Comments on NUMBERS TO WEEP OVER AND THE DAILY MISLEAD

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I appreciate your well considered comment 777777

And yes, I agree and have believed some of these things myself. Immediately following 9-11, though not a Bush supporter, I did feel it was right to stand behind him and let him lead. He has failed horribly, as have the rest of his administration. I would ask you to ponder the whys to these questions:

Why are we in grave danger of a chemical plant attack by terrorists in this country? Very little concern and acion on that front by any elected official....the duty of government to protect it's citizens from harm...

Why are the two governments with proven links, guilty of extending aid and support to Al-Qaida and the Taliban referred to (and have been almost since day 1 in the War on Terror) as our ALLIES?

Why is capturing bin Laden a low priority issue now; after all he is the one proclaimed as the Great Evil Mastermind who hated America and all we stood for.

What have we accomplished in Afghanistan? (besides reviving the gas/oil pipeline project) The Taliban have revived and resurfaced in a major way and Al-Qaida is reportedly regrouped and plotting more devastation against us in the Pakistan border regions.

Where are those WMD's? You can say it doesn't matter much because ridding Iraq of Saddam was still a good thing, but for those interested in democracy it DOES matter that we were lied to and manipulated knowingly by our leaders. Remember we're not talking about deception concerning a President's sex life, we were/are being fed untruths in the most critical area of leadership - using the blood of our brave soldiers to wage an unjustified war.

If we are to accept the war is justified because Saddam was a monster - and no argument there - doesn't it logically follow then that we are obligated to remove ALL vicious dictators from the planet??

 

 

posted by PoetRaye on September 20, 2004 at 6:13 PM | link to this | reply

Thank you ThomasWelch.

posted by PoetRaye on September 20, 2004 at 5:52 PM | link to this | reply

hey Katray

Please understand, with the tragic loss of life during wartime, one can always make the case that war is not the answer --- that is, if one considers life sacred as you certainly do. Even though many people hate President Bush, they are fooling themselves if they think this president and every previous wartime president didn't agonize over the decision to go to war. Criticism is absolutely guaranteed no matter what. You wrote that it angered you that innocents died by the thousands, and that this was conducted in your name and in the name of every American. I would just ask you to consider something. First, it is the constitutional duty of the President of the United States to protect our nation from any threat, foreign or domestic. In fact, That is his and our government's primary duty. The entire world knew that Iraq was not only threatening it's neighbors, but posed a grave threat to our country. John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Tony Blair, Jaques Chirac of France, Germany, and Russia all said this very same thing repeatedly during the 90's. Vladimir Putin of Russia, no great fan of the United States, admitted recently that Russian intelligence contacted the Bush Administration with news that Iraq planned to hit America with an act of terrorism. Yet, with all of the world's intelligence communities in agreement about Iraq's plans, and despite all of these previously mentioned people warning us with impassioned speeches about the dangers of   Saddam Hussein, Bush is now called a liar. Some of these same individuals now say that Bush misled us, that Iraq wasn't a danger to us. I guess politics is politics, and anything goes in an election year.

But here is the point I would like you to consider. We went to war with Iraq and rid that country of one of history's most infamous mass murderers. His slaughter of tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, is well documented. To focus on the lives lost during the military campaign doesn't take into account the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be spared for generations to come because of the defeat of this mass murdering tyrant. No one will know how many hundreds of thousands of innocent American and Iraqi lives will be spared because he is gone, and no one will be able to calculate the benefits that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children will enjoy, by living with hope for the future in a free society ---  if a free society is allowed to flourish there. These things can only be judged by history many years down the line. If democracy takes hold in Iraq and the terrorists/insurgents are defeated, you might be surprised 30 years from now to be able to look back and see that America did something as wonderful for the people of Iraq as we did for the people of Germany when we defeated Adolf Hitler. And then we can all be proud that this was done in our name.

 

 

posted by 777777 on September 20, 2004 at 3:31 AM | link to this | reply

Katray

You say it very well. I like your stuff!

posted by ThomasWelch on September 19, 2004 at 4:10 PM | link to this | reply

Thank you for reading Sarwood. You are right; eventually when enough is enough people will rise up. Soon I pray. I appreciate the tones of hope in your comment. They are becoming increasingly harder to hear...

posted by PoetRaye on September 19, 2004 at 2:07 PM | link to this | reply

I couldn't agree more! Thank you

for this post.  When we as a society decide that "collateral damage" is UNACCEPTABLE in the same way that we decided slavery was unacceptable, the same way we decided that Jim Crow laws were unacceptable, the same way we decided that child labor was unacceptable -- then we will find a way to solve our problems without killing innocent civilians.  We are a goodhearted (usually) and creative (always) people.  We will do this when we decide to.

posted by sarwood on September 19, 2004 at 5:51 AM | link to this | reply