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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (94922)	1/26/2005 6:30:56 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Message 20988283 Subject 54350

To: Grainne who wrote (94922)	1/27/2005 10:27:43 AM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

"Republican and Democratic administrations have used all of the tools of the CIA for decades in dirty tricks all over the world, to support American interests. I am not blaming the Bush administration for all that." How do you reconcile that last sentence with this? "I do believe the Bush administration has been less than candid about its role in the rise of Saddam Hussein..." Oh, I see - you don't blame them for "all that", just some of it. LOL. Clever of you. It happened under past administrations, but Bush is responsible for it anyway. "and that it has indeed demonized him in order to get public and congressional support for its war in Iraq" Tell me again how Bush, not Saddam himself, is responsible for his record as a murderous despot, invader of neighboring countries, violator of cease fire agreements and numerous UN resolutions, and sponsor of terrorism. "I do think Americans should be more aware of all the incredibly evil, dirty things its government is involved in." Please educate us. What "evil, dirty things" is our government involved in? Now, that is - you wrote that in present tense. What is our government doing now that you consider evil and dirty? "America is not the incredibly pure land of freedom that most people believe it is." Who said America was "pure", much less "incredibly" so? I think, contrary to your beliefs about what we all believe, most Americans ARE aware that our policy record is far from pure. Unlike you, however, most Americans aren't willing to demonize the current administration (or "regime") by equating it with the likes of Saddam Hussein or to presume evil intent behind current policies. Most Americans, I believe, genuinely believe in the ideals Bush espoused in his second inaugural speech, believe that Bush actually holds those ideals himself, and believe that Bush took us into Iraq for the right reasons and right objectives, regardless of whether they agree with the execution. A loud minority, OTOH, can't articulate a viable alternative strategy to deal with the threat of terrorism, cares little about the root causes of terrorism or the freedom of other peoples (or Americans, for that matter), is too short-sighted, narrow-minded and partisan to consider the possibility that Bush's strategy, as risky as it may be short-term, is the best strategy long-term. They are left with no argument to make but to demonize Bush's intent, equate him with everyone from Hitler to Pol Pot to Saddam himself (all the while trying to rehabilitate Saddam's "demonized by Bush" reputation to make him seem only a tough-but-fair, benevolent dictator), armchair quarterback the execution, and predict (hope for) failure in Afghanistan and Iraq.