoming Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has created an extraordinary spectacle. Major governments nearly always eschew such language as improper interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Members of the Popular Party, ousted from power by Zapatero's Socialists on Sunday, said he seemed to be acting as if he were still in opposition, not the next head of a major U.S. ally and fellow NATO member. But after the Madrid bombings apparently pushed Spanish voters to embrace a party committed to withdrawal from Iraq, the stakes have become unusually high. In an interview with the International Herald Tribune published March 8, three days before the bombings, Zapatero said Bush had led "the most reactionary American administration in recent times" and said Spanish Socialists were "aligning ourselves" with Bush's presumptive Democratic rival, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. He made similar comments Wednesday. Kerry has urged Zapatero to reconsider his vow to bring Spanish troops home. He should "send a message that terrorists cannot win by their acts of terror," Kerry said. The latest U.S. complaint that Spanish voters had in effect rewarded terrorism came Thursday from a respected Republican foreign policy expert, Senator John McCain of Arizona. Asked about the election, he told NBC News: "I think it's a sign that a lot of people in countries in Europe are strongly anti-American and anti-Iraq war. I also believe that history shows that appeasement doesn't work." A day earlier, other senior Republicans offered even more pointed indictments. During a bitter debate in the House of Representatives on a resolution to mark the first anniversary of the Iraq war, the majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, said, "If we follow the example of the new Spanish government and we accept failure in Iraq and permit the victory of the terrorists, there will be no counting the number of people around the world who will suffer the consequences." An even more senior Republican, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, said the Spaniards had chosen to "in a sense appease terrorists." The Iraq war resolution passed easily, by 327-93, but some Democrats complained that it glossed over continued problems in Iraq and ignored the terror attacks that have continued in many countries, including Spain. Representative John Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, took strong exception to a line in the resolution that reads, "The United States and the world have been made safer" by the war. "Is it safer today in Spain?" he asked. "Is it safer in the Middle East? Putting it on paper doesn't mean that we're out of the conflict." In Rome, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi dismissed calls to withdraw Italy's 3,000 troops from Iraq. "Bringing soldiers home would solve nothing," he said, according to Reuters. "I believe the opposite is true." International Herald Tribune iht.com