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To: Sully- who wrote (75315)10/6/2004 7:50:22 PM
From: LindyBill  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 793957
 
Bill Whittle - DETERRENCE, part 2
SENATOR KERRY: I can make American safer than President Bush has made us.

And I believe President Bush and I both love our country equally. But we just have a different set of convictions about how you make America safe.
I believe America is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and we are leading strong alliances.

I'll never give a veto to any country over our security. But I also know how to lead those alliances.

This president has left them in shatters across the globe, and we're now 90 percent of the casualties in Iraq and 90 percent of the costs.

I think that's wrong, and I think we can do better.

Four years ago, I would have voted for this policy in a heartbeat. This is what I mean by not stupid in a dumb way. But it is stupid in an ignorant way.

It’s stupid because it is a precise example of how to fight the last war. We are in a World War right now. It is being fought all across the globe and the consequences of winning or losing this war will effect every person on the planet. It is World War IV. If you can’t see that then you are either not paying attention, or are mollified by our spectacular successes over the past three years.

I credit John Kerry with the genuine desire to protect this nation, because the alternative is the back alley short-cut to insanity. He has, in mind, precisely the correct formula used protect the ideals of Liberal Democracy and ensure its victory in WWI, WWII and the long twilight fight of WWIII.

Allies and alliances defined the Great War. After four years of mind-shattering horror, the European powers had fought themselves to utter stalemate – and those trenches might yet today mark the borders between Germany, Belgium and France were it not for the arrivals of the American allies. Don’t misunderstand me – we did not win that war on the battlefield. That credit goes to the British and the French. But the endless supply of American troops disembarking, full of confidence and optimism and raw heroism, convinced Hindenberg and Ludendorf to desperately roll the dice on the spring 1918 offensives before they faced a million fresh American troops, full of fight. But defense was king in that war, and the Ludendorf Offensives failed. The counterattacks succeeded. The alliance won that war.

The alliance won World War II – that is beyond dispute. Without Britain hanging on during the lonely and dark opening years, where would the Western invasion have come from? Soviet Russia defeated almost 70% of the strength of Nazi Germany, and the United States defeated Japan single-handedly at sea, and with a great deal of help from the British and Australians and New Zealanders in brutal island jungles. An Alliance won that war – not us. Not us alone.

For almost fifty years, the most successful alliance in history had the guts and the commitment to put American cities on the line in order to prevent Soviet tanks from crashing through the Fulda gap. American, and to a deteriorating degree, European taxpayers built and maintained the armed forces needed to keep half of Europe free while the other half slowly rotted under the weight of an ideology so corrupt that it can now only thrive in the hothouse environment of the western coffee shop or faculty lounge. That, too, was an alliance victory.

If John Kerry were running for president in 1916, or 1940, or even 1976, he would have my enthusiastic vote, for the alliance of the US and the European powers is what saved Europe and the world not once, or twice, but three times in a single lifespan. One might expect some gratitude and respect for this, but as I say, the scales fell from my eyes some time ago.

But this is not 1916, or 1940, or 1976. Europe, ruler of the world in the first war, had become a military freeloader by the end of the third. Europe was not able to muster the military muscle or political will to extinguish a genocide within Europe – and things have gotten worse since then. The French nuclear carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, returned from her sea trials with a reactor room flooded with five times the allowable level of radiation and with one of her propellers at the bottom of the Atlantic. She borrowed a screw from her predecessor, the Foch – which was faster – and now sits in port making impressive appearances during national holidays and furthermore showing that if God exists he has both a sense of justice and a sense of humor.

The Germans cannot deploy an effective force beyond her own borders. The Russians – the mighty Russians -- could not call up so much as one decent ten-man special ops squad when she and her children needed them the most. Japan has constitutional restraints – drafted in American English – preventing her from deploying her defense forces overseas: a fact that has given me many nights peaceful sleep. And as for China… even if she decided, out of the kindness of her heart, to commit her forces to help her arch-rival…who do you think, Senator, would benefit the most from us sharing our weapons, tactics, logistics and intelligence with China.

An alliance would be nice – if the allies could shoulder some of the burden. But the sad, inconvenient, disappointing fact is that there is only one army on the face of the earth that can fight on the same battlefield with the United States; whose forces, technology and training rival ours in quality if not in scale, and whose trust has been forged by three world wars when we have stood alone, together. That country is Great Britain, one of the members of the “trumped-up, so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted.”

The sad fact, the unpleasant reality of 2004 is that there is only one nation in the world that is of any strategic value on the battlefield, and that ally is with us as she has always been, a staunch friend through many dark nights who deserves something better, I perceive, than slander from a man proclaiming himself the greatest diplomat since.. well, since himself. I will say this for John Kerry: he is a man unrivaled in his own esteem.

An alliance of European powers is a chimera that no longer holds any significant value. That is a critical point. It is an essential point of delusion embedded in Senator Kerry’s world view. He waits for rescue from a knight long dead and moldering, sitting beneath a withered oak tree in rusted armor.

That’s point one.

Second, you cannot even throw the cloak of wishful thinking over Senator Kerry’s strategic nakedness, because as those of us in pajamas are well aware, the governments of the Grand Rescue Alliance – that is, Germany and France – have both announced publicly and in the most clear language available that regardless of who wins the election in November, they are not coming to Iraq.

That is not my opinion, that is not a product of the Republican Smear Machine…that is an official statement from the governments of the nations in question, stating unequivocally that they are not going to be a part of a coalition that is against their interests even if it is lead by an American who went to Swiss schools and speaks fluent French.

Is it possible to put this any more plainly? They do not have any meaningful capability, and they are publicly pledging that their lack of meaningful capability is…not…coming.

As a final thought on this essential issue, consider this, from your own personal experience: I have found that the only thing worse than doing a hard, dirty, thankless job by yourself is depending on help from someone who will not be there when you need them. We have a few good friends in this fight: Britain, the Aussies, God bless them, the Poles and the Italians and a few others – 4am friends who will drive 300 miles in a snowstorm to help us when we are broken down on the side of the road. Those are friends. Those are the people we need in a tough and dirty fight. Those people deserve gratitude and honor, not scorn and mockery.

Senator Kerry, your powerful allies don’t exist, and even if they did, they have plainly told you they are not coming. Welcome to 2004, John. It sucks, I know. That’s just what we’re dealt.

SENATOR KERRY: I have a better plan for homeland security. I have a better plan to be able to fight the war on terror by strengthening our military, strengthening our intelligence, by going after the financing more authoritatively, by doing what we need to do to rebuild the alliances, by reaching out to the Muslim world, which the president has almost not done, and beginning to isolate the radical Islamic Muslims, not have them isolate the United States of America.

I’d consider voting for this policy. But John Kerry has a 20 year record of having voted against every significant weapons system the US has deployed during his term in office. This is an assertion on the Senator’s part; words from a man who has been steadfast, constant and consistent in his ability to say what he thinks his audience wants to hear. His voting record – the put your money where your mouth is record -- is the polar opposite of this assertion. I’m taking the walk over the talk on this one.

Now, assume for a moment, that you are one of the Islamicist enemies of this nation. President Kerry has outlined a plan to reach out to the Muslim world and isolate you. President Bush, on the other hand, predicates his reelection on the premise that he will

…pursue(d) al Qaeda wherever al Qaeda tries to hide. Seventy-five percent of known al Qaeda leaders have been brought to justice. The rest of them know we're after them.

By the way, for about seventy of that seventy-five percent, you can go ahead and substitute the word “killed” in place of the more delicate “brought to justice.”

As a deterrent, I honestly and regretfully don’t think our terrorist enemies are much deterred by the thought of dying. I think they are fully ready to die. People who are fully ready to die in order to kill you and your family, who are undeterred by death, are likely not to be terribly concerned by the thought of being isolated in a more sensitive approach to John Kerry’s sworn mission to hunt down, and isolate, chastise and severely reprimand terrorists.

Terrorists don’t seem to be too afraid of stern language. But I do notice, that while the fear of death does not seem to deter these people, the fact of being dead does significantly decrease their operational effectiveness. That’s a casual observation on my part – no real Harvard study to back it up. More of a hunch, really.

75% of known pre-9/11 al Qaeda killed in three years. Where’s my calculator…? 75% divided by three equals uh…25% a year. Well I’ll be a blue-blooded socialite! Why, at the rate of 25% a year, I calculate that ol’ Dubya will have bagged the whole lot of em in …one more year!

I say let’s give him the chance.

Quagmire! Quagmire!

No, not this season’s fashionable entry: I was referring to last seasons’ quagmire, Afghanistan.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Ten million citizens have registered to vote. It's a phenomenal statistic. They're given a chance to be free, and they will show up at the polls. Forty-one percent of those 10 million are women.

The fact is that liberal feminists, when all is said an done, would rather have a man who can turn a witty phrase over a nice Cabernet Sauvignon than one who liberates a nation of women, and gives them the vote, to boot. What refined morality they possess.

You know what our enemies really fear? Women. Women scare the hell out of them.

Hey, there’s no shame in that: women scare the hell out of me, too, only I don’t shoot them in the head in their burkas in front of a cheering crowd in a soccer stadium. And in that regard, I find I am exactly like the Taliban…because they're not doing it either. They are dead or in caves. Has this president deterred atrocities coming our way from Afghanistan, home of the International Jihad 2001 Road Tour? You’re damn right he has. I have a word for how that makes me feel. It’s an archaic, old English word, no longer in common usage. It’s pronounced, “GRAT-eh-tood”

You liberate the women of the world and Islamic Terror evaporates. They fear this the way we fear interruption of our Cable TV service. It is the death knell for their tradition of dominance and brutality, and it is not just the sight, but the very idea, of liberated, independent and unafraid women that causes them such hatred and revulsion when they look to the West.

Ladies, President Bush has freed the women of Afghanistan, and shut down the state-run rape and torture of women in Iraq. And for every one of those women who was raped and tortured to death, remember that half the entire country lived in daily fear of being spotted by some Ba’athist pig with too much time on his hands as he hid behind the tinted windows of his limousine, cruising the streets of Baghdad or Mosul or Basrah looking for a little fun.

Senator Kerry, on the other hand, has not only said, he has promised that he will do no such thing.

SENATOR KERRY: But we also have to be smart, Jim. And smart means not diverting your attention from the real war on terror in Afghanistan against Osama bin Laden and taking if off to Iraq where the 9/11 Commission confirms there was no connection to 9/11 itself and Saddam Hussein, and where the reason for going to war was weapons of mass destruction, not the removal of Saddam Hussein.

Somewhere, in an infinity of alternate universes, there must be a place where at this very moment, Ben Stein is wandering the wasteland of Tora Bora with clipboard in hand, stumbling over the rocks, never looking up, and saying, “Osama..? Osama..? Osama..?”

God, the restraint that the President must have when that murdering bastard’s name is mentioned in derision as a sign of Bush’s incompetence. It’s practically superhuman.

First of all, you may recall that three years ago, the President -- correctly, in my estimation -- pointed out that this was not a criminal manhunt for Public Enemy Number One, but rather,

Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism.

“Secret even in success…” An interesting phrase, that. What does that mean?

Osama bin Laden has not been seen since the battle of Tora Bora in December of 2001. Remember now, this is not someone like Abu Nidal, a genuine terror mastermind described by the US State Department as having carried out terrorist attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring almost 900 persons. Targets include the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, moderate Palestinians, the PLO, and various Arab countries. Major attacks included the Rome and Vienna airports in December 1985, the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul and the Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking in Karachi in September 1986, and the City of Poros day-excursion ship attack in Greece in July 1988

Abu Nidal was rightfully phobic about being photographed. Anonymity was camouflage to him: incredibly tight operational security, even plastic surgery. The man wanted to remain unseen. In fact he did remain unseen, retiring in his golden years to a nice apartment in Baghdad until he was assassinated by Saddam just before the war to maintain the well-established fact that Saddam had no ties to terrorism. No living ties to terrorism. Well, to that terrorist. It’s all very nuanced and sophisticated.

Contrast this behavior to that of Osama bin Laden, who did not operationally plan the 9/11 attacks (see dead underlings, above) but was rather the figurehead for an international organization of many thousands of fanatics, their numbers much thinned now.

Osama made endless videotapes. Lecturing, preaching, instructing, firing an AK-47: all the things that make young jihadis feel funny in the pants. After 9/11, he wowed ‘em in several tapes gloating and laughing over the attack and its aftermath. He was reliably heard on the radio during the final phase of Tora Bora, then…nothing.

Maybe he escaped. It’s possible.

Then came the videotape condemning the Israeli incursion into Ramallah and Jenin…only it didn’t. The US corporate scandals? Silence. Anniversary of Holy Tuesday? Cue the tumbleweeds.

The freaking invasion of a Muslim country by the Great Satan, and this new Caliph, the Leader of the Oppressed, cannot bring himself to shoot a crummy VHS in front of a white wall condemning this outrage? This glory-seeking egomaniac, the New Saladin riding the White Horse across the desert, who practically put out a 10 DVD commemorative set every time the US so much as hiccupped, is now suddenly silent, and has been for three years?

You may call that a Terror Mastermind. I call it a greasy wet spot on the wall of a cave in Afghanistan.

The man is dead. Dead, or just possibly captured. The likelihood of him having been killed at Tora Bora by US “outsourcing” was rising with his deafening silence concerning each American counterstroke and became 100% when nothing was heard from the late Osama after the US invasion of Iraq.

Does President Bush know what became of him? I would say, very likely. We know what did not become of him: he didn’t become a Martyr. He did not become the symbol of Glorious Death resisting the Great Satan. He did not become a Symbol or a Cause or an Example to Them All.

He became, if you will pardon the expression, AWOL. Bugged out. Handed in his walking papers. Fizzle….poof. Gone.

Brilliant.

Unfortunately, I do not have fake (but accurate!) documents to back this claim up. I just have common sense, a psychological history, and the ability to see Naked Emperors. The man is dead – just possibly captured; he has been for years.

Now, do I fault President Bush for not announcing this? I do not. For the President to not disclose something so beneficial to himself, politically, must mean that there is a reason of great magnitude behind the official silence. Are we, the American People, entitled to know what this secret is?

We are not.

We are not for the same reason we were not entitled to know that allied cryptographers won WWII by breaking the Japanese and German codes and having the good sense to shut up about it. But don’t dare breathe such sentiments to the current editors of The New York Times. Had those people been running the paper in 1943, tomorrows headline would have read:

AMERICAN AND BRITISH CRYPTOGRAPHERS BREAK JAP AND NAZI WAR CODES – ALL FUTURE ENEMY MOVEMENTS NOW KNOWN WITH CERTAINTY BY ALLIED HIGH COMMAND.

I suspect that if I live another ten years, I’ll be sitting watching the History Channel some night in my pajamas and all will be revealed to me. Until then, I’m happy not to know. I know some people have a hard time with that. Go to hell. This is serious business. Not everything is about you.

Has President Bush deterred bin Laden from repeating his attack on the US? I don’t honestly see what Osama can do these days, what with him being in several thousand crispy pieces and all.

One nice thing about those hyperbaric bombs, developed by that Vietnamese immigrant who fled to the US after certain people’s ideological heroes overran her country and likely killed most of her extended family: they make a small boom, release some nastiness, and then make a much louder boom.

I hope that son of a bitch knew what the sound of that first little boom meant.

And now, finally, the piece de resistance, the Main Event.

SENATOR KERRY: Well, where do you want me to begin?

First of all, he made the misjudgment of saying to America that he was going to build a true alliance, that he would exhaust the remedies of the United Nations and go through the inspections…

…And we pushed our allies aside.

Yes, after only thirteen brief years of Iraq’s causus belli of repeatedly and energetically violating every clause of the cease-fire agreement that stayed the US hand in 1991 when he was down, out and routed, and after only fourteen barely-have-time-to-pee months of non-stop, back-to-back UN sessions, resolutions, meetings, condemnations, threats, blocked inspections, harsh language, sanctions, embargoes and Saddam’s willful disregard of international protest, the Smirking Chimp ordered the raring-to-go German, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Belgian armored divisions out of theater so that he could have his unilateral war.

Thanks for clarifying that opaque moment in history, Senator.

And so, today, we are 90 percent of the casualties and 90 percent of the cost: $200 billion -- $200 billion that could have been used for health care, for schools, for construction, for prescription drugs for seniors, and it's in Iraq.

The inference being, I suppose, that a more sophisticated foreign policy and lack of Texas accent could have persuaded France, Germany, Russia, indeed, the entire UN – all with their hands deep in the oily pockets of Saddam – to put their billions back on the table and step up like good fellows to trade their cash for some decent-sized share of the casualties…three or four hundred killed, perhaps, something in that ballpark. Yes, exactly: the Kerry team, using the same impeccable diplomatic finesse they displayed in calling the desperately courageous leader of Iraq a “puppet” and our true, abiding friends a rabble of bribed, coerced, bought and extorted lapdogs, will convince the most selfish, perfidious and unreliable “ally” in human history to step up and do the right thing because he is asking them?

And Bush is arrogant?

But wait! There’s more!

John Kerry, in his bones, cannot envision winning a tough fight. He supported the effort in Iraq when we had a three-week victory, just as the anti-war activist and enemy collaborator is now John Rambo gunning down commies in a hail of bullets. But now that things are just a dirty, nasty, slugfest – a war that is nothing more or less, in fact, than the French premier Clemenceau’s description of a series of catastrophes that results in victory – as it has in Afghanistan, and Germany, and Japan, and the Confederacy and as it most pointedly did not in Vietnam, he says he alone can save us from the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place?

US marines are killing Ba’athist remnants and Syrian and Iranian mercenaries at a ratio of something like 600 to one, which, I might point out, is a damn sight better than the 150 to one against us that those 19 hijackers pulled off on 9/11. The insurgency in Iraq is burning casualties at an absolutely insane and unsustainable – indeed, ruinous pace. Why? Well, they have been paying close attention to Senator Kerry and his history, and saw how unsustainable, devastating, insurmountable NVA and VC losses during the Tet offensive bought victory because we decided we had had enough. Because we were told we were nothing more than a modern day horde of Ghengis Khan and the people whose freedom we were fighting for did not have the guts or the spine to stand up for their own defense. Today, that nation – Vietnam -- remains a basket case while the rest of Asia rocketed out of the stone age.

That is the model Senator Kerry has for Iraq. I’m not claiming he’s malicious. Not at all. I genuinely don’t think he gives much thought to Iraqis or Vietnamese at all.

I do know what he does give a lot of thought to, and that is the image of John Kerry.

PRESIDENT BUSH: I don't see how you can lead this country to succeed in Iraq if you say wrong war, wrong time, wrong place. What message does that send our troops? What message does that send to our allies? What message does that send the Iraqis?

Yes, almost got it, Mr. President. But what the hell does this policy say to our enemies? Does this deter attacks on our troops? Or does it say, in the clearest and most unmistakable terms, that as long as you blow up our men and women President Kerry will begin plans to pull them out as soon as the hand comes down on Inauguration Day?

Does it not ultimately say that this “mistake” was another War Crime? That it was an unjustified and unwarranted attack on an innocent and harmless nation? Does this not make any future preemptive action on the part of President Kerry for all intents and purposes impossible to achieve? Does this “Global Test” nonsense mean every single nation in the world must approve of our pre-emptive actions, including the one we mean to invade to defend our people? No? How many then? 90% of the globe must agree? Fifty percent? France? Who?

But of course, there’s a four point plan at www.JohnKerry.com that will “change the dynamic on the ground.” Yes, this plan on a website will stop Improvised Explosive Devices from detonating. This plan will bring the sworn enemies of this nation into a series of binding arbitrations that will convince them this is all one jolly misunderstanding. This plan – unlike any military plan in human history – will survive contact with the enemy, and his intentions, his will and his capabilities will melt away like the morning dew because Senator John Kerry has a four-point plan at www.JohnKerry.com.

Finally, and most tellingly, Senator Kerry says that Iraq is “a long, long way from the fight on terror.”

Senator, you might choose to read some history: it might broaden your perspective. The last time this country was attacked, it was by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, whose capitol city was Tokyo.

The first land battle the US Army fought was at Kasserine Pass. Kasserine Pass, Senator, is in Tunisia. Tunisia is in Africa. Africa is a long, long way from Japan.

Tunisia did not attack the United States, Senator Kerry. Tunisia, in fact, was a far, far more innocent battlefield than Iraq, which had spent the preceding decade, and then some, committing overt acts of war against British and American aircraft flying missions to enforce UN mandates.

US troops fought in Tunisia – and they fought badly; infinitely worse than they do in Iraq – because people of vision and courage and great intelligence perceived that this was the first, best front against an enemy that straddled the entire globe. We did not begin our war by launching an armada of landing craft filled with Marines on a suicide mission from Midway to Tokyo. We did not send fleets of transports to get shot down over Berlin carrying fifty divisions of paratroopers.

We attacked in Tunisia because it was the soft underbelly of a powerful enemy. There is a word for this type of action, Senator Kerry, and that word is “foothold.” It is a place where the enemy is weak. It is a place we can capture, fortify, defend and launch further attacks from. As Tunia, so Africa. As Africa, so Italy. As Italy, so Germany.

We were not attacked by the natives of the Marianas, or the Solomans, or the Marshall islands, and yet these innocent people died along with our troops. It was part of a strategy for victory, Senator. I know you understand the term ‘strategy.’ It’s the other term that seems to me to stick in your craw as I examine your entire career.

Here’s something you might want to read up on aboard the campaign jet: bright people have done studies on what the operational limits of a terror cell are. It’s actually kind of…biological. See, as a terror cell grows in members, it gains not only mutually-reinforcing enthusiasm, but capability. However, the bigger the cell, the less secure it becomes.

Zarqawi’s cells having been fighting us from the day Saddam’s statue fell. So I ask you, Senator: if there were no terrorists in Iraq, where did these organized units come from? Did they parachute in? Saddam’s Fedayeen are not and did not behave as a defeated military unit, but as an organized, cell-based structure. Where did they come from? And poor, unlamented Abu Nidal? And how many others?

When operating outside of rogue nations, law-enforcement pressure limits the cell to about 80 members, and the operational center is much smaller. Any larger and the cell fragments into smaller, more secure, but less capable splinter cells.

However, when protected by a nation-state, such as Syria or Iran – Iraq and Afghanistan having been wiped off the blackboard in this regard in a puff of chalk dust, and Libya having suddenly found religion – there is effectively no limit to how large and capable a terror organization can become, since there are no law-enforcement pressures limiting its growth.

Putting a democracy – even a very bad democracy – in the heart of the middle east is a dagger at our enemy’s heart. It is as if Canada were overrun to the degree that Afghanistan once was: intolerable. It draws all the enemy’s resources. It provides a mortal example that people of Arab lands can live in freedom, and eventually, prosperity. A free Iraq is a fatal, deadly poison to the Ideology of Death that threatens this nation and the world.

The essence of deterrence, Senator, is to cause uncertainty in the mind of your opponent. The missile defense system, which you oppose, does precisely this. It doesn’t matter if it has a 3 out of 5 success rate. Fifty such anti-missile installations enormously, in fact fatally complicates an enemy’s ability to plan a first strike or, far more likely, to issue nuclear blackmail.

You have made it clear that you would cancel the bunker-busting bombs that cause uncertainty – deterrence, Senator – in the minds of unstable lunatics like Kim Jung Il and the Iranian Thugocracy.

They do not have to guess what you will do, Senator: you have already given that away, in the same way you gave away the atrocity fictions the Vietnamese Communists were torturing your “Band of Brothers” to obtain, without success.

President Bush believes that a free and democratic state provides a shockingly clear example that there is another way for Arab peoples to live. He believes, as I do, that all people want to live free and determine the course of their own lives. You claim that this is a mistake. You seem to be determined to fulfill that prophesy.

You lack the vision, Senator, to see this as a many-front war. You lack the insight to see how the sight of Saddam crawling from a hole inspired an identical self-possessed lunatic to give up Libya's nuclear weapons program. Iraq deterred Libya, you eternal defeatist. And all of the rest of the former free-range dictators now hang on the results of this election to see whether they will get a man who has capitulation in his very marrow, or one who has weathered unbelievable pressure, slurs and insults, and very likely thrown away his second term, to face reality and do something. Something unpopular. Something that he knew would make his poll numbers go down.

I know. I know John. Inconceivable.

Senator Kerry, I do not desire to be President of the United States. I will settle for being the head coach of the Florida Gators. I have a four-point plan on how to win against the Tennessee Volunteers. My plan is foolproof, and it will change the dynamic on the field. I place little weight on the fact that that game was played several weeks ago: that is why my four-point plan is so perfect! I have analyzed all of the Florida errors, and they will not be repeated when I replay that game in my mind.

And I might add I have won every Monday morning game I have ever quarterbacked.

Vote for me.

ejectejecteject.com



To: Sully- who wrote (75315)10/6/2004 8:51:48 PM
From: abstract  Read Replies (5) | Respond to of 793957
 
Open Letter to President George W. Bush

October 4, 2004

Dear Mr. President:

As professors of economics and business, we are concerned that U.S. economic policy has taken a dangerous turn under your stewardship. Nearly every major economic indicator has deteriorated since you took office in January 2001. Real GDP growth during your term is the lowest of any presidential term in recent memory. Total non-farm employment has contracted and the unemployment rate has increased. Bankruptcies are up sharply, as is our dependence on foreign capital to finance an exploding current account deficit. All three major stock indexes are lower now than at the time of your inauguration. The percentage of Americans in poverty has increased, real median income has declined, and income inequality has grown.

The data make clear that your policy of slashing taxes – primarily for those at the upper reaches of the income distribution – has not worked. The fiscal reversal that has taken place under your leadership is so extreme that it would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. The federal budget surplus of over $200 billion that we enjoyed in the year 2000 has disappeared, and we are now facing a massive annual deficit of over $400 billion. In fact, if transfers from the Social Security trust fund are excluded, the federal deficit is even worse – well in excess of a half a trillion dollars this year alone. Although some members of your administration have suggested that the mountain of new debt accumulated on your watch is mainly the consequence of 9-11 and the war on terror, budget experts know that this is simply false. Your economic policies have played a significant role in driving this fiscal collapse. And the economic proposals you have suggested for a potential second term – from diverting Social Security contributions into private accounts to making the recent tax cuts permanent – only promise to exacerbate the crisis by further narrowing the federal revenue base.

These sorts of deficits crowd out private investment and are politically addictive. They also place a heavy burden on monetary policy – and create additional pressure for higher interest rates – by stoking inflationary expectations. If your economic advisers are telling you that these deficits can be defeated through further reductions in tax rates, then you need new advisers. More robust economic growth could certainly help, but nearly every one of your administration’s economic forecasts – both before and after 9-11 – has proved overly optimistic. Expenditure cuts could be part of the answer, but your record so far has been one of increasing expenditures, not reducing them.

What is called for, we believe, is a dramatic reorientation of fiscal policy, including substantial reversals of your tax policy. Running a budget deficit in response to a short bout of recession is one thing. But running large structural deficits over a long period is something else entirely. We therefore urge you to consider the fiscal realities we now face and the substantial burden they are placing on our economy.

We also urge you to consider the distributional consequences of your policies. Under your administration, the income gap between the most affluent Americans and everyone else has widened. Although the latest data reveal that real household incomes have dropped across the board since you took office, low and middle income households have experienced steeper declines than upper income households. To be sure, the general phenomenon of mounting inequality preceded your administration, but it has continued (and, by some accounts, intensified) over the past three and a half years.

Some degree of inequality is inherent in any free market economy, creating positive incentives for economic and technological advancement. But when inequality becomes extreme, it can be socially corrosive and economically dysfunctional. Problems of this sort are visible throughout much of the developing world. At the moment, the most commonly accepted measure of inequality – the so-called Gini coefficient – is far higher in the United States than in any other developed country and is continuing to move upward. We don’t know where the breakpoint is for the U.S., but we would rather not find out. With all due respect, we believe your tax policy has exacerbated the problem of inequality in the United States, which has worrisome implications for the economy as a whole. We very much hope you will take this threat to our nation into account as you consider new fiscal approaches to address the nation’s most pressing economic problems.

Sensible and farsighted economic management requires true discipline, compassion, and courage – not just slogans. Given the tenuous state of the American economy, we believe that the time for an honest assessment of the problem and for genuine corrective action is now. Ignoring the fiscal crisis that has taken hold during your presidency may seem politically appealing in the short run, but we fear it could ultimately prove disastrous. From a policy standpoint, the clear message is that more of the same won’t work. The warning signs are already visible, and it is incumbent upon all of us to pay attention.

Respectfully submitted,

Francis Aguilar
Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Ramon J. Aldag
Glen A. Skillrud Family Chair in Business
School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Teresa M. Amabile
Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Kenneth R. Andrews
David K. Donald Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

James E. Austin
Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Joseph L. Badaracco
John Shad Professor of Business Ethics
Harvard Business School

Lotte Bailyn
T. Wilson (1953) Professor of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management

George P. Baker
Herman C. Krannert Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Louis B. Barnes
John D. Black Professor, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

James N. Baron
Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources
Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

Jean M. Bartunek
Robert A. and Evelyn J. Ferris Chair, Professor of Organization Studies
Carroll School of Management, Boston College

Yehuda Bassock
Professor
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Thomas A. Bausch
Professor
College of Business Administration, Marquette University

Max H. Bazerman
Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Cynthia Beath
Professor Emeritus
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

Michael Beer
Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Jack N. Behrman
Luther Hodges Distinguished Professor, Emeritus
Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina

Norman A. Berg
MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Barbara Bird
Associate Professor of Management
Kogod School of Business, American University

John E. Bishop
Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Robert B. Bostrom
L. Edmund Rast Professor of Business
Terry College of Business, University of Georgia

Joseph L. Bower
Donald K. David Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Stephen P. Bradley
William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Arthur P. Brief
Lawrence Martin Professor of Business
Freeman School of Business, Tulane University

Philip Bromiley
Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Strategic Management
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

Alfred D. Chandler
Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Chao C. Chen
Professor
Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University

Charles J. Corbett
Associate Professor of Operations Management and Environmental Management
UCLA Anderson School of Management

Thomas G. Cummings
Professor
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Michael Cusumano
Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor
MIT Sloan School of Management

Fariborz Damanpour
Professor
Rutgers Business School

Jose de la Torre
Dean, Chapman Graduate School of Business
Florida International University

John A. Deighton
Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Rohit Deshpande
Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing
Harvard Business School

Nancy DiTomaso
Professor
Rutgers Business School--Newark and New Brunswick

Jane E. Dutton
Professor
University of Michigan Business School

Amy C. Edmondson
Professor
Harvard Business School

Benjamin C. Esty
Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Ronald F. Fariña
Associate Professor
Daniels College of Business, University of Denver

Ann E. Feyerherm
Associate Professor of Organization and Management
Graziadio School of Business and Management, Pepperdine University

James A. Fitzsimmons
William H. Seay Centennial Professor of Business
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

James W. Fredrickson
Tom E. Nelson, Jr. Regents Professor of Business
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

Sherwood C. Frey, Jr.
Ethyl Corporation Professor of Business Administration
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia

Cynthia V. Fukami
Professor
Daniels College of Business, University of Denver

Pankaj Ghemawat
Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Stephen M. Gilbert
Associate Professor
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

James R. Glenn, Jr.
Professor of Management
College of Business, San Francisco State University

Leslie E. Grayson
Isidore Horween Research Professor, Emeritus
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia

Jerry R. Green
Daniel A. Wells Professor of Political Economy,
John Leverett Professor in the University
Harvard Business School

Leonard Greenhalgh
Professor of Management
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

Douglas T. Hall
Professor of Organizational Behavior
Boston University School of Management

Donald C. Hambrick
Smeal Chaired Professor of Management
Smeal College of Business Administration, The Pennsylvania State University

Rebecca M. Henderson
Eastman Kodak LFM Professor
MIT Sloan School of Management

Linda A. Hill
Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Raymond Hogler
Professor of Management
College of Business, Colorado State University

Yasheng Huang
Associate Professor of International Management
MIT Sloan School of Management

Mariann Jelinek
The Richard C. Kraemer Professor of Business Strategy
School of Business, College of William & Mary

David B. Jemison
Foster Parker Centennial Professor of Management and Finance
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

John M. Jermier
Exide Professor of Sustainable Enterprise Research
College of Business, University of South Florida

Shulamit Kahn
Associate Professor
Boston University School of Management

Kate M. Kaiser
Associate Professor
College of Business, Marquette University

Rosabeth M. Kanter
Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Steven O. Kimbrough
Professor
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Stephen J. Kobrin
Wurster Professor of Multinational Management
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Thomas A. Kochan
George Maverick Bunker Professor of Work and Employment Relations
MIT Sloan School of Management

Nancy F. Koehn
James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Howard Kunreuther
Cecilia Yen Koo Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Rajiv Lal
Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing
Harvard Business School

Theresa Lant
Associate Professor of Management
Stern School of Business, New York University

Paul R. Lawrence
Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Organizational Behavior, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Carrie R. Leana
Professor of Business Administration and of Public and International Affairs
Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh

Dorothy A. Leonard
William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration, Emerita
Harvard Business School

Herman B. Leonard
Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Donald R. Lessard
Epoch Foundation Professor of International Management
MIT Sloan School of Management

Daniel A. Levinthal
Julian Aresty Professor of Management and Economics
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

David Levy
Professor of Management
Department of Management, University of Massachusetts, Boston

E. Allan Lind
Thomas A. Finch Professor of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

Richard M. Locke
Alvin J. Siteman Professor of Entrepreneurship and Political Science
MIT Sloan School of Management

George C. Lodge
Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Jay W. Lorsch
Louis E. Kirstein Professor of Human Relations
Harvard Business School

Michael Magazine
Professor
College of Business, University of Cincinnati

Michael R. Manning
Professor of Management
College of Business Administration & Economics, New Mexico State University

Theodore R. Marmor
Professor of Public Policy and Management
Yale School of Management and Political Science Department

Joanne Martin
Merrill Professor of Organizational Behavior
Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

Thomas K. McCraw
Isidor Straus Professor of Business History
Harvard Business School

Anita M. McGahan
Professor and Everett W. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar
Boston University School of Management

Kathleen L. McGinn
Cahners-Rabb Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology
Harvard Business School

Robert P. McGowan
Professor
Daniels College of Business, University of Denver

Robert C. Merton
John and Natty McArthur University Professor
Harvard Business School

David M. Messick
Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Alan D. Meyer
Charles H. Lundquist Professor of Entrepreneurial Management
Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon

Marshall W. Meyer
Richard A. Sapp Professor, Professor of Management and Sociology
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Richard F. Meyer
Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Ian Mitroff
Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Cynthia A. Montgomery
Timken Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

David A. Moss
John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

J. Keith Murnighan
Harold H. Hines, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Risk Management
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Steven Nahmias
Professor
Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

Barry Nalebuff
Milton Steinbach Professor of Management
Yale School of Management

Das Narayandas
Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Paul Newman
Clark W. Thompson, Jr. Chair in Accounting
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

William Ocasio
John L. and Helen Kellogg Distinguished Professor of Management and Organizations
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Paul Osterman
NTU Professor of Human Resources and Management
MIT Sloan School of Management

Lynn S. Paine
John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Johannes M. Pennings
Marie and Joseph Melone Professor
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Margaret Peteraf
Associate Professor of Business Administration
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

Joel Podolny
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management
Harvard Business School

John W. Pratt
William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Drazen Prelec
Professor of Management Science
MIT Sloan School of Management

Keith G. Provan
Eller Professor of Public Administration & Policy
Eller College of Management, University of Arizona

Ronald E. Purser
Professor of Management
College of Business, San Francisco State University

Roy Radner
L. N. Stern School Professor of Business
Stern School of Business, New York University

Daniel Raff
Associate Professor of Management
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Howard Raiffa
Frank Plumpton Ramsey Professor of Managerial Economics, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

V. Kasturi Rangan
Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing
Harvard Business School

Stefan H. Robock
R. D. Calkins Professor of International Business, Emeritus
Graduate School of Business, Columbia University

David Rogers
Professor Emeritus of Management and Sociology
Stern School of Business, New York University

John W. Rosenblum
Dean Emeritus
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia

Lori Rosenkopf
Associate Professor of Management
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Walter J. Salmon
Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Carol Saunders
Professor of MIS
College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida

Melissa A. Schilling
Associate Professor
Stern School of Business, New York University

Arthur Schleifer, Jr.
James J. Hill Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Claudia B. Schoonhoven
Professor of Organization and Strategy
Graduate School of Management, University of California, Irvine

Bruce R. Scott
Paul W. Cherington Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Michael S. Scott-Morton
Jay W. Forester Professor of Management, Emeritus
MIT Sloan School of Management

James K. Sebenius
Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Benson P. Shapiro
Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Roy D. Shapiro
Philip Caldwell Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

William F. Sharpe
STANCO 25 Professor of Finance, Emeritus
Stanford Business School

William W. Sihler
Ronald E. Trzcinski Professor of Business Administration
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia

Alvin J. Silk
Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Harbir Singh
Edward H. Bowman Professor of Management
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Jitendra V. Singh
Saul P. Steinberg Professor of Management
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Sim B. Sitkin
Associate Professor
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

William B. Snavely
Professor of Management
Richard T. Farmer School of Business, Miami University

Olav Sorenson
Associate Professor
UCLA Anderson School of Management

Debora L. Spar
Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Bert A. Spector
Associate Professor of Human Resources Management
College of Business Administration, Northeastern University

Richard Staelin
Edward and Rose Donnell Professor of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

William H. Starbuck
ITT Professor of Creative Management
Stern School of Business, New York University

John Sterman
Jay W. Forester Professor of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management

Richard S. Tedlow
MBA Class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Ramkrishnan V. Tenkasi
Professor of Organization Change
College of Business and Technology, Benedictine University

David A. Thomas
Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

William R. Torbert
Professor
Carroll School of Management, Boston College

Anne S. Tsui
Motorola Professor
W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

Michael L. Tushman
Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Karl T. Ulrich
Professor of Operations and Information Management
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Garrett J. van Ryzin
Paul M. Montrone Professor of Private Enterprise
Graduate School of Business, Columbia University

N. Venkat Venkatraman
David J. McGrath Jr. Professor of Management
Boston University School of Management

Richard H. K. Vietor
Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management
Harvard Business School

Mary Ann Von Glinow
Research Professor
College of Business Administration, Florida International University

Sandra Waddock
Professor of Management
Carroll School of Management, Boston College

Melanie Wallendorf
Eller Professor of Marketing
Eller College of Management, University of Arizona

Richard T. Watson
J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet Strategy
Terry College of Business, University of Georgia

David Weil
Associate Professor of Economics
Boston University School of Management

Louis T. Wells
Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management
Harvard Business School

Patricia H. Werhane
Ruffin Professor of Business Ethics
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia

Birger Wernerfelt
J. C. Penney Professor of Management Science
MIT Sloan School of Management

D. Eleanor Westney
Society of Sloan Fellows Chair in Management
MIT Sloan School of Management

James D. Westphal
Ed and Molly Smith Chair in Business Administration
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

Robert B. Wilson
Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus
Stanford Business School

Sid Winter
Deloitte and Touche Professor of Management
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

JoAnne Yates
Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management

David B. Yoffie
Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Abraham Zaleznik
Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus
Harvard Business School

Ray Zammuto
Professor of Management
Business School, University of Colorado at Denver

Paul H. Zipkin
The T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

The above tenured or emeritus professors have signed in their individual capacities. The letter represents the signers’ own views, not those of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

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