! Hi Bob,
!
!
! > ! Have you given any thought to the possibility that you're
! > not asking the ! right questions?
!
! > OK... what's the important question on this topic?
!
!
! No curve balls allowed, Bob. We can't make progress is we obfuscate
! things.
I asked you to clarify what you meant.
!
! If you really need some help,
<ahem>
! maybe you could ask a question about what
! motivated the attack on this country, the event that started it all and
! has
! snowballed since, creating divisions among people that this thread
! complains
! about. I don't know if I've heard you ask the right questions in that
! dept.
Let me guess: Because we support the "evil Zionist entity" in its conspiracy
to dominate the world, and the poor oppressed Muslims decided they weren't
going to take it anymore.
Is that what you want me to say, instead of pointing out how lunatic both
the Left and the Islamofascists have gone in their irrational hatred of Bush
and America, respectively?
In reality, our entangled alliances have caused most of our foreign policy
problems throughout our history. This was predicted. It is also the way of
all flesh, apparently. None of this is justification for the behavior of the
Islamofascists; nor is it an excuse---least of all---for the Democrats to
hate Bush. They've had their grande Wilsonian visions and delusions in
spades. Moreover each and every one of them were selling the Iraq WMD and
need for regime change arguments before Bush even decided to run for
President.
The Islamofascists wouldn't feel the way they do about our foreign
policy---indeed they wouldn't have the "issues" they do with Israel---if
hate and years of cultural indoctrination in the methods and politics of
hate had not darkened their hearts.
Long term the answer is freedom and republican government. In the near term
we have no choice that makes sense but to engage the radicals whose hearts
cannot be changed and whose minds cannot be changed in mortal battle,
wherever they are and whoever harbors or assists them. Everybody points out
how some of our "allies" opposed us. This fact alone is the not end of the
story. They were in many cases bought off, or had other political reasons
for opposing us---and these are not irrelevant facts. Bush is the one who
isn't stubbornly adhering to the fiction that our allies are allies, no
matter what they do. If they actively work against us, and it is later
learned their motives were pedestrian and indeed based purely on vouchers
for oil---why are we obligated to pretend they are allies and let their
greed affect our decision to act in our interests?
I believe they hate us for what we stand for, not just our policy. If you
believe Bin Laden's attempt to make it about policy all of a sudden, then
you're the one who needs the help.
And because Bush unflappably stands for it, and because he openly expresses
his honest faith in God (as opposed to faking it in the campaign season to
court the Catholic vote), the Left despises him. They want more than
anything for us to become yet another secular humanist and socialist third
world hellhole, like everybody else. After all it just isn't fair that we
have it so good. And there's a certain power in being a legislator in a
command economy that you just don't have as a citizen legislator in a free
republic.
Is George Bush the perfect president? Hell no. He's, as I've often conceded,
a terrible speaker, especially off-the-cuff in front of a camera. But
everyone who ever thought he was stupid has gotten their asses out-chessed
by him time and again. He's checkmated himself into some bad policy
decisions---the growth in entitlement programs is a really bad idea at a
time when you need to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. I am not a fan of
his social spending, all to protect what is essentially an insulting slogan
("compassionate conservative"---as of any other kind of conservative is by
definition "uncompassionate").
Is he a saint? Hell no. But he's not the caricature of half-demon,
half-idiot that the Left has painted and come to despise.
- Bob
!
!
! Bill
!
!
! > - Bob
!
!
[excessive quoting removed by server]
©2004 Bob Calco |
