Excellent editorial by Daniel Hellinger in today's Wall Street Journal. The interview with President Bush that he puts pieces of in the article are very telling and - in my opinion - Bush's statements are right on the mark.
An important question to me is - and has been - why the Republicans aren't making those same points across the board. I've seen some of them, but most of them are couched in political speech and other garbage. They're relying on people disliking the Democrats and what they want to do (or the fact that they aren't giving alternative options) instead of driving the message of what needs to be done for the sake of this country.
Perhaps this is why this other editorial (also in the Journal) sadly makes so much sense: Many conservatives think that the GOP needs to lose Congress (or at least the House) to be reminded of what they're in office for.
I'm hoping they'll remember on their own. I still do think the GOP will hold the Senate, and likely the House as well, but one point should be clear: It is better for the GOP to lose the House and remember what they are there for than to win it and keep thinking everything is okay. If the latter happens, a Democrat will almost certainly win in 2008 - and they'll take Congress then, too.
Ezzie, I really don't understand. What, precisely, has Bush done right? He talks about the next attack as if he's done anything to make us safer. That idiot has killed thousands of our young men and women and tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians... and for what? Now it looks like the best likely outcome for Iraq is a stable but brutal dictatorship, North Korea has nukes, Iran is building them, al-Qaida's still around, bin Laden may still be alive, Afghanistan's reverting to anarchy, we've squandered our international good will and lost the moral high ground, and pissed hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet.
ReplyDeleteIt really make me angry that people think voting Republican will make them safer. It's nothing but empty rhetoric. There's nothing conservative about the current GOP and there's nothing about this administration that makes the next attack less likely. It's time for the remaining 37% of you to wake the hell up.
I'm sorry. Shouldn't post angry.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you shouldn't.
ReplyDeleteAside from this article (really excellent, amazing writer :P ), you miss a number of points.
a) He's absolutely correct in stating that if we leave, they'll follow us here.
b) There are *still* less people dying per year now than there were under Saddam - the difference being that we actually hear about it now.
c) The lifestyle in Iraq is far better now than it was.
d) Iraqis are far more optimistic about their country than people in the US. There, despite all the troubles, people think the country is headed in the right direction and getting better and safer. Americans - from their CNN views 7,000 miles away - think that it's all anarchy.
e) NK & Iran are problems. So now what? Bush would probably like to do the same thing he did to Iraq... but the left will try and stop him. Who's right? I'm going with Bush.
f) Did you seriously think Al-Qaeda would just disappear? Bin Laden would get caught instantly? That's simple ignorance of how the world - particularly terrorist leaders and groups - work... especially when you consider that
g) The US still is the most moral country. They won't carpet bomb places on the small chance they'd get Bin Laden. In general, they won't commit certain actions. The "torture" that has been written about is laughable (music? no Koran?), with the extreme examples (water) really low on the morally troubling list when one considers what they're doing it for.
That's just on foreign policy as it relates to terrorism and Iraq. Fiscally, despite their spending, the deficit is dropping (and fast), GDP is soaring ["only" 1.6% this quarter! the slowest in years!], unemployment continues to hold or drop at about 4.5%, and inflation has been mostly stable (and low). The worst part of the economy was what everyone claimed Bush would manipulate and what he was after in Iraq - oil. And now, even that is dropping fast. He backed off on SocSec reform, which is absolutely necessary, because he simply didn't have the votes - and that was a shame.
Socially there's no "better" or "worse" in terms of performance; people have their opinions on either side, and that's basically it.
There are *still* less people dying per year now than there were under Saddam - the difference being that we actually hear about it now.
ReplyDeleteThis is not true.
The lifestyle in Iraq is far better now than it was.
What do you mean by "lifestyle?" They don't have enough power, etc.
Iraqis are far more optimistic about their country than people in the US.
Please justify this statement.
NK & Iran are problems. So now what? Bush would probably like to do the same thing he did to Iraq... but the left will try and stop him. Who's right? I'm going with Bush.
Note that Iraq, it turns out, was not a problem. Also, are you serious? Bush would start a new war with every country that is a nuclear threat? How long do you think that policy would work?
Did you seriously think Al-Qaeda would just disappear? Bin Laden would get caught instantly?
No. But I wonder how it is that Bush made us safer.
The US still is the most moral country. They won't carpet bomb places on the small chance they'd get Bin Laden. In general, they won't commit certain actions. The "torture" that has been written about is laughable (music? no Koran?), with the extreme examples (water) really low on the morally troubling list when one considers what they're doing it for.
The MOST moral country? Obviously, we're still more moral than al-Qaeda, but the "torture" which has actually happened (long-term sleep deprivation, forced standing, waterboarding, sexual humiliation) as well as the travesty that is Guantanamo as well as the fact that we started a war under false pretenses... we're not nearly as moral as we were just a few years ago.
Fiscally, despite their spending, the deficit is dropping (and fast)
This is a lie. The deficit is as high as it was in 2003 and still WAY higher than under Clinton. Moreover, the debt we're in isn't going away.