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Future historians will shake their heads over how easily America was misled into war.
Quote:
Trust and Betrayal
by Paul Krugman
New York Times
“In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war.” That’s what President Bush said last year, in a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Those were fine words, spoken by a man with less right to say them than any president in our nation’s history. For Mr. Bush took us to war not with reluctance, but with unseemly eagerness.
Now that war has turned into an epic disaster, in part because the war’s architects, whom we now know were warned about the risks, didn’t want to hear about them. Yet Congress seems powerless to stop it. How did it all go so wrong?
Future historians will shake their heads over how easily America was misled into war. The warning signs, the indications that we had a rogue administration determined to use 9/11 as an excuse for war, were there, for those willing to see them, right from the beginning — even before Mr. Bush began explicitly pushing for war with Iraq.
In fact, the very first time Mr. Bush declared a war on terror that “will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated,” people should have realized that he was going to use the terrorist attack to justify anything and everything.
When he used his first post-attack State of the Union to denounce an “axis of evil” consisting of three countries that had nothing to do either with 9/11 or with each other, alarm bells should have gone off.
But the nation, brought together in grief and anger over the attack, wanted to trust the man occupying the White House. And so it took a long time before Americans were willing to admit to themselves just how thoroughly their trust had been betrayed.
It’s a terrible story, yet it’s also understandable. I wasn’t really surprised by Republican election victories in 2002 and 2004: nations almost always rally around their leaders in times of war, no matter how bad the leaders and no matter how poorly conceived the war.
The question was whether the public would ever catch on. Well, to the immense relief of those who spent years trying to get the truth out, they did. Last November Americans voted overwhelmingly to bring an end to Mr. Bush’s war.
Yet the war goes on.
To keep the war going, the administration has brought the original bogyman back out of the closet. At first, Mr. Bush said he would bring Osama bin Laden in, dead or alive. Within seven months after 9/11, however, he had lost interest: “I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure,” he said in March 2002. “I truly am not that concerned about him.”
In all of 2003, Mr. Bush, who had an unrelated war to sell, made public mention of the man behind 9/11 only seven times.
But Osama is back: last week Mr. Bush invoked his name 11 times in a single speech, warning that if we leave Iraq, Al Qaeda — which wasn’t there when we went in — will be the winner. And Democrats, still fearing that they will end up accused of being weak on terror and not supporting the troops, gave Mr. Bush another year’s war funding.
Democratic Party activists were furious, because polls show a public utterly disillusioned with Mr. Bush and anxious to see the war ended. But it’s not clear that the leadership was wrong to be cautious. The truth is that the nightmare of the Bush years won’t really be over until politicians are convinced that voters will punish, not reward, Bush-style fear-mongering. And that hasn’t happened yet.
Here’s the way it ought to be: When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a “movement” that “has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he should be treated as a lunatic.
When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of “Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda” wants to “bring down the West,” he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.
And when John McCain says that Osama, who isn’t in Iraq, will “follow us home” if we leave, he should be laughed at.
But they aren’t, at least not yet. And until belligerent, uninformed posturing starts being treated with the contempt it deserves, men who know nothing of the cost of war will keep sending other people’s children to graves at Arlington.
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__________________
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire
Democratic Party activists were furious, because polls show a public utterly disillusioned with Mr. Bush and anxious to see the war ended. But it’s not clear that the leadership was wrong to be cautious. The truth is that the nightmare of the Bush years won’t really be over until politicians are convinced that voters will punish, not reward, Bush-style fear-mongering. And that hasn’t happened yet.
And that is the crux of the matter right up there, it feels good to blame Bush and Company and I do, it's understandable the anger people feel at the Dems for their cowardice.
The real cowardice and the real problem lies with the people, no matter what failures our leadership has in the end we are the ultimate source of the problem, it's still a government of the people and by the people, we've just forgotten how much work that requires.
__________________
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
Democratic Party activists were furious, because polls show a public utterly disillusioned with Mr. Bush and anxious to see the war ended. But it’s not clear that the leadership was wrong to be cautious. The truth is that the nightmare of the Bush years won’t really be over until politicians are convinced that voters will punish, not reward, Bush-style fear-mongering. And that hasn’t happened yet.
And that is the crux of the matter right up there, it feels good to blame Bush and Company and I do, it's understandable the anger people feel at the Dems for their cowardice.
The real cowardice and the real problem lies with the people, no matter what failures our leadership has in the end we are the ultimate source of the problem, it's still a government of the people and by the people, we've just forgotten how much work that requires.
...an that is the rerasoning why I put more blame on the voters than the politicians. As much as I despise the activities of the greedy grave robbing scoundrels who permeate the government service, I am frustrated more by the public and their agreement with, disregard for, ignorance of and blind faith mentality towards politics and their repercussions. I don't know if the mindset of this society, in general, will ever allow the people to give a damn about anything but their self serving interests at any and all cost.
__________________
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire
...an that is the rerasoning why I put more blame on the voters than the politicians. As much as I despise the activities of the greedy grave robbing scoundrels who permeate the government service, I am frustrated more by the public and their agreement with, disregard for, ignorance of and blind faith mentality towards politics and their repercussions. I don't know if the mindset of this society, in general, will ever allow the people to give a damn about anything but their self serving interests at any and all cost.
There will come a time where failure to watch the store will mean nothing is left in the store, at that time there will be a revolution and it will not be televised....
__________________
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
There will come a time where failure to watch the store will mean nothing is left in the store, at that time there will be a revolution and it will not be televised....
No it won't.
We are doomed. The Rise and Fall of the American Empire.
__________________
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire
We are doomed. The Rise and Fall of the American Empire.
Yes we are.
__________________
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
To keep the war going, the administration has brought the original bogyman back out of the closet. At first, Mr. Bush said he would bring Osama bin Laden in, dead or alive. Within seven months after 9/11, however, he had lost interest: “I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure,” he said in March 2002. “I truly am not that concerned about him.”
Makes me sick....
Now he's trumpeting OBL all over again to try to salvage his flagging approval.
"OBL's back!!! Watch out!! He's under your bed! He's under your kid's bed! Oh no! Now he's over there in the closet! Quick! Get out of the car! He's crouched behind you in the backseat!!! Fear! Fear! Fear! Terror! Fear!"
Now he's trumpeting OBL all over again to try to salvage his flagging approval.
"OBL's back!!! Watch out!! He's under your bed! He's under your kid's bed! Oh no! Now he's over there in the closet! Quick! Get out of the car! He's crouched behind you in the backseat!!! Fear! Fear! Fear! Terror! Fear!"
Isn't it comforting to know that we are one tactical nuclear explosion away from a complete dictatorship?
Dosen't matter who sets it off, at that moment every freedom we've ever bled and died for will vanish into a haze of fear.
__________________
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
Seriously though, that's such a silly premise, first of all if you're actually a domestic threat you'll be found and killed within days, unlike Osama who can hide out for years, if they really want to find you they will.
__________________
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
~Abraham Lincoln Lyceum Address
Last edited by conraddobler; May 29th, 2007 at 11:23 AM.
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