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Much of the world resents the US and since Bush has become President. Oversees and domestically whether you are conservative or progressive, more and more are deciding President Bush is the reason why conflicts are spreading.The US has been resented since becoming the only superpower, and the US putting its nose where it doesn't belong or tripping over what it is trying to accomplish is an old story. But suddenly everything is supposedly wrong because of Bush. President Bush isn't particularly assertive, and "hands on" the way Nixon was, but there is false believe that the world would be fine, if he wasn't messing it up. Not only Iraq, but messing up science as well. People who pay attention to what is going on overwhelmingly believe that he is messing up stem-cell research, but there is more than one side to every issue.
Stem-cells connects to other moral issues. Morality used to be simpler. Traditionally, the world believed that a baby born out of incest or rape was an utter horror and punishments were inflicted to try to prevent this from happening. Now, thanks to birth control and moral changes, we have vaguer and vaguer definitions of voyeurism, sexual harassment, and child porn. Today, thanks to modern science, there are custody battles over the contents of sperm and egg banks; bitter court fights over whether a particular sperm sample should be discarded, much less implanted. Soon, despite President Bush's position of stem-cell research, the world will have to decide if a scientist or researcher has committed a major crime by refusing, at a certain point, to kill a developing fetus. In my mind, being punished for not killing something, is almost like, evil being redefined, by circumstance, as good. Perhaps there could be a way to develop a compromise where only tissue which couldn't possibly, on it's own, become a baby, could be used for research. President Bush seemed to explore this compromise by allowing research on preexistent stem-cell lines.
Bush isn't noted for believing in open government, but is the first President since Ford to declassify a major section of the national archives, but under the present circumstances, no one thinks he deserves any praise.
When George Bush at first aided the Northern Alliance, instead of sending ground troops, he was getting in the way of al Qiada's efforts to bait the US into giving moderate Muslims good reason to become militants.
Bush began apologizing for Abu Ghraib abuse in front of the King of Jordan. Then Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist was going to call for bipartisan detention reform, while making grim Congressional Report of the additional Abu Ghraib photos Congress privately viewed. But al Qaida worried that change in US policy might lead to less influence over moderate Muslims. Nick Berg got beheaded, cutting Frist's report off the air. Then, a general said how small Bush looked when groveling before the King of Jordan, and joined the Kerry Campaign to the cheers of the antiwar movement. So change in US prison detention policy didn't occur.
Some critics claim that Bush is cleverly putting on a friendly face to disarm critic and make this a more conservative harsh world, but bombs went off in Turkey ruining the aura of Britain's largest peace march, he Bush or was it bin Laden who discouraged the peace movement at that point. When bin Laden demanded that Iraq's not vote, it got in the way of the peace claim that the war in Iraq had nothing to due with fighting terror. I contend that bin Laden, not Bush, is being clever and manipulative in pushing everyone toward war.
In Fulujah, before the Presidential election in 2004, an Iraqi go-between arranged with commanders in the field for the insurgents to accept nominal Baghdad control. US troops pulled back to the cheers of those in the street who thought the war was over. But a Kerry campaign ad complained of terrorists hiding in Fulujah, and Bush demanded Al Sadr's arrest, he was their fighting along with the Sunni's, I wish today the rebels could still get along with each other.
After 9/11 Bush urged people not to deface Muslim businesses, humbly visited a mosque, made a particular point to include Muslims in the faith-based initiative. Remember his interdenominational New Year's card some Christian Fundamentalists found insulting. It's ridiculous to think Hillary would be better able to resist al Qaida's attempts to encourage total war between the West and the Muslim world, and between Hindus and Muslims as well?
And In 2001, skirmishes broke out between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan following a bin Laden inspired attack on the Indian Parliament, which President Bush, then Secretary of State Colin Powell, successfully helped mediated. Now a major part of al Qaida's agenda, war between India and Pakistan, has been prevented despite provocations far more emotional than 9/11, such as very crowded trains and funeral processions. In America, Europe and the Middle East, al Qaida's efforts to permanently divide, is right on track for its thirty, or 300-year goal for the future, but as soon as it became clear that peace might actually become permanent between India and Pakistan, they starting initiating extreme provocations.
Bin Laden according to the Saudi Government picked mostly Saudis for the 9/11 attack, in order to create tension between the US and the Saudi government. Al Qaida warned Britain that those who heal you will kill you back in April, but patiently didn't attack until Britain got a new Prime Minister. Al Qaida also tried to use professional doctors for the attack rather than more competent explosive experts in order to stop the west from importing foreign talent and thus screw up our economy the way airport hassles are limiting US visitation by high spending tourists.
Obviously, if President Bush was to announce, that he was appointing John Murtha to be Secretary of State, to figure out the best way to leave Iraq in a hurry, without having al Qaida shooting at the withdrawing troops, many critics would then cheer the President. But let's say Bush would announce something much smaller. Such as, announce that in realization that some prison sentence are too harsh, and present very ill health, he was pardoning Leonard Peltier, and other prisoners who were too frail to walk without a walker. Would some Democrats denounce this as a publicity stunt, pardoning dying old man who could barely even realize they were no longer in prison? Then, a police chief joins the Impeach Bush campaign to the cheers of many antiwar activities? Is there anything, besides appointing someone like Ron Paul or Murtha to be Secretary Defense, that Bush could do without being condemned from every direction?
We are supposed to have a nation of laws not men, Bush isn't totally aware of this fact, but impeaching him just because we need a scapegoat for everything going wrong, would be another blow to the concept of an orderly system of justice.
Kerry supporters used to use positive thinking on John Kerry that he was really for peace, despite all his hedgey statements. I want to use positive thinking on President Bush believing it might make to become so
Let's all admit it, America isn't what it should be, but will blaming everything on Bush make it better? We had slick Willie, who gave the poor personal respect, by playing the saxophone and wearing casual clothing. He loved cultural progressive causes like feminism and gay rights, while attacking the unions on bread and butter issues. Earlier the Ronald Reagan revolution managed to get many Catholics and Jews to be less progressive, the way Clinton managed to get Gays and feminists to be less active against poverty.
The President's father, Bush Sr., had no respect for civil liberties, all the way back to World War II where the war was won by terrorizing Japanese-Americans in order to put fear in the hearts of German and Italian American Nazis that if they misbehaved their children would be rounded up also. Plus, the war was won by breaking the German and Japanese secret code, and keeping it secret from them by such things as allowing Pearl Harbor command not to be alerted that the Japanese Ambassador in Washington DC got a secret message that the Japanese were attacking Pearl Harbor instead of Guam like everyone feared. [Relatedly in the British archives now declassified Britain knew but didn't tell the US about Pearl Harbor to make sure the US declared war on Germany and not just Japan.]
Bush's life was once wrecked up by booze and many claim coke as well. Like Jimmy Carter before him, truly hoped, that having become a Christian, would make this a more caring, and metering world. I think it is tragic the way he messed up life for the Iraqis by trying to help them, but at least he didn't repeat it in North Korea, and I hope will not do so in Iran either.
The worst way out of Iraq is for US troops to be leaving as al Qaida is firing at and suicide bombing US troops as they leave. It would be better to ask Iran to restore order in exchange for agreeing to punish al Qaida to the fullest extent of their laws, even better for Bush to appoint John Murtha, or Ron Paul to be Secretory of Defense to orchestrate a speedy exit strategy, one speedy enough for moderate Shiites to get worried that a terror attack by al Qaida might get in the way of US withdrawal.
At some point the US may have to invade Pakistan to prevent al Qaida from owning Pakistani nukes. But it seems to me al Qaida is hair triggering an attack on the US to coincide with the US sending troops to Pakistan. Bush crying wolf far to often doesn't mean it's all a publicity stunt.
No mater what al Qaida does, most Americans are not going to wear turbans and berkahs or consider bin Laden a spiritual leader, and if the dollar collapses like bin Laden is systematically encouraging, it will affect the Muslim world far more than al Qaida realizes. The greatest possibility for victory from al Qaida's point of view would be for the US to totally surround itself by a high wall, both physically and where impossible, electronically, and kick both Jews and Muslims out of the country to fight their wars in their part of the world not ours. Let's follow Cindy Sheehan's original example and try to speak personally with Bush to change his policies.
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MASSIVE CHANGE - Whether Impeachment in the US,
or a Brand-New-Government in Cuba may end up Bad News
Bush came into office hot to trot for war or for creating massive changes in Iraq, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea. However, very unhappy changes in Iraq have ended his bellicoseness quite a bit but not many are noticing.
Cuba has also been mellowing; The elder Castro, especially not his brother isn't the firebrand that executed his enemies early in the revolution. Venezuela, has taken over the role of backing progressive change elsewhere in the world.
However, since right-wing Cubans unhappy with Republican anti-immigrant feelings have been part of the 2004 Democratic sweep, and have been an integral part of lobbing against a harsh immigration policy, no one has noticed that Cuba has been slowly but systematically mellowing, nor note how ridiculous it would be to continually play around with encouraging drastic, and what may end up being, very unhappy change in Cuba.
Circumstance, and refusing to believe the President, have gotten in the way of Bush changing his ways. In October 2004, in Fuluja, an Iraqi go-between arranged with commandeers in the field for insurgents to accept nominal Baghdad authority and the US troops pulled back, while the locals cheered what they thought was the end of the war. The US peace movement instead of joining them was hoping to cheer Bush being kicked out of office. A Kerry ad, complained of terrorists hiding in Fuluja. President Bush then demanded that Al Sadr be turned over for trial. Imagine today Shiite rebels refusing to turn in a Sunni insurgent in return for peace Fulujans then suffered far worse then if they had never agreed to a cease-fire. Later, the Shiites got sick and tired of, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the extremely harsh al Qaeda leader, turning his whereabouts over to the CIA. Bush responded with a peace proposal, but didn't think to apologize for (or even note) Fuluja so the insurgents didn't believe him.
Bush humbly apologized for Abu Ghraib Prison abuse in front of the King of Jordan, giving a harried moderate, temporarily much needed status in the Muslim world. Then one general announced "How small Bush looked" and joined the Kerry campaign to the cheers of the antiwar movement. Also Republican Leader Bill Frist was going to call for bipartisan prison detention reform while he was making a grim Congressional report on the additional Abu Ghraib photos Congress privately viewed. But he was cut off the air by a news bulletin of Nick Berg being beheaded. I think if it wasn't for the two above incidents, the war might be over and Bush's policy toward detention may have changed as much as his policy toward North Korea has.
So today everyone is focused on the possibility of Impeachment or short of that many are fixated at making Bush as powerless as possible.
In the early 40's Harry Truman, who later became President, suggested if it looks like "Hitler is winning we should support Stalin, and if Stalin is winning we should back Hitler." I think al Qaida might have a similar attitude toward both sides in the short period when the US might have no government. Some of the 9/11 plane hijackers had previously studied engineering with the idea that if Islam could return to its llth century ways, it could defeat the West in a few generations, or at least reverse the present day power roles between Islam and the West. Meanwhile both Bush and the Doves are trying to plan for the next three years, not the next three decades. Massive change in either Cuba or the US could end up being sad news for both countries. When Bush is gone, if we are still fighting Muslims, people will be looking around trying to find someone to blame. Clearly it will be the Jews. Perhaps al Qaida is the only group that really knows what going on. I say "no" to massive change in either Cuba or the US. Let's lobby Bush to change his ways like Cindy Sheehan did in the first weeks or month of her protest when she was really trying to change Bush's mind.
I live in Philadelphia where there is minority representation on City Council, I don't believe the hype about Castro being particularly cruel and oppressive, but no opposition in the Cuban Congress has to mean that those unhappy with the way things are in Cuba don't express it politically. I wonder if the Cuban Constitution could be amended to include minority representation whether it will satisfy the Miami Cubans who could go home in style without tearing up the place and making young Cubans think they are foreign invaders. (Also, in the US big states like NY could similarly change their state Constitution to elect five of their House of Representative seats at large, with two seats reserved for a minority party.) Maybe also the US could agree to abolish Capital Punishment in exchange for Cuba doing likewise. The inspiration of Communism at least to a certain extent detracts from bin Laden's appeal, You notice, there our no teenage Virginia Techs or Columbines in Latin America thanks to the Inspiration that Castor and Chavez gives instead of negative nilalistic inspiration, here in the US and sadly now in Finland as well. Innus depicting Attorney General Gonzales with a broken Cuban accent, made it easier for him to get in trouble for insulting high school basketball stars. Ending tension between the US and Cuba will strengthen us against terror and make the world more secure.
If Al Qaida chooses an impeachment crisis in the US to throw its wait around, bin Laden's dream of removing unrestricted sex, drugs, booze, and democracy from the face of the earth may succeed. Though Al Qaida may not succeed that much in totally outlawing booze.
I urge "VOTE NO" on impeachment, and hope future debates include both sides of the issue. I call on others who oppose impeachment to join the debate instead of claiming it is treasonous to discuss the issue.
RichardKanePA (with) aol (.com) 215-563-2866 22 S 22nd St Apt 305 Phila PA 19103 blog: Ramblings from the Hornets Nest h t t p : //ramblingsfromthehornetsnest.blogspot.com
