Monday, November 02, 2020
5 Reasons NOT To Reelect Trump!
[Paraphrased conversation:]
{Me to my sister:} Barbara, you're talking about Trump!
{My sister:} Yeah, I just composed it - I have 35 poems in all.
{Me} That is quite time-sensitive - you need to get it out there!
{My sister} I'm not too good with grammar, but I keep a pad by
my bed, and when a poem comes to me, I wake up and write it down!
{Me} Well, this must be an act of providence; for, I was thinking
about using my voice to influence the outcome of this election -
this just might be the inspiration which I need to follow through?
Strange, how circumstances sometimes align to produce an outcome,
thusly, your reading this exhortation!
But how do I imbue it with the juice to inspire, to motive its' readers
to take action - I know - I'll visit with some of the Founding Fathers of
this country in which we live:
"Beam me down, Scottie!"
[Round-table discussion, including George Washington, Thomas Jeffer-
son, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and your's truly}
{Me} Gentlemen, I've been sent from the Future, to get a perspective
from you guys, on what's going on in this great country which you all
played and integral part in bringing to birth! Specifically, I'm trying to
come up with 10 reasons why our current president, Donald J. Trump,
should not be reelected! Can you guys help me with that?
{G W} Well, as the first president of this great country, it pains me to
see what this once great nation has transformed into - so much apathy
and disregard for the sacrifices made to transmute "America" from
an idea to reality - sigh!
{T J} Aye, aye, Georgie, well-spoken!
{Me} Well, the way I see it, the very first reason relates to the fact that
Russia, one of our presumed adversaries, has already been proven to
have unequivocally meddled in our 2016 presidential elections, throwing
the full resources of the state towards the effort to get Trump elected!
What with Putin's having been the head of the KGB, we can only assume
that he saw something in Trump's profile mock-up, which he believed
to be more favorable towards Trump's giving Russia an advantage in
negotiations, more than Clinton?! Moreover, that estimation appears to
not have changed with regards to this elections; for, the Russians appear
to be at it again!
{J A} That's easy - he's an egomaniac! Just look at how he constantly
embarrasses our own diplomats and state agencies, by siding with our
adversaries, whether it be North Korea's having been paid $2 million
for 'costs and expenses' associated with the 'treatment' (i.e., torture) of
Otto Warmbier, to siding with Putin's declaration that Russia did not
meddle in the 2016 presidential elections!
{Me} Ok guys, the second reason which I proffer as grounds for Trump's
denial of a second term is his utter, unfathomable mishandling of this
Covid-19 pandemic!
{B F} Oh my Lord, what an imbecile! Instead of anointing someone of
Dr. Fauci's stature as "Public Health Czar (or Tsar)", giving him or her
all of the authority needed to implement a coordinated response to the
crisis, this idiot started out being driven by political considerations, as
in regards to how this crisis would effect his reelection efforts?
{T J} Yeah Ben, how much more blatant could he have been than by hav-
ing appointed Vice President Pence to oversee our national response to
the crisis? Really? Pence - politician Pence, who has no medical training
or expertise, so far as I know?
{J A} Don't forget that the consensus is that two whole months was
wasted, with this president's administration's being engaged in tremen-
dous push-back, attempting to keep the lid on informing the public of
the impending heavy-duty hit which this country was about to experience,
out of political considerations, apparently! How many more lives might
have otherwise been saved, had we had two months' more worth of
preparation in place?
{Me} Good consensus guys, on this blatant mishandling of this Corona-
virus crisis! Now, the third reason on my list - why Trump should not be
reelected - is the inscrutable reason why he ok'd the Turks and, to a
lesser extent, the Syrians to attack the Khurds, after they had been the
main forces on the ground, suffering the heaviest casualties, with men
and women on the front lines, in the ultimate defeat of ISIS! Talk about
the ultimate double-cross!
{G W, trembling} I'm ashamed beyond description, that one of my suc-
cessors could bring so much dishonor and shame to our nation! The
damage which this dastardly deed imposed on us is incalculable! Who
would whole-heartedly trust us now an ally, wondering if we might make
a deal with their adversaries, to their disadvantage?
{T J} Yes, it's about honor and being faithful to our word!
{Me} Ok guys, the fourth reason I put forward for Trump's denial of a
second term is his idiotic trade wars which China, especially, which have
caused irreparable damage to our economy!
{J A} Just look at this excerpt of an article published by Brookings.edu
(read article here) to get an idea of the magnitude of the damage:
{B F} Small, independent farmers have especially suffered from the loss
of China as a market for their goods, as China has retaliated to Trump's
imposition of tariffs by finding other suppliers!
{Me} Finally, guys, the fifth reason why Trump should not be reelected
is attributable to how badly he has divided the country! I'm not sure if
we've seen anything like how the country is currently polarized in recent
memory? You either love him or hate him, with no middle ground.
{J A} I don't know which is worse: that he might actually be naive to what
the Far Right sees in him as confirmation of their legitimacy as an accept-
able voice on the political spectrum, or if he knows that he is fostering
hatred and division in our body-politic, for his own political gain?
{T J} Either way, he has virtually destroyed the Republican Party, with
some clearly running for the hills to save their political necks! As a col-
lective, they will surely pay a heavy price for not standing up to this
tyrant and putting the country first before party!
{Me} Well, guys, thanks for such a spirited debate - my hope is that your
fervor to correct the coarse of this nation will translate into the multitude's
appreciation of your sacrifices to bring "America" to life!
{Me} Beam me up Scottie, my work here is done!
Well, my hope is that this little time-warp has been inspiring and motiva-
tional - in the sense of stirring you to participate in this democratic expe-
rience, considering the sacrifices of our forbears!
The buttons below are for you to pre-order my sister's poetry book, which
will be a hard-copy version; therefore, make certain that you provide a
good email address on the order form to be contacted to confirm your
mailing address!
I will prompt her to get it out as quickly as she can, not worrying about
the formatting so much as organizing the poems in a logical manner.
As I have read some of her poems, with some of them being pretty deep,
I am confident that you won't be disappointed! The main point I stress
is that I have no idea whatsoever how soon her book might be available -
she is working on it, as we speak!
The second button is for anyone so inclined to make a donation to support
my one-man-operation efforts to inspire you to take advantage of the
opportunities in front of you, and offer your contribution to make us all
better off for your having participated!
Until next time!
Note: For your security, all purchases and donations are processed on
Stripe's integrated partner, industry-standard-encrypted payment-pro-
cessing site.
Pre-order $9.99
After-publication $17.00
Donate
Thanks again for your encouragement and support!
Perry
p.s. Please feel welcomed to purchase the poetry book and make a donation,
so long as you understand that each is a separate transaction.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Why President Bush MUST Resign!
The time has come for America to deal with a problem which, if unaddressed, will only get worse with the passage of time. Namely, how does she rid herself of a failed head of state? The question assumes the unspoken consensus of the majority of Americans. It is time to face this question head-on for our posterity's sake!
Not being an historian, I don't feel the constraint of having to wait twenty or twenty-five years to pass judgement on this president. His having been in office for almost seven full years is enough time for any rational individual to grade his performance!
It is my conviction that history is going to judge this president as one of the worst of all tines! Twenty years from now, George W. Bush will be a case study into how a nation can be lulled into a sense of helplessness and acquiescence towards the acceptance of mediocre, if not incompetent, leadership!
The majority of Americans appear to be slowly-but-surely awaking from their slumber to acknowledge what a mess we are in as a nation! The question of the day is how did we allow our society’s well-being to deteriorate to this extent?
Just because someone aspires to the office of President of the United States, it doesn't automatically follow that the individual is fit to hold said office! However good he might have looked on paper as a candidate, if we are honest with ourselves, we will have to admit that George W. Bush's actual tenure in office has been nothing short of abysmal!
Our nation is hemorrhaging from the wounds inflicted by this incompetent! The havoc which this president and this administration have wreaked is astounding!
As a nation, we now find ourselves scorned if not outright vilified by the majority of the
rest of the nations for our egocentric attitude, fostered to no small extent by this president. One doesn’t have to have traveled overseas recently to know that the world’s attitude towards Americans has changed drastically for the worse in recent years!
We only have to think back to the universal outpouring of sympathy and support by the world’s nations in response to 9-11 to realize how badly things have gone wrong! The world recognized that we as a nation had been rendered a grave injustice which demanded redress! We had the support of the whole world, virtually!
If this president and this administration had called an ad-hoc meeting one day and said, “We’ve gotten all of this good will – the support of the whole world, virtually! Let’s play a game, employing all of the resources of the government, to see how badly we can screw things up?”, it is my opinion that they couldn’t have done a better job (or worse, depending on how one looks at it) than what they have already!
Everything turned when this president and administration hijacked the solemn if not holy mandate for redress, directing it away from our appropriate response regarding attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan for their supporting and harboring Osama bin Ladin . In our attempting to use this mandate to provide cover for our ulterior motive of effecting regime change in Iraq, we lost the support of the majority of the world’s nations!
The fact that this president and administration lied to our nation and the world about our need to go to war with Iraq is what I find unforgivable! I use that term in full cognizance of its weight and gravity! When the intelligence upon which this decision was based is cherry-picked, manipulated, distorted, falsified, and otherwise shaped to support a course of action already decided upon, that all adds up to one big lie!
Make no mistake about it: the Iraq war was sold to the American public and world by this administration! In what has to be regarded as one of the most successful marketing campaigns of the century, this president and administration must be commended on how flawlessly they pulled off such a grandiose undertaking!
Think about it for a minute. Iraq under Saddam Hussein was under sanctions, with a no-fly zone enforced. Saddam’s movements were so regulated that he couldn’t have gone to the bathroom without our knowing about it, let alone engaging in some activity which might pose an imminent threat to our nation!
That the majority of the American public and perhaps the world in the end believed that Saddam’s Iraq played a role in the causation of 9-11 demonstrates how effective this propaganda campaign was!
It should be crystal clear by now to anyone who is honest with him- or herself that this Iraq invasion is going to go down as one of the biggest blunders by a president in the history of this country! It appears that this president and administration drank their own kool-aid when they fantasized about the rosy outcome – our being greeted as liberators, with our path into Baghdad’s being lined with roses! What started out as an initial response of elation has turned into a nightmare!
On paper, it would have made more sense to have invaded Saudi Arabia than Iraq! As provocative as this suggestion is, it appears to be supported by the facts. We know that the majority of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia (was it 14 of the 19 total?). We know that they acted as the ‘brains’ in implementing or carrying out the plot. We also know that they were and still are (presumably) the primary disciples for the spread of Wahabism, the virulent strain of Islam of which Osama bin Laden is an adherent!
Lastly, we know without a shadow of a doubt that 9-11 could not have possibly occurred without the financial contribution rendered to Osama bin Laden by Saudi individuals and corporations or companies, state sanctioned or not!
Even as recently as several months ago, it was being reported that at least 30% of the foreign fighters battling our troops in Iraq were from Saudi Arabia!
Whether or not the financial support to Al-Quaeda by the Saudis was viewed as ‘protection’ payments for the organization to leave the Saudis (or, at least, the monarchy) alone, regardless of what havoc the organization wreaked elsewhere became a moot point when Ryhad was attacked!
Insofar as Iraq is concerned, the question of the day is ‘Where do we go from here?’. Admittedly, there is no easy answer to that question. One thing which appears increasingly obvious as time passes is the removal of the cause of the problem in the first place, namely, President Bush! The underlying supposition is that if this president exercised poor judgement, which resulted in our becoming entangled in this mess in the first place, how can we expect for him to have the wisdom and good judgement to get us out of it? Should we as a nation tolerate the continuance of this incompetent in office after he has made such a horrendous mess of things?
As this president’s whole legacy is going to be defined by the outcome of this Iraq debacle, there is no possible way that he will admit that the Iraq invasion was a mistake! Bad enough that some 3800 of our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters have been sacrificed to this folly, along with some 20,000 (or more) terribly maimed and anywhere from 30,000 (President Bush’s estimate from a year ago) up to 650,000 or more Iraqis killed as of now. We have only to look forward to a continuation of the carnage in the sake of this president’s attempting to salvage his legacy!
Can someone, anyone, give one valid reason why even just one more of our brave men and women in uniform should be sacrificed to this lost cause? It should be obvious by now that no puppet government which we set up is going to have legitimacy in the eyes of the populace so long as it is perceived to be a pawn of the occupying power!
How many more lives – American and Iraqi – are worth being lost to stave off an ultimate reckoning of this Iraqi situation?
The president’s continual insistence that Iraq has become the central battlefront of the War on Terror begs the question: where did the president expect our opponents to gather to fight us – Australia? Of course they are going to fight us where we happen to be – specifically, in Iraq! What the president doesn’t say is that we turned Iraq into a haven for the terrorists when we invaded it!
The president’s recent invocation of the specter of Vietnam in his recent propaganda speech should have incensed all Vietnam veterans in this country, especially since neither Vice President Cheney nor he actually served in Vietnam! It is my conviction that if either one of them had actually been in combat, seeing comrades blown up and dying immediately around him, thereby understanding the cost in blood and treasure such an engagement entails, he wouldn’t have been so anxious to commit our troops to such an hellish endeavor!
President Johnson was supposedly informed at some point that military victory in Vietnam was an impossibility. Yet, he prolonged the war, resulting in additional deaths – I believe in the thousands – which might have been avoided! I would like to think that this president, instead of using Vietnam for propaganda purposes, might learn its lessons and avoid repeating its mistakes!
If our nation is ever assaulted again by foreign-based terrorists – more than a few terrorism experts don’t see it as a matter of if, but when – it may be in no small part due to the invaluable training the terrorists fighting us in Iraq have gained! We are like an elephant under attack by a swarm of gnats. Our mobility is extremely limited, compared to our adversary’s flexibility and capacity to adjust and improvise!
If the mess which this president has created in Iraq is not enough to remove him from office, this country’s potential impending attack on Iran should be! Whether or not there might be valid reasons to attack Iran, the matter should be resolved under more competent, capable leadership! Imagine the specter of a president, desperate to salvage his legacy, acting with reckless abandon on such a momentous issue? That image should frighten all of us!
It would be a travesty to waste the remaining roughly fourteen months of this president’s term, when we know without a doubt that the path is going to be reversed the minute his successor assumes office! Because the pace of change in our society is increasing at such a rapid rate, fourteen months seem like an eternity to travel down this dead-end road!
It should be obvious that any drastic change in course takes time to take effect. How much more sense would it make to use his remaining tenure to implement the changes which we know are going to be made?
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Bush’s removal now would preempt (such a handy word, depending on how it is used!) the piling on of any additional entanglements during the remainder of his term! For all that we know, we may stand to be at war with China before this incompetent leaves office!
As things stand now, we may never fully recover from the damage which this president and administration has inflicted on our nation:
- Our standing in the world has diminished immeasurably! We are increasingly being viewed as erratic and unstable in our response to perceived threats, real or imagined!
- We’ve lost the moral authority which we once enjoyed, due to the sacrifice to our Crusade Against Terror of the very laws of engagement in combat won by the blood of millions over the course of two world wars and other skirmishes – namely, the protocols established by the Geneva Convention.
- Our cause, however lofty, was damaged beyond repair by the images from Abu Ghraib. Those images no doubt did more to recruit insurgents fighting against us than just about anything else we’ve done in Iraq! It is beyond incredulous to believe that the level of intelligence depicted in these images was implemented by these low-level MPs who were ultimately charged without there being direction and instruction from a policy standpoint from higher up the chain of command!
Our nation is being slowly-but-surely turned into a virtual police state! With every passing day, our liberties and freedoms, paid for with the blood of our nation’s founders, are being eroded in the name of the ‘War on Terror’ and ‘Homeland Security’! The Patriot Act has instituted various laws, under the banner of protecting the homeland, which are ominous in their implications, to wit:
- The specter of Big Brother's peering over our shoulders, seeing what library books we check out and read smacks of Gestapo tactics towards mind- or thought-control (anyone remember the classic Ray Bradbury movie Fahrenheit 451?).
- The authorization allowing the clandestine FBI search of any property in America
without having to notify the owner until after the search is completed should make us all
wonder if the term ‘sanctity of the home’ has any real meaning?
- The ‘PEN/Trap Authority’ allowing law enforcement officials pursuing ordinary criminal cases to track every website visited as well as intercepting all emails of the individual(s) being tracked has some nefarious allowances. Without having to prove the need for the warrant, the officials may merely state that the activity relates to an on-going investigation! Additionally, the warrant may apply to individuals not specifically named by the officials, so long as they ‘certify’ that the warrant was meant to apply to said individuals! Does anyone besides me see the potential for egregious abuse of this authority?
- Identifying who is a terrorist has been expanded from an individual’s being a member of
a group so designated as being a terrorist organization by the State Department to include
any foreign national suspected of publicly endorsing terrorist activity, belonging to a group which does, or providing support for such a group. We have only to look at the extensive dossier which the FBI maintained on John Lennon during the Nixon Era to see how such a law might be abused to discourage those expressing political dissent out of fear of being branded a terrorist!
- The Attorney General is authorized to detain any non-US resident who he has ‘reasonable
grounds to believe’ is involved in terrorism or poses a threat to national security. Although criminal or immigration charges are supposed to be brought against the individual within seven days of his detention, said individual may be held indefinitely! The holding of the Guantanamo Bay detainees for several years before releasing them without a trial can’t have done anything but generate more hatred against us and recruit more insurgents to fight our soldiers on the battleground!
We are experiencing a case of déjà vu, a new or neo-MyCharthyism, in which anyone who questions the wisdom or prudence of the path which this administration is embarked upon - especially as it relates to the Iraq War – might be branded at the least unpatriotic and at the worst a traitor! Would it not be ironic if our brave men and women in uniform were fighting to uphold the freedoms and liberties which we so cherish as a nation, yet no one back home had the courage to express dissent because the “If you don’t support the war, you don’t support the troops” atmosphere was so stifling?
Rarely has this country been so divided as it is today! More amazingly, rarely has an administration been able to sustain a policy which has become increasingly so unpopular! The elections of ’06 provided the Democrats with a clear, unequivocal mandate to bring this war – referring specifically to the Iraq invasion – to an end. Here we are, one whole year later, with the war still in progress! The Democrats have been worse than useless towards carrying out the will of the populace. The Congress’ horribly low ratings have been well-earned!
There is an almost palpable sense in the air of a public which feels helpless towards having its wishes paid attention to. The Democrats appear to have done a bait-and-switch act, promising one thing to get elected, then reneging on that promise, once in office. On the whole, as a collective, they have acted as if, as a condition of their assuming their offices for this session of Congress, they had to submit to castration!
Bottom line: there doesn’t appear to be a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats, when it comes down to heeding the wishes of the public; for, both parties have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo! It’s irrelevant whether a people are stampeded by a herd of elephants or a herd or donkeys – they are just as dead, either way!
It’s time for a REAL grass roots movement to rise up and put pressure on our elected officials to pay more attention to the wishes of the populace! There is enough common interests among the disparate factions making up the voting constituency that organizing comitees from the various groups could convene to figure out what interests the various factions share, which could be pooled together and converted into a SUPER-cause, thereby defeating the ‘divide-and-conquor’ strategy heretofore employed by both parties so effectively!
An excellent case to demonstrate this need is the whole immigration debate. One doesn’t HAVE to be an Hispanic to realize how egregiously they have been mistreated as political fodder! Politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle are riding the backs of Hispanics, stirring up the pot of prejudice and bigotry under the guise of ‘border security’! Truth be told, our OWN country’s policies as relates to trade with Mexico and Central America are responsible in no small part to the flood of immigrants entering the United States.
Googling + NAFTA + Mexico + Latin America + “worker displacement” yielded 244 results. Using two of them for reference (www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2000/12/bookrevs.htm and www.alcaabajo.cu/design/read/ingles/whatisftaa.tpl.html?news_id_odj_id+1001887), NAFTA, and by logical extension, CAFTA, are not what they are promoted to be! While on the surface, the liberalization of trade amongst the United States and Mexico and Central America might APPEAR to be all good; however, the underbelly of this animal reveals a different picture altogether!
NAFTA established Maquiladoras or Maquilas (industrial region below our border with Mexico) where raw goods from the United States are shipped for assembly, then returned to this country.
What's that, Bush is about to deliver his State of the Union speech ... again? Guess that I had better put this aside; for, he will need someone to write his speech!
The time has come for America to deal with a problem which, if unaddressed, will only get worse with the passage of time. Namely, how does she rid herself of a failed head of state? The question assumes the unspoken consensus of the majority of Americans. It is time to face this question head-on for our posterity's sake!
Not being an historian, I don't feel the constraint of having to wait twenty or twenty-five years to pass judgement on this president. His having been in office for almost seven full years is enough time for any rational individual to grade his performance!
It is my conviction that history is going to judge this president as one of the worst of all tines! Twenty years from now, George W. Bush will be a case study into how a nation can be lulled into a sense of helplessness and acquiescence towards the acceptance of mediocre, if not incompetent, leadership!
The majority of Americans appear to be slowly-but-surely awaking from their slumber to acknowledge what a mess we are in as a nation! The question of the day is how did we allow our society’s well-being to deteriorate to this extent?
Just because someone aspires to the office of President of the United States, it doesn't automatically follow that the individual is fit to hold said office! However good he might have looked on paper as a candidate, if we are honest with ourselves, we will have to admit that George W. Bush's actual tenure in office has been nothing short of abysmal!
Our nation is hemorrhaging from the wounds inflicted by this incompetent! The havoc which this president and this administration have wreaked is astounding!
As a nation, we now find ourselves scorned if not outright vilified by the majority of the
rest of the nations for our egocentric attitude, fostered to no small extent by this president. One doesn’t have to have traveled overseas recently to know that the world’s attitude towards Americans has changed drastically for the worse in recent years!
We only have to think back to the universal outpouring of sympathy and support by the world’s nations in response to 9-11 to realize how badly things have gone wrong! The world recognized that we as a nation had been rendered a grave injustice which demanded redress! We had the support of the whole world, virtually!
If this president and this administration had called an ad-hoc meeting one day and said, “We’ve gotten all of this good will – the support of the whole world, virtually! Let’s play a game, employing all of the resources of the government, to see how badly we can screw things up?”, it is my opinion that they couldn’t have done a better job (or worse, depending on how one looks at it) than what they have already!
Everything turned when this president and administration hijacked the solemn if not holy mandate for redress, directing it away from our appropriate response regarding attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan for their supporting and harboring Osama bin Ladin . In our attempting to use this mandate to provide cover for our ulterior motive of effecting regime change in Iraq, we lost the support of the majority of the world’s nations!
The fact that this president and administration lied to our nation and the world about our need to go to war with Iraq is what I find unforgivable! I use that term in full cognizance of its weight and gravity! When the intelligence upon which this decision was based is cherry-picked, manipulated, distorted, falsified, and otherwise shaped to support a course of action already decided upon, that all adds up to one big lie!
Make no mistake about it: the Iraq war was sold to the American public and world by this administration! In what has to be regarded as one of the most successful marketing campaigns of the century, this president and administration must be commended on how flawlessly they pulled off such a grandiose undertaking!
Think about it for a minute. Iraq under Saddam Hussein was under sanctions, with a no-fly zone enforced. Saddam’s movements were so regulated that he couldn’t have gone to the bathroom without our knowing about it, let alone engaging in some activity which might pose an imminent threat to our nation!
That the majority of the American public and perhaps the world in the end believed that Saddam’s Iraq played a role in the causation of 9-11 demonstrates how effective this propaganda campaign was!
It should be crystal clear by now to anyone who is honest with him- or herself that this Iraq invasion is going to go down as one of the biggest blunders by a president in the history of this country! It appears that this president and administration drank their own kool-aid when they fantasized about the rosy outcome – our being greeted as liberators, with our path into Baghdad’s being lined with roses! What started out as an initial response of elation has turned into a nightmare!
On paper, it would have made more sense to have invaded Saudi Arabia than Iraq! As provocative as this suggestion is, it appears to be supported by the facts. We know that the majority of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia (was it 14 of the 19 total?). We know that they acted as the ‘brains’ in implementing or carrying out the plot. We also know that they were and still are (presumably) the primary disciples for the spread of Wahabism, the virulent strain of Islam of which Osama bin Laden is an adherent!
Lastly, we know without a shadow of a doubt that 9-11 could not have possibly occurred without the financial contribution rendered to Osama bin Laden by Saudi individuals and corporations or companies, state sanctioned or not!
Even as recently as several months ago, it was being reported that at least 30% of the foreign fighters battling our troops in Iraq were from Saudi Arabia!
Whether or not the financial support to Al-Quaeda by the Saudis was viewed as ‘protection’ payments for the organization to leave the Saudis (or, at least, the monarchy) alone, regardless of what havoc the organization wreaked elsewhere became a moot point when Ryhad was attacked!
Insofar as Iraq is concerned, the question of the day is ‘Where do we go from here?’. Admittedly, there is no easy answer to that question. One thing which appears increasingly obvious as time passes is the removal of the cause of the problem in the first place, namely, President Bush! The underlying supposition is that if this president exercised poor judgement, which resulted in our becoming entangled in this mess in the first place, how can we expect for him to have the wisdom and good judgement to get us out of it? Should we as a nation tolerate the continuance of this incompetent in office after he has made such a horrendous mess of things?
As this president’s whole legacy is going to be defined by the outcome of this Iraq debacle, there is no possible way that he will admit that the Iraq invasion was a mistake! Bad enough that some 3800 of our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters have been sacrificed to this folly, along with some 20,000 (or more) terribly maimed and anywhere from 30,000 (President Bush’s estimate from a year ago) up to 650,000 or more Iraqis killed as of now. We have only to look forward to a continuation of the carnage in the sake of this president’s attempting to salvage his legacy!
Can someone, anyone, give one valid reason why even just one more of our brave men and women in uniform should be sacrificed to this lost cause? It should be obvious by now that no puppet government which we set up is going to have legitimacy in the eyes of the populace so long as it is perceived to be a pawn of the occupying power!
How many more lives – American and Iraqi – are worth being lost to stave off an ultimate reckoning of this Iraqi situation?
The president’s continual insistence that Iraq has become the central battlefront of the War on Terror begs the question: where did the president expect our opponents to gather to fight us – Australia? Of course they are going to fight us where we happen to be – specifically, in Iraq! What the president doesn’t say is that we turned Iraq into a haven for the terrorists when we invaded it!
The president’s recent invocation of the specter of Vietnam in his recent propaganda speech should have incensed all Vietnam veterans in this country, especially since neither Vice President Cheney nor he actually served in Vietnam! It is my conviction that if either one of them had actually been in combat, seeing comrades blown up and dying immediately around him, thereby understanding the cost in blood and treasure such an engagement entails, he wouldn’t have been so anxious to commit our troops to such an hellish endeavor!
President Johnson was supposedly informed at some point that military victory in Vietnam was an impossibility. Yet, he prolonged the war, resulting in additional deaths – I believe in the thousands – which might have been avoided! I would like to think that this president, instead of using Vietnam for propaganda purposes, might learn its lessons and avoid repeating its mistakes!
If our nation is ever assaulted again by foreign-based terrorists – more than a few terrorism experts don’t see it as a matter of if, but when – it may be in no small part due to the invaluable training the terrorists fighting us in Iraq have gained! We are like an elephant under attack by a swarm of gnats. Our mobility is extremely limited, compared to our adversary’s flexibility and capacity to adjust and improvise!
If the mess which this president has created in Iraq is not enough to remove him from office, this country’s potential impending attack on Iran should be! Whether or not there might be valid reasons to attack Iran, the matter should be resolved under more competent, capable leadership! Imagine the specter of a president, desperate to salvage his legacy, acting with reckless abandon on such a momentous issue? That image should frighten all of us!
It would be a travesty to waste the remaining roughly fourteen months of this president’s term, when we know without a doubt that the path is going to be reversed the minute his successor assumes office! Because the pace of change in our society is increasing at such a rapid rate, fourteen months seem like an eternity to travel down this dead-end road!
It should be obvious that any drastic change in course takes time to take effect. How much more sense would it make to use his remaining tenure to implement the changes which we know are going to be made?
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Bush’s removal now would preempt (such a handy word, depending on how it is used!) the piling on of any additional entanglements during the remainder of his term! For all that we know, we may stand to be at war with China before this incompetent leaves office!
As things stand now, we may never fully recover from the damage which this president and administration has inflicted on our nation:
- Our standing in the world has diminished immeasurably! We are increasingly being viewed as erratic and unstable in our response to perceived threats, real or imagined!
- We’ve lost the moral authority which we once enjoyed, due to the sacrifice to our Crusade Against Terror of the very laws of engagement in combat won by the blood of millions over the course of two world wars and other skirmishes – namely, the protocols established by the Geneva Convention.
- Our cause, however lofty, was damaged beyond repair by the images from Abu Ghraib. Those images no doubt did more to recruit insurgents fighting against us than just about anything else we’ve done in Iraq! It is beyond incredulous to believe that the level of intelligence depicted in these images was implemented by these low-level MPs who were ultimately charged without there being direction and instruction from a policy standpoint from higher up the chain of command!
Our nation is being slowly-but-surely turned into a virtual police state! With every passing day, our liberties and freedoms, paid for with the blood of our nation’s founders, are being eroded in the name of the ‘War on Terror’ and ‘Homeland Security’! The Patriot Act has instituted various laws, under the banner of protecting the homeland, which are ominous in their implications, to wit:
- The specter of Big Brother's peering over our shoulders, seeing what library books we check out and read smacks of Gestapo tactics towards mind- or thought-control (anyone remember the classic Ray Bradbury movie Fahrenheit 451?).
- The authorization allowing the clandestine FBI search of any property in America
without having to notify the owner until after the search is completed should make us all
wonder if the term ‘sanctity of the home’ has any real meaning?
- The ‘PEN/Trap Authority’ allowing law enforcement officials pursuing ordinary criminal cases to track every website visited as well as intercepting all emails of the individual(s) being tracked has some nefarious allowances. Without having to prove the need for the warrant, the officials may merely state that the activity relates to an on-going investigation! Additionally, the warrant may apply to individuals not specifically named by the officials, so long as they ‘certify’ that the warrant was meant to apply to said individuals! Does anyone besides me see the potential for egregious abuse of this authority?
- Identifying who is a terrorist has been expanded from an individual’s being a member of
a group so designated as being a terrorist organization by the State Department to include
any foreign national suspected of publicly endorsing terrorist activity, belonging to a group which does, or providing support for such a group. We have only to look at the extensive dossier which the FBI maintained on John Lennon during the Nixon Era to see how such a law might be abused to discourage those expressing political dissent out of fear of being branded a terrorist!
- The Attorney General is authorized to detain any non-US resident who he has ‘reasonable
grounds to believe’ is involved in terrorism or poses a threat to national security. Although criminal or immigration charges are supposed to be brought against the individual within seven days of his detention, said individual may be held indefinitely! The holding of the Guantanamo Bay detainees for several years before releasing them without a trial can’t have done anything but generate more hatred against us and recruit more insurgents to fight our soldiers on the battleground!
We are experiencing a case of déjà vu, a new or neo-MyCharthyism, in which anyone who questions the wisdom or prudence of the path which this administration is embarked upon - especially as it relates to the Iraq War – might be branded at the least unpatriotic and at the worst a traitor! Would it not be ironic if our brave men and women in uniform were fighting to uphold the freedoms and liberties which we so cherish as a nation, yet no one back home had the courage to express dissent because the “If you don’t support the war, you don’t support the troops” atmosphere was so stifling?
Rarely has this country been so divided as it is today! More amazingly, rarely has an administration been able to sustain a policy which has become increasingly so unpopular! The elections of ’06 provided the Democrats with a clear, unequivocal mandate to bring this war – referring specifically to the Iraq invasion – to an end. Here we are, one whole year later, with the war still in progress! The Democrats have been worse than useless towards carrying out the will of the populace. The Congress’ horribly low ratings have been well-earned!
There is an almost palpable sense in the air of a public which feels helpless towards having its wishes paid attention to. The Democrats appear to have done a bait-and-switch act, promising one thing to get elected, then reneging on that promise, once in office. On the whole, as a collective, they have acted as if, as a condition of their assuming their offices for this session of Congress, they had to submit to castration!
Bottom line: there doesn’t appear to be a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats, when it comes down to heeding the wishes of the public; for, both parties have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo! It’s irrelevant whether a people are stampeded by a herd of elephants or a herd or donkeys – they are just as dead, either way!
It’s time for a REAL grass roots movement to rise up and put pressure on our elected officials to pay more attention to the wishes of the populace! There is enough common interests among the disparate factions making up the voting constituency that organizing comitees from the various groups could convene to figure out what interests the various factions share, which could be pooled together and converted into a SUPER-cause, thereby defeating the ‘divide-and-conquor’ strategy heretofore employed by both parties so effectively!
An excellent case to demonstrate this need is the whole immigration debate. One doesn’t HAVE to be an Hispanic to realize how egregiously they have been mistreated as political fodder! Politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle are riding the backs of Hispanics, stirring up the pot of prejudice and bigotry under the guise of ‘border security’! Truth be told, our OWN country’s policies as relates to trade with Mexico and Central America are responsible in no small part to the flood of immigrants entering the United States.
Googling + NAFTA + Mexico + Latin America + “worker displacement” yielded 244 results. Using two of them for reference (www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2000/12/bookrevs.htm and www.alcaabajo.cu/design/read/ingles/whatisftaa.tpl.html?news_id_odj_id+1001887), NAFTA, and by logical extension, CAFTA, are not what they are promoted to be! While on the surface, the liberalization of trade amongst the United States and Mexico and Central America might APPEAR to be all good; however, the underbelly of this animal reveals a different picture altogether!
NAFTA established Maquiladoras or Maquilas (industrial region below our border with Mexico) where raw goods from the United States are shipped for assembly, then returned to this country.
What's that, Bush is about to deliver his State of the Union speech ... again? Guess that I had better put this aside; for, he will need someone to write his speech!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Bush's State of the Union Address
If I was his speechwriter
Madam Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of congress, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, I come before you tonight, as law and tradition warrants, to give an accounting of the state of affairs of our nation. In all due candor, I have to report that the state of the union is fairly bleak!
Regardless of how the nation may be faring otherwise, there is a pall which hangs over us like a dark cloud, portending ominous prospects for our future.
I speak of the Iraq War, which hangs over the nation like a set of weights around a runner's neck, incessantly, increasingly sapping the energy away! No individual - or nation, for that matter - can long endure under such crushing pressure!
Let me state unequivocally that I am ultimately responsible for leading our nation into this quagmire. Howevermuch it might have been the case that I listened to bad counsel, I was the decider, who must be held to account!
Yes, I agree with the so-called NeoCons, who are now tripping over themselves to point out how terrible a job I did in executing their grandiose schemes. My only retort is that it was a dumb idea in the first place! To think that our nation could impose democracy on a foreign country through the barrel of a gun - how preposterous!
Had I been more thoughtful, reflective and inquisitive, I would have realized the folly of their idiotic plans! Alas, I accept my shortcomings of acting without thinking a problem through to its logical ramifications!
As things stand now, we are a nation divided. The shadow of Vietnam looms ever larger over the horizon. This Iraq debacle reminds us - and me, more specifically - that we have not learned the lessons which history has to teach us. The Soviet experience in Afghanistan, as well as our own in Vietnam, should have given us pause to consider how inspired a people will fight against and resist those whom they perceive to be foreign invaders!
How I wish that I could turn back the clock to the point where I diverted our military resources out of Afghanistan into Iraq! How different might things be now!
At the present, we find ourselves bogged down in what appears to be an intractable situation with no good outcome. Our military is stretched to the breaking point. Our enemies, as well as our allies, know that we are a weakened nation, unable to respond to other conflagrations around the globe which might should demand our attention and leadership - like Darfur, etc. Likewise, countries like Iran and North Korea realize that they may pursue their nuclear aims without fear of military reprisal for any threat - real or delusional on my part - which they may pose to our national security!
My phrasing of our struggle as a 'War on Terror' has cast it negatively in the image of being a modern-day crusade against the religion of Islam! From all indications, this is how the muslim nations collectively view our struggle. The degree of animosity and prejudice this phraseology has generated towards their religion appears to substantiate their reaction!
Additionally, our one-sided policy in favor of Israel vis-a-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the crux of how unfavorably the Arab nations view us. The fact that we are not perceived as an honest broker - because we in fact are not - doesn't lend help towards ameliorating the situation. I can no longer deny the obvious: there can be no ultimate peace or security in the Middle East without a just and equitable resolution of the claims of all parties involved!
Israel has gotten to learn that it takes a lesser expenditure of energy in terms of its nation's military and economic resources to maintain a state of peace with its neighbors as opposed to a state of war! Treating the inhabitants of its occupied territories with the dignity human beings demand would go a long way towards lessening the animosity and hatred which its inhabitants harbor!
What Israel did in Lebanon was unconscionable! She deliberately targeted civilians - including women and childern - with her bombs, as well as intentionally destroyed the infrastructure of southern Lebonon in the hopes of causing the populance to turn against Hezbollah! Shame on us - me, more specifically - to have acted as an accomplice! It was our bombs, our planes - via the military aid procurement process - which bombarded Lebanon! To think that I had the nerve to send Condi to the region while giving Israel the green light to continue bombing, is it any wonder that she was rebuffed by Lebanon's prime minister?
There has gotten to be a paradigm shift in our relationship with Israel. We can not forever be the dog's tail on that nation, with her tacit understanding that the United States is bound to support whatever action she takes in relation to her neighbors. We need to disengage ourselves from the notion that our nation's fate is inextricably bound with her's, in order for her to realize that she has gotten to be held more accountable for her actions!
We may never know how many innocent lives have been lost under the banner of the 'War on Terror'! Every dictator, every despot who is fighting legitimate forces seeking the freedoms which we espouse, can label his or her opponents as 'terrorists' and slaughter them with abandon! Judging from the xenophobia which I have stirred up with this phraseology, our founding fathers would have been labeled as 'terrorists'!
I am afraid that I have unleashed forces which will jeapordize our nation's security for years to come. True, Sadam was a terrible man; however, he did hold the nation together, however fearful the populance! What we have now in Iraq is total anarchy! I will finally acknowledge the obvious: Iraq is in a state of civil war! There appears to be nothing which we can do to forestall the inevitable, a horrendous bloodletting until the populance decides that it has had enough, similar to Lebanon's civil war!
So, the question is do we leave now or linger for an indefinite period of time? Do we sacrifice more of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers to a cause which has an inevitable end?
I ask you, my fellow Americans, to help me put the welfare of the nation above my own selfish motives! Yes, I would love to salvage my legacy, which is the reason for this surge - one last hurrah! Alas, it appears increasingly obvious that this feeble effort will have no meaningful impact, except to expose more of our soldiers to the possibility of losing their lives!
So, my fellow Americans, I call upon you to save me from myself! I call upon you to rise up and let me know in no uncertain terms that you have had enough of this madness! I call upon youto petition congress enough to cause its members to find their backbones and oppose me towards bringing an end to this folly! Truth be told, I am looking for a graceful exit out of this mess as much as you are!
I am afraid that the democrats appear not to have the will to follow through on their mandate. This vote of 2006 was a total repudiation of my policies, particularly my foreign policy, specifically my Iraqi undertaking! Had they the courage of their convictions, their first order of business should have been to announce impeachment hearings against me!
If I were a true patriot, I would do the only honorable thing which might open the door to making this country whole again, regain the respect of countries around the world, and reduce the animosity of the muslim nations against us. I could utter two words which might open the gates to a new dawn of cooperation and restored goodwill towards this nation. Two words uttered might provide us a peaceful path out of this morass. Two words: I resign!
Madam Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of congress, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, I come before you tonight, as law and tradition warrants, to give an accounting of the state of affairs of our nation. In all due candor, I have to report that the state of the union is fairly bleak!
Regardless of how the nation may be faring otherwise, there is a pall which hangs over us like a dark cloud, portending ominous prospects for our future.
I speak of the Iraq War, which hangs over the nation like a set of weights around a runner's neck, incessantly, increasingly sapping the energy away! No individual - or nation, for that matter - can long endure under such crushing pressure!
Let me state unequivocally that I am ultimately responsible for leading our nation into this quagmire. Howevermuch it might have been the case that I listened to bad counsel, I was the decider, who must be held to account!
Yes, I agree with the so-called NeoCons, who are now tripping over themselves to point out how terrible a job I did in executing their grandiose schemes. My only retort is that it was a dumb idea in the first place! To think that our nation could impose democracy on a foreign country through the barrel of a gun - how preposterous!
Had I been more thoughtful, reflective and inquisitive, I would have realized the folly of their idiotic plans! Alas, I accept my shortcomings of acting without thinking a problem through to its logical ramifications!
As things stand now, we are a nation divided. The shadow of Vietnam looms ever larger over the horizon. This Iraq debacle reminds us - and me, more specifically - that we have not learned the lessons which history has to teach us. The Soviet experience in Afghanistan, as well as our own in Vietnam, should have given us pause to consider how inspired a people will fight against and resist those whom they perceive to be foreign invaders!
How I wish that I could turn back the clock to the point where I diverted our military resources out of Afghanistan into Iraq! How different might things be now!
At the present, we find ourselves bogged down in what appears to be an intractable situation with no good outcome. Our military is stretched to the breaking point. Our enemies, as well as our allies, know that we are a weakened nation, unable to respond to other conflagrations around the globe which might should demand our attention and leadership - like Darfur, etc. Likewise, countries like Iran and North Korea realize that they may pursue their nuclear aims without fear of military reprisal for any threat - real or delusional on my part - which they may pose to our national security!
My phrasing of our struggle as a 'War on Terror' has cast it negatively in the image of being a modern-day crusade against the religion of Islam! From all indications, this is how the muslim nations collectively view our struggle. The degree of animosity and prejudice this phraseology has generated towards their religion appears to substantiate their reaction!
Additionally, our one-sided policy in favor of Israel vis-a-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the crux of how unfavorably the Arab nations view us. The fact that we are not perceived as an honest broker - because we in fact are not - doesn't lend help towards ameliorating the situation. I can no longer deny the obvious: there can be no ultimate peace or security in the Middle East without a just and equitable resolution of the claims of all parties involved!
Israel has gotten to learn that it takes a lesser expenditure of energy in terms of its nation's military and economic resources to maintain a state of peace with its neighbors as opposed to a state of war! Treating the inhabitants of its occupied territories with the dignity human beings demand would go a long way towards lessening the animosity and hatred which its inhabitants harbor!
What Israel did in Lebanon was unconscionable! She deliberately targeted civilians - including women and childern - with her bombs, as well as intentionally destroyed the infrastructure of southern Lebonon in the hopes of causing the populance to turn against Hezbollah! Shame on us - me, more specifically - to have acted as an accomplice! It was our bombs, our planes - via the military aid procurement process - which bombarded Lebanon! To think that I had the nerve to send Condi to the region while giving Israel the green light to continue bombing, is it any wonder that she was rebuffed by Lebanon's prime minister?
There has gotten to be a paradigm shift in our relationship with Israel. We can not forever be the dog's tail on that nation, with her tacit understanding that the United States is bound to support whatever action she takes in relation to her neighbors. We need to disengage ourselves from the notion that our nation's fate is inextricably bound with her's, in order for her to realize that she has gotten to be held more accountable for her actions!
We may never know how many innocent lives have been lost under the banner of the 'War on Terror'! Every dictator, every despot who is fighting legitimate forces seeking the freedoms which we espouse, can label his or her opponents as 'terrorists' and slaughter them with abandon! Judging from the xenophobia which I have stirred up with this phraseology, our founding fathers would have been labeled as 'terrorists'!
I am afraid that I have unleashed forces which will jeapordize our nation's security for years to come. True, Sadam was a terrible man; however, he did hold the nation together, however fearful the populance! What we have now in Iraq is total anarchy! I will finally acknowledge the obvious: Iraq is in a state of civil war! There appears to be nothing which we can do to forestall the inevitable, a horrendous bloodletting until the populance decides that it has had enough, similar to Lebanon's civil war!
So, the question is do we leave now or linger for an indefinite period of time? Do we sacrifice more of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers to a cause which has an inevitable end?
I ask you, my fellow Americans, to help me put the welfare of the nation above my own selfish motives! Yes, I would love to salvage my legacy, which is the reason for this surge - one last hurrah! Alas, it appears increasingly obvious that this feeble effort will have no meaningful impact, except to expose more of our soldiers to the possibility of losing their lives!
So, my fellow Americans, I call upon you to save me from myself! I call upon you to rise up and let me know in no uncertain terms that you have had enough of this madness! I call upon youto petition congress enough to cause its members to find their backbones and oppose me towards bringing an end to this folly! Truth be told, I am looking for a graceful exit out of this mess as much as you are!
I am afraid that the democrats appear not to have the will to follow through on their mandate. This vote of 2006 was a total repudiation of my policies, particularly my foreign policy, specifically my Iraqi undertaking! Had they the courage of their convictions, their first order of business should have been to announce impeachment hearings against me!
If I were a true patriot, I would do the only honorable thing which might open the door to making this country whole again, regain the respect of countries around the world, and reduce the animosity of the muslim nations against us. I could utter two words which might open the gates to a new dawn of cooperation and restored goodwill towards this nation. Two words uttered might provide us a peaceful path out of this morass. Two words: I resign!
Monday, October 30, 2006
AMERICAN DILEMMA
What does a country do when it finds itself in the predicament of having an incompetent head of state? Does it ride out his term, hoping that things can be straightened out after he leaves office? Does it commence all necessary means to remove him post-haste? Is 'incompetence' enough in and of ITSELF to remove a head of state, before his term expires?
America now finds itself grappling with these questions. HOW it ultimately resolves this dilemma will have ramifications for future generations!
This predicament has its roots in the WAY in which we select our head of state. For all practical purposes, if not from the beginning, at least in RECENT times, the American president has become effectively a CEO - of the United States of America, Inc.! As such, the position should be TREATED with all of the expectations and responsibilities so ascribed!
One would think that after some 230 years of subscribing to our form of government, Americans would have come up with a more INTELLIGENT, RATIONAL way to select our head of state. Instead of viewing this position as the spoils of VICTORY on the part of one political party or the other, this position should be separated out of the process and defined on its OWN terms!
Namely, 'CEO, United States of America, Inc.' should have a job description drawn up for it as ANY company with such a position would. Drawing upon its 230-year history, the country should be able to come to a consensus as to what the 'minimum requirements' anyone aspiring to this position should bring to the table. This would include whatever regular or usual qualifications one in such a position (i.e., CEO) should have, as well as whatever qualifications might be deemed unique to this PARTICULAR post.
Obviously, one would want the holder of said position to possess the usual traits of personality - ability to think in a rational, logical manner, ability to maintain composure under pressure, ability to receive counsel with an open mind, ability to intellectualize a problem, ability to objectively weigh all sides of an issue, ability to come to a decision based on one's best judgement of all of the factors involved in an issue, etc.
This country has a rich history of events, incidences, tragedies, and happenings which presidents have had to deal with. Everything from Washington's oversight of the constitutional congress, Jefferson's negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase, Jackson's handling (or mis-handling) of the Indian resettlements, Lincoln's procecution of the civil war, Roosevelt's response to Pearl Harbor, to Kennedy's resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc., could be used as fodder.
Surely, our country's brightest minds from all disciplines of academia, business and political spheres could be brought together to analyze such experiences, with the aim of ascertaining what qualities the president possessed which enabled him to successfully deal with a particular incident? Conversely, it could be determined what qualities were lacking which PREVENTED a president from successfully resolving an incident. From the resulting data, these minds should be able to develope a composition of what an 'ideal president' should look like, capable of successfully handling any unforeseen event which our country might experience in the future.
These traits would be expressed as 'qualifications' and 'experiences' one should bring to the table, IRRESPECTIVE of his or her 'political' persuasion! Additionally, some form of 'aptitude test' could be developed, which could be administered to aspiring candidates, to see how they stacked up against this 'ideal candidate'?
Alternatively, some type of module drawing upon this data could be developed, which would 'immerse' prospective candidates into experiences MIMICING real life, aimed at identifying how 'successfully' he or she handled a particular situation? This would be the equivalent of a simulation module's being adapted to the peculiarities of this position, similar to those used to train astronauts, pilots, etc. Hopefully, such an 'immersion' technique would elicit the true response of how one would react to similar events in REAL life!
Drawing from history, let's use the example of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is acknowledged that this incident is the closest time the world has ever come to actually having been engulfed in a nuclear war. It may literally be true that we might not be having this discussion right now, had this crisis not been resolved successfully! What characteristics did President Kennedy possess which enabled him to resist buckling under such immense pressure, giving in to Kruschev, while, at the same time, not reacting TOO extremely, causing KRUSCHEV to react by giving the order to launch?
Now, with the idea of the simulator in mind, let's swap out Kennedy and his administration, replacing him with Bush and his cabinet in THEIR respective roles - Rove, Chaney, Condi and Rumsfeld. Now, close your eyes and imagine Bush et al the way we have come to understand how THEY operate, dealing with this crisis, with all else's being the same - i.e., Kruschev, Castro, the Soviet Union, etc. Now, open your eyes and see how much you have sweated? Did I make my point?
My point is that it matters who the person in the position of president IS. More specifically, it matters how QUALIFIED for the position this person is! In spite of how many handlers a president might have, the ndividual in this capacity STILL has tremendous impact on the outcome of situations being handled by the office. As hard as it is to imagine how much WORSE things could be than they are right now, I shudder to even ATTEMPT to contemplate what the state of affairs might be if this man was out there winging it on his own!
Botton line: we made a mistake when we elected this man as president! If President Bush has proven nothing ELSE beyond a reasonable doubt, during his almost-six years in office, he has proven that he is LACKING in whatever it takes to make a successful, competent president!
However painful it might be for some to arrive at this realization, we as a nation need to face this issue honestly, with the hope of learning enough from this experience that we might address this issue to the effect that no FUTURE generation will have to face a similar situation, if at all possible!
So, let us as a nation establish the qualifications for this position and disseminate them so that every American citizen may see in objective terms what is expected of our president. Even if this is not made a MANDATORY test, the public can make up its OWN mind as to what to make of prospective candidates who decline having the test administered to them, versus those who PASSED same. It would be one more tool at the public's disposal to assist in their making choices.
Had we such a tool at our disposal already, I am certain that one such as a George Bush would have gotten WEEDED OUT of the process!
