Comments Posted By space
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steve sturm:
Your comment is barely worth responding to. However, on the off chance that you have a fraction of an open mind, I will indulge you.
Nothing is killing this country and hastening our demise than the idiocy of Americans who treat politics, particularly foreign policy issues, as they treat professional sports.
I can accept the Red Sox fan who thinks all Yankees suck because it is part of sports. But that thought process does not belong in politics. Anyone who would argue that either major party has nobody who is thoughtful, serious, and educated about foreign policy issues is a moron in my book.
I can think of Republicans, including Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell (when not following the orders of idiots), who I would call adults. I might not pick them for my own cabinet, but they aren't living in fantasyland.
Frankly, I do not know the party affiliation of many of the people that I would look to for guidance, as many of them have spent their careers in the military and avoiding open partisan affiliation.
Many others, such as Richard Clarke, William Cohen, Anthony Zinni, James Webb, are currently associated with the Democratic party but are either former Republicans or served in Republican administrations (including the present Bush admin!)
Some others, such as Wes Clark or Paul Hackett, are openly and unapoligetically Democrats, but have more military combat experience than 99% of the Bush administration combined.
As I said, there are some Republicans who I would call adults. But considering how few of them realized the incompetence of the Bush team back in 2002 and 2003 (and how many continue in their delusions), I wouldn't go praising the party as a whole.
Comment Posted By space On 20.08.2006 @ 22:10
And to all the nutballs above who think the American people would trust this administration to lead a fight against Iran and Syria: get real.
When the adults are back in charge we can begin to discuss confronting Iran and Syria. Until then, the children need to stay away from daddy's gun cabinet.
Comment Posted By space On 20.08.2006 @ 20:30
Rick, kudos to you for at least approaching reality. But the question that you pose ("Do we make one, final, massive attempt to alter the deteriorating situation by committing more resources to the war while at the same time giving ultimatums to both Syria and Iran to halt their clandestine and outrageously illegal assistance to the terrorists who are murdering thousands of civilians every month?") is a question that should have been asked in late 2003, when it was clear that the pre-war prognostications of the cheerleaders were way off. Sorry, but we are years too late for any "final push."
I admit that I opposed the war from the beginning. I believed the WMD excuse was always crap and I will always oppose a war based on lies and false pretexts. I also believe that validating the doctrine of preventive, aggresive war was insane in the nuclear age.
Having said that, once we did invade, I never believed that a stable, Western-friendly government was an impossibility. But the administration did everything in its power to screw it up.
You state: The major Islamic party, the SCIRI is NOT in favor of establishing Sharia law nor in having the mullahs run the country.
This only proves the incompetence of the Bush administration. The Bushies were handed a gift on a silver platter: Sistani. A Shia leader who, while predictably skeptical of the U.S, was willing to work with us (we did deliver them from Saddam). Moreover, Sistani didn't want to impose an Iranian-style thoecracy Iraq.
But instead of taking this gift, the Bushies got cute and greedy. Rather than focus on nation-building, they prefered to foist Chalabi on the Iraqis and engage in nation-looting and war-profiteering.
BTW, "liberals" don't rip the Iraqi constitution for its existence. They rip the unbearably naive assumption that its mere existence can guarantee the words that comprise it. Some of us remember that the Soviet Union, technically, guaranteed human rights and individual freedom. An unenforceable law is no law at all.
As for “curtailing women’s rights†give me a break. Most nations in the 3rd world “curtail†women’s rights.
This is the exact same kind of denial that the White House engages in. I don't even understand how you can claim to fight Islamic extremism if you can't tell the difference between how women were treated in a secular country like Iraq and how they are being treated now.
Comment Posted By space On 20.08.2006 @ 20:21
